ON BL. JOANNA SODERINI, VIRGIN OF THE ORDER OF MANTELLATES, AT FLORENCE,
THE KALENDS OF SEPTEMBER OF THE YEAR MCCCLXVII.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Joanna Soderini, of the order of Mantellates, at Florence. (Bl.)
BY V. D. B.
§ I. Those who have written about Bl. Joanna. She was called blessed and painted with rays. Her cult approved by the archbishop of Florence and the Sacred Congregation of Rites.
When the assaults of civil war were throwing all Italy into confusion from top to bottom, and with the minds of all divided, who adhered either to the Guelph or to the Ghibelline factions, In the most praiseworthy order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary battles and burnings occurred daily, slaughters and plunderings everywhere, and all things were full of crimes, full of fury, that most pious God, who (as Augustine testifies) “prefers to make good out of evil rather than to permit no evils to be,” willed that a new order should flourish in his Church in that time, by which not only should growing evils give way, but virtues too should gain strength and increase for the time to come. For the order which was then being born was that of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary; to which it is above all owed that men existed, fervent with divine charity, who were wholly devoted to repressing hatreds, calming seditions, and restraining unbridled licence, who procured a dwelling in their houses for virtue, which could no longer stand in the open, and who, shining forth with most distinguished examples, called peoples back to better fruit. Hence above all the same order began to be enlarged; and St. Juliana de Falconieri instituted the third order of the Servants of Blessed Mary, who are commonly called LE AMMANTELLATE, having gathered virgins; among the first of whom was Bl. Joanna Soderini, about whom we now begin to write. With these words Francesco Bartoleschi, consistorial advocate, began his speech, by which he was to persuade the Sacred Congregation of Rites that the sentence of the archbishop of Florence was to be confirmed, who had judged that Bl. Joanna Soderini had been publicly venerated and reckoned among the blessed a hundred years before the most celebrated decrees of Urban VIII; nor does it seem to me that I can begin from a more fitting proem this very Commentary, in which the deeds and praises of Bl. Joanna are to be set forth by me. This one thing I wish to add, that now, when the sword of persecution threatens destruction to this religious family in Italy, where it was born and has always most flourished, piety is still vigorous in it, the love of virtue and an unshaken observance toward the Roman pontiff; so that, whereas in these wretched times in nearly all other societies of regulars there have been some men who, blinded by a false zeal for the liberty of Italy, have sided with the enemies of the Church, no Servant of Blessed Mary has been heard of who has admitted these perverse tenets, or at any rate has shamefully followed them.
[2] [Bl. Joanna Soderini flourished together with Bl. Juliana Falconieri; her cult was approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites.] Further, since this order, though nearly always enclosed within narrow bounds, has produced a great abundance of those in heaven, it has often been spoken of in our work, and not long ago at the 24th day of October, where we illustrated the Acts of Bl. John Angelo Porro. But what pertains more closely to our matter, at the 19th day of June, on which her feast is now kept in the whole Latin Church, there was published the Life of Bl. Juliana Falconieri, of whom Bl. Joanna Soderini was the disciple and helper. Wherefore much will have to be omitted on the institutes of the order and other laws of that kind, that we may not do again what has been done. Further, Bl. Joanna had long been publicly venerated or at any rate publicly held in the number of the saints, when about forty years ago Count Lorenzo Soderini, Roman patrician, secret chamberlain of Pope Leo XII and gentleman of the chamber to the king of Bavaria, resolved to establish the glory of his kinswoman and to make it certain to all. He took care therefore first that the antiquity of her cult, a hundred years before the Urbanian decrees, should be asserted by the decree of the ordinary or archbishop of Florence, and then that this sentence should be confirmed by the Sacred Congregation of Rites. Nor was the most pious count frustrated in his wishes: the bishop of Florence approved the antiquity of the cult; and the Sacred Congregation of Rites ratified this sentence: which also afterwards granted an elogium in the Martyrology of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a proper office and Mass in honour of Bl. Joanna, to be celebrated on the 1st day of September. But all these things are to be explained a little more broadly, beginning from her biographers.
[3] There wrote of the deeds of Bl. Joanna Nicola Mati of Pistoia, a contemporary, Who first of all wrote the deeds of Bl. Joanna is undiscovered; but no one's writings survive that are older than those of Fr. Nicola Mati of Pistoia. He, born toward the end of the XIII century, gave in his name to the order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the convent of his homeland; where in a simple but not inelegant style he wrote a codex with the title Giornale e Ricordi. This autograph codex, now preserved in the convent of the Annunziata at Florence, contains first certain small pieces of ecclesiastical history, then the foundation of the convent of Pistoia, made in the year 1243. And to this matter he joins the chief records of the order, namely the Lives of the seven founders and of other members of the order, according to the series of the years of their deaths, and also the principal ornaments of the order. These he carried down as far as the year 1384; when, doubtless worn out by old age, it seemed to him that he should cease [Battini, Memorie intorno alla vita del B. Andrea Dotti di Sansepolcro, page 189 and following.]. Since Bl. Joanna left this earthly life in the year 1367, Nicola was altogether contemporary with the most pious virgin. But even in narrating those things that happened long before his times he is so accurate that nothing has so far been found that conflicts with older documents Ibid. page 190.. These records have often been published, now whole, now in part; in which matter in these last years Fr. Agostino Morini of Florence, of the order of the Servants, has earned praise, to say nothing of others.
[4] Cosimo Favilla, Poccianti and others. Second comes Master Cosimo di Matteo Favilla of Florence, who died in the year 1528 in his native city Giani.. He wrote in the year 1485 a little treatise on the origin of the order of the Servants, which seems never to have been brought to light and is now preserved in the Magliabecchi library, marked with the signs C. 1. 1458. This little writing contains nothing else than a review of the principal men and women whose holiness so wonderfully illumined the rising order. Of Bl. Joanna it has these few words: We have spoken of those men who earlier excelled in leading a life of the greatest integrity. Next we shall go on to those women, outstanding in holiness, who were renowned in the same order of Servants; among whom Joanna of Florence is said to have held the first place in the merits of chastity; and then he goes on to others. But he seems in another codex to have praised the most pious nun more fully, as is gathered from him who occurs in the third place, Michele Agostino Poccianti; before whom, when he published the Chronicle of the Servants in the year 1567, the ampler little book of Cosimo Favilla shone: but of Poccianti I have already spoken elsewhere Acta SS. volume X of October, page 884.. There is added Arcangelo Giani of Florence, who at the beginning of the XVII century began to publish the Annals of the Servants, a century later greatly enlarged and strengthened by Luigi Garbi, likewise of Florence; then Ippolito Maracci of Lucca, of the Congregation of the Clerics Regular of the Mother of God Lilia Mariana, published at Rome in the year 1651, page 207.; Agostino Alevazoli La Reina de' martiri compatita nei suoi dolori, Milan 1692, page 78.; and an anonymous Tyrolese [Menologium Marianum, seu gesta SS. BB. et VV. utriusque sexus ord. Serv. B. M. V., Douai 1767, volume II, page 138.]. But all these report nothing that is not read in Nicola Mati or Cosimo Favilla or his follower Poccianti. Wherefore below we shall bring to light only these two writings.
[5] She was called blessed in the XIV, XV, From Nicola Mati, who names the servant of God blessed and makes her equal to those in heaven, it appears in how great veneration the religious Mantellate was held immediately after her death. This veneration has never ceased in the order of the Servants. For they have endowed her with the title of blessed also, Poccianti, Giani, Maracci, Alevazoli and the anonymous Tyrolese. With this praise too the handmaid of God is adorned by Gasparino Borro of Venice, O. S., in a book of vernacular poems, published at Brescia in the year 1498 by Angelo Britannico of Palazzolo [Triumphi, Sonetti, Canzone e Laude della gloriosa Madre di Dio Vergine Maria, book VI, chapter III, tercets 41 and 42.]; in which, recounting the beatific vision, he sang the following, with the name of Bl. Joanna written in the margin:
Questa, che tanto luce il suo bel viso,
Il corpo gia vedesti, e fu consorte
Al Padre, ove il suo cor non fu diviso.
Sempre si vede con le guanze smorte,
Lontana dal mal far, contemplativa,
Humile in viso con le luci accorte.
[This one, whose lovely face so shines, you once saw in the body, and she was consort to the Father, where her heart was not divided. Always she is seen with pallid cheeks, far from doing evil, contemplative, humble of face, with watchful eyes.]
[6] XVI, With the same title she is reckoned in a codex written about the year 1512, whose beginning is: Thus begins the Legend of Blessed Philip of the order of the Servants; where in folio 9, after these words: These are the blessed women of the Brother Servants, there comes in the first place: Blessed Joanna of Florence, whose body is at Florence [Summarium super dubio an constet de cultu, ab immemorabili tempore præstito B. Joannæ Soderini, pages 8 and 9.]. Similarly in a codex written by hand about the middle of the XVI century, whose beginning is: Praise of Blessed Philip of Florence of the order of the Servants, among our sisters the nuns there is read in the second place Ibid. page 9.: Bl. Joanna of Florence, there. In the same way in three other catalogues of the blessed of the order of the Servants, written in the same century, the following occurs Ibid. page cited.. In the first: Bl. Juliana de Falconieri and Bl. Joanna of Florence. Their bodies in the same place. In the second: Blessed Joanna of Florence, whose body is there; and in the same place she is painted kneeling, holding the devil under her feet, with arms open. In the third: Bl. Joanna [of] Florence rests in the church of the Annunziata, 1367. Moreover in the index of those in heaven of the order of the Servants, inserted in the Rule of the tertiaries as explained by Luca Ferrini of Prato in the year 1586, these words appear Ibid. page 10.: St. Joanna of Florence died in the year 1367; likewise in another index, added by the same Ferrini to the Lives of the seven founders, printed at Florence in the year 1589 Ibid. page 13.: Blessed Joanna of Florence, 1367. Disciple of Blessed Juliana Falconieri; likewise in a third, which Arcangelo Ballottino gave in the year 1599 in a little work with the title Ave Maria, or on the true origin and progress of the sacred order of the Servants of Mary, there is read at the year 1367 Ibid. page cited.: Blessed Joanna of Florence; her body rests in the church of the Annunziata; likewise in the index of the blessed men and women of the order of the Servants, excerpted from the Flos florum, which Thomas of Verona turned from Latin into Italian about the year 1590, you have the following Ibid. page 9.: Joanna of Florence, on the 27th day of October 1367. In another catalogue of those in heaven, rewritten at the end of the same century, which I have already published at the 24th of October Acta SS. volume X of October, page 883. and at the end of which the intercession of all with God is implored, there is also read Sister Joanna of Florence.
[7] XVII, XVIII and XIX, In the inquiry for the confirmation of the legitimate antiquity of the cult of Bl. Joanna there were also produced, or could have been produced, a great many who in the XVII, XVIII and also the present century in printed books openly and confidently called her blessed: namely Onorio Gemelli of Padua [Ave Maria. Origine et progresso del ordine de' Servi di S. M., Brescia 1610, page 72.], Onofre Salt of Valencia in Spain [Epitome de la M. fundacion de la S. Orden M. de los Siervos de N. S., Barcelona 1611, page 224.], Giovanni Battista Benamati of Guastalla Il Tesoro delle grazie di M. V. addolorata, Parma 1683, page 435., Lodovico Antonio Giamboni Diario sacro di Firenze, Florence 1700, pages 411, 433 and 460., Bartolomeo Genovese of Massanella di Tricario [La consolatrice degli afflitti Maria, compatita ne' suoi dolori, Naples 1722, in the preface.], Placido Bonfrizieri [Diario sacro dell' ordine de Servi di M. V., Venice 1725, at the 1st day of September.], Carlo Guido Forti Catalogus agiologicus Hetruscus, Rome 1731, page 43., Maurizio Francesconi Firenze sacra, Florence 1739, page 126., Giuseppe Maria Brocchi of Florence Vite de' santi e beati Fiorentini, Florence, volume I, page 575., Costantino Battini [Compendio della Vita di S. Giuliana Falconieri, Florence 1830, pages 40 and 41; Memorie intorno il B. Andrea Dotti, Florence 1807, page 191.] and finally the author of the book of the Rule, written a little before the year 1825 Summarium etc., page 14..
[8] [and painted or engraved with rays surrounding her head, in images of the XVI century and more recent ones.] A great many painted images were also examined, in which Bl. Joanna is presented with her head surrounded by rays and a heavenly nimbus. First there was recognized one, from the inquiry formerly made on account of St. Juliana Falconieri, existing in the cloister of the convent of the Servants at Florence, next to the image of St. Juliana, with these words added: Blessed Joanna of Florence, disciple of Blessed Juliana; and not far from there: The Reverend Lord Girolamo Requiliano
of the diocese of Brescia had this made for his devotion, 1599 Ibid. pages 16 and 17.. In the month of May of the year 1828 there was recognized a second in the Florentine conservatory of the sisters of the third order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, which seemed to experts to have been painted about the year 1770 by Ferretti or Gherardini. In it Bl. Joanna is represented with rays surrounding her head and the devil at her side; and the following is written on it in Italian: Bl. Joanna, of the noble family of the Soderini; who was the favoured disciple of Bl. Juliana Falconieri, and whose humility by the sign of the holy cross often drove out the demon, appearing to her in the form of an angel, and she worked many miracles Ibid. page 18.. But since in these words Juliana is called blessed and not saint, with which title she was endowed by Clement XII in the year 1737 Bullarium Romanum, volume XV, page 141 and following., and thereafter was always called by the members of the order of the Servants, the experts must have erred: for this image cannot but be older than the year 1737. There was recognized also the silver ornament of a codex preserved in the library of the Servants of Florence; in which ornament are represented the annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary and a great many of those in heaven of the order of the Servants: among them Bl. Joanna of Florence, with rays around her head, a book in her hands and the garment of the Mantellates Summarium, page 19.. This ornament seemed to experts to have come from the school of Albrecht Dürer, who flourished at the beginning of the XVI century. There was also produced a book of Rules, written in the year 1586; in which there was recognized a printed image, presenting the religious order of the Servants under the figure of a mystic ship. In the ship itself there are four masts, commonly alberi, and on one of them are inscribed the blessed women of the said order, and among others Blessed Juliana and Joanna of Florence. The witnesses moreover said that they had seen other images at Rome in the dormitory of the convent of San Marcello and at Città di Castello in the convent of the Servants, in both places with rays and the title of blessed. In the Roman one, moreover, Bl. Joanna holds a lily in one hand and a book in the other Ibid. page 15.. At the beginning of the XVII century others doubtless existed, since Giani then wrote Annales O. Servorum B. M. V., volume I, page 321.: This Bl. Joanna is rightly painted as a likeness of a certain venerable woman, aged with old age; who, carrying in her hand a certain red cross and clad in the whole habit of the third order, drives the demon away from her.
[9] All these things having been examined and the form When therefore the archbishop of Florence had diligently weighed most of these things, he issued the following sentence: Ferdinando Minucci, by the grace of God and of the Holy Apostolic See archbishop of Florence, domestic prelate of our Most Holy Lord Leo XII, Pope, assistant at the pontifical throne, and prince of the Holy Roman Empire, as ordinary judge, the name of Christ being invoked, sitting in tribunal, and God alone etc., by this definitive sentence which we issue in these writings in the cause and causes of the servant of God Joanna Soderini, disciple of St. Juliana Falconieri, between Lord Giuseppe Nesti, actual provincial of the order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Etruria, and in this matter acting as postulator, on the one part, and Lord advocate Lorenzo Cantini, promoter of the holy faith of the archiepiscopal curia of Florence, on the other part, of and concerning the immemorial cult shown to the same servant of God, and the case excepted in the decrees of Pope Urban VIII in the congregation of the most holy inquisition on not showing cult to servants of God not canonized or declared; having seen therefore the principal petition presented before us; having seen the admission of the said petition so and in so far, and the commission of the citation against the lord promoter of the holy faith of the archiepiscopal curia of Florence, and the report of the messenger, as in the acts; having seen the decree on drawing up the process by ordinary authority on the said alleged cult, shown according to the form of the aforecited decrees of Pope Urban VIII, together with the oath taken thereon by them according to the prescription of the decrees, above all the most recent, of the Sacred Congregation of Rites; having seen the special deputation of the promoter of the curia and also of the actuary for the construction of the process, and their formal oaths given; having seen the election of the messenger and also the designation of a tribunal for holding the public acts; having seen the election and deputation of the most reverend Lord Attilio Fiascaini, canon of the metropolitan church of Florence and our vicar general, handing over to him ordinary jurisdiction for making the access and completing the acts necessary in the construction of the process; having seen the oath, taken by our most reverend lord vicar, deputed ordinary judge, according to the form etc.; having seen the note or indication of the acts to be compelled, together with all things.
[10] the form of judgment being diligently observed, Having seen the election of experts for recognizing the monuments, paintings, books, codices, etc., made respectively ex officio, together with all things; having seen the citation ordered for the experts for holding the recognitions, and also their intervention, with the oaths taken by each of them on faithfully fulfilling their office, together with all things; having seen the access to the library of the convent of the Most Holy Annunziata of this city of Florence, and also to the conservatory of St. Juliana, commonly the Ammantellate; having seen the articles or positions produced by Lord Giuseppe Nesti, postulator, together with the name and surname of the witnesses to be examined; having seen the schedule of interrogatories, closed and sealed, not to be opened except in the act of examination, exhibited by the lord promoter of the faith, together with all things; having seen the oaths taken by the witnesses to be examined according to the prescribed form; having seen the depositions of the witnesses both on the interrogatories and on the articles, the prescribed form being observed in all things and through all things, with all things; having seen the interrogatories on which the witnesses brought forward were examined, together with all things; having seen the decree of publication of the depositions of the witnesses, a citation preceding, together with all things; having seen the reports of the elected and sworn experts, presented and consigned by them according to the instruction given them, and the oath taken singly upon them, together with all things; having seen all and each of the rights copied and transcribed in the acts exhibited, together with all things; having seen the petition and the decree obtained for the opening and publication of the present process and of this pending cause, together with all things; having seen the reproduction made by the same Lord Giuseppe Nesti, postulator, of all the acts singly done and carried out up to now in the favourable part and parts only, together with all things; having seen the exceptions given and many times repeated in the individual acts reviewed above by the lord promoter of the holy faith, together with all things; having seen the citations executed, and their reports, and above all the citation personally made to the aforesaid lord promoter to see and hear the sentence issued and promulgated according to what was sought in the principal petition, and the libel with the report of the messenger, as in the acts, together with all things; having seen the opinion of our promoter of the holy faith, and his doubt and the exception contained in it; having seen the whole process constructed in the cause, together with all things brought, produced and alleged in it: things to be seen having been seen, and things to be considered having been considered;
[11] [the archbishop of Florence pronounces that the cult of Bl. Joanna precedes the decrees of Urban VIII by a hundred years,] The name of Christ being repeated; sitting in tribunal and having God alone and justice before the eyes of our mind, for the declaration of the term held as kept until this day; we say, pronounce, give sentence, decree and declare that there has been established and is established the immemorial cult and veneration always shown to the said servant of God, Joanna Soderini, disciple of St. Juliana, not only at present, but also from time immemorial, and more than a hundred years before the aforesaid decrees of Pope Urban VIII of holy memory, issued in the year one thousand six hundred and twenty-five in the sacred congregation of the general inquisition on non-cult; and thus with the knowledge and tolerance of the most illustrious and most reverend lords, the lords archbishops, ordinaries of Florence, and of the prelates of the order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and therefore we say that this cause lies in the case excepted from the aforesaid decrees, and that they have in no way been contravened, but sufficiently obeyed and complied with; and so we say, declare and definitively give sentence, and not only in the manner and form aforesaid, but in every other better manner. C. Ferdinando, archbishop of Florence, ordinary judge. The above sentence was issued, given and published by the aforesaid most illustrious and most reverend Lord Ferdinando Minucci, archbishop of Florence, ordinary judge, sitting in tribunal in the audience chamber of his archiepiscopal palace, in the place, and place of place, designated, there being present, hearing and (as appeared) understanding the very illustrious lord advocate Lorenzo Cantini, the aforesaid promoter, read and published by me, Luigi Santoni, by order of his most illustrious and most reverend Lordship, in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ one thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight, the first Roman indiction, on the tenth day of June, in the fifth year of the pontificate of the most holy father in Christ our Lord Leo, by divine providence Pope XII, there being present in the same place the very reverend lords Giovanni Dolfi, secretary of the aforesaid most illustrious and most reverend lord, the lord archbishop of Florence, and Giovanni Mazzetti, of the household of the said most illustrious and most reverend Lordship, as witnesses specially called and asked. C. P. Giovanni Dolfi, witness. C. P. Filippo Mazzetti, witness. C. I, Luigi Santoni, son of Leopoldo, Florentine public notary and specially deputed notary actuary of the present cause.
[12] moved by the testimony of books and images. Then the following comes in the Italian idiom: And we were moved to judge thus by the following reasons: considering that the servant of God, Joanna Soderini, Mantellate nun of the order of the Servants of Blessed Mary, after she ceased to live in the year 1367, from then until the present time has always been universally honoured with the title of BLESSED, and consequently a hundred years before the ordinances contained in the decrees of the Holy Lord Pope Urban VIII, put forward in the year 1625, and so that it pertains to us to examine and decide whether immemorial cult is established or not; considering, from the epitome of her Life, written a few years after her death by Fr. Nicola of Pistoia of the order of the Servants, that it is certain that she was directed on the spiritual way by St. Juliana Falconieri; that knowledge is had of her severe kind of life, her penances, her precious death, the miracles that God worked by her intervention, and the universal opinion of her holiness; and that from then until the present time she has generally been honoured with the title of BLESSED; considering that the opinion of the holiness of Joanna Soderini did not exist only among the Mantellate nuns and the Servants of Blessed Mary at Florence, but was propagated to a great many cities of Italy, Germany and Spain; in which cities those who have written about her have honoured her with the title of BLESSED; and that the witnesses to this are printed books, whose authentic review exists in the process; considering that in the convents of the Servants of the Blessed Mary of the Annunziata at Florence, of the Mantellates of the same city, of the Mantellates of Città di Castello and of the Servants of San Marcello at Rome, there are preserved painted images of Joanna Soderini, with her head surrounded by rays; among which the most precious is the image in silver
engraved, which exists among the Servants of Florence, since it was made at the end of the XV century or the beginning of the next *; considering that rays around the head in ancient images are an undoubted sign of cult and veneration, since it is an ornament customarily placed on the head of those images which the Church honours as of those in heaven; considering that the Servants of Florence preserve an antiphon with a prayer to all the saints and blessed of the order, among whom the servant of God Joanna Soderini is commemorated; considering that prayers of this kind, composed for the use of a religious order, cannot but be held public prayers; considering that the title of blessed given to servants of God from a remote time and more than a hundred years before the ordinances of Urban VIII comes absolutely from the public and well-founded opinion of the holiness of the servant of God who is commemorated with such a title, and from the cult and veneration universally shown to him or her; to which no opposition can be made according to the brief of Urban VIII of the year 1625; considering that the attribution of the mere title of BLESSED is substantially nothing else than cult and veneration; considering that ecclesiastical authority through the course of four hundred and sixty years has assented to the title of BLESSED being given universally to Joanna Soderini, and that the same authority has never prevented her images being painted with rays around the head; etc.
[13] [The archbishop of Florence and the Sacred Congregation of Rites approve her cult as a hundred years before the decrees of Urban VIII.] After these things had been accomplished at Florence about the middle of the year 1828, Count Lorenzo Soderini went to the Sacred Congregation of Rites at Rome to confirm the decree of the archbishop of Florence: for this bishop had been approached with no other purpose than that through his sentence a way might be more easily laid to obtain a favourable judgment of the Holy See. The most pious count committed his part to Giuseppe Nesti, prior of the Florentine province of the Servants, to manage this business at Rome. In the month of August of the same year the cause was brought in: to which V. Pescatelli, promoter of the holy faith, opposed himself according to his office, and which the consistorial advocate Francesco Bartoleschi quite easily carried through by his pleading. Count Lorenzo therefore was able, as he had testified was his greatest wish, with the assent of this supreme authority to devote himself and his children at the altar of Bl. Joanna. But there was no stopping at this, according to custom. As soon as the Sacred Congregation of Rites had approved the Florentine sentence on the 27th day of September of the year 1828, it was asked for permission to recite the office and celebrate Mass in honour of Bl. Joanna, which permission was readily granted, three proper prayers for the Mass and three proper lessons for the second nocturn being approved. The prayers we omit; but the lessons, in which are contained several things that are found neither in Nicola Mati nor in Michele Poccianti, we shall give below.
Annotations* This concerns the silver ornament ascribed to the school of Albrecht Dürer.
§ II. The family of Bl. Joanna, her way of life under St. Juliana Falconieri, the miracle of the Holy Eucharist, her death, burial, relics.
[Bl. Joanna most certainly sprang from the house of the Soderini, but there has been variation in assigning her parents;] To come now to the affairs of Bl. Joanna while she lived, it seems that we must first speak of her birth. Now among the older writers Nicola Mati of Pistoia alone reports that she was born of the house of the Soderini; but he is a witness above all exception. This information, since his writings lay hidden for so long, seems to have prevailed only in the XVIII century. Before that all called her simply Joanna of Florence. Not rashly or inconsiderately, therefore, has she been said to have sprung from that most noble stock, although there has been variation concerning her parents. There was communicated to me a chart of the Soderini family, from which this single small portion seemed fit to be taken. But in the Soderini family copies are preserved of documents which in the annotations to the lessons proposed to the Sacred Congregation of Rites are said to exist in the public archive of Florence, and which by the advocate Lorenzo Cantini, promoter of the faith at Florence in the cause of Bl. Joanna, are reported to be in the Medicean library Summarium, page 21.. But what of the fact that neither the old writings nor the copies themselves were produced at Florence or Rome, but only alleged? What of the fact that Cantini dares to affirm nothing of an ancient exemplar, but relies on report alone (dicesi conservato it is said to be preserved)? Whatever this is, according to these monuments the blessed virgin will have been born of Guglielmo Soderini and Teresa Minerbetti at Florence in the year of restored salvation 1301. A great many historians of Italy agree in praising the Soderini family, as one which for many centuries has had a name in the civil, literary and ecclesiastical commonwealth, shining at Florence, Rome and Venice. Certainly Ruggero Soderini in the year 1283 obtained the priorate, not long before instituted at Florence Manni, Osservazioni sopra i sigilli antichi, volume III, page 151 and following.; which supreme magistracy others of the same family held more than forty times Cantini in the Summarium, page 21.: an excellent testimony indeed of how powerful and noble that family then was in the wealthiest city of Italy. But we are born and we die, nor is there anything on this earth that can promise itself perpetuity. And so fifty years ago the name of the Soderini was perishing, had not Pope Pius VII preserved it in Count Lorenzo, postulator of the cause of Bl. Joanna, who was the uterine brother of Countess Porzia Soderini Moroni, Dizionario di erudiz. eccles., under Soderini.. But so much for the birth of Bl. Joanna.
[15] [she had as mistress Bl. Juliana Falconieri, who presided over the lay sisters of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary.] In the same documents it is related that she had at home a pious instructress, Feliciana Tonni; who, when she warned her of her approaching death, divinely known, she learned from her that she was to choose St. Juliana Falconieri as her second mistress. Bl. Joanna was then twelve years of age, and St. Juliana was as it were superior of the lay sisters of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Florence, the beginnings of which women are even more obscure than the origin of the Servants, about which there has been so much disputing. The first cause of this obscurity is that the historians of the order of the Servants do not agree among themselves, nor are they even consistent with themselves. Reflecting on these things Hélyot Hist. des ordres religieux, volume III, page 321, 1792 edition. came to this opinion, that at the beginning these women were not enrolled in the third order; but that, despising the vanity of the world and taking up a dark garment and a mantle or bardocucullus, they professed piety in the world, resigning their liberty into the hands of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary; so that these acquired over their person, labour and goods the same power as masters over the person, labour and goods of slaves: except that this new servile kind, which at the same time was devoting itself to God, was forbidden marriage for ever. And indeed men's monasteries not only had their lay brothers, laymen, bearded men, servants, regular servants, brothers, familiars, etc.; but convents of women had men of the same kind [Acta SS. volume IX of October, page 410; Frizzi, Memorie per la storia di Ferrara, volume III, pages 184 and 291, 1850 edition.]; and in turn lay sisters and oblate women depended fully on men's monasteries Brabantia Mariana, page 732.. But if anyone wishes rightly to understand the former state of lay brothers and sisters, in which the servile and the religious condition had as it were grown together, he should read the dissertation of Giovanni Benedetto Mittarelli on the fortunes of this institution Annales Camaldulenses, volume I, appendix, column 336 and following..
[16] A monument of the oblation of lay sisters, of the year 1302. Nor did only grown men and women of full age take up the bond of this obligation, but also minor boys and girls offered by their parents, except that Pope Clement III willed that in due time they should ratify the paternal oblation. But Bl. Joanna, though not yet of legitimate age, at the invitation of Bl. Juliana offered herself, with the assent however of her parents. What were the ways of the new life is easily learned from the following instrument, which in the year 1302 was drawn up by a public notary at the conversion and oblation of Diana Davanzati Giani, Annales Ord. Servorum B. M. V., volume I, page 198.: In the year of the Lord's incarnation 1302, on the 23rd day of June, Lady Diana, formerly wife of N. Davanzati, having the consent and permission of her mundualdus etc., before the altar of the Blessed Virgin in the church of Cafaggio, or of the Blessed Mary of the Annunziata at Florence, wishing steadfastly to provide for the salvation of her soul, and to devote the rest of her life wholly to the service of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin his Mother, and to correct from now on her faults or excesses (if she has incurred any to the loss of her soul), of her free and spontaneous will, and after long deliberation, in the presence of Brother Francis, prior of the Servants of St. Mary of Cafaggio, and Brother John Piscis, syndic of the said order and procurator of the chapter, etc., offered in their hands to almighty God and the glorious Blessed Virgin, and gave her soul and her body to the aforesaid church, presenting herself as a lay sister and as an oblate lay sister, with all her goods movable and immovable, present and future, which she spontaneously gave to the same monastery and church, etc. Which Lord Prior and Brother John received the aforesaid Lady Diana as their lay sister and that of their chapter, oblate and offered; making her from now on a sharer of all the divine offices and Masses that are celebrated daily in the said monastery and church to the praise of God and of the Virgin Mary. And so the Lord Prior and the syndic at once received the said Lady Diana as a legitimate lay sister of the said monastery and church, etc. Done in the church of the Brother Servants of Cafaggio, the witnesses being etc., by Jo. Spiliati of Filicaia, notary.
[17] Bl. Joanna has St. Juliana Falconieri as mistress, in whose dead body The lay sisters therefore owed their labour and goods to the convent, as persons of servile condition to a master. Over the care of their souls presided one of the Brothers, a man grave in age and character, called the corrector. But it was necessary besides that some pious woman should watch over them more closely and instruct the younger ones. This office at Florence St. Juliana Falconieri discharged; whereby it came about that this most holy woman was the mistress of Bl. Joanna. The Mantellates at that time do not seem to have had a separate convent at Florence; nor did all dwell together, but some stayed in their own houses; most however inhabited separate buildings within the convents of the Brothers themselves, and so used the church, not however for singing together the ecclesiastical office, since, in the manner of lay brothers, they recited only a certain number of Lord's Prayers. There flourished greatly among them piety, the zeal for voluntary torments, humility and modesty: to which matter the excellent instruction of St. Juliana and the wisdom of the new rules contributed much; but still more the examples of several who emulated the virtues. Besides these common offices of nuns, there was incumbent on them the care of the sick in the hospitals and other
ministries of that kind. Nor was Bl. Joanna slack among them, of all the disciples of St. Juliana the most beloved. Wherefore God willed that she should be the first to see the Sacred Host impressed on the breast of Bl. Juliana. This miracle is read indeed in the Life of this holy woman, which Giani wrote and Papebroch published at the 19th day of June; but since this Life was compiled nearly three centuries after her death, it is pleasing to demonstrate from contemporary documents this prodigy, which pertains so closely to Bl. Joanna.
[18] [(as is established from a contemporary document) she saw the sacred Host impressed:] The first writing is only eighteen days after the death of Bl. Juliana, and is conceived in these words Battini, Compendio della Vita di S. Giuliana Falconieri, page 48.: † MCCCXXXX. In the month of July. — He has made a memory of his wonders. Let it be remembered that our Sister Juliana, XVIII days ago, having died, flew away to heaven with her spouse Jesus, and it was thus. = More than seventy years old, macerated in the stomach by dire voluntary penances, fasts, chains, an iron belt, scourges, vigils, starvation etc., she could no longer either receive or retain food. Wherefore when she knew herself deprived of the viaticum of the most sacred body of Christ, how much she grieved, how much she wept, is altogether incredible, to such a degree that through the greatness of her grief she was believed to be nearly dying. Accordingly she most humbly entreated Fr. Jacob of Campo … at least to bring the Most Holy Sacrament before her in a pyx; as was done. When the priest appeared, carrying the body of the Lord, she at once prostrated herself on the ground in the form of a cross and adored the Lord. Her face became like the face of an angel. She desired (which was not permitted) to unite herself to her Jesus and to kiss him; but the priest refused. Therefore as a suppliant she asked that a veil be spread over her burning breast, and that the Sacred Host be placed on it. She obtained her wish; but (O stupendous miracle) hardly had the Host touched that most loving heart than it disappeared, nor was it found any more. And Juliana, as soon as the Host disappeared, with a gentle and smiling face, as if she were being carried off in ecstasy, died in the kiss of the Lord, all marvelling [who] were present there, namely Sister Joanna, Sis[ter] Mary, Sis[ter] Elizabeth, Fr. Jacob and other[s] of the house.
[19] which matter Fr. Nicola of Pistoia narrated a little more luminously. Fr. Nicola Mati, also called of Pistoia, praised above, forty years later reported all the same things in a very brief commentary on St. Juliana, except that he set out a little more luminously how Bl. Joanna discovered the prodigy: Hardly, he says Battini, Compendio della Vita di S. Giuliana Falconieri, page 53., had Fr. Jacob placed the Host on her breast, when, as she said: “O my Jesus!” the Host vanished; and Juliana died with a smiling face. This matter aroused so great a stir that even now there is talk of it and will be through the centuries. And many did not believe the matter; but they were assured of it, when Sister Joanna, while washing the sacred body, found a haircloth pressed into the flesh, and on the breast the sign of the Host with a cross… For several days the people ran there in great throngs; and someone noted the many miracles that she worked. But I do not write them, because I do not know them one by one, but only confusedly. Who ever heard of such a thing or the like? By this stupendous prodigy it came about that many noble women of this place of Pistoia no longer disdained to become our mantellates. Nor did the same Fr. Nicola omit the same prodigy in the little Commentary on Bl. Joanna, which we shall give below.
[20] [Bl. Joanna died on the 1st day of September of the year 1367: how it came about that we speak of her today.] On the Kalends of September of the year 1367, twenty-six years after the death of her most holy mistress, Bl. Joanna departed from the living: in the clearest words Fr. Nicola indicated this day and year. Francesco Bartoleschi therefore is to be charged with negligence Summarium, page 3., who said that she departed this life in the year 1363, on the 10th day of October; which day of 10 October first appeared in the sylloge of Lives of saints and blessed of the Florentine dominion, composed in the year 1637 by Luca Chiari, a citizen of Florence Ibid. page 4.. On the other hand in the index of saints of the order of the Servants, which in the year 1590 Fr. Thomas of Verona inserted in the Flos Florum, Bl. Joanna of Florence is said to have died on the 27th day of October of the year 1367 Ibid. page 9.. This day came little by little to be received in the common calendars of Florence. Certainly Fr. Maurizio Francesconi of the order of the Pious Schools, in Firenze sacra, or index of the feasts, religious orders and indulgences of the churches of Florence, which index he published in the year 1739, wrote at the 27th day of October Firenze sacra, page 126.: The order of the Servants of Blessed Mary today makes memory of Bl. Joanna of Florence of the third order of the Servants. But this was by no means true; for the Servants in all their menologies and diaries constantly kept her memory on the 1st day of September. Nevertheless that error of Francesconi, arising from the index of Thomas of Verona, was propagated through the popular calendars of Florence. But the Sacred Congregation of Rites wished to support the truth rather than this popular custom: for which reason it appointed her feast for the first day of September; at which the Servants in their Martyrology use this formula: At Florence, of Blessed Joanna Soderini, virgin of the third order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, celebrated for innocence and harshness of life. Nevertheless Luigi Santoni, chancellor of the archiepiscopal curia of Florence, after he had announced the feast of Bl. Joanna at the 1st day of September in the sacred Diary of Florence, renewed her memory also (lest he should go against the expectation of the Florentines) at the present day. We have preferred to speak of her now rather than to send her name, among those passed over, to a supplement to September that will perhaps never be.
[21] [The tomb of Bl. Joanna seems never to have been uncovered, although relics are shown.] That Bl. Joanna was buried in the most celebrated church of the Blessed Mary of the Annunziata, formerly called of Cafaggio, is narrated by Nicola of Pistoia and all the others. Nevertheless it is not known where the tomb is situated, and it has often been sought in vain. Nevertheless small portions of her body are said to be kept at Florence. For Fr. Agostino Morini, already praised by me before, copied for me from a schedule of Fr. Alessandro Piermei the following record: From a finger of Bl. Joanna of Florence, virgin of the order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, drawn from the reliquaries of the old Florentine family of the Masi, and then passed by hereditary right to the family of the Michelozzi in the square of the church of San Michele, commonly of the Antinori, sewn in a veil of yellow silk, with a double inscription, one inside the wrapping on parchment written in Gothic characters, the other on a paper leaf in a character composed in the likeness of type: which we have enclosed in the same veil of yellow silk in a case of brass, inside which we have enclosed also the aforesaid titles or inscriptions. Nevertheless the persuasion remains among the Servants of Florence that the tomb of Bl. Joanna has never been uncovered; and they consider it enough on the 1st day of September to light candles at the painted image of Bl. Joanna, placed above the altar of the chapel dedicated to her cult. There follow now the little commentary of Nicola Mati of Pistoia, the narrative of Michele Poccianti and the lessons approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites; of which we have spoken above.
LITTLE COMMENTARY ON THE LIFE OF BL. JOANNA SODERINI
By Nicola Mati of Pistoia, translated from the Italian.
Joanna Soderini, of the order of Mantellates, at Florence. (Bl.)
BY NIC. MATI.
Bl. Joanna Soderini, instructed by St. Juliana Falconieri, Jesus. Mary. Little commentary on the life of our sister Joanna Soderini, who holily departed this life on the first day of September of the year MCCCLXVII. — At the age of twelve years she dedicated herself to Christ and his Most Holy Mother, invited by our Bl. Juliana; of whom she was the dearest and most beloved disciple. She also made a vow of virginity a before the Most Holy Virgin of the Annunciation b, and she observed it perfectly in body and soul. Our blessed mistress educated her in her own way, and in a short time made her so fervent in prayer, so humble, so docile, so mortified, that, however young she was, she proposed her to the others as an example.
[2] [above all after the prodigy of the Eucharist, impressed on the breast, she becomes like her mistress: whom she succeeds,] She was that happy disciple who, before Sister Elizabeth and the others, discovered on the breast of St. Juliana the stupendous miracle of Christ fixed to the cross, impressed on the flesh in a circle as of a Host c, and she discovered also the haircloth, sunk so deep into the sides that it was covered by flesh and skin; so that cutting was needed. Nor could the most loving disciple free the body of her mistress from this haircloth without lamentation. And if she was good already before, yet moved by this stupendous miracle, she strained every nerve not to be inferior to her mistress; which she also accomplished. She fasted as she had, she scourged herself as she had d, and she embraced so severe a life that Juliana did not seem to be dead. And the government of the Mantellates too was entrusted to her. She experienced for many years most terrifying temptations from the infernal enemy; who, to deceive her, even appeared to her under the form of an angel.
[3] and she dies with the repute of holiness. She lived after her mistress in most severe penance for twenty-six years; and on her body too there was found a haircloth of bristles, by which she was almost wholly covered; and she was altogether without flesh. As she was like her mistress in life, so she was like her in death: for when she had hardly received the viaticum, she raised her hands to paradise and suddenly gave up her spirit. Blessed death! She has already conferred many benefits on her pious fellow citizens; which have been collected by our Brothers of the Blessed Mary of the Annunziata e, among whom she was buried; and this whole city has venerated this blessed body, and with one voice has rightly said: “A great dweller in heaven has died. She is blessed.”
ANNOTATIONS.
Sometimes ten, sometimes fifteen, sometimes twenty-four hours she spent in prayer. She scourged herself almost to death, above all on Fridays. She wore chains on her loins, cords on her legs and arms. In the hospital she ate the leavings of the sick, whose wounds she licked and tended. She slept on the bare ground, at most on a mat. Every week for several days she took no food except the Holy Eucharist. In summer she wore thick garments, in winter she always went without shoes. The Ave Maria (namely as far as Sancta Maria) she said a thousand times daily; and all that she had she distributed in alms.
MEMOIR OF BL. JOANNA SODERINI
From the Chronicle of the order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary of Michele Agostino Poccianti.
Joanna Soderini, of the order of Mantellates, at Florence. (Bl.)
FROM THE PRINTED TEXT.
[In the year 1367 Bl. Joanna of Florence passes to Christ, and she overcomes the temptations of the demons.] If credit is to be given to what the Rev. Fr. Master Cosimo of Florence has in his little work a, among the other holy women who have illumined the religious order of the Servants with their most brilliant virtues, there presents herself to us Blessed Joanna of Florence, truly a mirror of virginity, and a memorable glory of women; who, shining with wondrous holiness, became celebrated among all. When she was twelve years old, by Bl. Juliana (of whom she was a fervent disciple), scorning games and the delights of the world, she dedicated herself to the blessed and immaculate Virgin, and took up the widowhood b of that divine Mother (that she might gain for herself an immortal seat in heaven), and began to wear her clothing within and without. Bearing this ill, the enemy transfigured himself into an angel of light, and afflicted her with very many temptations, showing that virginity was against the precept of the Lord, who says: “Increase and multiply,” and against the sacraments of Christ, who instituted matrimony as a remedy for sin. He urged moreover that fasting was superfluous, since it is written in the Gospel: “Not what enters by the mouth defiles a man.” He added besides that she was pouring out prayers to God in vain, since she was already enrolled in the number of the saints. These things and things like them the ancient enemy proposed, bearing ill the uprightness of so great a virgin; who, taught by the Holy Spirit, knowing them to be diabolical instigations, fortifying herself with the sign of the holy cross, manfully overcame them, and put the demon to flight; and to the end of her life she lived justly and piously, seeking not the things that are on earth, but the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. To whom in this year (1367), adorned with jewels and clothed with good works, not without signs of holiness she most religiously passed, and in the church of the Annunziata among the other sisters her body was stored.
ANNOTATIONS.
LESSONS OF THE II NOCTURN CONCERNING BL. JOANNA SODERINI
Proposed to the Sacred Congregation of Rites and approved by the same.
Joanna Soderini, of the order of Mantellates, at Florence. (Bl.)
Lesson IV. Joanna, born of pious and noble parents, Guglielmo Soderini and Teresa Minerbetti, at Florence in the year of restored salvation one thousand three hundred and one a, from the very years of childhood foreshadowed not obscurely what she was to be. For as soon as she could loosen her tongue into words, she desired nothing more eagerly than to hear of the mysteries of our redemption and to speak of them to others, so that in a short time she appeared wonderfully instructed in them; toward which for that reason she always burned with a great affection of devotion. She began also to venerate exceedingly the Virgin Mother of God, and she followed her with daily praises and pious prayers. When she had learned by divine means that the pious woman Feliciana Tonni, whom she had received from her parents as instructress, would die shortly, and so that another mistress was to be sought for herself, Joanna at once forewarned Feliciana of these things; who, acquiescing with ready mind in the divine disposition, designated for her as new mistress St. Juliana Falconieri, who had recently founded the family of the Mantellates b of the third order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary. But her parents, who had sons besides Joanna, were thinking of joining her in matrimony to a fellow citizen distinguished by equal nobility. But when they understood from her that she had already dedicated herself to the divine Spouse, they did not dare to move her from her purpose. And so at twelve years of age she placed herself under the discipline of Blessed Juliana, and entering her retreat she joyfully took up the religious habit. c
[2] Lesson V. Under so great a mistress she so advanced in every kind of virtue that she became very dear to her, and, though younger, she was proposed by her to the other sisters as an example of virtue: whence she was rightly always held her favoured disciple. Before the image of the most blessed Virgin saluted by the angel, most celebrated at Florence, she took a vow of perpetual virginity, which she kept unharmed until the end of her life, subduing her body with fasts, vigils, haircloth, scourges and every kind of harshness. She applied herself always to prayer and to the contemplation of heavenly things. She was of such humility that she held it a delight to perform all the meanest ministries of the house, and to wait on the sisters in anything whatever. Whose love and good will she accordingly merited by her singular gentleness, mildness and pleasantness. Their government too, taken up out of obedience, she administered most holily. Distinguished with the gift of prophecy, she foretold future things, whose truth the outcome proved d. From the prince of darkness, who, to deceive her, not rarely gave himself to be seen under the appearance of an Angel of light, she suffered horrible temptations and troubles; which however she overcame with unconquered mind, and eluded his cunning.
[3] Lesson VI. She never suffered herself to be torn away from her mistress, and she not only ministered to her in her sickness with the highest charity until the end of her life, but also sedulously paid the offices of piety to her in death. Hence she first of all discovered the image of Jesus Christ crucified impressed on her breast as if by a seal; and she showed it to the other sisters to be seen e. Moved by this wonderful prodigy she was inflamed with an even more fervent love of God, and she so clung to the footsteps of Blessed Juliana for the whole twenty-six years in which she survived her, that she seemed to all not dead, but still living in Joanna. Her whom she had represented in character while living, she imitated also in dying. For changed by holy works, and consumed by long maceration of the flesh, so that she appeared to consist only of skin and bones, she came to her last moments, and, hardly refreshed with the Eucharistic bread, she most peacefully gave back her spirit to God on the Kalends of September in the year one thousand three hundred and sixty-seven. Her body, carried to the church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Brother Servants, was made illustrious by God with frequent miracles, and venerated with frequent gatherings of peoples. The perpetual cult of Blessed Joanna Leo XII, supreme pontiff, confirmed by his oracle, and he granted that the anniversary day of her deposition should be venerated with a proper office and Mass in the whole order of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and in the diocese of Florence.