ON BL. BENVENUTA BOJANI, VIRGIN, SISTER OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. DOMINIC, IN FRIULI IN ITALY,
IN THE YEAR 1292.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
Benvenuta Bojani, virgin, of the Order of Friars Preachers, in Friuli in Italy. (Bl.)
BY V. D. B.
§ Sole. The birth of Bl. Benvenuta of Friuli. Of her ancient cult, confirmed by the Holy See. The Lessons of the Breviary. Of the biographers of the blessed virgin.
He would stray far from the truth who should wish to pass judgement, from the Roman Martyrology or its appendices, on the number of the saints, men and women, whom the Order of Friars Preachers, like a good tree, has brought forth. St. Benvenuta, born of the Bojani family of Friuli, Few have been brought into it by the solemn judgement of the Church; somewhat more whose immemorial cult has been confirmed by the Roman pontiff: but what are those, if
they are compared with the immense multitude of those who were formerly deservedly held in the number of the saints and are still so held? In this last place, until the year 1765, in which the sacred congregation of rites ratified her cult, comes Bl. Benvenuta, born of the noble Bojani family of Friuli, a member of the third Order of St. Dominic (which they call of Penance), and who at length departed this life at Forum Julii or Civitas Austriae on the 30th day of October of the year 1292. But before we proceed further, a certain obstacle must be removed which easily arises from the names Forum Julii and Civitas Austriae. There is no need for me to point out that the province of Forum Julii (in Italian Friuli, in French Frioul), once a Venetian dominion, then French, afterward Austrian, and now at last Italian, lies on the northern shore of the Adriatic sea, and that its capital is now Udine, but in ancient times Forum Julii: of which a few words. The older name of this town lies hidden; it received the new one together with the forum, or juridical assembly, from C. Julius Caesar, while he governed both Gauls as proconsul with command, being also enlarged with a military colony and enrolled in the tribe Scaptia. Nevertheless among the inland places of the Carni (this was the ancient name of the region) Aquileia was pre-eminent, placed by the sea. But in the year 452, this colony and metropolis having been destroyed, Forum Julii began to raise its head. And indeed, as Filippo della Torre, a Friulian by nation and bishop of Adria, says [De colonia Forojuliensi dissertatio altera, column 67, in Burmann, Thesaurus antiquitatum Italiae, volume VI, part IV.], when the Lombards burst into Italy in the year of the Christian era 569, Alboin, laying the beginnings of the new empire, having instituted the first and most noble duchy of Friuli, set Gisulf over it, and established the seat of the principality in the very city of Forum Julii. Thence the fame of the dukes of Friuli, celebrated in the history of the Lombards (which Paul the deacon pursued), and the name of the city itself became illustrious: which by Paul himself is now called the Civitas Forojuliana, again the Town of Forum Julii, and at last also the Castrum Forojuliense. Then also the city was increased in dignity, when the episcopal see was transferred there from Castrum Juliense, and afterward, by a more illustrious accession, it received the patriarchs of Aquileia. For Callistus, having expelled bishop Amator, fixed his dwelling in that city, the chief of the region, and so did the patriarchs who followed up to the eleventh century. Through these times Forum Julii was then more frequently called by the new name Civitas Austria, and kept it within the memory of our grandfathers… When the Lombards had fixed the seat of empire in the city of Pavia, they called that last region of Italy, namely the province of Friuli, Austria, because it was situated on the eastern side. Hence the vernacular name of the chief city, Cividale d'Austria, now, however, more commonly Cividale, or Cividale di Friuli; although the neighbouring country people have not yet forgotten the old name Forum Julii, turned into Friuli. This town, once notable for many churches, still now with a most beautiful collegiate church, has not much more than four thousand inhabitants, situated on the river Natisone. This was the native place of Bl. Benvenuta; here the place of her death and burial; nay also the principal theatre of her veneration and of heavenly benefits. But let us return from this digression to the road.
[2] she began to be venerated immediately after her death, There, then, the most devout virgin immediately after her death began to be numbered among the saints by popular voice and, ecclesiastical authority in no way hindering, to be publicly venerated and implored for help. And since this veneration never ceased and had gradually been spread even more widely, it was at length agreed between the convent of Friars Preachers of Cividale or Friuli and the Bojani family that with one effort they should pursue the confirmation of the immemorial cult of their blessed member and kinswoman. So on the 20th day of April of the year 1759, Carlo Bojani, canon, with his brother Girolamo, and Corrado Bojani, canon, with his brothers Paolo, priest, Francesco, Giuseppe, and Leandro, and Father Brother Anastasio Comi, prior of the convent of Cividale or Friuli, with eight fathers and eight brothers, before Girolamo Candido, public notary, constituted by a double instrument Father Brother Francesco de Justis, lector of theology in the convent of Cividale, as procurator, to promote this cause in their name. Two days later, the designated procurator offered to Cardinal Daniele Delfino, formerly patriarch of Aquileia, then, after this patriarchate had been divided into the archbishoprics of Gorizia and Udine, first archbishop of Udine (the patriarchal ornaments and title being retained) Compare Cardella, Memorie storiche de' Cardinali, volume IX, page 29., a supplicatory petition, asking that he would be willing to institute a process on confirming the cult. The prelate assented, constituted a tribunal, and on the 28th day of May began himself to hear the witnesses; which office he discharged until the 26th day of the following month of June, no solemnities being omitted. Then from the ninth day of July the same man examined the testimonies written by hand or printed, the painted panels, the tomb, and other things of this kind, inspecting them with his own eyes or using expert witnesses: which were not completed until toward the end of the month of August. All these things being completed, as is read in the authentic Information on confirming the archiepiscopal sentence, and the promoter fiscal having first been cited to the substantial terms and to the sentence, on the 22nd day of September the definitive sentence was pronounced and signed by the most eminent ordinary, and also handed to the notary actuary, who immediately published it, and by means of it it was declared to be established that cult had been exhibited from immemorial time to our Blessed Benvenuta, and that therefore her cause is among the cases excepted from the decrees of Pope Urban VIII of happy memory.
[3] [so that, it having been declared by the archbishop of Udine that her cause was among the cases excepted by Urban VIII] And the form of this sentence is this: We, Daniel, by divine mercy cardinal priest of the H. R. C. of the title of St. Mark in the City, Patriarch Delfino, archbishop of Udine. The name of Christ invoked, sitting as a tribunal and having God alone before our eyes, by this our definitive sentence, which by right, with the counsel of experts, we pass in these writings in the cause of canonization of Bl. Benvenuta Bojani, tertiary of the Order of Preachers, of and concerning the public cult rendered to her from immemorial time and for several centuries, and concerning the case excepted from the decrees of holy memory of Urban VIII issued concerning non-cult in the years 1625 and 1634, or etc., and other things etc., between the Reverend Father Francesco Giusti, of the Order of Preachers, specially deputed by the Reverend Fathers of the Order of St. Dominic of the convent of Cividale of our diocese of Udine, and also by the noble lords Carlo, canon, and Girolamo, brothers, sons of the late Corrado, and Corrado, canon, Paolo, priest, Francesco, Giuseppe, and Leandro, brothers, sons of the late Eustachio, and respectively nephews by a brother, Bojani, as plaintiff on the one part, and the excellent lord Carlo Moreti Pisoni, promoter fiscal of this curia and of the archiepiscopal table of Udine and acting for the holy see, on the other part; having seen the same decrees of holy memory of Urban VIII and other most recent ones of the sacred congregation of rites; having seen the depositions of the witnesses formally examined before us; having seen the rights and historical monuments produced before us, examined, and legitimately collated; having seen the visitation, description, and examination, legitimately made before us, of the images and painted panels and the other monuments savouring of public and ecclesiastical cult and veneration toward the person and memory of the praised Bl. Benvenuta Bojani, tertiary of the Order of Preachers; having seen the reports of experts issued before us; having seen the whole process built up before us; having seen all other things brought before us; having then seen what was to be seen and considered what was to be considered, the name of Christ repeated, we say, decree, declare, and definitively sentence that it has been established and is established that public cult from immemorial time, and for a hundred and much more years before the promulgation of the said decrees of holy memory of Urban VIII, has been rendered and exhibited, and is also at present rendered, to the aforesaid Bl. Benvenuta Bojani, and that the said cult has been and is public and notorious, and that therefore this cause is among those excepted from the praised Urban[ian] decrees, and that these have in no way been contravened, but have been and are sufficiently obeyed in the same cause. And so we say, decree, declare, pronounce, and definitively sentence, not only in the foregoing manner, but also in every better manner. So I, Daniel, cardinal, Patriarch Delfino, archbishop of Udine, have pronounced.
[4] had been declared by the archbishop of Udine, This sentence availed to keep intact the cult of Bl. Benvenuta, but by no means to enlarge it, least of all to introduce a feast or to permit an ecclesiastical Office: which, however, was greatly desired. For this to be done, the licence of the Roman pontiff was necessary; which could not be obtained unless the process were first examined and confirmed at Rome. The whole process was therefore copied out, and from the 27th day of November its collation with the autographs was begun: which was not completed until the 5th day of January of the year 1760. Two days later a bearer was sent to Rome to the congregation of sacred rites with the authentic copy and this letter: Since for many centuries past there has flourished the happy memory of the holiness of life, virtues, and miracles of a certain most illustrious virgin, Benvenuta by name, sprung from the illustrious and very ancient family of the Bojani in the city of Cividale, of this diocese formerly of Aquileia, now of Udine, a tertiary of the Order of Preachers, commonly called Blessed, a judicial instance having been proposed to me by the legitimate procurator of the aforesaid family and of the Fathers of the convent of St. Dominic of the said city for the construction of a process by ordinary authority concerning the public cult rendered to her from immemorial time, or the case excepted in the decrees of Pope Urban VIII of happy memory, I took up a task of this kind, although too arduous for me, held back by daily pastoral cares and burdened with many infirmities of the body, and, observing what is to be observed by law, I completed it diligently and accurately as far as possible, God granting. While, therefore, through the chosen bearer a copy or transcript of the said process in authentic form is sent to that sacred congregation of rites, I humbly report to your Eminences that the witnesses examined in this cause, whether brought in by the procurator or named ex officio, are men commendable for probity of life and honesty of manners, worthy of credit, above all exception. The very many documents collated in the said process show more than enough the innocence of life, the outstanding virtues, and the illustrious deeds of the aforesaid heroine, who added glory and great honour to her own family, to the aforesaid city, and to this diocese itself. Whence not undeservedly from the time of her happy passing until the present she has been venerated with special cult. What, then, remains but that I pour out my earnest prayers, and those of the citizens of the city and of the people of the diocese, for the speedy dispatch of a cause of this kind, as by these presents I again and again urgently pray and beseech the sacred congregation, and most humbly kiss the hands of your Eminences. — Udine, 7 January 1760. — Your Eminences' most humble, most devoted servant, Daniel, cardinal, Patriarch Delfino, archbishop of Udine.
[5] and confirmed by the Holy See; That process had been put together with notable skill, so that it could be proposed almost as a model. Yet by virtue of his office Gaetano Forti, promoter of the faith, opposed it, contending that it was not sufficiently established that the public cult of Bl. Benvenuta was older by a hundred years than the Urbanian decrees, and so
that it was not to be referred among the excepted cases. But the advocate Domenico Claverini and Domenico Trojani answered accurately, and easily won the cause. There came forth therefore from the sacred congregation of rites and from Pope Clement XIII two decrees, by which the whole cause was settled. Wherefore, although the form is common, it has not irked us to copy them here: OF UDINE
*
OF THE BEATIFICATION AND CANONIZATION OF THE VENERABLE SERVANT OF GOD BENVENUTA BOJANI, NUN OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. DOMINIC, CALLED BLESSED. When, through the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord Cardinal of Sant'Angelo, ponent of the cause of the Venerable servant of God Benvenuta Bojani, called Blessed, at the instance of the postulator of the said cause, the doubt written below had been proposed and discussed in the ordinary congregation of sacred rites, without the intervention of the consultors, by apostolic dispensation: Whether the commission of introduction of the cause is to be signed, in the case and to the effect; the same sacred congregation, having first heard the Reverend Father Lord Gaetano Forti, promoter of the faith, who set out his opinion in writing and by voice, judged that the rescript should be: In the affirmative, if it shall please Our Most Holy Lord. On the 7th day of July 1764. — And, a report on the aforesaid having then been made by me, the secretary, to the same Our Most Holy Lord, His Holiness kindly assented and signed the aforesaid commission with his own hand on the 11th day of July 1764. Place † of the seal. Giuseppe Maria Cardinal Feroni, prefect. S. Borghese, secretary of the S. R. C. Here is the other decree: OF UDINE * OF THE CANONIZATION OF THE BLESSED OF GOD BENVENUTA BOJANI, NUN OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. DOMINIC. At the suppliant instances of the Most Reverend Father Master Brother Juan Tomás de Boxadors, master general of the Order of Preachers, postulator of the cause of canonization of Blessed Benvenuta Bojani, the doubt having been proposed in the ordinary sacred congregation of rites by the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord Cardinal of Sant'Angelo, ponent: Whether the sentence passed by the Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord Cardinal archbishop of Udine concerning the public cult exhibited from immemorial time to the aforesaid venerable handmaid of Christ, or the case excepted from the decrees of Pope Urban VIII of happy memory, is to be confirmed, in the case and to the effect; the same sacred congregation, having first heard the Reverend Father Lord Gaetano Forti, promoter of the faith, who set out his opinion in writing and by voice, judged that the rescript should be: In the affirmative, if it shall please Our Most Holy Lord. On the 26th day of January 1765. And a report on the aforesaid having then been made by me, the undersigned secretary, to the same Most Holy Lord, His Holiness kindly assented on the 6th day of February 1765. Place † of the seal. Giuseppe Maria Cardinal Feroni, prefect. S. Borghese, secretary of the S. R. C.
[6] which granted a feast and the divine Office in her honour. When, therefore, it had been established that the veneration which was publicly rendered to Bl. Benvenuta was legitimate, the way lay open to request from the holy see a decree by which power should be given to the Order of Friars Preachers and to the diocese of Udine to celebrate the festivity of the blessed virgin with double rite. This faculty was given; whence into the supplement of the Roman Martyrology for the use of the same Friars this commemoration was received: At Forum Julii of the Carni, of blessed Benvenuta Bojani, virgin of our Order, who flourished in penance, prayer, and humility. The people of Udine keep that festivity on the day of her death, the 30th of October; the Friars Preachers on the day before, who long since pre-occupied the 30th day of October with the feast of the sacred relics. And the following lessons were approved by the S. R. Congregation.
Lesson IV. Benvenuta, born at Forum Julii of the Carni of her father Conrad Bojani (from whom the surname of the Bojani was propagated to the descendants of the most noble stock of the a Pertica), and of her mother Albertina of Bultinico, gave from almost her very infancy illustrious indications of future holiness. For, loathing the adornment of the body and the games with which that age is wont to be delighted, she was accustomed to hide herself from the sight of her kindred in a remote place of her father's garden, from which there was a free prospect to the church of Holy Mary situated on the summit of a very high mountain, and there to prolong her prayers for many hours. At which time she wearied her little body with frequent and laborious prostrations and genuflections. Having advanced a little in age, she put on a hair shirt, which she wore for six whole years, to bring her body into servitude. She girded her loins first with an iron chain, then more tightly with a little cord; which, when she grew up, so clung to her flesh that it could not be cut away and torn off without the work of a surgeon. So, lest the matter be made known, she turned herself to prayers, and obtained from God (as is handed down to memory) that the little cord should fall down before her feet.
[7] The austerity of her life is praised Lesson V. When she had been co-opted into the third Order of St. Dominic, and had vowed her virginity to God, imitating the life of him whom she had chosen for herself in place of a father, she persevered for a very long time in abstaining from wine and from meat, in spending very many nights, and especially those which preceded the principal feast days, almost sleepless, persisting in meditation on divine things and in prayers, and, when she would take a little rest, in lying on the ground with a stone placed under her head, in striking herself with an iron chain three times every night: to which last kind of affliction, obeying her confessor, she at some point set a limit. By this severity of life she was so weakened in strength that at length she fell into a disease of paralysis. And since she breathed with difficulty, and therefore could not lie down, and for that reason was compelled to sit perpetually, ulcers having been contracted, she could not be lifted even lightly without the greatest sense of pain. Which pain she so bore that all praised her patience and admired her assiduity in prayer. When she had been troubled for almost five years by so persistent a sickness, having made a vow, for the sake of recovering her health (if only it should please God), to betake herself to Bologna to the tomb of St. Dominic, she was suddenly healed, to the utmost admiration of those standing by.
[8] and her blessed death. Lesson VI. Having set out for Bologna and paid her vow, she returned to her native place; and the institute of life which she had begun long since, and afterward interrupted on account of her health, she took up anew. When, by this institute, full of austerity and labour, she had so subjected the flesh to the spirit that she easily called the mind away from the senses, and seemed to be fixed in the one contemplation of the mysteries of the faith, she was enriched by God with many and great gifts. But in that abundance of graces she shrank from nothing more than from the desire of vain glory. At length, afflicted by want of food, vigils, and long-continued weariness of the body, when she had asked to be dissolved and to be with Christ, having received the sacraments of the Church, she departed joyfully on the third day before the Kalends of November in the year one thousand two hundred and ninety-two. When this was spread abroad, the citizens in great number, reckoning that they had obtained a new patroness in heaven with God, flocked first to her house, then to the church of the Friars Preachers of Friuli, into which her body was brought and began (as is reported) to be made illustrious by miracles, for the sake of declaring their veneration and cult toward her. Which cult, never interrupted, Clement the thirteenth, supreme pontiff, approved on the advice of the sacred congregation of rites, and granted to the whole Order of Preachers the power to recite the Office and to celebrate the Mass of blessed Benvenuta, virgin.
[9] Her Life was written shortly after her death by an anonymous, From the Summary or Positio which was drawn up before the apostolic confirmation of the immemorial cult, many things can be learned which are of no small value for declaring the posthumous glory of Bl. Benvenuta. Let us make a beginning from those who celebrated her praise in writing. Her Life was committed to letters a little after her death. For the pious woman who had been her confidante was still living. For hear: Likewise Jacobina, a devout widow, the confidante of Benvenuta, of whom mention has been made many times above, has a brother according to the flesh, a canon of Cividale, and he is the scribe of the lord patriarch, whom she loves above all other persons; and deservedly, because he in turn much reveres and loves her: where the words has, loves, reveres designate the present time. But receive a more brilliant testimony. The biographer had narrated the conversion of a noble woman of Friuli who, having kissed the corpse of Bl. Benvenuta, not without veneration (as many other women did), soon embraced with her husband a most devout life, and a year later had devoutly passed to the Lord. And when, a little later, the same writer had come to the healing of Margaruza, an honourable woman of Friuli: This sick woman, he says, had in the city a certain lady related to her in the third degree. And this lady was she who with her husband was converted to penance, and HAS JUST LATELY died devoutly, as has been described a little above. If these words just lately are weighed, all will agree (unless I am mistaken) that the Life of Bl. Benvenuta was written not more perhaps than two years after her death. Some have thought that Br. Conrad of Castillerio, the confessor of the most holy virgin, was the author of that Life; but less probably. For he is accustomed to write in such a way that he seems to be altogether another person. Here is an example: There was a certain noble and devout lady, Palma by name, in a certain castle which is distant from the city fifteen miles, who had been familiar with and devoted to Benvenuta, because she knew her holiness well: for she was the sister according to the flesh of Brother Conrad, her confessor. And so everywhere. These things being so, if the biographer had been Br. Conrad and had wished to remain hidden, he would not have brought forward his name so often nor so lightly; but if he had not wished to remain hidden, he would not have concealed that he was Br. Conrad and had written the Life. But if he is other than Brother Conrad, it is evident that that very Brother was the principal witness whom the writer questioned and followed; who, it is not to be doubted, lived in the convent of the Friars Preachers of Friuli: so that this Life has the greatest weight. Wherefore in the Process it was collated, and a part of the miracles (from which the antiquity of the cult might shine out) was published in the Summary according to the autograph; which a hundred years ago had already lost many leaves. The same Life, according to a very ancient copy of the nuns of St. Dominic of Friuli at Cella, received from Pietro Franchini of Treviso, prior provincial of the Venetian province of the Order of Preachers, was rendered in Italian at the end of the sixteenth century by Muzio Sforza, and printed at Venice in the year 1589; which edition was renewed at Udine in the year 1681 through the work of Giacomo Modonutti (vicar curate of the church of St. John in the Hospice and confessor of the nuns of Cella), with a preface to the nuns and an Italian poem on the origin of the monastery.
[10] but afterward edited by de Rubeis. At length in the year 1757 there came forth from the Venetian press the Latin Life, through the industry of Giovanni Francesco de Rubeis, a most celebrated man, who added a preface and annotations. Whose preface's sentences, nay often words, we subjoin here. The Life of Bl. Benvenuta was first brought to light in Latin in the year 1757 from the original manuscript codex which was kept in the convent of the Friars Preachers of Friuli, and partly from another copy of a later age, which the most illustrious men the Bojani, of the same most noble stock as Benvenuta, possessed. That old and original codex, a parchment one in small folio, as they say, was preserved entire and without any blemish until the eighteenth century began: after the thirteenth year of the same century it was believed to have perished through carelessness, as de Rubeis says, but under good auspices, somehow,
it was found, diminished by some pages. Namely, the first quire lacked the first, second, and tenth leaf: and the fourth, which was the last of the codex, was wanting entire. Of course, among the chapters into which we have cut the Life itself, the first had perished up to these words: she hid secretly, because her whole attention was. From those words too which are read in chapter four, number 43: having made the sign of the cross, he gave it to her, saying, the rest was lacking up to the words of chapter five near the beginning: still to send the same messenger back to her. Finally the greatest part of chapter fourteen had perished after the words: and taking him in his hands, he made a prayer to Benvenuta, with the epilogue. De Rubeis was able to supply all such defects from the other more recent codex mentioned above, which we may call the Bojani codex, and a copy of which the Friars Preachers of Friuli themselves also kept. The form of the characters and the manner of writing showed the age of the old primitive codex to be contemporary with Bl. Benvenuta.
[11] The holy virgin is praised by very many. Then very many others praised the holiness of the most blessed virgin. In an anonymous book written by hand about the year 1500, which about the year 1760 was in the possession of Giovanni Domenico Guerra, canon of Cividale, these things were read at page 4: Benivenia, illustrious for holiness, made illustrious with miracles her Bojani house and the town of Civitas Austriae. Buried in the church of St. Dominic, she is most devoutly venerated. Similar things are found in the codex of Marco Antonio Nicoletti, written by hand before the year 1570, and containing the Lives of the patriarchs of Aquileia, earlier composed by Giacomo Valvasone; and likewise in a more recent manuscript Description of Civitas Austriae and in a History of the affairs of Friuli. In very many more printed books the holiness of blessed Benvenuta is proclaimed: of which there are reviewed in the Summary the Golden Sermons on the saints, by Br. Leonardo of Udine, published at Vicenza in the year 1480, page 263 three times; the Considerations on the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, written in Italian by Giovanni Tiepolo and printed at Venice in the year 1610, treatise XII, chapter XV, page 1024; Razzi's (O. P.) Lives of the saints and blessed of both sexes of the Order of Preachers, published in Italian at Florence in the year 1577, part II, page 101; Pio's Lives of the illustrious men of the Order of St. Dominic, printed at Bologna in the year 1607, part I, book III, page 490, and another work on the noble and generous progeny of the holy Father Dominic, likewise printed at Bologna in the year 1615, book II, chapter XLIII, page 384; the Miracles of the glorious Virgin Mary, likewise written in Italian and committed to print at Treviso in the year 1615, by Silvano Razzi, Camaldolese monk, book III, miracle LIV, page 282; the Sacred Diary, made public in Italian in the year 1658 by Francesco Marchese, priest of the Oratory, at the 30th of October; the Panegyric of Bl. Benvenuta spoken by Father Ercolano on the occasion of a provincial chapter, and printed in the same year 1658; the Histories of Friuli, likewise written in Italian by Giovanni Francesco Palladio degli Olivi and printed at Udine in the year 1660, part I, book VII, page 273, at the year 1292; On the Love of Jesus Christ, which book, first written in Latin by Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, priest of the Society of Jesus, and at length rendered in Italian, came to light at Venice in the year 1664, chapter XX, page 94; the Mutual Affections of the Most Holy Virgin and her clients, brought out in Italian at Bologna in the year 1668, the writer being Tommaso Auriemma, S. J., part I, chapter VI, page 62, and chapter XXIII, page 353; the Antiquities of the city of Forum Julii, by Basilio Zancarolo of Candia, printed at Venice in the year 1669, part I, book I, page 88; the Mare Magnum of examples of Domingo Riera, of the Order of Friars Preachers, published at Majorca in the year 1699, example CCCXLVI, page 369; Marchese's Sacred Dominican Diary, published in Italian at Naples in the year 1679 and often thereafter in other languages, at the 30th of October; the book of Father Giacomo Modonutti, brought to light in the year 1681; the Moral Practices, written in Italian by Alfonso Gianotti, S. J., and published at Venice in the year 1701, part III, practice XIV, page 416; the Sacred monuments of the province of Friuli, by Lucrezio Treo, printed at Udine in the year 1724, page 106; the Marian Month, by Marianus Parthenius *, published at Parma in the year 1762, page 40; the Spiritual Colloquies, in Italian, by Alessandro Diotallevi, S. J., printed at Venice in the year 1728, part I, example III, page 37; the Study of mental prayer, in Italian, by an anonymous author, published at Padua in the year 1731, volume I, page 416, etc.; the Daily Delights of conversation with the Child Jesus, a sacred and historical Diary, in Italian, by Giuseppe Antonio Patrignani, S. J., printed at Venice in the year 1732, at the 18th of June and the 30th of October; the little work of Bojani de Gualteriis, of the Order of Minors, published in the year 1751, another of Father Polacco of the Oratory of Padua (unless it is the Study of mental prayer), and another of a certain Sforza, known to me from the deposition of Girolamo Ferrara; the Martyrdom of the heart of Mary of Sorrows, written in Italian by Liborio Siniscalchi, S. J., and printed at Venice in the year 1752. To which were added two other Lives, of which one was printed at Venice in the year 1767, the other at Udine in 1848. Giuseppe Valentinelli inserted several other compositions published on Bl. Benvenuta in the Bibliography of the province of Friuli Bibliografia del Friuli, page 160 and following.. Of her also the Menologies of the Friars Preachers.
[12] [The body of Bl. Benvenuta was sought in vain in the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries.] From this long review it is clear that even before the confirmation of the cult of Bl. Benvenuta her name did not lie hidden within the walls of one town, but was gradually spread to many places of northern Italy. Yet it had scarcely, or not even scarcely, become known outside Italy, although it is manifest that the people began to venerate her immediately after her death. For in the Life she is continually called saint and blessed; which appellation also all those writers use. So too in the second parchment Necrology of the convent of St. Dominic of Cividale, at the 30th day of January, is read: Death of Br. Jacopo Bojani, O. P. He was the brother of Bl. Benvenuta. How many and how great testimonies of public veneration followed her passing from the earth the Life itself will give more than enough. The burial-place of Conrad Bojani and his family, and therefore of St. Benvenuta too, was in the open air before the doors of the church, as appears from this: Moreover, says the biographer, many men and women, wishing to enter the church, out of reverence for the most holy body which lies there under the stone, dare not set their feet upon the stone of the burial-place; but, turning aside from the side to the head or to the feet of the tomb, by the corner of the burial-place they set their feet on the threshold of the church. Whether the sacred bones were ever taken away from there is not known. Certainly in the years 1447 and 1609 they were sought in vain, as is established from authentic instruments; which we transfer here from the Response to the Animadversions of the Promoter of the faith and from the Summary; the form of the former is this: In the year of the Lord 1447, on the 27th day of May, the tomb was opened which is immediately before the doors of the church of Blessed Dominic, in which the most devout Benvenuta was said to be buried, and her body was not found; but in it there were six heads; and all the bodies were resolved into dust and ashes. There were present at the aforesaid opening Ser Francesco de Virgiliis, provisor of the commune of Cividale, Ser Corrado de Bojanis, Ser Niccolò de Portis, Ser Martino of San Daniele, Master Leonardo of Udine, of the Order of Preachers, Br. Pietro of Ancona, prior of the convent of St. Dominic of Cividale, Br. Bartolomeo of Fermo, lector of the convent of Cividale, Br. Ettore of Udine, and other Brethren of the aforesaid convent. I, the aforesaid Master Leonardo, wrote this with my own hand. Nevertheless a hundred and sixty-two years later it seemed that fortune should be tried again, as is manifest from another monument: In the year from the virginal birth one thousand six hundred and nine, on the fourteenth day before the Kalends of March. Since it was established to us by many arguments that the most holy virgin Sister Benvenuta Bojani of Friuli, of the third Order of the holy Father Dominic, had been placed in the tomb of her parents which is outside the main door of the church: very great prayers having first been poured out to God for eight days, the Psalter of David having also been recited, which Br. Costantino of Fabriano, of our family of Preachers, has handed down to memory as most suited for obtaining from the divine majesty the things asked; the canticle Magnificat having also been recited nine times, which remedy we read that blessed Br. Aloysius * Bertrand of Valencia, whom we hope soon to venerate when he has been enrolled in the number of the saints, quite often used, not without miracles, for finding lost things; — the help of the most holy Virgin Mary having moreover been implored, that she would act with her Son, so that by her prayers and intercession we might open for ourselves an easier access to finding this most precious treasure of the relics of Benvenuta; having this only proposed before our eyes, namely the honour and glory of God, best and greatest, and of His handmaid Benvenuta: we had it dug up before the main doors, and, the stone tomb which is seen (the upper stones removed) having been opened, we found nothing else but seven or eight heads of the dead and very many bones, also two little gold bands and as many silk ones: which at length were all put back; and God was praised, blessed be He, whose will we think it is that the bones of Benvenuta lie hidden until the day of judgement. There were present at the opening of the tomb the Very Reverend Father Br. Giorgio de Longis of Udine, the well-deserving prior of the convent, Br. Giorgio Bovio of Feltre and Br. Domenico of Venice, professed novices, and he who wrote these things, Br. Bernardino Gauslino, lector, and also very many others, whom, so as not to be lengthy, I omit.
[13] An altar was erected in her honour, Since the body, sought twice, was not found (most probably because it could not be distinguished from the others), a rumour spread, as many have testified, that it had been secretly translated, and that to Bologna (as Father Bernardino Gauslino left in writing) or (as Marco Antonio Nicoletti held, at the year 1570) to Ravenna: empty conjectures. But from the time that those labours were in vain and the Bojani family had its tomb within the walls of the church, the cult which had formerly been shown to the tomb was transferred to the nearby altar. Which altar in the year 1585 was already called the altar of Blessed Benvenuta, as is established from the visitation of the church of St. Dominic of Friuli which Cesare Nores, bishop of Parenzo and apostolic visitor, instituted on the 29th day of January of that year; and likewise at the beginning of the seventeenth century, as is manifest from the consultation on granting burial to Giovanni Pasino, a citizen of Friuli, held on the 9th day of December of the year 1611. The honour of that altar gradually grew; so that Paolo Boemo Bojani had it made of marble instead of wood: which work was completed on the 16th day of September 1628. In the memorial book of the sacristy of the same church, from the year 1594, there are noted for almost every year the alms received for Masses celebrated in honour of saint or blessed Benvenuta, or at the altar of saint Benvenuta, or to saint Benvenuta:
also perpetual foundations of Masses made by the Bojani family. To which, croccie, in the other book are added the gifts offered from the year 1657 for the oil of the lamp of the same altar: which devotion had not yet ceased a hundred years ago. Nay, beyond the memory of men candles and other lights were brought.
[14] with many paintings In the Summary the several parts of this altar are read described; whence we transfer here only those things which concern us more. Above the altar there is painted Bl. Benvenuta, in the Dominican habit, without rays or aureole, kneeling before St. Dominic, who appears in the air and points to heaven. Above them is the Blessed Mary, and on either side stand men, with two crutches thrown on the ground. There is also on one side a little altar with the image of Christ fixed to the cross; on the other a seat. Pietro of Castelfranco, the painter, inscribed his name. The upper part seemed more recent, the lower parts older. Before it there hung a new lamp in place of an older one. At the right side of the altar there were hung twelve votive panels, most of the seventeenth century and the following. In the first was seen a sick woman upon a bed, and beside her another woman kneeling, invoking Bl. Benvenuta, whose head is surrounded with a shining cloud, and who holds two picciola croccie little crosses; there are inscribed these words: 1634, LI 28 MAGGIO PER LA SIGNORA… DI MANIAGO PRESENTO ALLA SANTA VERGINE BENVENUTA LA SIGNORA DARIA RONCONA. [1634, on the 28th of May, for the lady… of Maniago, the lady Daria Roncona presented this to the holy virgin Benvenuta.] In the second, a woman commends to Bl. Benvenuta, surrounded with a luminous diadem, a boy laid in bed. In the third and fourth two sick men supplicate the blessed one, painted in like manner; and likewise in the fifth and seventh two sick women. In the sixth and eighth, of which the latter is of the year 1634, two women commend sick men to St. Benvenuta, in the ninth a woman another woman. In the tenth and eleventh women invoke Bl. Benvenuta and the Blessed Mary of the Rosary. In the twelfth, finally, painted about the year 1500, a father and mother and two sons implore the help of Bl. Benvenuta. On the left were eleven others; which, since they were of the same kind, do not seem to need describing. On the back of the first were read these words: LI 28 MAGGIO 1634. SIGNORA DARIA RONCONI. On the 28th of May 1634. Lady Daria Ronconi. On the reverse of the third the year 1500 was inscribed. Under the fourth this other: 1637. GIACOMO JANUTO D'INODO ALLA BEATA BENVENUTA ET … L'INVODO. 1637. Giacomo Januto of Inodo to Blessed Benvenuta and … the votive offering. On the eleventh these were inscribed: LA MADRE TERESA BOJANI, MONACA ALLA CELLA, ESISTENTE IN LETTO PER UNA ROTTURA MORTALE FA VOTO ALLA BEATA BENVENUTA; GUARISCE CONTRO IL GIUDICIO DE' SIGNORI MEDICI ET CHIRURGICI, CHE LA CURAVANO 1687. [Mother Teresa Bojani, nun at La Cella, lying in bed with a mortal rupture, makes a vow to Blessed Benvenuta; she recovers, against the judgement of the lords physicians and surgeons who were treating her, 1687.] The priest Girolamo Ferrara testified that at the beginning of the eighteenth century there were many more.
[15] adorned. There is also seen an image of the same blessed one, fairly recent, among eleven saints and blessed of the Order of Friars Preachers who are painted on the wall below the cornice on the Gospel side. She wears there the monastic garment, girded with a chain over the scapular, her head surrounded with rays, kneeling before the image of Christ fixed to the cross, placed on a little altar, with these words written below: BL. BENVENUTA BOJANI, O. P. There was kept in the same church an altar-cloth embroidered with the needle by the blessed virgin; of which mention is made in many inventories. Here is an excerpt from the inventory drawn up on the 10th day of June of the year 1504: Likewise an altar-cloth with a crucifix in the middle and with many saints, worked with the needle by the hands of blessed Benvenuta de Bojanis. This is twelve feet long, four and a half wide. In the middle appears Christ, fixed to the cross, with these words: JESUS OF NAZARETH, KING OF THE JEWS. Above, at the two sides of the inscription, are two half-figures of Cherubim; to the right of the cross St. Mary, to the left St. John; at the feet of the cross small figures of St. Elizabeth and St. Mary Magdalen, with the names written below; likewise names inscribed for the twelve apostles of Christ arranged in rows at the sides of the cross. On the right follow St. John the Baptist, St. Nicholas, the archangel Gabriel announcing the mystery of the Incarnation, the Holy Spirit coming upon; on the left St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Peter Martyr, and St. Anthony; which part is very much damaged. To these are added St. Margaret, V. and M., St. Lucy, St. Catherine, and St. Agatha. The whole altar-cloth is surrounded with flowers, branches, and other figures embroidered with the needle; among which, above the image of Christ, is seen the figure of a martyr, with the words painted on: SAINT URSULA WITH HER COMPANIONS; fifty images of whom are arranged along the border.
[16] In the convent of St. Dominic, And from these things a conjecture can be made as to which saints Bl. Benvenuta especially venerated. The four corners have been repaired with more recent work and cloth sewn on. In the last century this altar-cloth was in much honour, since it was kept shut in a box the whole year, but on the feast of Corpus Christi (while the procession was held) it was exposed in the convent, where the people could venerate it and touch rosaries to it. It was also devoutly carried to the sick, especially to women in childbirth: nay it was even said (but on this matter I could find nothing in contemporary documents) to have been worked in one night. In the cloister too of the convent of St. Dominic images of Bl. Benvenuta were seen: one to the west, made about the year 1450, shows the vision of the servant of God in which she seemed to herself to see the assumption of the B. V. Mary; the other, facing the midday sun and painted about the year 1500; what is signified by it the inscription beneath discloses:
TO BLESSED BENVENUTA BOJANI OF FRIULI, A MOST ILLUSTRIOUS VIRGIN, WHOSE CHARITY TOWARD GOD AND TOWARD MEN WAS SUCH THAT SHE LEFT TO ALL MOST BEAUTIFUL EXAMPLES TO IMITATE. WHO IS QUITE OFTEN VISITED BY AN ANGEL, AND FROM WHOSE HANDS (O WONDERFUL THING!) FOR FIVE WHOLE YEARS, NO OTHER FOOD BEING USED TO SUSTAIN LIFE, SHE RECEIVED FOOD. So here the heavenly nourishment is expressed, in both places an aureole surrounding the head.
[17] in the monastery of St. Mary of La Cella, At the end of the seventeenth century there was also a likeness of Bl. Benvenuta not far from the door of the convent, as is clear from the fact that on the 14th day of June of the year 1639 it was brought into consultation whether burial before this image should be granted to Lady Anna Theona, as a woman most friendly to and most deserving of the convent. In the convent of women of St. Mary of La Cella, O. P., there were also some images of Bl. Benvenuta. In one of which, existing in the choir and painted about the year 1708 by Jacopo Palma, the blessed maiden was represented clothed in religious dress, girded with a hair shirt, holding a chain in her hand for a scourge, and kneeling at the right of Christ fixed to the cross, with these words added:
BLESSED BENVENUTA BOJANI, WHILE LIVING THE MOST SWEET COMPANION OF THE VIRGINS OF LA CEL[L]A, FROM NOW ON IN HEAVEN THEIR MOST GLORIOUS PROTECTRESS. To the left of the cross was represented St. Ursula, holding a banner, with the crowd of her companions. The second image was on the little altar of the dormitory, painted in the sixteenth century; on which these words were inscribed in Italian: IMAGE OF BLESSED BENVENUTA BOJANI, NUN OF ST. DOMINIC OF PENANCE, DAUGHTER OF THE KNIGHT BOJANI, COUNSELLOR OF THE PATRIARCHS ULRIC AND BERTHOLD. GIFTED BY GOD WITH CHARISMS AND RAPT TO CONTEMPLATE DIVINE *, SHE HAD THE PROPHETIC SPIRIT AND WORKED MANY MIRACLES IN LIFE AND AFTER DEATH, AND FOR FIVE YEARS WAS FED WITH HEAVENLY FOOD BY THE ANGEL GABRIEL. SHE DIED AGED 38 YEARS, 5 MONTHS, 26 DAYS, ON THE NEXT TO LAST DAY OF OCTOBER IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD 1292. On the wall of the refectory there was also painted a figure of Christ hanging from the cross, having around Him the Mother of God, St. Mary Magdalen, the other Mary, and St. John. It was said by experts to have been made before the year 1300, but afterward somewhat restored. And it was referred to Bl. Benvenuta, because she, as they report, had experienced that image as beneficent, and had recited the Office with it responding. This third, and most of all the second, image was held by the nuns in the highest esteem and veneration. On the 30th day of October, which was as it were a feast, the nuns went one by one to the little altar of the dormitory, where a lamp and candles were lit; and at other times too, if any necessity pressed, after the example of Bl. Benvenuta and in her honour they recited the angelic salutation a thousand times. This latter devotion was also used by the townspeople, especially in difficult childbirths. To which I shall add in this place that a hundred years ago at Friuli the custom flourished of giving little girls in baptism the name of Bl. Benvenuta.
[18] and elsewhere many other images When in the year 1759, on the 25th day of August, the investigation of the indications of the public cult of Bl. Benvenuta was being pursued, seven other painted images were brought, to be examined by experts; among which, whether there was brought one from the house of the Sandrini de Fornalis, of which Giuseppe Maria Moroni, canon of Friuli, gave testimony, and another from the house of the Bojani of Friuli, of which Girolamo Ferrara was witness, I do not quite know. In most of them nothing occurs which could not be seen in those above. In the second, however, the blessed maiden holds with one arm the image of the child Jesus, with the other the image of the Mother of God; by which are signified the apparitions in which she rejoiced, on the Nativity of the Lord, to receive the divine infant from Mary, and on the feast of the Nativity of the B. V. M., the future Mother of God from St. Anne. Which latter apparition is also reported in the fourth panel, with this epigraph: APPARITION OF SAINT ANNE WITH THE BLESSED VIRGIN TO BLESSED BENVENUTA BOJANI. In the fifth she receives food from the hand of an angel; and likewise in the sixth, where the infernal cavern is also seen, and below are read the words: PREZA PER NOI, O BEATA BENVENUTA BOJANA. Pray for us, O Blessed Benvenuta Bojani. This was of the greater monastery of Friuli, or of St. Mary in the Valley.
[19] of Bl. Benvenuta. Everywhere rays or a nimbus surround the head, or the title of blessed or saint is added. The age, however, varies. The second seemed to have been painted about the year 1430, the first somewhat after; the fifth at an uncertain time; the sixth in the middle of the sixteenth century; the third in the middle of the seventeenth century; the fourth somewhat after; the seventh in the middle of the eighteenth century. They went also to Manzano, a neighbouring estate of the noble family of the Boschetti; to which on the north, from the year 1722, a public chapel has been joined. In this, then, was examined a painted panel, displaying the arms of the house of Boschetti and hung above the altar; in which panel is seen the Mother of God among clouds and angels, and below, on one side St. Peter of Alcántara and St. Dominic, on the other St. Anthony of Padua and St. Teresa, and in the middle Bl. Benvenuta, in the cloistered habit and clasping a chain in her hand. The picture seemed to have been made about the year 1735 by Pietro Manville, painter of Palma, or after his exemplar. Then a journey was undertaken to another neighbouring estate, named Ipplis, which is situated above li Rouchi, an estate of the Bojani family; and the public chapel was examined. By licence of Bernardo Valvasone, patriarchal vicar general,
granted on the 14th day of September of the year 1659, and a fixed endowment having been established by Eustachio Bojani, this chapel had been built under the invocation of Bl. Benvenuta and St. Francis, and the first Mass celebrated at the end of the month of October of the following year. There too, above the altar, there appeared a panel painted by Matteo Ponzoni, a Venetian painter, about the year 1660: this showed the Mother of God among clouds and angels, and on the left St. Francis of Assisi, on the right Bl. Benvenuta, in monastic dress and girded with a chain, with heavenly light surrounding the head of neither. Finally, on the testimony of Filippo della Torre, bishop of Adria, Giovanni Battista Bruni, a jurist of Friuli, than whom none among the witnesses heard spoke more accurately of the cult of the blessed virgin, reported that at Rome in the convent of San Sisto there existed an image of Bl. Benvenuta, with these words painted on:
BENENATA (?) DE AUSTRAI, VIRGO NOBILITATE INSIGNIS, SED SANCTITATE PRÆCLARIOR. [Benenata (?) of Austrai, a virgin distinguished by nobility, but more illustrious by holiness.]
At length on the 30th day of January of the year 1693 Aurelian de Baenst, a priest of our society, wrote to Papebroch that he had found, in the kitchen of the convent of San Sisto, a neglected, smoky, half-torn picture representing Bl. Benvenuta and another saint (probably St. Dominic), between whom is Christ fixed to the cross. Beside the holy man sits an angel carrying a glass vessel in his hand. Each saint holds a Rosary in the hand. The holy woman bears a virginal crown, the other saint has in his hand a little cloth stained with blood. The head of both is wreathed with a nimbus. The epigraph beneath says nothing of the saint. It may be, however, says Baenst, that the injury of time and place has scraped it off, deleted it, eaten it away. These things from the letter kept in the royal Brussels library of manuscripts, number 8926. These things having been set forth first, we now publish the Life of Bl. Benvenuta, as it was once copied from the old and contemporary codex of the convent of St. Dominic of Friuli, and from a less ancient codex which is kept among the kinsfolk of the Blessed. Which transcript, to be compared in this place with de Rubeis's edition, came to our predecessors as a gift of the Venetian Friars Preachers of the convent of the Most Holy Rosary, and is now number 8926 of the royal Brussels library.
Annotations* supply causa
* supply causa
* Josepho Mazzolari
* Ludovicum
* supply res
LIFE OF THE MOST DEVOUT BENVENUTA OF FORUM JULII
collated with de Rubeis's edition.
Benvenuta Bojani, virgin, of the Order of Friars Preachers, in Friuli in Italy. (Bl.)
BHL Number: 1149
*
FROM MANUSCRIPTS.
CHAPTER I
The infancy of Bl. Benvenuta and her offices of devotion.
[To Bl. Benvenuta, though the seventh daughter, this name was given by her father.] There was in Civitas Austriae of Forum Julii a a certain devout virgin, born of devout and honourable parents. On the day of her birth, which was on the feast of St. Florian, which falls on the feast of the Lord's Crown b, her birth was hidden from her father according to the flesh c. For, fearing to sadden him, no one dared to make known that a girl had been born to him, since he had six other daughters d and no male. When the father noticed this, he began to urge them all that they should safely disclose to him the truth about the creature born to him: and when it had been told him that his wife had borne him a daughter, he answered with joy and in a loud voice: "And let her be welcome, and let her be called Benvenuta."
[2] From infancy she leads a pious and modest life with her sister Mary. She from her infant years began not only to forget but even not to know the vanity of the world and the delights of the flesh, and to establish a perpetual fellowship with God and the angels and the saints. When her head was adorned by a certain sister of hers according to the flesh with gauds and frills, so that she might go out in public to the round-dances and other vanities of girls, after her sister's departure, laying aside all the ornaments of her head, she would veil her head with a veil, seeking the secret place of prayer which she had chosen for herself behind her house in her garden, toward the church of the Blessed Virgin which is situated on the summit of a very high mountain e: where, from frequent genuflection and from the many prostrations which she made daily, very wearying ones, the ground was so laid waste of the greenness of grasses and hardened, though round about there was no small greenness, like a path trodden by the frequent walking of men. But when, on account of the inclemency of the weather or another reasonable cause, she could not complete the prayer which she had appointed for herself, she would go secretly into her chamber, in which she slept with her sister alone, named Mary, who accompanied her in the purpose of virginity; and, the door being shut, she prayed to her Father in secret: where, giving herself by day as well as by night to contemplation, prayers, and vigils, she led a life angelic and not human.
[3] [As a girl she very often says the Lord's prayer and the angelic salutation, especially on feasts.] For from the seventh year to the twelfth she said daily in honour of the Holy Trinity a hundred Our Fathers and as many Hail Marys f, and also made as many prostrations out of reverence for the Lord's Nativity; likewise also in honour of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. In honour of the Blessed Virgin she said every day a thousand Hail Marys: but every Saturday she said two thousand. And on the feast of the Annunciation, which was her most special feast, she said three thousand Hail Marys, and made five hundred deep prostrations, very wearying ones. In honour of the angels she said daily a hundred Our Fathers and as many Hail Marys. In honour of the apostles she did likewise. The same also in honour of the patriarchs: likewise also in honour of the martyrs. The same also in honour of the confessors and of the holy virgins, besides the fasts and other abstinences which she made
[4] She uses a hair shirt, a chain, and a cord, not without a prodigy. From her twelfth year she wore a hair shirt for six years and a half; she wore a chain on her bare flesh for two years. In like manner for two years she was girded with a cord on her bare flesh, which in the course of time, on account of the growth of her body, so entered * her flesh that she was in continual and very great afflictions, because she could not remove it without cutting the flesh. But not wishing to make this known to anyone, she betook herself to her accustomed refuge of prayer, that the Lord would help her in so great a necessity. And behold, her spirit was rapt outside the flesh, as very often happened to her: and after her spirit had returned to the flesh, she found the cord thrown down before her face, broken in no part g.
[5] She applies herself to abstinence and vigils, And to the Blessed Virgin appearing to her she vowed her virginity, and took her for her lady; and in turn the Blessed Virgin took her for her spiritual daughter. With Blessed Dominic too, appearing to her, she made a similar pact. Whence, understanding the abstinences and vigils of Blessed Dominic and the chastisement of his body, she studied with all her power to conform her life to the life of Blessed Dominic: on account of which for ten years and more she did not drink wine, and this secretly, her father and the household not knowing; she seemed at times to drink wine, and did not drink; she also many times hid the wine. Meat too she did not eat for a long time. Very many nights she spent sleepless, and especially those on which there were principal festivities, and when on them she was pressed by sleep, so that she could not sleep she would put verjuice or vinegar in the corner of her eyes.
[6] she lies on the ground, For many years too she had no bed to lie on, but on the bare ground, with a stone placed under her head, she sometimes took a little sleep, spending the rest of the time in contemplation and prayer.
[7] [and she strikes herself with an iron chain; at the warning of St. Dominic and the order of her confessor she leaves this off.] After the manner of Blessed Dominic she took the discipline with an iron chain three times every night. But when in the course of time she had been too much injured in the back by such disciplines, Blessed Dominic, who at other times appeared to her familiarly many times, appeared to her, saying that she should make this known to her confessor Brother Conrad h, and conduct * herself in this matter according to his counsel. But when she had come to the church on the following day to fulfil this, restrained by excessive bashfulness, she by no means revealed it to her said confessor. Wherefore a second and a third time Blessed Dominic appeared to her, rebuking her because she had not told him, and enjoining on her that she should hasten to make this wholly known to him. Moreover Blessed Dominic said to her: "You must know that it is divinely ordained that you should be born at this time, and that he should enter the Order of Friars Preachers, so that you might direct your life according to his ordering: and it will be well with you because of him, and good things will befall him because of you." And so, compelled, coming to her confessor and doing great violence to herself, with many tears she revealed everything, and acquiesced in his counsels. And her confessor Brother Conrad took from her the little chain, and afterward always kept it, and forbade her ever to give herself such disciplines.
[8] While still a girl she observes the fasts of the Church. In her tender age, in which * she was not yet fit for fasts, she began to fast continuously the greater Lents of Easter and the Lents of St. Martin i; so that during some of the greater Lents she fasted one day on bread and water, on another day content with a simple dish: besides the other times of the year, in which she almost always fasted three days in each week, and some of them on bread and water, none of the other fasts of the Church being omitted.
[9] Having dismissed human company, she converses with the saints. She fled the public company of girls or of other persons, remaining almost always in the house, and especially in the secret chamber of prayer. Whence, when her father, in winter time, as is customary for secular men, enjoyed himself in the evening with his household by the fire, she would not be present at such recreations; but in her chamber she gave herself alone to contemplation and prayer. Whence, when her father, being once outside the chamber, was separated from the other persons in order to complete the hours of the Blessed Virgin, which he was accustomed to say daily, he heard her within as if she were speaking with other persons, and, wishing to see what this was, opening the chamber, he went in to her, and finding her alone, said: "Where are the persons who were just now speaking with you?" And she answered: "You can see for yourself." There vanished from him at the opening of the door three holy virgins, who were speaking with her, namely blessed Catherine , blessed Agnes, and blessed Margaret , as her confessor said, to whom she afterward made it known. And her father returned outside, wondering within himself, holding her thenceforth in greater love and reverence. Her sister too, who slept with her in the chamber, testifies that at times she was awakened, hearing her as if speaking with some person: and seeing at times a light shining in the chamber, she would say: "Benvenuta, see what that light is;" and Benvenuta would answer: "Sleep, be quiet, and do not care." The Brother who wrote this heard from a servant of the house, who the care
of the horses of the father of these virgins, that about the middle of the night, when he came with a horse loaded with a great weight of hay and, the gate being opened, had entered into the courtyard of the house, he saw through the little windows of the chamber in which Benvenuta was so great a light shining as if the whole inside were burning. And when he had gone into the stable, and had put down the hay, and stabled the horse, and come back outside, he saw nothing of the aforesaid light.
[10] daily she attends Mass and Compline, and at times Vespers. Daily in the morning to Mass, and in the evening to Compline *, unless great inclemency of the weather or another very great hindrance stood in the way, she came to the church of Blessed Dominic k, which was as far distant from her house as a crossbow might perhaps shoot twice; and, if it was a feast, she came before the time, and was at Vespers, nor did she return home until Compline had been heard; because she had wonderful and very great consolations in the Salve Regina. Whence, after Vespers, when the church was closed by the sacristans, she would go with her sister and a certain most special companion and faithful friend of hers into a certain house beside the church, so that, when the church was opened after Vespers, they might arrive at the church more quickly. In the morning she was accustomed to remain in the church until Terce, unless perhaps her sister, who was accustomed to accompany her, could not wait on account of some urgent business; or she would permit her sister to return home on this condition, that she should come for her about Terce. All these things her father bore most willingly, because on account of her holiness he revered her, and loved her most tenderly above his other daughters, nor would he sit down to the midday meal until she returned.
[11] She abstains from meat And eating with her father from one dish, she seemed to eat meat, and did not eat it, but pulled it apart, or hid l it secretly; because her whole attention was to subjugate the flesh to the spirit: on account of which she daily cut off the desires of the flesh, even those necessary for life, never fully satisfying the will of the flesh, in all these things bearing a cheerful and joyful face.
[12] and from detraction. To speak ill of the absent was far from her; nay, she rebuked those who spoke ill of others in her presence, nor could she bear it patiently. And knowing that many slanders had been made against the truth about herself, she was by no means moved by a spirit of anger or impatience; but, having compassion on the slanders *, she would say with a manner of charity and meekness: "I grieve more for them than for myself, because they harm themselves more than me."
ANNOTATIONS.
* We give notice beforehand that the Annotations to the Life of Bl. Benvenuta were added by a colleague of the late Father Victor De Buck, and that the titles placed before some chapters are missing in de Rubeis's edition.
* intraverat
* regeret
* quæ
* Catherina
* Margareta
* secus
* omits
* completorium
* obloquutoribus
CHAPTER II
Bl. Benvenuta is harassed by the demon. Heavenly apparitions.
The demon tries in vain to allure her to worldly things, How the evil spirits began to appear to her. The enemy of the human race, seeing all these things, and many more signs of holiness in her, began to envy the happy works of her holiness, wishing to overcome her and to deceive her by appearing to her in person under divers forms. First, when she was a young girl and very beautiful, he appeared to her, as she prayed alone in the secret place of her garden, in the form of an elegant young man, and said to her: "Why do you do these things now? You will be able to do them at another time; but come now, and let us give ourselves to the pleasures of youth." When she had turned to go near to the house, he suddenly vanished, nor could he be seen, as if he had turned aside to some place.
[14] and to not keeping the vow of virginity. A second time too he appeared to her in similar form, when she was alone in her chamber, saying that he had been sent to her on the part of her confessor to tell her that she should not keep the vow of virginity which she had made. When she said: "I do not believe you, since all the preachers preach the contrary in public," and called her maidservant with a loud voice, he suddenly vanished, and was seen no more.
[15] He tells her lies about the Order and her confessor, but is prudently overcome. Likewise, when a provincial chapter was being held, or her confessor a had been taken up to some priorship, he would sometimes appear to her in the form of a travelling Brother, bringing the worst rumours both about the chapter and about her confessor. Of the chapter he said that there had been great divisions in it, disturbances, blows, and many wounds. Of her confessor he said either that he had gone off with a woman and left the Order, or that he was in great infamy. When she said: "Where is your companion?" he would answer: "I left him there outside." And recognizing him, she would rebuke him, how he dared to assume the habit of so great an Order, and adjuring him by Jesus Christ to tell the truth about all these things, he would answer that all had been lies, and that he had said them in order to afflict her with sadness and grief.
[16] He appears to her in the figure of a dog, Likewise he appeared to her in the depth of night in her chamber, while her sister slept and she herself was persisting in prayers, in the form of a dog running about the chamber, sniffing with its nostrils and making a disturbance. When she drove him out as dogs are wont to be driven out, he withdrew, and after a little while came back, making a disturbance. And when this had been done many times, she said: "What dog is this that does not leave us in peace?" He answered: "You will soon know who I am." And she: "Since you know how to speak, you are not one of our dogs." And when he molested her with reproaches and many threats, she answered: "I do not fear you; do to me the worst you can." And he: "If there were not those men, or those women *, who are beside you, I would quickly accomplish my will." And after many other words which they had with each other, he bringing threats upon her, and she confounding him with reproaches, she gave him leave to go away with that curse which God gave him and his when He drove them out of heavenly places into punishments and everlasting miseries: and after this he withdrew with chattering and howling and the greatest clamour, because, after he had begun to speak with her, he did not dare to go away unless given leave.
[17] of a cat, Likewise on another night he appeared to her three times in the form of a cat b, running about the chamber; and when she asked what kind of cat this was that disturbed her so, he answered in a human voice with reproaches and threats, and after many words which they had with each other, being given leave, he withdrew chattering.
[18] and of a serpent, once Likewise twice he appeared to her in the form of a serpent. Once, when she was by day with her sister in her garden and her sister was some distance from her, a certain great serpent began to run toward her; and when she cried to her sister with a loud voice for help, it suddenly vanished into certain hidden places. And behold, on the following night he appeared to her in his own deformed form, and when he said to her: "What are you doing, most wicked woman?" and she answered that she was doing and intended to do what would please God, he answered: "Yet yesterday I avenged myself on you." She
answered: "* How did you take revenge on me?"
He answered: "When yesterday you were frightened in the garden, and called with a loud voice to your sister to help you." She answered: "Were you the one *, who was running at me?" And he: "Certainly"; and she: "I do not fear you, in whatever shape you appear to me."
[19] And again. Likewise on another occasion he appeared to her in the form of a serpent: for, when in the same way she had laid herself down in the place where she was accustomed to sleep, he in the form of a serpent crept little by little under the bedclothes, and she, sensing and recognizing him well, bore it patiently until he had stretched himself out full length beside her; and, since he was of such coldness that she could scarcely * bear him, suddenly throwing off the upper bedclothes, she seized him by the middle in her hand, and threw him so hard against the wall that from the sound it seemed he must have been shattered. But he, suddenly raising his head and coming towards her, began to threaten and terrify her. And since he could not come near her, she began to put him to confusion with words, saying that it had come about by the just judgment of God that he who had formerly been adorned with an angelic form should put on the most unclean shape of an abominable animal. And so, confounded and dismissed, he went off with a mighty cry.
[20] He assails her with stones, Twice, by night, while she was praying, he threw stones towards her through the little windows of her chamber, and a little while afterwards he came in to her, asking her to give him back his stones. But she answered: "I have nothing of yours"; and she asked him where he had got those stones; and he answered that one he had taken from the torrent Natisto c, which flows beside Cividale, from the place called Pyla d; * the other he had taken from the kiln of the Friars, where the Friars burned their lime; and he added: "I had gone there too, because I wanted to take my revenge on your sclericatus e; and I could not, because you were praying for him."
[21] he appears to her clothed in a terrifying form, Likewise he sometimes appeared to her in a very terrible form, that is, with burning eyes, with long teeth jutting out after the manner of boars, moving his jaws and foaming at the mouth, and caused her the greatest terrors. But she, although she was a very weak person, strengthened by God's help, stood most steadfastly against him with words and answers. Hence that most wicked one once said to her: "How is it that you seem as if dead, and that you cannot speak, and yet you weary me so much that I am not equal to answering you?"
[22] he harasses her grievously Likewise, when he had even received power over her, so that he could injure her in her person, many times and in many ways he troubled her most grievously in the body, sometimes thrusting her so violently to the ground that she spat blood in the morning. Likewise he sometimes beat her so heavily in the night that afterwards, by day, the marks of the blows could be seen on her face and on her * hands.
[23] and he wrestles with her. Likewise he sometimes seized her and lifted her up, and threw her so violently to the ground that the veil flew far off her head. Hence, when once he was wrestling most fiercely against her and had thrown her to the ground, she, strengthened by the power of God, raised herself up against him, and seizing him threw him beneath her feet, and placing her foot on his neck, began to revile him with shaming words; and, sitting on him, she would not let him go; he on the other hand crying out that she should let him go from now on, because she had reviled him too much, and that from now on he would not dare to appear before his companions except with the greatest shame. At last, when she wished, she let him go with that divine curse which God had given to him and his own from the beginning. And he went off with such chattering and clamour that, if other persons had been able to hear as Benevenuta heard, they could have heard it more than a Latin mile away. And she did this after the example of blessed Margaret f; and this was moreover on the feast of blessed Margaret, for so her confessor had taught her. In many other ways also evil spirits appeared to her, which could not be kept in the memory of the one to whom she related these things.
[24] Blessed Benevenuta's steadfastness is praised; How saints, male and female, and blessed spirits began to appear to her. And because this most devout Benevenuta was afflicted in body and in spirit in the apparitions written above and in the wrestlings of the demons, Christ, after the tribulations she had undergone, showed her no small, but the very greatest consolations, so that in her was verified that saying of the Apostle: "As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so also through Jesus does our consolation abound"; for straightway after the wrestling of the demons there appeared to her the persons of various saints, or of angels, sometimes the blessed Virgin, sometimes angels, sometimes many other saints, men and women, who comforted and consoled her, and commended her because she had fought well: and they said that God permitted this to happen for her good and that of others of His own, for the increase of her merits and the greater glory of her rewards, and also because these things would at some time be made manifest hereafter. So too we read of our Saviour, that after His victories over the temptations of the devil angels came and ministered to Him.
[25] nevertheless she falls into a five-year illness. Wearied therefore by these temptations and wrestlings, and by the works of fasting, vigils, prostrations, and prayers mentioned above, she contracted an excessive weakness of body and incurred various infirmities; yet not omitting her customary visiting of the church, as was said above, nor her customary works of contemplation, prayer, and devotion, she at last came to such weakness that for five years or thereabouts she could not move from place to place except when carried with another's help.
ANNOTATA.
* ille
* adds Et
* is missing
* eam
* Et
* Natisso
* adds et
* is missing
* non
* adds verbum
CHAPTER III.
The illnesses of Blessed Benevenuta; how she is healed by God and fulfils the vows made to God.
She is carried into the church every week. How she began to lie sick of the infirmity in which for five years she never walked by herself. Within that same time she could not keep down any food whatever that she took, except water alone. For the last four years her hands, struck with a continual trembling, moved constantly and violently. At last it came to this, that she could not lie down because of the tightness of her breath, for then she could not breathe; so that a chair had to be made ready for her, in which for some years, day and night and at all times, she passed her life only sitting: and from the long sitting it came to this, that her flesh in the lower parts, stripped of skin, stuck so fast to the cloths placed beneath that, when she was lifted for any reason, no small pain followed, not without a greater flaying of the flesh and some shedding of blood. And in all these things no murmur of complaint, no word of impatience, was heard from her. But, giving thanks in all things, she humbly begged that God would add further pains according to the good pleasure of His will. And though she could not move in body, yet her soul was most vehemently moved by the holy desire of her will. For she longed to be, with her body so sick, in the church of blessed Dominic, in which she had had many and very great spiritual consolations, both at the Masses and at the Salve Regina a; and sometimes also on certain great solemnities which occur in the round of the year. Wherefore her sister, wishing to satisfy the good pleasure of her will, found a maidservant strong in body, who carried her to the church once every week. After two years, having found an occasion, she left them: and, because there was no person who could carry her to the church, she began to be vehemently distressed, and to implore with tears that some person might be found who would satisfy her desire in this respect. Hence her sister for this reason found some women for pay, who, wearied after a few times, would no longer do it, neither for pay nor for prayers. But her sister Maria b, seeing that she was still greatly afflicted, offered herself in order to satisfy her; and she, although she never drank wine, was yet strong in body: and, notwithstanding the quartan fever from which she suffered in the evening, she carried her to the church at least once every week, for as long a time as she needed it. And although many in the district spoke against this carrying, because she carried her lying on her back, and her relatives too were not a little ashamed, because it seemed ridiculous: nevertheless neither would she who carried her, because of the great love with which she loved her, give up satisfying her sister's will; nor would she who was carried, in order to satisfy the pious desire of her devotion, give up being carried.
[27] Having made a vow to visit the tomb of St. Dominic, How she made a vow to visit the tomb of blessed Dominic. She, feeling compassion for her sister's labours, and desiring to remove the talk of the people, turned in devotion and prayer to the Lord, asking His counsel and help concerning these things. And the Lord put it into her heart to make a vow to blessed Dominic that, if she were cured of her infirmities by his merits and prayers, she would visit his tomb as soon as she could. And when she made this purpose of hers known to her brother according to the flesh c, a very vigorous young man and yet devoted to God, although he was given to the arms of secular warfare, and to her sister, a devout virgin, and asked them whether they would be willing to accompany her as far as Bologna to the tomb of blessed Dominic, if the condition of the vow were fulfilled, her brother answered: "Sister, I say not only as far as Bologna, but if you are healed, I am ready to accompany you
even as far as Rome." Her sister also consented to the vow with joy and devotion. There were present there also two sisters according to the flesh, one a virgin and the other a widow, both devoted to God, of Cividale *, of honourable family, who promised that they too would go with her if her vow obtained its effect; which they in no way believed.
[28] Through the intervention of the Blessed Virgin Mary These things therefore being thus done, and prayer having frequently been poured out to the Lord, as said above, behold, the feast of the Lord's Annunciation, longed for by her, arrived, to which she had a special devotion; and at the hour of Matins of that day she betook herself to contemplating the joys of so great a festival. And while she rested joyfully in the sweetness of this contemplation, behold, her spirit was rapt into heaven, and she saw a palace filled with unimaginable light, adorned with gold and gems and other ineffable ornaments; and our Lord Jesus Christ came forth, clothed in pontifical vestments, with a deacon and subdeacon and two acolytes, adorned in their vestments according to their orders. And behold, the blessed Virgin, crowned with her diadem, came with a choir of virgins before the Lord, and with all their bows they went to their place. After this every order of the saints came according to their ranks, and, all bowing to the Lord, all were set in their places. And the Apostles beginning the office of the Mass Rorate coeli d, all continued it: and when the office had proceeded as far as the purification, the blessed Virgin sent to the spirit which had been rapt there, by blessed Agnes, saying with a smile that it would please her that she should now withdraw, for she had seen enough: and the spirit answered that she in no way wished to withdraw. And when she had sent a second time, and the spirit had answered * in the same way, she sent a third time, saying "that she may go securely, for today I will visit her in her house"; and suddenly the spirit returned to the body. And behold, the consoler of all the afflicted, the most holy Mother of God, the Virgin Mary, Queen of heaven, clothed in a luminous mantle, and blessed Dominic in the habit of his Order, stood by the bed of the aforesaid virgin. To her the Queen said: "The Lord save you, daughter." She, astonished and gladdened alike, answered: "Who are you, Lady?" And the Queen to her: "I am that Mother of God whom you have so often implored." And the girl to the Queen: "You are very welcome, my Lady." Then after some exchange of words the Queen added: "It pleases my Son that today, by the merits and prayers of this your father Dominic, you should be made whole in body and soul; and when you have received your health, He wishes you to reveal to others that you have been made whole by his intercession."
[29] She is wonderfully healed. When these and many other things had been said, which she was willing to reveal only to her confessor, namely the superior at Cividale, under the seal of confession, that he should make them known to no one as long as she lived in this life, the Queen with her colleague returned to heaven. When morning came, she had herself carried to the church of the Friars Preachers, consecrated in the name of St. Dominic; and, after Mass had been celebrated and she had received holy communion, as she continued in thanksgiving, behold, the reverend father St. Dominic stood before her: and taking her hand with his right hand, he said: "Arise, daughter," and immediately at his voice she rose up erect, feeling her contracted legs stretch out without pain and her trembling hands cease from their shaking; and she felt herself freed from all hidden infirmities, and her face, which is angelic, restored to her. And so blessed father Dominic led her into the choir; and, although the sacristan forbade it, her sister according to the flesh and the other two sisters who had made the vow with her, and many other women, followed her, wondering to see her walk, wondering that she entered the choir contrary to custom, yet not seeing the guide of her way. And the said father, when he had placed her before the high altar consecrated to his * name, and had afterwards gone aside behind the altar, withdrew into the church. There, therefore, her thanksgiving being finished, she rose in full health, and the women, who knew nothing of this, wishing to help her, she pushed away from her side, saying that she was freed from all her infirmities, and by showing her steady hands and walking by her own strength, she showed that she did not need another's help. By herself therefore she went out of the choir; and when she had remained a little while in thanksgiving before the altar of the blessed Virgin, she went back again to the altar of blessed Dominic. Furthermore the Friars, who had gathered, marvelling at such a deliverance, and wishing to test whether she had been healed of the infirmity of rejecting food, offered her food, namely rice with almond milk. Having taken a fitting quantity of it, she was strengthened, keeping it down, and feeling benefit from it. Finally, she who had been carried to the church crippled and sick returned home leaning on no staff, with no help assisting her, and with no conveyance carrying her.
[30] [Undertaking the journey to Bologna, she meets Brother Conrad, the superior at Cividale and her confessor:] How she fulfilled her vow concerning the health she had received. And after a few days, neither ungrateful for the benefit nor unmindful of her vow, she went from her own country to Bologna, with her brother and her sister according to the flesh and with two devout women, to visit the tomb of blessed father Dominic, making known to all, as she had received in command, that she had been freed by the merits and prayers of the said father. When they reached Venice, they were planning to go to Bologna by way of Chioggia e; but, after they had begun the journey, they changed their plan, so as to go by way of Padua. And this was done by the will of God, because the superior at Cividale, her confessor, was to come that way with his brother according to the flesh, who is a Friar of the Order of Preachers f, who were coming from the Roman Curia. And when the superior and his companion reached Padua, seeing Benevenuta there with her company, they were struck with unspeakable wonder: for when they left Cividale they had left her so sick that they believed they would rather find her dead than alive. But she, with a joyful face, as befits companions *, said: "Behold, I am well: see my face, look at my hands." And the superior had her recount to him privately, in order, the miracle that had been wrought, for as yet she had told no man the manner of the miracle, but only this, that blessed Dominic had freed her: and the superior enjoined on her that she should make the miracle known to all who asked, and also the manner and order of the miracle, as she had received in command from the blessed Virgin. He also enjoined on her as strictly as he could, in virtue of obedience, inasmuch as she was bound to obey him as her spiritual father, that she should make known to him what kind of life she had led in times past, and what graces God had done her in this life. For he saw that she was of great merit with God, both by reason of the astonishing miracle that had lately happened, and by reason of the holiness of her life, of which he was not altogether ignorant.
[31] Being commanded, she discloses her whole life to him. Then she, thus constrained and much against her will, told him many great and very wonderful things, on this promise made to her by him, that he would reveal them to no one as long as she lived. Then she disclosed the austerity of life which she had kept up from her childhood years, how many and what kind of wrestlings she had had with evil spirits, how and how often she had been visited by the blessed Virgin and by good spirits, what visits and conversations also she had had with saints of various Orders, and how and how often she was rapt in spirit, and saw great wonders of God both in heaven and in other places.
[32] At Venice she is compelled to relate the miracle publicly. These things done, they reached Bologna. There, having devoutly fulfilled her vow, returning with much consolation (and no wonder, for she had blessed Dominic as the companion of her journey in going and returning, as had been promised her by the blessed Virgin), they came at length to Venice: where the most devout Benevenuta visited the church of the Friars Preachers. In it, in the presence of the lector and many Friars and a multitude of ladies, when she was asked for the account in order, fearing the mark of vanity she refused to speak, alleging that they could hear it from her confessor, to whom she had told it, and who was then present there. But at length, overcome by the importunity of the Friars and ladies present, she * related in order the aforesaid miracle, as it is written above, except that rapture which happened first into heaven, which she afterwards made known to Brother James, her brother. At last she came to her own home; where for some years she remained well and sound.
[33] She devotes herself to bodily mortification even to the point of weakness. But not bearing even this patiently, she began to weaken her nature with fasts and vigils and other afflictions, for she always wished to suffer something in her flesh for Christ, who had suffered so great a pain for her, and always to carry about the mortification of Christ in her body. Because of which, when she came to the church and returned according to her former custom, which she never wished to interrupt, she came to such weakness that she almost always had to be led by her sister assisting her *.
ANNOTATA.
of the Friars Minor, is very easily gathered Annales Fratrum Minorum, volume III at the year 1249, page 209., it had been received into use. But if anyone wishes to know more about this hymn, let him consult Jean Grancolas [Grancolas, Commentaire historique sur le Bréviaire Romain, volume I, page 263, edition 1727.] and Benedict XIV De Festis Jesu Christi et B. Virginis, book II, chapter XIII, number 3.. The same antiphon has been expounded by Pseudo-Bernard Works of St. Bernard, volume V, column 1059 and following, Migne edition., Pseudo-Anselm of Lucca Patrologia latina, Migne edition, volume CIL, column 583 and following. and others. Its spread through the Order of Friars Preachers has been explained by Stephen of Bourbon Étienne de Bourbon, ed. Lecoy de la Marche, p. 101..
* Civitatis
* inclinantibus
* inclinantibus
* responderet
* suo
* read sanctos; is missing in Rubeis.
* omits.
* conduceretur
CHAPTER IV.
Blessed Benevenuta's intercourse with the nuns of the Order of Friars Preachers. Her miracles in their monastery.
Blessed Benevenuta, familiar with the nuns; How she found the favour of entering the monastery of our Sisters. After the miracle had been wrought, she found such favour with the Sisters of our Order who are at Cividale, and with the Friars who had the governing of them, that she had free leave to go in to them and to stay with them when she wished. And the Sisters, seeing her wonderful and most devout way of life, were greatly consoled and drew no small edification from it. Now it happened, while she was staying there, that she fell sick of fevers, and some Sisters who were more attached to her asked as a favour that they might stay * with her in the house in which she was dwelling, to console her and help her in her needs. Among whom the chief was the virgin Margaret, noble by birth, but nobler in humility; who, just as she went about by day, so by night remained clothed and shod in her service, having no bed of her own to lie on: but if at times she wished to rest, she laid herself on the planks, resting her head on the sick woman's bed.
[35] the devil harasses them But the evil spirit, who at other times had been accustomed to trouble Benevenuta, came to the bed in which she lay with the aforesaid Sisters, and was so troublesome to her with blows and terrors and in other ways, that he put himself upon the shoulders of Sister Margaret and began to press her violently: and she began to adjure him, saying: "Accursed spirit, I adjure you by the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and by the merits of this holy person, that you leave me in peace"; and then, leaving her, he made a sound as if a great weight had fallen on the upper floor; a second and a third time he climbed upon her, and fell off in the same way, she defending herself with similar words. At last he went in under the planks on which the beds were made up, and began to disturb them by gnawing, and tearing, and growling, like a dog or a bear gnawing bones and tearing coverlets *. And when he went away, he began to go off crying out, making a sound so horrible that its like could scarcely or never be found in the nature of things.
[36] in many ways. Likewise, when the glass windows were so shut that they could not be opened by any person standing outside, he sometimes opened one of them, and threw a rather large stone inside, into their midst. Likewise, when the door was shut on the inside, he disturbed the Sisters by turning the iron fittings of the door round on the outside. Hence, when one Sister went to the door wishing to secure it further with the bar, he struck so violently from outside that the bar sprang far from the door. Likewise, when Sister Margaret was girded with a strong girdle, putting her hand there she suddenly found the girdle cut through. With these illusions and many others they were disturbed by him for many days: but Benevenuta, smiling, often encouraged them, saying: "Do not be afraid, stand secure, for he will be able to harm you in nothing."
[37] By night she is heard conversing One night, when Sister Margaret had stayed alone with Benevenuta in the stove-room and was sleeping, and Benevenuta was praying, Benevenuta began to rebuke someone and to say: "How have you dared to come here? Go away at once, do not delay," and similar words of rebuke. At these words Sister Margaret was woken, and began to be greatly afraid. And after some while, when Sister Margaret had fallen asleep again, Benevenuta began to speak with another person; and when she was woken again by their speaking, and heard the voice of Benevenuta and of the one speaking with her, although she did not understand the words, yet because of the sweet manner of speaking she began to be vehemently moved and consoled by their conversation. And when in the morning Sister Margaret asked with whom she had spoken in the night, she began to smile and to say that she should leave those words alone.
[38] with the heavenly ones; Likewise her sister Maria used to say that, while she was sleeping in the little stove-room * in which she lived with Benevenuta, and Benevenuta was praying, she was several times woken by the speaking of Benevenuta, who was speaking with another person, and she sometimes understood the words of Benevenuta, but not of the one speaking with her, and she perceived words of thanksgiving and humility, as she said: "I thank you, Lady; I am not worthy of so great a grace; let me come with you," and sometimes she named her sister Maria; and when Maria sometimes saw a light shining in the chamber, she would say: "Take care, Benevenuta, what sort of light that is"; and she would answer: "Sleep, do not trouble yourself."
[39] She sees heaven opened. When heaven was opened above her and her sister Maria. When she was once with her sister Maria in the courtyard of her house, at night in the open air, and the weather was clear and the sky very starry, and no small part of the night had passed, Benevenuta began to speak with her sister of the beauty of the stars and of the heavenly works of God. And suddenly heaven was opened above them with a very great opening, and looking into the opening they saw so much light and splendour that human tongue cannot express it, and so much light came down below that the persons who were in the surrounding houses, seeing a great light entering through the cracks and windows of their houses, were afraid, saying: "Whence can so great a light come?" for it lasted a good hour.
[40] Through the prayers of Blessed Benevenuta Of the miracles which the Lord did through Benevenuta, while she was living, in the house of our Sisters. When Benevenuta was in the house of our Sisters de Cella, before she fell sick there, on the feast of blessed Michael, in the following night, while the other Sisters who were staying with her were resting, she was praying. Sister Margaret too was keeping vigil with her, and praying. And behold, when Benevenuta was lying prostrate on the floor, her spirit was rapt; and Sister Margaret noticed this well, and began to be consoled with much devotion. And after a long while the spirit returned to the body, for she knew this by the sighs which were accustomed to come to her whenever the spirit returned. And when she had risen, she began to complain to Sister Margaret that she was very thirsty. And when she answered that she would give her wine or water, as she pleased, she answered: "I would not drink wine at this hour; water you cannot have except from the well; I do not want you to go to the well at such an hour." And when she said: "I will gladly go to the well, I fear nothing since I am going for you," she would by no means agree. And when Sister Margaret urgently begged her to lay aside her mantle and lay her head down a little on the bed, overcome by her importunity she did what she said. And Sister Margaret, moved by vehement devotion, bent her face down over her face and kissed her, and immediately from her touch and breath she felt such a sweetness of consolation that it seemed to her that all the sweetnesses and consolations of this life could not be compared with so great a sweetness and so great a consolation; and she could scarcely think whether the consolation of beatitude could be greater, for it seemed to her that for joy and consolation and gladness her soul wished to go out of her body. Sleeping, drinking and eating, and all the other consolations of this life seemed, in respect of this, to be penal. Her eyes poured forth continual most sweet streams of tears, and about the heart and the parts of the breast within the chest, where spiritual heat is founded, and about the liver and kidneys and the parts of the nutritive organs, where the foundation of spiritual heat is , there came upon her a certain very great and unaccustomed heat, not painful, but soothing and gentle , producing not thirst or anxiety, but sweetness with much gentleness. And when she felt her outer flesh, to see whether it had been altered by this heat, she found it in no way altered from its natural disposition: and this consolation lasted her a good fifteen days and more. And whenever she came nearer to Benevenuta, the more was this sweetness renewed. And although in other times following she did not feel so great a consolation as at the beginning, yet she still feels some, and it is believed that she will feel it all the time of her life; for all prayers and contemplations afterwards, and all things that pertain to devotion, are to her of much greater consolation than they were before.
[41] At her prayer Sister Margaret is healed, Sister Margaret had for many years a certain infirmity which came upon her in the winter season, namely from the feast of St. Andrew until after Easter. Within this time, on many days, there came upon her a certain infirmity which hindered her speech, for she could say nothing, but uttered bellowings after the manner of a beast, with signs of pain, so loud that it brought all who saw it to great compassion. And when this infirmity had once come upon her in the presence of Benevenuta, from the vehemence of the pain she laid herself face down upon a certain couch, and Benevenuta, moved with compassion, likewise placed herself opposite her in prayer: and after a little while Sister Margaret rose without pain and the other signs of infirmity; nor was she ever afterwards troubled by this infirmity; though she had previously had much advice from physicians, and had taken many medicines, she had never been able to find any remedy for her health.
[42] and Sister Bertolota. She transfers Sister Margaret's illness to herself, Sister Bertolota too was sick of a similar affliction, likewise for many years. And when this infirmity had come upon her, and Benevenuta was present, the prioress asked her to have pity on her and help her. And taking the sick woman's hands, she placed them in the hands of Benevenuta; who, raising her eyes, looked up to heaven, and she was immediately healed of her infirmity, nor did it ever trouble her afterwards. Once, when Sister Margaret was in attendance on Benevenuta in her infirmity, and was washing her feet, although she herself was so sick that from head to foot there was scarcely any small part of her body that was not burdened with a special trouble, yet, because of the great love and very great devotion which she had towards her, she served her with much devotion and the greatest gladness; and, while serving thus, she suddenly felt perfectly and wholly free , and noticed that all the infirmity which she had had before had wholly taken possession of Benevenuta's body: whence she began to grieve greatly and to say to her: "What is this that you have done? Have you taken my infirmity upon yourself? I do not want this exchange: give me back my infirmity." And when she pressed vehemently about this, and yet the infirmity did not on that account return to her, then, as if upset, she threw at Benevenuta the cloths with which she was to cover her, and went far away from her. And when Benevenuta had called her back several times, to return to her, and she would not, except on this condition, that she should give her back her infirmity; at length, overcome by her importunity, she returned to her, and then Benevenuta said to her: "Know, Sister Margaret, that you have sinned, and what you have done has displeased God and blessed Dominic." And Sister Margaret answered: "And I beg you that for this sin you will pray the Lord for me, that He may spare me, and give me every pain that He wills, for I am ready to bear it." And behold, suddenly the infirmity left Benevenuta, and returned to Sister Margaret much greater than it had been before, and from then on it held her, afflicting her most severely all the following night as she lay in her bed. And to the other Sisters who had remained beside Benevenuta, Benevenuta said: "Sister Margaret has had a hard night."
[43] and she frees her from another natural defect; Likewise Sister Margaret had a natural defect, that she could not eat cheese all the time of her life, nor any dish in which anything of cheese had been put; indeed, if the spoon with which she was to eat had touched any dish in which anything of cheese had been put, and afterwards that spoon had touched the dish which she was to eat, she immediately perceived it and could not eat, and if she did eat, she brought it up. Her father too had this defect, for he could never eat cheese. Benevenuta, seeing this defect of hers, when once she was eating with her, said to her: "Sister Margaret, why do you not eat cheese?" "Because I cannot, and I grieve much. But I have this faith in you, that I shall well be able to eat it, if you will help me." And Benevenuta then took the cheese in her hands, and having made the sign of the cross over it, gave it to her, saying: " Eat securely"; and then she began to eat and to relish it, and always ate it thereafter.
[44] she heals a girl suffering in her eyes, Likewise there was in the said convent of our Sisters a certain young Sister, twelve years old a, named …, whose eyes began to grow dim, as if a sort of mist or fine spider's web appeared over her eyes; nor could she distinguish anything by sight, but, as if seeing through a thick linen cloth, she saw everything confusedly. She, perceiving that Benevenuta by her merits and prayers had obtained the benefit of health for many persons, came to her, and bending her knees laid her face in her lap, and with many tears began most urgently to beg that by her merits and prayers she might obtain the benefit of sight. And when she had made a long delay, keeping her head thus in her lap, and she could not drive her away from herself, at length she said: "Rise securely." And behold, her eyes, which before had been dimmed, began to appear clear, and to see all things clearly. And the Sisters, seeing this sign, began to sing Te Deum laudamus in choir. And when she had remained as if well for the whole day, it was suggested to her that she ought not to believe that she had been cured by the merits of Benevenuta. And she began to give consent to the suggestion made to her; and then her former blindness returned to her; which was not hidden from Benevenuta. Hence on the following day she had her called to her, and said to her: "How is it with you, sister ?" And when for shame she did not answer, Benevenuta said: "It has happened to you according to your faith." Then she with many tears fell at her feet, still begging her mercy, and could not be separated from her. And Benevenuta had a psalter brought to her, and opening it presented it to her, and told her to read. She answered that she could not, "because you have not willed it." But Benevenuta, placing her hand over the writing and afterwards removing it, told her to read; and she plainly read the psalm which her hand had covered; and the psalm was Voce mea. And turning the page, she was not able to read, saying: "I cannot read, because you do not will it," and so she went away from her. But rising in the morning for Matins, she read Matins by herself, and always afterwards saw well with clear eyes. And Benevenuta for the whole of the following day saw nothing with her eyes, as she herself testified. Benevenuta remained without sight for as long a time as the sister * had remained in her unbelief.
[45] Likewise a noble virgin of Strassoldo. Likewise in the same convent there was a certain noble virgin of Strassoldo, named Aicha, who, sick in the throat with a very grave fever, came to such a point that for five days she could swallow neither food, nor broth b, nor water, nor wine, nor anything that can be sipped. And the physician who had charge of her, despairing of her recovery, ordered extreme unction to be given her. Meanwhile blessed Dominic appeared to Benevenuta, who was in her own house, saying to her: "Go quickly to the house of our Sisters de Cella, and you will heal Sister Aicha, who is now near * to death. But do nothing to her until after she has received extreme unction." She, without delay taking a certain neighbour of hers, because her sister according to the flesh would not go with her, came in haste to the house of our Sisters de Cella, and the door was immediately opened to her, and she went in, and came to the sick woman after she had received the sacrament of unction. And seeing her, the sick woman was comforted. For she had great confidence in her, and said to her: "I have great hope that, if you will give me drink with your hand, for I am in great need of it, and will first bless it and afterwards drink of it, I shall well be able to drink." And Benevenuta, fulfilling everything as the sick woman had asked, held out the drink to her, and immediately the sick woman drank without difficulty; and not only drank, but also ate, and was suddenly restored not only to her former health but to greater; for certain foods which before she could not eat, such as milk and certain fruits, and if she ate them she was troubled with the greatest pains, she always afterwards ate not only easily but also gladly, feeling the best benefit from them. On the following day the physician came to visit her; she, foreseeing his coming, ran to meet him well and cheerful and laughing: and when the physician saw her, he fortified himself with the sign of the cross, and said that it was impossible according to nature that so great a change should have been made in her so suddenly, except by divine power; and wondering and edified he went away from her. These signs of healings and many others, which it would be long to write, and all the things mentioned above, our Lord Jesus Christ did through Benevenuta in the aforesaid convent of our Sisters; to all of which many of the older, wiser and more religious Sisters who were in that convent bore witness.
ANNOTATA.
* manerent
* sextoria
* resiluit
* circumcincta
* stupula
* omits.
* posset
* potest
* omits.
* naturalis
* omits mulcebris et
* adds se
* liberatam
* accipitis
* rediit
* adds Quæ respondit
* in the margin of our codex: Here the cited MS codex breaks off.
* adds L. (perhaps: Lucia) but rather: Leoncina
* omits.
* adds L.
* proximam
CHAPTER V.
Of the heavenly food given to Blessed Benevenuta by St. Gabriel. Souls freed from purgatory.
The angel Gabriel feeds her for five years. Of the Angel Gabriel who fed her. Not only did the Lord Jesus Christ do the wonders mentioned above through the most devout Benevenuta, but He did much greater ones in her before she came to the place of the Sisters. For when she had begun to be sick of that infirmity in which she lay for five years, there came to her about the ninth hour a certain comely young man with a most white napkin, with a noble and very shining pyx, and taking from
it with his fingers what was in the pyx, he put it into Benevenuta's mouth and went away saying nothing. And from that tasting Benevenuta felt such sweetness and such consolation that the tongue of man could not express it. After this Benevenuta began to think and to wonder why he who had come to her thus had not made himself known, though she knew him to be a messenger of God, and why he had said nothing to her on God's behalf. Wherefore she began urgently to beseech the Lord that He would deign to send the same messenger to her again, and that he might disclose to her the truth about himself. And behold, on the following day, at the same hour and in the same manner as before, the same messenger returned, and greeting her said that it was the will of God that at his first coming he should say nothing, so that she might make the prayer which she made, and that at her prayer he might make himself known to her. Afterwards he said: "I am that messenger who was sent from the Son to the Virgin Mother, and from the Mother to the Son: I am the angel Gabriel," a and he fed her as before and went away. And so afterwards he did daily for almost five continuous years b, until the day of the Annunciation, on which, as was said above, she was wonderfully cured. But after she had eaten earthly food, namely rice with almond milk, the angel thereafter brought her food no more; just as the people of Israel, who had been led out of Egypt, after they had eaten the fruits of the land of promise, the heavenly manna failed them. This so great a matter Benevenuta made known to the prior of Verona, her confessor, but under constraint, because her confessor constrained her: and by his command she told it to the lady Jacobina, a devout widow, her faithful companion and confidante, yet under the seal of confession to each, that they should make it known to no one as long as she lived in this life. In like manner she made known to them many other very wonderful things; and they, keeping all things secret, related them to no one as long as she lived.
[47] She frees from purgatory Of the preaching of the miracle of the Angel Gabriel. But after she had departed from this world, which was on the third day before the Kalends of November, Brother Conrad, prior of Verona, her confessor, preached this wonder on the following Sunday, which was the second day of November, before a great people of Cividale in our church, who had gathered for this, to hear her preached about, for they had had much devotion towards her in her life. Now they have greater devotion after her death. He preached also at the same hour how her brother according to the flesh c, who had died in a certain quarrel and disturbance, she freed in a short time from the pains of purgatory by her merits and prayers. For the aforesaid * prior of Verona had a certain brother according to the flesh, an upright young man, who had gathered with some of his friends at a certain feast. At this feast a great disturbance arose among some of them, as is often wont to happen at such a time: in this disturbance the said young man was grievously wounded, and, defending himself manfully, he killed one of his adversaries on the spot. He himself did not die at once, but was carried to his house; where, injuries having been forgiven among those at variance and peace established, and moreover the sacraments of the Church having been devoutly received, he afterwards departed from this life with good devotion. The prior of Verona, seeing his brother thus dead, and knowing on the other hand that Benevenuta was of great merit with God, and most familiar with Christ and the blessed Virgin and the other saints, as her special confessor who knew her great merits and virtues, began to press her strongly to intercede with God by her merits and prayers for his brother, whom he thought to be most vehemently tormented in the pains of purgatory. She, excusing herself humbly, said that he would be the more useful for obtaining this. Yet, overcome by the prior's insistence and importunity, she promised that she would do what the prior asked, as far as she could. And behold, not long after she began to pray for him, the said dead man, one night while she was praying, appeared to her clothed in light, and, bending his knees before her, began to thank her and to say that many pains which he was still to endure for a long time had been remitted to him by her merits and prayers, and that he, freed from them, was going to the kingdom of glory; and so he vanished.
[48] her father Of those freed from the pains of purgatory through her. Not only did she free him from the pains of purgatory, but also her father according to the flesh, who had loved her most tenderly, and she him likewise in turn. For this father of hers was a man eloquent, wise and discreet in secular affairs; for this reason he had been accustomed to be an advocate, and a judge of secular affairs and of cases which were determined before the lord patriarch not according to the teaching of the written law, but according to the custom of his country. He too , coming to his last hour, having disposed his affairs discreetly and divided his property in good order among his heirs, and moreover having devoutly received the sacraments of the Church, departed from this life with confidence. And because he had had many great secular affairs in hand in his life, he therefore stood in very great need of the suffrages of salvation; for this reason the most devout Benevenuta, his daughter, did not cease daily to beg the Lord's mercy for him. But after some years had passed from the day of his death, the father appeared to the daughter in a horrible garb, asking for greater suffrages. Seeing this, the daughter began to feel inconsolable compassion for her father, and from then on she interceded with the Lord for her father with all her inner affections and afflictions of the body, giving him moreover before God all her good merits by which she had merited anything in this life, so that the Lord might deign to snatch him from such pains. And after a little time, namely on the day of the Lord's Ascension, the father appeared to the daughter with a great light, giving her thanks for the help given him, blessing the day on which he had begotten her, and announcing to her moreover that, helped by her merits, he was making his way to glory; and so he vanished. And when the anniversary day of her father's death was approaching, a certain sister of hers, a widow, came to her, complaining that she did not have the means with which to celebrate her father's anniversary as she wished. She answering said to her: "Henceforth do not be anxious about our father, for I am certain that he does not need our help." And when she asked how she knew these things, fearing the mark of vanity she would not disclose the manner to her. And when she pressed vehemently, overcome by her importunity she disclosed to her, under the seal of confession, the manner written above. She did not keep the secret of her promise, but made it known to a certain sister of hers, a nun, also under secrecy. She too did not keep the secret well, but made it known in the same manner to some persons. This at length came to the ears of Benevenuta; over which she grieved much and severely reproved her sister, to whom she had first made it known: nor would she ever again reveal any secret to her.
[49] and others. Not only these, but many others also, while still remaining in this life, she freed from the pains of purgatory by her prayers and merits: namely a certain kinsman of hers, formerly the husband of her aforesaid widowed sister, of whom it is written elsewhere; also the abbot of Moggio d, who had departed from this life at the Roman Curia; also a certain religious woman who had been born within Cividale. All of whom, after they were freed from the pains, appeared to her full of light, humbly and devoutly thanking God and her for so great a benefit, and after the thanksgiving ascending eagerly to the kingdom of the Blessed. All of which things Benevenuta, while still living, made known to Brother Conrad her confessor, and to the devout widow Jacobina, her faithful companion and confidante, under the seal of confession e, that as long as she lived they should make them known to no one. And so they promised, and faithfully kept it.
ANNOTATA.
* omits.
* here in the margin of our codex: The codex of the Preachers is taken up again.
* petitionem
* omits.
* convenerant
* audirent
* etiam
* omits.
* habebat
* quia
* omits.
* relevavit
* Conrado
CHAPTER VI.
Revelations made by Christ and the Mother of God to Blessed Benevenuta.
Jesus appears to her; Of the graces of revelations. She had wonderful and unheard-of graces of revelations, her spirit being sometimes within the body, sometimes removed from the body, for very often she was rapt in spirit. While her spirit was within the body, she had revelations sometimes from Christ, sometimes from the blessed Virgin, sometimes from Christ and the blessed Virgin together, sometimes from angels, sometimes from blessed Dominic. From Christ she had a revelation in the church of blessed Stephen a, which was near her house, for in it she was accustomed at some hour of the day to complete the prayers which she had not been able to complete in the church of blessed Dominic; sometimes also, because of an abundance of rain or because of some great hindrance, she could not come to the church of blessed Dominic; in that church she had the custom of praying, for it is very suited to this, being namely remote from the houses and the converse of men, and therefore very quiet. In this church there appeared to her a little boy of most devout beauty and wonderful cheerfulness. When Benevenuta had called him to her, and had begun to take delight with him in words of devotion, among other things she said to him: "Have you a mother?" And he answered her: "And have you a mother?" And she answered: "I have no mother"; for her mother had lately died. And he answered: "I certainly have a mother." And she asked him: "Do you know the Ave Maria?" And he answered her: " Do you know the Ave Maria?" And she answered him: "I know it." Then he said to her: "Now say the Ave
Maria." And he said to her *: "Now you say it"; and when she had said: "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus b": the last word being uttered, he answered: "And I am he." And having said this, he immediately vanished.
[51] Likewise twice on the feast of Easter. Likewise the Lord Jesus Christ manifested Himself to Benevenuta in the year of her death, on the day of the Lord's Resurrection. For when in that holy week Benevenuta had prepared herself as best she could, with vigils, prayers and tears, and with other works of devotion, worthily to celebrate the coming remedies of our salvation, among other things which she asked of the Lord she asked this, that He would deign to show her the form and manner of the apparition in which He appeared to Mary Magdalene. And behold, on the day of the Resurrection at dawn, while she was praying in her chamber, the Lord appeared to her in the manner she had asked. And when this apparition had been received by her with such thanksgiving and humility as she could, the Lord said to her: "Go to the church, and do there what you ought to do, and when you return home, I will appear to you again." And when she had come to the church, a Friar, namely her confessor, was going out to the altar of the blessed Virgin to celebrate and to give communion to certain persons; and she saw that the blessed Virgin was coming with him. And when the priest had gone up the steps of the altar, the blessed Virgin mounted upon the altar, and was there until the Mass was completed. And when the priest was giving communion to the persons, the blessed Virgin humbly bowed to each communicant. And when afterwards the chalice c with wine was held out to each one who had received communion, when it came to Benevenuta, then the blessed Virgin came down from the altar, and, holding the chalice on the opposite side with him who had held it before, gave her the wine to drink with the chalice. And when the priest was returning from the altar towards the sacristy, Benevenuta saw that the blessed Virgin followed the priest as he went inside. And when Benevenuta had returned to her house, the Lord appeared to her a second time, as He had promised before. She prostrated herself humbly at His feet with much and humble thanksgiving, pouring out tears without ceasing. And the Lord said to her: "Why do you weep so much? Do you want to be another Magdalene? Do not weep, for many ages have passed since these things which I wished to show you were done."
[52] The Mother of God appears with the child Jesus to Blessed Benevenuta, Of the revelations of the blessed Virgin. From the Blessed Virgin she had many beautiful and great revelations. At a certain time, as the day of the Lord's Nativity was approaching, some days before, as was her good custom, she prepared herself with vigils, prayers and tears, and other works of devotion, that she might worthily keep so great a feast, and that the Lord might grant her * some special consolation on that feast. And when the blessed night of the Lord's Nativity had come, she was in the church of blessed Dominic, and as she contemplated how on so harsh a night the Virgin in childbirth had wrapped the Lord in a few poor cloths, kindled with a great affection of compassion and a desire of devotion, she asked of the blessed Virgin that she would grant her to see the Lord in that form. And as she was praying before the altar of blessed Peter Martyr d, she saw a certain lady carrying a little child in her arms, and with her a certain man of advanced age holding a staff in his hands. And the Lady said to her: "Go back to your house, and what you have asked for you will see this night." And when she had returned to her house, the blessed Virgin appeared to her with the aforesaid man in her chamber, and said to her: "Receive what you have asked for." And she placed the Son in her arms. And when she had held Him for a good hour, with ineffable jubilation of heart and wonderful consolation, the blessed Virgin said to her: "Now give me back my Son, for you have held Him enough." And having taken the Son, she afterwards vanished, Benevenuta remaining magnificently consoled.
[53] And she heals her. Likewise the blessed Virgin revealed to Benevenuta a certain prayer which Sister Weremburg, prioress of our Sisters, had made for her on the night of the Lord's Annunciation, which prayer obtained an effect of wonderful power; for because of the many genuflexions which Benevenuta made daily, her knees, now one, now the other, at different times developed abscesses, and some of those abscesses were cured by incision. The last of those abscesses was after she had been cured by blessed Dominic; and she concealed it for many days, hoping that it would go down and be cured by itself. But when the contrary happened, for it swelled more from day to day, it came to such a point that she could not carry so great a weight about with her. And master Boniface, a skilled surgeon, having been called with a certain companion of his, on the vigil of the Lord's Nativity, the knee was pierced with iron instruments and no small quantity of blood flowed out, the most patient Benevenuta remaining motionless, without anyone holding her, and without a cry. And a large tent e having been placed in the wound, so that the humours which had caused the swelling might be purged from it, she remained so from the aforesaid vigil until the vigil of the Lord's Annunciation. And what was purged from the wound within this time, even when put to the nose, had no bad smell at all: at which the physician greatly wondered. Indeed, on the contrary, a certain person who came in when the physician was cleaning the knee said that he had smelt a delightful odour: which bore witness to the wonderful purity of the person in both respects. And Benevenuta said to the physician on the vigil of the Annunciation: "Master, with your leave I should like to go to the church, and be present at the divine offices on so great a feast." And the physician, thinking within himself, said: "I wish that God be her physician." And undoing the knee and drawing out of the wound the large tent, which had been made of a large candle , and having applied a certain plaster over the knee, he bound it, and said: "Do not disturb this binding at all, until I come to you; and when tomorrow you go to the church, I will come with you, to help you, if anything adverse should happen to you." The following night Sister Weremburg, the aforesaid prioress, made a prayer to the Lord for Benevenuta, that by the prayers of His blessed Mother He would deign to cure her of this infirmity of hers, with such a cure as would be to His glory and honour and that of His most blessed Mother. On that day or the following one, the physician came to see how the knee with the wound was, and, the binding being loosed, he found the wound perfectly healed and the knee gone down, which would have been impossible, except in the space of many days, for the physician and for nature. And they gave thanks to the Lord. And after some days Benevenuta came to visit the aforesaid prioress, and when she asked her what prayer she had made for her on the night of the Lord's Annunciation, and she said that she did not know, because she did not remember, Benevenuta said: "You made this prayer for me": and told her the form of the prayer written above. And when she called to mind that it was truly so, she began to wonder and said to her: "And how do you know?" And she answered: "Because the blessed Virgin told me."
[54] Again she shows her the little Jesus. Likewise many times the blessed Virgin revealed herself to her in a certain wonderful manner. For when at times by night she persevered in contemplation, thinking of the blessed Virgin and her blessed Son, inflamed with desire for them, she would go out under the open sky, the heaven being starry, and with her eyes always fixed on heaven, she sometimes * saw heaven opened, and the blessed Virgin, having her Son in her arms, come down so near towards her that she could clearly distinguish the Son with the mother. And when she had made some stay there, and the desire of the most devout Benevenuta had been consoled, the blessed Virgin withdrew with the Son into heaven: and afterwards little by little the heaven was closed, leaving at the end of the closing a certain red rod, long after the manner of a long military lance: and this appeared for a good space of time after the closing. This revelation appeared to her frequently, and especially three times in one night. To these revelations the aforesaid prioress and the devout widow Jacobina, her confidante, bear witness, who heard them from her.
[55] Blessed Benevenuta hears a melody on the night of the Sabbath. Likewise, because of the special devotion which Benevenuta had to the Sabbath day f out of reverence for the blessed Virgin, she awaited that day with much joy, and when it had come, she spent it with greater devotion and more vigils and prayers; and for this she merited from God and from the blessed Virgin a special grace on that day; for on every night which preceded the Sabbath, about the fourth hour of the night, she heard a certain song and heavenly harmony, from which she drew wonderful consolation. And when she had revealed this wonderful consolation to a certain sister of hers, a nun in her monastery, not speaking of her own person, but as if of another (for this was her manner of speaking in all her revelations and wonders), it happened that she came to her sister's monastery, to take consolation with her for some days. And when they were lying together in one place, and that night of the Sabbath had come, the nun lay down; but Benevenuta, according to her custom, gave herself to contemplation and prayer. And the nun, her sister, remembering the heavenly melody which she had made known to her before, began to stay awake and watch whether she * too could hear the aforesaid melody. And when the hour in which it should have been heard had already passed, the nun said to Benevenuta: "Why do you not lie down? Now I see that you are not the one who heard that heavenly melody of which you told me before: for I have stayed awake until now, and listened carefully, and have been able to hear nothing." And Benevenuta, laughing heartily, answered: "Certainly she who was to hear it heard it well."
[56] Christ and His mother appear to her. Of the revelation which she had from Christ and from the blessed Virgin. From Christ and the blessed Virgin together she once had a revelation. For when she was sick of that infirmity in which for many years she could not move from her place, and was sitting in her chair, in which for some years she lived sitting day and night, because she could not lie down, she began to contemplate and to think how great had been the sorrow of the blessed Virgin in those three days in which, while she sought the Son with sorrow, the boy Jesus had remained in the temple: and desiring to keep the blessed Virgin company in so great a sorrow, for all the time of her life she had been accustomed to sorrows, she still sought sorrows, the prosperity of the flesh and of the body
and its health she fled, in turn. And she began urgently to ask the Lord Jesus Christ and the blessed Virgin that they would deign to grant her this gift, that she might feel in herself the aforesaid sorrow of the blessed Virgin. And behold, on a certain occasion there appeared to her a certain honourable and devout lady with a certain beautiful and graceful little boy, who began to walk about the chamber around her. In the sight of him and converse with him she began to be magnificently delighted: and when at one point she tried to touch him, he withdrew himself from her, and suddenly both vanished. And behold, a vehement sorrow with tears seized her, and began to grow continually, and to afflict her so vehemently that she could receive no consolation, and it seemed to her that her soul wished to go out of her body. Hence she was compelled to call upon the blessed Virgin to help her, because she could bear it no longer. And after three days the blessed Virgin appeared to her with her little Son, and placed the Son in her arms, and then all sorrow and bitterness departed, and a wonderful consolation was restored to her. And the blessed Virgin said to her: "You wished to feel my sorrow, which I had in the loss of my Son, and you have felt it; but henceforth do not desire such things."
ANNOTATA.
* poterat
* adds Et
* modo — omits ei
* qua
* dicit
* omits.
* fecerunt
* miram
* munditiem
* infra
* candela
* colata
* volo
* omits.
* aliquandiu.
* omits.
* omits.
* omits.
CHAPTER VII.
Revelations made to Blessed Benevenuta by angels and by St. Dominic.
For five years she was nourished by St. Gabriel; Of the revelation which she had from angels. From angels too she had great revelations. Among which was that chief and astonishing one which has been described above, when for almost five continuous years she was nourished daily with heavenly food by the angel Gabriel. As long as this was happening, the prudent virgin would reveal it to no man. And when she was compelled to tell it, she would make it known only under the seal of confession, namely that as long as she lived he should tell it to no one. This was faithfully promised and firmly observed. But after her death, for the glory of God and to make known the virgin's merits, it was publicly preached: and so satisfaction was given to all who wondered how she lived; for the very little food which she sometimes took after ten days, she always vomited up entirely a.
[58] [who also appeared to her at other times with St. Raphael, as did St. Anne and her daughter,] Likewise two angels appeared to her on the night preceding the Nativity of the blessed Virgin, in the last year in which she departed from this world, in this manner. When the Nativity of the blessed Virgin was approaching, according to her good custom she prepared herself some days before, with many vigils and prayers and other works of devotion, so that she might celebrate more worthily the festival soon to come, and that God might grant her a special consolation on that feast. And when the night of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin had come, she began to contemplate the wonderful nativity of the blessed Virgin: and, after she was born, of what condition and form she was, and how in her days she was carried by her mother. And then she began with vehement desire to seek that this grace be granted her, that she might see her in such a form; and moreover she begged with urgency that the Lord Jesus Christ with the blessed Virgin His mother would deign to satisfy this holy desire. After this there came to her two graceful young men, greeting her and saying: "Handmaid of God, the Lord save you." These she received with due reverence and humble thanksgiving. And one of them said to her: "Do you know me?" And pointing to his companion he said: "This one you know well." She answered them: "I do not know you, but I beseech you, disclose to me the truth about yourselves." He who had spoken first answered: "I am Raphael the angel: this is the angel Gabriel, who has visited you so often"; and he added: "Behold, your prayer which you made this night has been heard: soon the mother will come with the daughter. And you, prostrate on the ground, must receive them with much reverence and devotion. And when the mother shows you the daughter, if the daughter stretches out her hands towards you, you too shall stretch out your hands towards her, and shall receive her. But if she does not stretch them out, neither must you stretch out yours towards her." And having said this they vanished. And suddenly there appeared to her the mother with the daughter, and a certain honourable man, in her chamber, and she greeted her, saying: "The Lord save you, true handmaid of God." And the man who was with them, with a certain cheerful countenance, began to look on her devoutly, saying: "Blessed are you of the Lord, friend and true handmaid of God." She, prostrate on the ground, as she had been taught, with tears
began to give humble and very great thanksgivings, and as she rose the mother showed her the daughter, and said: "Behold what you have asked for." And when Benevenuta looked on the daughter with a devout gaze, the daughter stretched out her hands towards her; and Benevenuta, stretching out hers, took her into her arms; and when she had begun to take delight with her and to speak, and she said nothing to her, she said to the mother: "Make her answer me." And the mother said: "You know well already that little girls of such an age do not know how to speak." And when Benevenuta had held the daughter for a long while, the mother said to her: "Now give me back my daughter, for you have held her enough." And having received the daughter, they betook themselves to heaven, Benevenuta remaining magnificently consoled. And this manifestation was fifteen weeks before the day of her death.
[59] then also St. Dominic, Of the revelation of blessed Dominic. From blessed Dominic she had a beautiful revelation, on a certain feast of his b, her spirit being within the body. For when for some days before the feast she was preparing herself in her usual way with her works of devotion, so that on that feast, by the prayers and merits of blessed Dominic, God might grant her some special grace; after the first Vespers of the festival, while Benevenuta was in the church of blessed Dominic, blessed Dominic appeared to her with blessed Peter Martyr, greeting her and saying: "What you have asked of the Lord, you have obtained; and so today, before you go out of the church, you will see a consolation pleasing to you," and he vanished. And behold, when after Compline the Friars were going out in procession in the usual way singing the Salve Regina, she saw that blessed Dominic went out with them in the place of the prior, for Brother Girard de Barbara c, who was then prior, was not in the district. And when they had come outside, blessed Dominic placed himself in the prior's place, and when the hebdomadary d came and sprinkled the Friars with holy water, blessed Dominic followed him, embracing and kissing each Friar whom he had sprinkled , and having embraced and kissed them all, he returned to the prior's place. And when the Salve Regina had been sung, as the Friars were returning, blessed Dominic went in with them, and making his way as far as his altar, and turning aside behind the altar, he was seen no more. Likewise on the following day, after Compline, when the Friars went outside in the same manner, the blessed Virgin went out with them in the place of the prior: and when they had gone out, she stood in the prior's place, and when the hebdomadary came and sprinkled the Friars, the blessed Virgin followed him, bowing to each one whom he had sprinkled . Afterwards she returned to the prior's place: and when the Friars were returning into the choir, she went in with them and vanished.
[60] And again the Mother of God. Likewise Benevenuta sometimes saw the blessed Virgin between two acolytes, when the Salve Regina was being sung, holding her Son in her hands with His face turned towards the Friars, and when they sang: "And Jesus, the blessed fruit of thy womb, show unto us after this exile," she stretched out her hands with the Son towards the Friars, and sometimes made signs of the cross with the Son over the Friars.
[61] On the day of Pentecost Likewise she sometimes saw on the day of Pentecost e, when the hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus was being sung, a fiery flame covering the whole choir of the Friars. And then Benevenuta looked about at the people who were in the church, to see whether anyone saw what she saw. And when she perceived that no one noticed it but herself alone, she gave thanks to God, magnificently consoled.
[62] and she often had other revelations. Of the revelations of the spirit outside the body. Likewise she had very great revelations with her spirit outside the body, which happened to her very often, and very, very often indeed, and sometimes several times in one day: and then she saw the great works of God and of the saints which were done on earth, and the great works of God and of the saints which were done in heaven. But she rarely made them known. And this was the nature and condition of her rapture. In whatever position and form her body was when the spirit went out, in that it remained * until it returned. If the body was standing or sitting, or lying prostrate on the ground, or in any other position whatever, so it remained until the spirit returned: meanwhile it neither saw, nor heard, nor felt anything. But when the spirit returned, she made long and trembling sighs. And if at any time she perceived that anyone had noticed her rapture, she was not a little ashamed.
ANNOTATA.
* omits.
* adds suo
* omits.
* primus
* puerulæ
* read VII
* præparasset
* completorium
* asperserat
* quem ille asperserat
* permanebat
CHAPTER VIII.
Of the Passion and Resurrection of Christ and the Assumption of His mother, revealed to Blessed Benevenuta.
She saw Christ suffering Of the revelation of the Passion. In the last year of her life, when the Passions begin to be sung in the churches of God, namely on Palm Sunday and through all that holy week, she began to dispose herself with the whole affection of her mind and the effort of her body to celebrate with devotion the many sacred mysteries of the Lord's Passion, hoping that then the Lord would grant her some special grace. And contemplating how the Lord supped with His disciples, and how after the supper He went out with them to the place of prayer, and how in prayer a sweat of blood poured forth, and how Judas the traitor came with crowds and the servants of the Jews, and with lights and arms, and betrayed the Lord with a kiss, and the rest that follows, she began to pant with vehement desire as to how she might see the places and persons, the manner and form of all the things which were done concerning * the Passion of the Lord: and with much urgency she besought the Lord that she might feel the sorrow of His Passion, so that in the sorrow of His Passion she might keep the blessed Virgin company. And behold, at the hour of supper, and on the day of the Lord's Supper, when the Lord supped with His disciples, her spirit was rapt out of the body, and she saw the Lord supping with His disciples, and heard the words which He spoke with them at table, and how He prayed, and how He was betrayed, and how they mocked Him in the house of the chief of the priests, and how He was scourged at the pillar; and she said that the house in which He was scourged was a certain dark house, in which there was no one except those two who were scourging Him, and one apostle; but who that apostle was is not known a. And Benevenuta's spirit too was there, which was most vehemently afflicted by the scourges which the Lord endured, and the spirit approached the Lord, and, weeping most bitterly, began to embrace the Lord together with the pillar.
[64] and dying on the cross; Afterwards she saw how the sentence of death was given upon Him, and how also the cross was laid upon Him, and how, carrying His cross, He went to execution, and how a multitude of women followed Him, weeping and lamenting the Lord; and with these women went the spirit of Benevenuta, likewise weeping and wailing; and when they came to Mount Calvary, how He was placed upon the cross and lifted up on high. And she saw the blessed Virgin weeping, and heard the words of her lamentation; and Benevenuta's spirit stood beside the cross, and, weeping most bitterly, embraced the cross. And she saw how about the ninth hour, with a cry and tears, the Lord expired, and she saw how He was taken down from the cross and placed in the tomb, and, in short, all the things which were done concerning the Lord's Passion she saw so entirely and openly as if she had been there in body and soul when they were done.
[65] Hence she was most sorrowful. And these things having been seen in order, the spirit returned to its body, bringing with it the sorrow of the Passion of Christ which it had had while outside the body. By this sorrow the body was so hindered that she could neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep, nor do anything, nor even restrain herself from tears. And after this the angel Gabriel stood by her, greeting her and saying: "You have well what you wished and asked of the Lord." She answered: "Certainly; and I ask that for this you give manifold thanks for me to the Lord my God, and ask for me that He deign, if it please Him, to mitigate my sorrow as far as the outer man is concerned, so that I may go to the church today and be present at the office, so that people may not notice the anguish of my sorrow." The Angel said to her: "Wait a little, and I will answer you," and vanished. And after a little while he returned, saying: "You have what you ask: go where you will, securely." But when morning dawned, she saw many drops of blood on the veil which she had kept over her head; and testing whether any blood had come out of her nose, and finding none at all, she knew that it was her tears which bore the colour of blood, as had happened to her at other times also. And changing her veil, she came to the church, placing herself in the corner of the church where her station had always been accustomed to be, and prostrating herself on the benches b on which people sit, and thinking on the Passion of the Lord, as she had foreseen it in the night, she poured out so great a multitude of tears that * the end of her veil, with which she had wiped her tears, was as soaked as if it had been drawn out of water. Moreover, on the bench on which she had lain prostrate, streams and traces of tears could be seen; as
the devout widow Jacobina, her faithful confidante, testifies, who was praying beside her. And she said that she then saw her eyes suffused with a redness like blood. Her tears too were of the same colour; but the devout widow Jacobina could not perceive it, nor any other person, but Benevenuta alone. For so Benevenuta had asked of the Lord, and had obtained, that no one should be able to know her anguish, lest she should become noticeable among people, and give them some cause to speak against her.
[66] At Easter she saw Christ raised from the dead, These tears and others which were shed in the preceding night are those tears which the angel collected in a shining vessel, and showed to Benevenuta on the day of Easter, saying: "These are the tears which you shed in these days because of the Lord's Passion; behold, I am carrying them into heaven, for it is not fitting that they should remain on earth." And the sorrow lasted in Benevenuta, as before, all that day and the following night, and on Holy Saturday until the Mass. But when in the Mass the Gloria in excelsis Deo had been begun , the sorrow was somewhat mitigated; and when the priest had elevated the Body of the Lord, she saw Him in the form of a beautiful boy: and then the sorrow was mitigated still more. And at the elevation of the chalice she saw the same little boy standing upon the chalice, holding his feet on either side upon the lip of the chalice: and then the sorrow was further mitigated, and thereafter the sorrow began, decreasing, to depart. And on the following morning at dawn, on the day of Easter, the Lord appeared, as He had appeared to the Magdalene, and prostrating herself at His feet with many tears, and calling Him, she could not touch Him, and the Lord said to her: "Why do you weep so much? Do you want to be another Magdalene? If you had been in her time, you too would have done just as she did: but go to the church, and do what you have to do there, and on your return you will see me again," and He vanished. And Benevenuta came to the church, and received communion: and on her return the Lord appeared to her, as He had appeared to the two women returning from the tomb. She prostrated herself at His feet, and with much thanksgiving and abundance of tears; and He vanished. He appeared to her also at other times three times on the day of Easter; but she did not say where or how.
[67] and the Mother of God with the three Marys; After dinner on the day of Easter, when Benevenuta had remained alone in her chamber, because her sister had gone out with others in public, the blessed Virgin appeared to her with three other Marys and greeted Benevenuta most affectionately, saying to her: "Because you kept me company in these days in the sorrow of my Son's Passion, with these your devoted ones, I have therefore come with them to keep you company and console you in the joy of the Resurrection." She with much humility and the greatest thanksgiving thanked her, and made a long stay speaking with her. What she had said to her she would not make known, and Benevenuta also commended certain persons to the blessed Virgin, whom also she would not name. And she had a wonderful consolation with the blessed Virgin and the other holy ladies who were with her; for through all that space which was between the two signals for the sermon, she had converse and colloquy with them.
[68] Of the revelation of the Assumption of the blessed Virgin. In the last year of her life Benevenuta had a very magnificent and very wonderful revelation, likewise the Mother of God taken up into heaven by her Son; on the feast of the Assumption of our Lady c. For when this solemnity was approaching, Benevenuta began to prepare herself with all the powers of the inner and outer man, so that with much devotion she might celebrate the joys of so devout a solemnity; hoping always in the Lord that on this feast the Lord would grant her a special consolation. And behold, on the night preceding this solemnity, the blessed Virgin appeared to her with blessed John the Baptist, and blessed John the Evangelist, and blessed Dominic, and with the most blessed virgins Catherine and Agnes, singing alternately heavenly songs with heavenly melodies. And the blessed Virgin, raising her hand, enjoined silence, and, affectionately greeting Benevenuta, said to her: "For this feast of mine you have prepared yourself with much solicitude and due devotion, and therefore with these saints of yours, towards whom you have special devotion, I have come to keep a feast for you, and to visit you, that you may see how today's feast is kept by the citizens of heaven in the Church triumphant. And I wish you to know that there is not on earth any incarnate spirit to whom my Son is doing so great a grace today as to you; for He did not wish to send any messenger from heaven to invite you to my festival, except myself. And I, on His behalf and on my own, invite you to be present today at the joys of my Assumption into heaven," and she vanished. And then the spirit of Benevenuta was rapt out of the body, and placed between blessed Catherine and blessed Agnes; and it saw how Jesus Christ carried the soul of His most blessed Mother, and how all the angels and saints who were present there followed Him with canticles and jubilations, ascending in procession according to their orders and ranks. Then at the harmony of those ascending, the companies of angels and saints who had remained in heaven went forth to meet them with canticles and joys; and so she is received rejoicing into heaven, and, passing beyond all the ranks of the saints and orders of the angels, is set on a throne at the right hand of the Son. Then the blessed Virgin, smiling, signed to blessed Agnes to tell the spirit that it should now withdraw, for it had seen enough. The spirit would not, but said that it wished to see the whole feast. Then the angels surrounded our Lord Jesus Christ, and vested Him for Mass. And the Lord Himself began the office of the Mass, and the others continue , but the voice of the Lord resounded above the voices of all. And the office being ended, the spirit returned to its body.
[69] [likewise, on the feast of the translation of St. Dominic, the Blessed Virgin and many other saints.] Likewise Benevenuta had a devout revelation on the feast of the translation of blessed Dominic d, which was before this feast of the Assumption of the blessed Virgin. For when she had prepared herself for the aforesaid feast with her customary devotions, on the night preceding the feast of the translation blessed Dominic appeared to her as she prayed, about the middle of the night, and greeting her with devotion, said that he had been sent by the blessed Virgin to announce to her that on this feast of his she would have a special consolation from the Lord; and he vanished. And then her spirit was rapt and suddenly led as far as Bologna into the church of blessed Dominic, and it saw there the blessed Virgin with a choir of virgins beside the shrine of blessed Dominic, and her spirit was placed, at the bidding of the blessed Virgin, between two virgins, namely blessed Catherine and blessed Margaret. And then it saw companies of saints spreading themselves, singing, beside the shrine and through the church; and when they had made some stay there singing, they went up singing, and another company came down from heaven, likewise singing, and when it had done as the first, a third also came down; and so alternately many companies of saints came down, according to their orders and ranks, until dawn. And blessed Dominic instructed the spirit and named to it the saints coming down and going up according to their orders and ranks. And the spirit of Benevenuta, seeing the Friars in the church performing the office and going about through the church, said to blessed Dominic: "Do the Friars see us now?" * "Do not fear, daughter, for they can by no means see us." About dawn the spirit returned to its body: and on that day, with body and spirit, she kept the feast with us in the church of blessed Dominic of the convent of Cividale. This revelation Benevenuta made known to Sister Weremburg, formerly prioress of our Sisters, and to certain other of our Sisters: she made it known also to the devout widow Jacobina, her faithful confidante, under the seal of confession, that as long as she lived she should tell it to no one.
[70] Then, on the feast of St. Michael, she sees souls of purgatory freed by her. Likewise in the same year, on the following feast of blessed Michael, her spirit was rapt, and placed beside purgatory: and it saw many souls freed from the pains of purgatory, which, giving her thanks, said that they had been freed by her merits. And Michael the archangel was present there, and Benevenuta asked him to deign to ask the Lord that He would take her from this life into His glory. And he answered her: "It is not yet the hour; your life is still very useful: for just as these souls have been freed by your merits, there are still many in purgatory who await your help; nevertheless the petition which you ask I will present before the Lord." Many other revelations she made known to Brother Conrad, prior of Verona, her confessor, and to the devout widow Jacobina, her faithful confidante, which they could not keep in memory. Some also, greater than the others, she kept back, which she told to no one: she promised that she would tell them in her own time; but, overtaken by death, she could not make them known.
ANNOTATA.
* adds Domini
* luminaribus
* fuerunt
* omits.
* omits.
* et
* esset
* omits.
* omits.
* omits.
* longa mora
* colloquutionem
* terra
* adds Dominus
* adds gloriæ
* prosequebantur
* adds Et dicebat B. Dominicus:
CHAPTER IX.
Of the predictions of Blessed Benevenuta. By a miracle she takes the place of several nuns.
She sees into the soul of Sister Wilburgis How she had the spirit of prophecy. In many things also she had the spirit of prophecy, making known to many persons the hidden things of their heart and foretelling things to come. When Sister Wilburgis was coming from the dormitory to the choir to say Prime, on the very way a diabolical temptation seized her, fear and much anguish: for it seemed to her that she had never done anything pleasing to God; and that therefore she was abominable to the Lord, and therefore unworthy of God's mercy and of the fellowship of the blessed. And when she lingered in these thoughts, the fear and anguish of the inner man began to be displayed outwardly, so that the Sisters who were in the choir and were saying Prime, seeing her face greatly changed and ill-disposed, came to her, saying: "Sister Wilburgis, you are very unwell; go out of the choir and go and rest." And as she was going out of the choir, Benevenuta, who was in the same church in a certain hidden seat, separated from the other seats of the choir, foreseeing it went out of her seat and came to meet her, and taking her head in her hands placed it on her breast, saying: "Dearest sister, fear nothing, for you are not damned, but you are in a good state of your soul, and a friend of God." And from then on, without any delay, she was changed, both inwardly and outwardly, into the contrary disposition, bearing joy and gladness and consolation in her heart, showing cheerfulness and gaiety in her face, and thereafter consoled better than she had been before. And this Sister Wilburgis told before many Sisters.
[72] and of others. How she knew hidden things. When Sister Margaret had stood in prayer on the feast of blessed Cecilia, and on the same day had come to Benevenuta, Benevenuta recited to her in order the prayer which Margaret had made: and this Margaret confessed before many Sisters. Sister Bertolotta a also, when one day she had stood in prayer, and had come to Benevenuta, Benevenuta likewise told her her prayer in order. And this Sister Bertolotta asserted before certain Sisters.
[73] She sees the secrets of the Sisters. How she foretold the future and knew distant things. Likewise, when a certain secular lady had sent a certain noble garment of scarlet to a certain Sister of the said place, her kinswoman, urgently asking her to sew on the said garment certain pearls and certain women's ornaments, and the said Sister did not dare to do this without the prioress's leave, she went to the prioress for the said leave. But the prioress would not grant it to her. And the said Sister began to press the prioress vehemently for the said leave, so as to satisfy her kinswoman, saying that she would do the said work very secretly. The prioress, at her urgency, condescended to her wish, on such a condition that she should tell that kinswoman of hers that neither she nor any other should burden them henceforth with similar work. And moreover she told the said Sister that she should do this work so secretly that it would not be known by others. Because of which the said Sister took one Sister, and in a hidden place, namely in a corner of the dormitory, they began to do the said work. Benevenuta was in her own house when these things were being done. But the following morning, coming to the church of blessed Dominic, she spoke with that matron of whom mention was made above, who has freedom of entering and leaving the place of our Sisters, and said to her: "Tell Sister Nicholotta that she has well deserved that one of her hands should become as the other is." And she said this because she is infirm in one hand, and is not so able to work with one hand as with the other. "Why does she hide herself in a corner of the dormitory to do such work? The Lord and the blessed Virgin and St. Dominic have seen it well, and it displeases them." When the said matron had heard these things, and was entirely ignorant of what she meant, she began to wonder at her words, and, returning to the cloister, told the prioress and Sister Nicholotta the aforesaid words which Benevenuta had said to her in rebuke. They too began likewise to wonder, for that business was so hidden that not even a single person of the house knew of it. And many things like these could be written of Benevenuta, if writing were not burdensome. These things above the prioress told me, who wrote these things, before many of her Sisters.
[74] She takes the place How she supplied a lack in the morning. Sister Margaret, on the Tuesday of Pentecost, since she had not heard the signal for Matins, was absent from Matins; with the Sisters, in the choir and in her seat, one in stature, in habit and in voice like Sister Margaret in all things, performing all the offices which Sister Margaret ought to have done. And when day came, Sister Margaret began to complain, and to be ashamed and to grieve not a little, that on so great a solemnity she had not been at Matins with the others. But the other Sisters said against her that she had certainly been at Matins, and that they had seen her reading and singing and performing all the offices. And as Sister Margaret firmly denied that she had been there, and the others on the other hand affirmed the contrary, they all began to wonder not a little. And the greatest reason why Sister Margaret grieved that she had not been at Matins was Benevenuta, for she was very devoted to her, and her most special friend, lest by occasion of this failure some talk should arise against Benevenuta. And there were some Sisters who said: "This is nothing other than that Benevenuta, with divine power helping her, wished under the appearance of Sister Margaret, her devoted one, to supply her lack, lest she be put to shame." On the same day the lady Leveardis *, namely that matron who lives with the Sisters in secular habit, coming to the church of blessed Dominic, and finding Benevenuta, related to her in order the aforesaid business, and said: "Truly it is you who supplied Sister Margaret's lack." She neither denied nor affirmed it, but laughing answered: "I have done greater things for Sister Margaret."
[75] of Sister Margaret How on another occasion she supplied a lack. Something like this business happened on another occasion. On the day following the feast of blessed Peter Martyr, when Sister Margaret was weak, the prioress said to her: "Do not rise for Matins tonight: you are too weak." And when the Sisters had risen for Matins, and, as is the custom, those Matins were being sung solemnly, and Sister Margaret was resting, as the prioress had told her, and already a great part of Matins had been sung, Sister Margaret, hearing the Sisters singing solemnly, would rest no longer out of devotion, but rose. And from the beginning of Matins another person had been seen in Sister Margaret's seat, as was said above, like her in all things and fulfilling her part in all things. And after Sister Margaret had risen, she came to the choir, and bowing before the altar was coming to her seat: and when she had already entered the forms on which the Sisters lean b when they make their prostrations, Sister Catherine, who was next to her, seeing Sister Margaret coming, and another in all things like her remaining beside herself in her seat, was astonished, and went to meet Sister Margaret, and holding her said: "Who are you?" She answering said: "I am Sister Margaret," and Sister Catherine, turning, saw that she who had stood beside her had withdrawn from that seat, and was seen no more. Sister Margaret, who had newly come, stood in her seat, and completed Matins with the other Sisters, and many Sisters noticed this wonderful deed.
[76] several times: Likewise she supplied a lack. Once also, when Sister Margaret had not been at None, another was seen in her seat, like her in all things, as has been said. Jacobina too, the devout widow, Benevenuta's confidante, heard from her that there was a certain person (for so she spoke of herself almost always in the third person, when she spoke of any wonderful deed) who in the place of our Sisters supplied the lack of a certain Sister who had been absent from Matins, in singing and reading, and doing all the offices of the said Sister in her likeness c.
[77] which deed she never denied. How she did not deny that she had supplied
the lack. And after these things, when Benevenuta had come to the window of our Sisters, and the prioress was there with many Sisters, Sister Margaret thanked her, saying: "Dearest Benevenuta, I thank you much * that it pleased your charity at such Matins to supply my lack and to cover the reproach of my shame." And when the Sisters who were there firmly confirmed this saying, Benevenuta, suffused at these words with the blush of shame, began to ask that they would leave off these words, and speak no more such things to her thereafter.
ANNOTATA.
* Leucardis
* alia — omits est
* omits.
* omits.
CHAPTER X.
Of the raptures which Blessed Benevenuta undergoes.
She is rapt in spirit, Of the rapture of the spirit. How often her blessed spirit was rapt out of her most holy body, who could know, for she would never tell anyone. And if she perceived that at times some woman or man had noticed it, she was not a little ashamed, her face * suffused with a blush.
[79] at the time of Mass, Of rapture at Mass. For many years before her happy passing from this life, her spirit was frequently rapt at Mass. And there was a certain Mass at which from the beginning to the end her spirit was not in her, nor did she hear anything of that Mass except the "Ite Missa est" at the end of the Mass, which the deacon said. More frequently she was rapt at the Salve Regina, and in contemplation and in nocturnal prayer.
[80] as the Sisters noticed, How the Sisters perceived her rapture. In that time when Benevenuta was living almost continuously with our Sisters in their monastery, which time began from the feast of blessed Augustine and lasted until the day of the Lord's Resurrection, our Sisters noticed very many raptures of Benevenuta's spirit, among which they noticed some more wonderful and especially manifest. The first was one evening after Compline, for a good hour, when the Sisters were going out of the church, their prayers completed. Then Benevenuta threw herself into a long prostration before the altar, with her head a little raised, and so remained without sense and motion, many Sisters seeing it and greatly wondering ; for when she was called, touched and moved, she heard nothing and did not move at all, and she was so for so long that someone * could have said, slowly, four hundred Hail Marys and even more. And when she was moved still more strongly, she remained so for a long while before the spirit returned to the body.
[81] again, Of the rapture for her kinsman. On another occasion, on the day preceding the feast of St. Michael, after dinner, when the subprioress was with seven or eight other Sisters after their refectory under a certain tree, and Benevenuta was with them, she was speaking of the angelic spirits. And while they were thus speaking with one another, Benevenuta's spirit was rapt before them, and her face was changed; for her eyes became red as blood, and tears flowed from them in great abundance, and so she remained for a good hour. And as the Sisters standing before her were astonished at so great and such a wonderful change, after some while her spirit returned, the former colour of her face being restored to her. And when the prioress and Sister Nicholotta, who was her special friend, asked her where she had been and what she had seen, she answered with much shame and begged that they would not trouble her with such words. But they, most urgently entreating, compelled her by their importunity to make known to them where she had been and what she had seen, a promise first being made to her by them that, as long as she lived, they would reveal it to no one. Then she said that she had been at purgatory, and had seen the soul of her kinsman, her sister's husband, which had been brought out of the pains of purgatory; he had loved her much in his life, and had served her much, and had had no small devotion towards her: and it was told to Benevenuta that by her merits it had been freed from the pains: for which reason that happy soul, thus brought out of the pains, came before Benevenuta and thanked her magnificently a.
[82] and again. Of a long rapture at Vespers. Likewise on the same day, at Vespers, she was in the choir in a certain seat separated from the others; for there she was accustomed to stay: and from when Vespers were begun until the end, and also after they were finished, for a long while she was without sense and motion, for her spirit was rapt, and was not in her: because of which, Vespers being finished, the Sisters came before her with much reverence and devotion, contemplating her wonderful state; at which she was much ashamed when the spirit returned to her. Likewise at the following Matins, while she remained in the place where she slept, for the whole time in which those Matins were solemnly sung, she was rapt in spirit, and without sense and motion. Likewise the same happened at the following Mass until the elevation of the Body of the Lord, for some while before the elevation of the Body of the Lord the spirit returned to her: and, the Lord having been adored, it remained in her until the end of the Mass. And this she did at every solemn Mass. Likewise on the following night, which is before the feast of blessed Jerome, she was in the house in which she lay with certain Sisters; and while the others were sleeping, except Sister Margaret, Benevenuta was praying, and Sister Margaret with her. And when Benevenuta was prostrate in a long prostration, her spirit was rapt out of her, and Sister Margaret noticed it well. And when the spirit had returned to her, which Sister Margaret knew well by certain long sighs of hers, she came to her and asked, and pressed much, that she would lie down a little, clothed just as she was. And when she had lain down with much devotion, Sister Margaret placed her face upon her face and kissed her: and then she felt such sweetness and consolation go out from her and enter into herself that it seemed to her that all the consolations of the world could not be compared to it. And this consolation lasted in Sister Margaret for many days, with much abundance of tears; which consolation has been described more fully in another place above.
[83] She is rapt also into heaven, Of rapture into heaven. Likewise at the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin which followed, in the same year, she was rapt at the first Vespers and at the following Mass. And then she made known to some that in that rapture she had been in heaven and had seen how those Vespers were performed in heaven. Likewise in Holy Week, when the Passions are sung at the Masses, as long as the Passions were being sung she was rapt out of herself: and at those three Matins when the Lamentations are sung, as long as those Matins were being sung, her spirit was not in her, in the sight of all the Sisters.
[84] in place of a reward. Of rapture on the day of the Lord's Supper. Likewise on the day of the Lord's Supper, when the Sisters were eating, and she was at table with them, and had tasted some small thing, in the sight of the whole community her spirit was rapt out of her at the table, not without much devotion and tears on the part of some. Likewise, in seeing relics of the saints, she was rapt three times in the presence of many. First in seeing the relics of blessed Dominic, which had been sent in two ivory pyxes. One had been sent to the community of our Sisters, upon the altar. Likewise she was rapt twice in seeing a head, which was that of a virgin who was one of the eleven thousand virgins b who suffered near Cologne. This head was sent to the Sisters of the Order of Friars Preachers of Friuli, and they keep it adorned with much reverence and devotion. When our Sisters were receiving a certain novice, Benevenuta was then staying in the place of our Sisters. And when the prioress was in chapter with the other Sisters to receive the said novice, Benevenuta too was with them: and while all the Sisters were standing, and Benevenuta with them, when the novice was being stripped of her secular habit and clothed in the religious one, and the hymn Veni, Creator Spiritus was being begun by the chantress, Benevenuta's spirit was rapt, and all noticed it. And when the community went to the church singing the hymn, Benevenuta remained standing in the chapter, for she could not move. And the lady Leucardis c, who did not have the habit of religion, remained with her until Benevenuta's spirit returned, and this took place over the space of a long while, and afterwards
she came to the church, and the other Sisters followed. These raptures named above the Sisters in common saw manifestly. There were also other individual raptures not so manifest, which could not be kept in memory one by one; all of which happened in Benevenuta within the time named above in which she was with our Sisters. And because the most devout Benevenuta did not wish to have the false consolations of this miserable life, all the time of her life, therefore the Lord, the just judge, in the rapture of her spirit into heaven deservedly gave her to foretaste the consolations of the blessed life that will abide without end, where she saw and heard what it is not lawful to speak. Because also, beginning from her infant years, she would not give herself to the delights of the flesh, but rather, on the contrary, chose to carry about always afterwards in her tender body the troubles and pains of the flesh, and the mortification of Christ: therefore the Lord Jesus Christ granted her wonderful consolations of the spirit; for she had learned by experience that when she was sick in body, she was rendered stronger and more powerful in spirit. Moreover also, because she never wished to have converse and familiarity with those who love transitory things and seek earthly ones, therefore the Lord sent to her the frequent visitation and consolation of the citizens on high, namely of the angels and above all of Gabriel, of the saints and more frequently of blessed Dominic, and of the blessed virgins and especially Catherine, Agnes and Margaret, in all of whom she had ineffable consolations; for divine consolations are exceedingly delicate, and are not given to those who admit other ones.
[85] She endured diabolical temptations And lest the greatness of these consolations should exalt her, there was given to her by divine permission an angel of Satan, namely an evil spirit, who, appearing to her visibly under various shapes, for many years troubled her in various ways with terrors, sometimes with threats, reproaches, at times with blows; and sometimes, wishing to deceive her under a beautiful shape with flattering words, assailing her in manifold ways. But in all things the devil, confounded by the power of God and overcome by her, went off with clamour and shame. And the most devout Benevenuta, immediately afterwards visited by angels, or by saints male or female, and consoled by them in manifold ways, remained in manifold joy and gladness, for as the sufferings of Christ abounded in her, so also through Jesus did her consolation abound. And since for almost the whole time of her life she had led so very devout a life, as has been briefly described in these few words written immediately above, she longed to be dissolved and to be with Christ, especially after, rapt in spirit in the church, she had foretasted those sweetnesses. She did not long to depart from this life for this reason, and to escape the pressures of the world, and the troubles of the demons, and the pains of the flesh, and the infirmities by which she had been afflicted too much and beyond too much; indeed she had come to such perfection of patience that I, who wrote these things, heard from her, when she had been perfectly healed by a divine miracle: "Behold," she said, "I am perfectly healed, and it seems to me now that I never had any infirmity; but I am ready, if it please the Lord, voluntarily to endure again all the infirmities that I have had." But she longed to be dissolved for this reason, that she might come to those sweetnesses which she had foretasted, and that she might return to Him who had made her for Himself, and her heart was restless until it returned to Him. Hence those persons whom she believed to fear and love God * she often asked to pray for her, that the Lord would take her from this life: for this reason she often asked me, who wrote these things, about this. She did likewise with the angels and other saints, who appeared to her very frequently, as has often been described above, that they should pray the Lord for her, that He would lead her out of this wicked world; and they told her to bear it patiently, for her hour had not yet come. But because holy desires grow by delay, and if they fail by delay, they are not true desires; this desire of hers, namely to be dissolved and to be with Christ, grew daily, and still did so greatly, because she had two great consolations in this life, on account of which she bore more patiently the exile of the present pilgrimage, which she was now losing: one was taken away wholly, the other was taken away in part.
[86] It was a great solace to her to have Brother Conrad as confessor, The one greater consolation which she had in this life was Brother Conrad, her confessor. And no wonder, for it had been divinely revealed to Benevenuta through blessed Dominic, as has already been described above, that it had been brought about by divine Providence that Brother Conrad should enter the Order of Friars Preachers, and should have special care of Benevenuta: and she was to be ruled by his counsel and to obey him in all things. It had also been promised to Benevenuta by the Lord that at the end of her life he would be with her and would commit her to burial; for which reason, when he had been occupied in the convent of Trent and in the convent of Treviso in the office of prior, her desire could never rest until after he had been released from the priorship and assigned to the convent of Cividale. And no wonder, for she had revealed to him all the wonders of God which God had wrought in her, yet under the seal of secrecy, that he was to reveal them to no one as long as she lived in this life, and in these things she was to be ruled and directed by his counsel. But now Brother Conrad had newly received letters from the prior provincial, that he had been elected prior of the convent of Verona d, and that he should go to the said * to carry out the office of prior. Hearing this, Benevenuta began to be inconsolably troubled.
[87] and to be in the church of St. Dominic. The second consolation which Benevenuta had in this world was to be in the church of blessed Dominic: whence, if it could have been done, she would never have wished to leave it either by day or by night. That consolation was taken from her in part for two reasons: one was the weakness of her nature because of her vigils and abstinences, and also because of certain infirmities, on account of which she could not come to the church without much burden. The other reason why she could not come to the church was the lack of company, for Maria her sister, who had been accustomed to accompany her, could not now accompany her as before, because now the governing of the house within and without fell upon her *, and the care of the household.
ANNOTATA.
* facie tempore Missæ,
* sancti
* admirantibus
* aliquis
* omits.
* omits.
* adds cum
* conventus
* eam
* ut subterfugeret
* Dominum
* adds conventum
* illi
CHAPTER XI.
Blessed Benevenuta obtains from God that she may die. Her last revelations. Her death.
She asks and obtains from God that she may die. How she asked to die and was heard. The most devout Benevenuta, therefore, considering these things, that no consolation remained to her in this life, when she had reached the thirty-eighth year of her age a, on the eighth day before the feast of Simon and Jude, having entered the church of blessed Dominic with two devout widows (one of whom was her sister according to the flesh, formerly the wife of her kinsman, whose soul she had brought out of the pains of purgatory by her merits, as has been described above: the other widow was the sister of the devout widow Jacobina, Benevenuta's confidante and companion), looking at the crucifix with much affection and desire, in the hearing of those two widows, prayed thus: "Lord God Jesus Christ, by that precious blood which You shed for us sinners upon Your most holy cross, I ask You to take me from this life, if it is expedient for my soul." And those two widows, hearing the prayer made with such affection and desire, fearing lest it be heard, her sister said to her: "Do not speak so, Benevenuta, for I could not live in this life without you except with much desolation." But she with a joyful face answered her: "Do you not believe that I could help you better if I were with the Lord Jesus Christ in the life of glory than if I were with you in this vale of misery?" The other widow too, with much anguish, said to her: "Lady Benevenuta, do not abandon us, for you are the great hope of all of us who love you and have devotion towards you, and our great consolation." Nevertheless her prayer was heard; for on that day a certain pain of the breast seized her, which did not leave her until death.
[89] She lies sick What signs appeared as death approached. On that night and the preceding one, when the third and fourth part of the night had passed, two women who were sisters to each other, of that quarter, who had stayed awake until that hour, saw a globe of light coming down above the house of the aforesaid virgin. On the following morning there came
to the church, the pain not ceasing, but rather growing worse, and when afterwards she was returning home supported by her sister's help, on the very way the infirmity grew so strong that she had to open her mouth, and on the very road she threw up a great quantity of blood. On the third and fourth day, although the pain did not cease but rather increased, and although she was weaker from the preceding shedding of blood, and still did not cease to spit blood, nevertheless she wished to visit the church. But on the fourth and the two following days she had to lie down, the pain growing stronger: and within this time, having devoutly received all the sacraments of the Church, and moreover having disposed all her affairs in good order, she chose to be buried in the tomb in which lay the bodies of her father and mother, which is placed immediately before the doors of the church of blessed Dominic b. Moreover, she was visited during these three days by a multitude of devout and honourable persons, religious and secular, who had great devotion towards her.
[90] And after three days she dies. How she departed from this life. On that night which followed these three days, when almost all were thinking that she would depart from this life, as indeed happened, many devout and honourable persons, secular and religious, because of devotion to her holiness, wished to watch over her, so as to be beside her when her happy soul should be separated from the body. And when the middle of the night was already approaching, she asked what hour it was now, and it was answered her that the middle of the night had already passed. Then she said: "Send for the Friars, for they might wait too long." Meanwhile our Matins were rung. And Brother James, who was her brother according to the flesh, made himself ready, and came to her first. After him came * Brother Conrad, prior of Verona, her confessor, and they found her failing, but still understanding something and also recognizing them. Then the prior of Verona began to comfort her and to say: "Daughter, fear nothing, but stand firm, and be secure, and say the Credo in Deum as you can." And the prior of Verona and the Friars who were there began to pray for her, and in the usual way carried through the office of the commendation of the soul. And Benevenuta's widowed sister held her in her arms, with her head resting on her breast. And then she uttered a great groan with a roar, and with a darkened look; and after a little while a cheerful and joyful face was restored to her, as if smiling, looking with her eyes to the right and to the left as if she had been well, and so joyfully and happily she expired on the third day before the Kalends of November, 1292 c. And this roar, and the disposition of her face which she had in death, seems to correspond to a certain revelation which at her great urgency she had had from the blessed Virgin.
[91] As she was about to die How she wished to know what the devil would appear to her like in death. Benevenuta, hearing often how the ancient serpent lies in wait for the faithful in the hour of death, hindering namely the souls of the faithful with despair and various terrors when they go out from the body, wished to know concerning herself what hindrance he was to put before her. For this reason, many days before, she asked with urgent prayer of the blessed Virgin that she would deign to make this known to her. How the blessed Virgin made it known to her. Wherefore the blessed Virgin once appeared to her, making known to her * that the evil spirit would then appear to her very horrible; and she said: "But you be secure, for without delay I will come to your help: and what I tell you now, you will prove this night."
[92] the devil appears. How the devil appeared to her in death. And after the departure of the blessed Virgin the evil spirit appeared to her exceedingly horrible, causing her horrible fears, and saying that she had been given over to damnation , because she had led an indiscreet life, and had killed herself before her time. And when Benevenuta in much anguish called upon the blessed Virgin to help her, and that she would help her as she had promised, the evil spirit answered her: "You call in vain; for it was not the blessed Virgin who appeared to you, but I in her likeness, for so I wished to deceive you." But Benevenuta not ceasing to call upon the blessed Virgin, and the devil in turn assailing her with the aforesaid words and similar ones for a long while, at last he went away confounded; the blessed Virgin with her shining household following, and magnificently consoling the most devout Benevenuta. This revelation Benevenuta had revealed long before to Beatrice, a nun, her sister according to the flesh, who was present over her when her happy soul was going out from the body. For the roar which she had first was because of the sight of the demon; but the cheerful face which followed was because of the coming of the blessed Virgin and her joyful company: whence she then added: "Wait for me a little," and expired. Moreover, long before, namely on the day of the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin, when Benevenuta was cured of every infirmity of mind and body, the blessed Virgin appeared to her with many saints, and promised her, saying: "With all these saints, your devoted ones, I will come to your help in the hour of death." In the hour of her passing a light appeared. At the same hour of her passing, a certain very old woman, entering the doors of the courtyard of Benevenuta's house, saw a certain flame like a burning torch rise from Benevenuta's house and bend * towards the church of blessed Dominic.
ANNOTATA.
* quod
* adds autem
* adds ex
* omits.
* vero
* omits.
* damnatione
* data
* provocasset
* post
* declinare
CHAPTER XII.
The lament of Blessed Benevenuta's relatives. Her praise celebrated.
Many mourned Blessed Benevenuta dead, The lament of the relatives. Then was raised the grief and lament of all her relatives, and of the religious friends, men and women, and of many other persons who out of devotion had gathered for her happy passing. Among whom came a certain nephew of hers, the son of her widowed sister in whose arms she had given up her spirit, and he was the son of her kinsman whose soul she had brought out of the pains of purgatory by her merits, as has been described above; and he threw himself upon her body with a great cry and a most abundant weeping of tears; so that a great flow of blood burst from his nostrils, and he was cured of a certain infirmity of his head, which is called migraine, from which he had suffered for many years, nor did it trouble him any more thereafter. And our Friars wished to commit her to burial on the same day a, but at the urgency and importunity of her brother Paul b and of her sister Maria, because of the great love which they had for her (they wished to take their fill of her in the presence of her body, and to prepare more fittingly the things that were necessary for the burial), she remained unburied that day.
[94] And they carried her into the church of St. Dominic. Then many men of the better sort of the city, and many noble and honourable ladies, with many of the common people of the district, came that day to visit the most holy body of Benevenuta for the sake of devotion, kissing c it with many tears and touching it with rings, and with paternosters d and other things which people carry with them, so that from such a touch they might receive an effect of power and holiness. Our Friars sang the Office of the dead over her. And the nuns of the greater monastery, noticing that she was visited with such devotion by all, many of them asked of the abbess leave to visit so most holy a body before it was committed to burial. And because there were many who wished it, the abbess said: "Let us all go then; I too will come with you." And so the lady abbess came with her whole community to her house. And after they had reverently touched and kissed her body, they solemnly sang the Office of the dead over her with the Salve Regina. And the prior of the Preachers, hearing that the abbess of the monastery was beside the body of Benevenuta with her whole community, and that there was a great multitude of people there, came in procession with his whole convent to carry the body of Benevenuta to the church of blessed Dominic. And when the prior with his convent had come to the body, all things that were necessary being prepared, they returned in procession to the church of Blessed Dominic: and after them the lady abbess with her procession, the bier following with a great crowd of people. And the holy body having been placed in the church, and the Office of the dead begun and finished with Vespers, the others who were not to spend the night with the body returned to their homes.
[95] The next day her confessor preaches her praises before the people. On the following morning no small multitude of people returned for the Mass. And Brother Conrad, prior of Verona, said Mass and preached e, and because it was not the time to prolong the sermon, he told briefly in general certain of her merits of holiness, and in particular recounted two miracles: namely how the blessed Virgin, on the night of the Lord's Annunciation, appeared to her with blessed Dominic, foretelling to her that on that very day she was to be cured of all infirmities
of mind and body by the merits of blessed Dominic. And this was done that same day by an astonishing miracle; namely, after Benevenuta had received the Body of Christ, blessed Dominic appeared, and taking her by the hand led her through the middle of the choir as far as the steps of the high altar dedicated to his name. Where, after she had lain prostrate a little while, she rose healed of every infirmity of body and soul. The other miracle he recounted was when, namely, having been girded with a cord for two years, the cord had entered so far into her flesh that she could not have removed it without cutting the flesh: and this she would not reveal to anyone. Asking God's help about this, she fled to the safe refuge of prayer, and when her spirit, which had been rapt out of herself in that prayer, had returned to her, she found the cord itself placed before her sight as whole as it had been while she remained girded with it. And these two miracles have been set out more distinctly above.
[96] Likewise on the Sunday And many men and women of Cividale, knowing that Brother Conrad had for a long time been Benevenuta's confidant and confessor, and had known many secrets of her holiness, which while she was alive he could not reveal by reason of the secrecy he had promised; but now that she was dead, and he had been freed from the promise of secrecy, desired * to hear from him some of the wonderful works of God which had been done concerning her, before he left the convent and went to his priorship. And for this reason a sermon was arranged for the following Sunday; to which sermon the greatest part of Cividale came together, so that our church was very full of people; in which sermon, after he had preached certain great graces and virtues which the Lord Jesus Christ had conferred on Benevenuta, he preached three special and very wonderful things about her, which are very magnificent and unaccustomed for those living in this life.
[97] he made known wonders Of the miracle of the angel Gabriel. The first was that great prodigy, how she was sustained for about five years not by earthly food, but by heavenly nourishment through the archangel Gabriel; for within this time she scarcely took food once in a week, and this she did at the urgency of those attending her, for she knew well that she did not need it. And that food was of so very small a quantity that it would scarcely suffice a little bird for one day; and after a short while she vomited it up entirely. And the angel Gabriel came down from heaven daily about the ninth hour, carrying with him a shining little vessel, and three times a day he took a little something from it with his fingers and put it into Benevenuta's mouth, and on this food she lived. Nor was there ever any person who had seen her keep down any food in the whole aforesaid time, except the Body of Christ, which she always kept down: plain water too, when she drank it, she kept down well.
[98] more. How she overcame the devil. The second thing he preached was that the evil spirit appeared to her several times, troubling her in some bodily shape, and twice, as she had been taught, she threw him beneath her feet, placing her foot on his neck, and sitting on him and saying: "Be laid low, most vile demon, beneath the feet of a weak woman." And the demon answered: "Woe is me! I shall not dare to appear before the sight of him who sent me: let me go away, and I promise you that I will never trouble you hereafter." The third thing he preached was that the soul of the brother according to the flesh of the prior of Verona, who had lately died, she freed at his urgency from the pains of purgatory by her merits and prayers. Whence the dead man, afterwards appearing to her, humbly gave thanks. And these three things which he preached are better described above. And so was fulfilled what was divinely promised to Benevenuta, and Brother Conrad was secure, from the revelation of Benevenuta, that in whatever part he might be, he would be beside her at the hour of death and would commit her to burial.
ANNOTATA.
* cupiebant
CHAPTER XIII.
Miracles of Blessed Benevenuta. Lights seen above her tomb.
The tomb of Blessed Benevenuta Of the miracles after death. And just as the most devout virgin Benevenuta was most holy in her whole life from her infant years until death, and full of prodigies throughout, so also after death the Lord Jesus Christ willed to confirm the truth of her holiness by miracles of heavenly lights and of various cures of infirmities.
[100] the nuns see shining with lights Of the day of burial and of the signs which the Sisters saw. For she was buried a on the vigil of All Saints, and on the following night, although it was raining hard, three Sisters of our Order, who live in the monastery of the Sisters of Cividale, namely Sister Nicholotta, who is now prioress, Sister Margaret, and Sister Magdalene, saw great lights shining for the greatest part of the night on the front of the church above the tomb of Benevenuta, which is situated before the doors of the church. For that dormitory of our Sisters is so arranged that the Sisters who live in the cells which are on one side, namely on the side of the cloister, can well see the front of our church and also our whole church. And those lights which appear in the luminaries seem to differ from the material flame of fire, for nothing of smoke, nothing at all of redness appears in them, but, whitening after the manner of a silver colour, it flashes with splendour. Moreover, in those great luminaries certain smaller * lights are seen, which, like lighted torches, are distinguished from those great luminaries both by the splendour of a greater light and by the varied motion with which they are moved in them.
[101] on many days. Likewise of the lights. Likewise on a certain Sabbath day after Matins, which day Benevenuta, at the admonition of the blessed Virgin, honoured with special reverence and devotion, Sister Matilda of the said monastery of our Sisters said that she saw as it were two lighted torches before the front of the church, giving off no small splendour all around, and moving little by little hither and thither beside the walls of the church; and when they had done so for the space of a good while, afterwards they vanished. And after a little while there came a certain splendour of light so great that it covered the whole church, and so bright that it seemed that the whole church was on fire, and this splendour too lasted for a good space of time, and in this vision the aforesaid Sister was magnificently consoled. Of the same. Likewise the aforesaid Sister, with another Sister of the same place who is called Eusebia, saw on a certain other night outside, around the church, a great light, and it seemed to them that there was a very great light within the church, for the roof of the church seemed to shine after the manner of glass, so that the whole roof seemed resplendent. Of the same. Likewise on Holy Saturday of Easter the said Sister Matilda saw a great splendour before the front of the church above her tomb. Of the same. Likewise Sister Matilda and Sister Magdalene on the feast of the Trinity together saw a great splendour in the same place. Of the same. Likewise these two Sisters saw a similar light on the feast of the Exaltation of the holy Cross above her tomb. Of the same. Likewise these two Sisters on the octave of the Nativity of the blessed Virgin saw a similar light. Of the same. Likewise on a certain other night Sister Eusebia saw a great splendour in the same place. And in that splendour there was a certain other splendour after the manner of a burning torch. And such a splendour appeared to her five times in one night. Of the same. Likewise the said Sister Eusebia on the night of St. Thomas the martyr saw above the whole place of the Friars so great a light that it seemed the whole place was on fire, and from that light there seemed to go out two lights, as it were two lighted torches. Of the same. Likewise on a certain other night Sister Weremburg, who had formerly been prioress, and Sister Margaret, and Sister Nicholotta, who is now subprioress, and Sister Matilda, and many other Sisters all together saw a great light above her tomb. Of the same. Likewise on a certain other night many Sisters together saw a great light beside the church; and on the same night two Sisters, namely Sister Wilbergis and Sister Leoncina, saw a great light in the same place three times. Of the same. Likewise on the feast of blessed Dominic Sister Wilbergis saw a great light in the same place twice. Of the same. Likewise the said Sister afterwards on two Sabbaths saw a light shining in the same place, and then it was raining very hard. Of the same. Likewise Sister Gisla saw one night twice a great splendour
rising beside the church. Of the same. Likewise the said Sister Gisla, on the day of the Lord's Supper, after a good part of the night had passed *, saw a great splendour on the front of the church moving to three places, and making some stay in them. This light too was seen by twelve or thirteen secular persons, men and women, who were under the porticoes of the houses which are beyond our stone bridge b, facing it, of which more will be said below. Of the same. Likewise on the feast of St. Luke Sister Wilburgis saw the same light in the same place. Of the same. Likewise on the feast of the eleven thousand virgins Sister Eusebia saw it likewise. Of the same. Likewise the same Sister saw the same on the second night after the feast of the eleven thousand virgins; not only these religious persons, but also secular persons, and especially certain persons who were in the houses set before the front of our church beyond our stone bridge.
[102] Other women saw lights around the tomb, How the said lights appeared also to secular persons. Some women who live in the aforesaid houses, on the seventh day after the burial of Benevenuta, saw a great light around her tomb. — Likewise on the thirtieth day after the burial, which was on the feast of St. Andrew, and then it was raining, the aforesaid women saw a great light there around the tomb, and three of them came as far as the little grating which is at the entrance of the cemetery, and they stood there so long that a hundred Hail Marys could have been said, and still that light lasted. And though they had made so long a stay in the rain, as they say, their garments were not wetted. — Likewise on the feast of St. Anthony the hermit, many women who were under the porticoes of the aforesaid houses saw a greater light than usual above the tomb, and three women clothed in white around the tomb. One was in the middle, and seemed greater than the others: the other two were at the ends of the grave, one placed at the head, and the other at the feet: and all were raised a cubit from the ground. And although a great part of the night had passed, the doors c of the church nevertheless seemed open, and those two who were at the ends of the grave entered the church, she who was alone in the middle remaining. And when all these things had lasted for a good interval of time, vanishing they were seen no more.
[103] the house, and other places. Likewise on the day of the Lord's Supper d which followed after this time, on the following night there appeared a wonderful sign of light. For there went out of our church through the upper rose-window a certain light, spreading itself so far that the air, which was then very dark and full of rain, so shone that people could have made out a penny lying on the ground: and this light made no small stay before the church. Afterwards it passed over our garden towards St. Peter's, and the former house of Benevenuta; and making a stay there, it seemed that a great house was on fire, and there rose from that light a certain light white as silver. Then returning towards the house of the Friars Preachers, going round the dormitory and the cemetery of the Friars, and going round the whole church, the said light was afterwards not seen. And this was done in the presence of many persons, men and women, who were under the porticoes of the houses which are facing the church of the Friars Preachers, some having been there before, some called from bed; Sister Gisla de Cella also seeing it: which vision too has been described above. Likewise some religious persons and also secular ones saw many other lights around the church and her tomb, and the house in which she had formerly lived: and they still appear sometimes even now; which it would be long to write one by one.
ANNOTATA.
* omits.
* tota
* luminaria
* fuerat
CHAPTER XIV.
Healings obtained through the intercession of Blessed Benevenuta.
Through the intercession of Blessed Benevenuta a nobleman and his wife Of the miracles of infirmities. Not only did signs of heavenly lights appear after her death by the merits of the most devout Benevenuta, but also signs of healings of body and soul. There was a certain nobleman in Cividale who had a very beautiful wife, who seemed to surpass the other women of Cividale in beauty; he loved her much, and therefore adorned her with the great sumptuous ornaments of noble garments, and so with her he led a vain life in the courts and banquets of ladies and in the various pleasures of dances, and in the spectacles of divers vanities. And although they were so vain, yet they greatly loved and revered the most devout Benevenuta because of the holiness of her life, which they knew. And for this reason they often begged with much devotion the suffrages of her prayers. And on the day on which Benevenuta departed from this life and remained unburied, and was visited with great devotion by many, the aforesaid nobleman also came with his wife to visit her most holy body. And when they had arrived, the lady threw herself upon her with much devotion, kissing her angelic face, and embracing her most holy body with no small shedding of tears, as many other ladies also did.
[105] are converted to holiness of life; And after Benevenuta had been committed to burial, this lady with her husband began to think on the vanity of life, which had passed away like the wind, and on the holiness of life of the most devout Benevenuta, which had been wholly contrary to her own life; in which, though she had had pains, it was nevertheless now finished. They began to be pricked in heart, wishing to change their life; for which reason husband and wife came to a Friar Preacher, confessing their sins generally with true contrition, and giving thanks for this conversion of theirs to God and to the merits of holy Benevenuta: and so, all vanities being cast away, they gave themselves thereafter to holiness of life, and to fasts and prayers. And after the anniversary day of Benevenuta's death had been celebrated, the aforesaid lady, burdened with a great infirmity, began to lie sick, and immediately sent for that Friar Preacher with whom she had first confessed, and began to ask the said Friar to pray the Lord to take her from this life, and she herself also began to ask holy Benevenuta for this. And she told the Friar to whom she had confessed that from that hour when she confessed with him the previous year, when Benevenuta went from this life, although she was young, she had afterwards lived in continence with her husband, leading her life in many fasts and prayers. And in the same infirmity, eight days having passed, and all the sacraments of the Church having been devoutly received, the aforesaid lady departed to the Lord.
[106] likewise a certain virgin, a matron, is restored from illness, In the days when Brother Conrad, Benevenuta's confessor, preached at the time of her burial, and preached the wonderful works of God which the Lord had wrought in her and through her, there was at that sermon a certain devout virgin, who had been familiar and known to Benevenuta, who for five years had suffered so grievously in one of her arms that she could not lift it, nor in any way bind up her head with it. On the following evening, when she was in her house in a secret place of prayer, she prayed thus to the Lord: "Virgin of God, Benevenuta, if the things are true which Brother Conrad preached about you today, I most urgently ask you to help me by your prayers and merits in this infirmity of my arm which I have had for a long time, so that I may help myself with it in my needs, to the honour of God and the salvation of my soul." And after the prayer she obtained the effect of being heard, and was wholly healed of that arm. Likewise there was a certain devout matron in Cividale, namely the maternal aunt of Brother James, lector of Padua, upon whom, from a certain pustule which had arisen under her lip and in her gums, an intolerable pain came. And when, having tried various medicines, she could find no remedy, she remembered that she had certain paternosters of hers set on a little cord a, and how she had touched the body of Benevenuta with them when she lay lifeless on the bier, and she began to call upon her with great devotion and to say: "Holy virgin of God, Benevenuta, because of the great devotion which I had towards you, I touched your most holy body with these paternosters which I have here: I beseech you as best I can that in this great tribulation of mine you deign to help me by your prayers and merits"; and gathering those paternosters in her hands she laid them on the place of the pain, and without delay the pain departed, and the lip with the gums was healed.
[107] a young pregnant woman, Likewise there was in Cividale a certain young woman, pregnant and near her delivery, the only daughter of her widowed mother, who was also so grievously sick of another infirmity that for five days she could swallow neither water nor wine nor anything else. And when her breath was so straitened * that the danger of death was imminent, her mother, who for many days and nights had kept watch over her, began with loud cries to call upon Benevenuta's help, adjuring her by all the graces which the Lord had conferred on her in this life, and especially by that by which the angel Gabriel had so often visited and fed her, not to allow her daughter to die so miserably. Her daughter too, as best she could, with devotion of heart and outward signs called upon her for her help. And behold, sleep seized them both, who had not slept for many days: and behold, a certain woman in a white garment and with a shining face stood by the sleeping daughter, and greeted her too. And when she said: "Who are you?" the one standing by answered: "I am Benevenuta, daughter of the late lord Bojanus." And the sick woman answered: "You are welcome." And afterwards she said: "Free me from this infirmity, lest I die." And Benevenuta answered: "Go to my house." And the other said: "Which is your house?" And the other answered: "The church of blessed Dominic." And having said this, Benevenuta wished to depart, and the sick woman caught her by the garment and held her, saying: "Touch my throat." And when she had touched it with her hands, she said: "Do not fear: you will be well cured." And then the sick woman's mother
woke with fear, fearing that perhaps her daughter was dying, and by feeling her daughter she woke her too. And she said to her mother: "Alas! how badly you have done, mother! I was just holding holy Benevenuta, and she has slipped from my hands, she who promised me health." And then suddenly she vomited up a clot of thickened blood, like a little egg; and then she was healed and freed from all danger.
[108] a youth sick in the leg, Likewise there was a certain youth in Cividale, a first cousin of this young woman whose cure has just been described. This youth suffered in his leg, having an ulcer which kept perhaps the shape of a Venetian groat; in which ulcer neither could flesh grow nor skin be drawn over it; the advice of many physicians having been tried, both in Cividale and in Venice, for a year and a half. This youth had a kinsman, who was the son of the devout widow Jacobina, Benevenuta's confidante. He had received from his mother, by reason of devotion, a small piece of the veil which Benevenuta wore on her head, and he gave some part of this cloth to this kinsman of his who was suffering in his leg, saying: "Take it and put it on your ulcer with confidence, and you will be healed." This done, the flesh immediately began to grow, and the skin to be drawn over it, and within a few days the wound was healed.
[109] a certain woman, Likewise there was in Cividale a certain young woman joined in marriage, who suffered from a certain infirmity which is called a fistula, in the big toe of her foot, and that infirmity had lasted for about half a year, and that toe had grown well beyond the course of nature, for in the course of days much pus had gathered in it, and had made in it little cavities and a hole so large that a small hazelnut could go in. From this hole many rotten bones were drawn out, and from it there flowed so great a quantity of putrefaction that the strips of cloth in which the foot was wrapped seemed almost entirely soaked with putrefaction every day. Moreover the colour of that toe seemed to tend towards blackness, and for the cure of that infirmity the physician demanded three marks from the poor woman. And this woman, seeing that she could not satisfy the physician, and thinking also that she had been a devout familiar of Benevenuta , that she might find for herself any cloth whatever which Benevenuta had used on her body, hoping that if she placed it on the place of the infirmity she would find a remedy of health by her merits. And she searching diligently found a patch-cloth which she had once worn on her foot, and gave it to her: and she, cutting off a small piece of that patch-cloth, placed it on the fistulous toe, and the toe began to change colour, and to turn from blackness to redness, and the flow of putrefaction to dry up, and the holes to fill with flesh, and the nail to grow and harden, so that within eight days the toe was perfectly healed.
[110] Sister Wilbirgis, Likewise on the day of the Annunciation of our Lady, when a certain Sister had died in the house of our Sisters, and the Sisters were occupied with the funeral rites, the prioress sent Sister Wilbirgis in haste to the turn b. And as she was walking in clogs c, she twisted her foot so badly that, falling to the ground with no small pain, she could not move from the place. Hence she was carried by the Sisters into the church, and afterwards taken to the infirmary, where she was in much anguish until Vespers. Afterwards she asked with devotion for some of Benevenuta's things which were kept there, and applied them to the pain, and immediately the pain was entirely taken away, and she stood on her feet, and so walked quickly, only a swelling and blackness remaining in the foot as a testimony of the past infirmity.
[111] Sister Ambrosina, Likewise in the same house of our Sisters there is a certain Sister named Ambrosina d, who for some days endured a most grievous pain about the neck. And when she did not know how to find a remedy, it was suggested to her that she should have some of Benevenuta's things found, and have them laid upon the painful place. And when * she had asked for them with great devotion and urgency, and they had been applied to the painful place, without delay the anguish of the pain was taken away, and the tranquillity of health followed.
[112] the matron Margaruza, Likewise there was in a certain village near Cividale, two miles off, a certain young and honourable lady named Margaruza, joined to a certain man in the bond of marriage. She, from a certain fall, was so broken in the back and in the breast and in her whole body that for eight days she could neither speak, nor eat, nor pass urine. A feverish heat too came upon this fall: whence, both from the fall and from the fever, she came into such danger that all hope of recovery was given up by all her relatives and friends and by all other persons, and all things that pertain to burial were being prepared. This sick woman had in Cividale a certain lady related to her in the third degree; and this lady was the one who with her husband was converted to penance by the merits of the most devout Benevenuta, and has now lately died devoutly, as has been described a little above. To this lady, perhaps a month or a little more before she departed from this life, it was revealed in a nocturnal vision that on the morrow she should go to this kinswoman of hers who was so sick, and tell her that she should make a vow to Benevenuta, whose body is buried in the tomb which is before the doors of the church of blessed Dominic; that if by her merits and prayers it should happen that she be freed from this danger, the first journey she would make outside the house would be this, that she would first visit her tomb, and stretch herself out in a long prostration upon it *, with a candle so long that it could go round the whole tomb, and in her honour and in thanksgiving would have a Mass said in the church of blessed Dominic. And this lady, as had been told her in the night, rose very early in the morning and went to the village in which the sick woman lay, and finding her mother, revealed to her the vision which had appeared to her: and the mother said: "My daughter neither hears nor speaks, so she cannot do what you say; therefore you, to whom the revelation was made, and who know how it ought to be done, make the vow for her; and we will fulfil all as you vow, if the vow, God granting, obtains its effect." And this lady made the vow for this sick woman, as is written above. And the vow having been made, after a little while the sick woman began to open her eyes, and to speak, and to drink, and to eat, and to do the other works of health, and in very few days, to the wonder of all, she fully recovered, and devoutly fulfilled the vow as it had been made.
[113] a nine-year-old boy, Likewise there was in Cividale a certain devout lady named Gisla, who had a son of nine or ten years, who had very many grave infirmities. For he had a hand much swollen for a good three years, and at times cracks formed in it; the fingers too of that hand were all full of knots. Under the arm of that hand a certain swelling like an abscess very often came, from which the whole arm swelled. His neck too was very full of glands, and much swollen, and by some these glands are called scrofulæ . And since this boy was exceedingly burdened with these infirmities for some years, and his parents could find no remedy for these infirmities, the boy's mother, who had known the holiness of Benevenuta in her life and had great devotion towards her, hearing also that God after her death was doing great wonders through her, both by the lights of heaven which very often appeared above her tomb and also by the curing of various diseases, * began diligently to seek whether she could find any of the things which Benevenuta had been accustomed to carry about with her. And behold, a certain religious kinswoman of hers gave her some of the veil which Benevenuta had been accustomed to wear on her head: and the boy's mother, taking it, wrapped the sick hand with it. On the following day, unwrapping the hand, she found it perfectly healed. The boy's mother, hearing also that many persons were taking some of the earth which was around Benevenuta's tomb and applying it to various infirmities, and were cured, sent her son to take some of that earth, and she put it under the boy's arm with that part of the veil with which the boy's hand had been bound, and after a few days the boy was wholly cured of that swelling and of the arm. Lastly she took some of the earth of the tomb, and with that cloth with which the boy's hand and arm had been cured, she placed it on the boy's neck, and the neck began to diminish, and the glands to gather into one, and to come to nothing: so that within a few days the hand and arm and neck, which had been sick for many years, were restored to their former health.
[114] the devout matron Jacobina, Likewise there was a certain devout matron in Cividale, who while Benevenuta was still living had much devotion towards her, and she was named Jacobina, and she had an infirmity which for shame she would not name to me, who wrote these things; and because of that infirmity she went about seeking some of Benevenuta's things which she had at some time worn upon herself. And when she could not find any, seeing that many persons were taking some of the earth e which was beside the tomb, she too took some, and applying it to her infirmity, was entirely healed. Hence, when a certain friend of hers, of whom she had asked before, afterwards brought her some of Benevenuta's things, she thanked her, saying that she did not need them.
[115] the holy virgin's sister. Likewise Maria, sister of the late Benevenuta, who for a long time had served her in her many infirmities, a short time after her death fell sick of a certain abscess of the breast with continual fever. And after the cure of this fever and abscess, there remained to her a certain great pain about the head for many days, and in the teeth and in the gums. And when one day, with this pain, she had visited her sister's tomb, and was weeping over the tomb, as she very often did because of the exceeding love with which she had loved her, she began to ask that she who helped other persons in their infirmities should help her too in this great pain which she was enduring in her teeth and in her mouth; for many times she had helped her in her infirmities. And because Maria had understood that many infirmities had been cured by the earth which was beside the tomb, looking round lest anyone should see her, she took some of that earth, and put it in her mouth upon her gums and teeth: and immediately all pain from the gums
and teeth was removed, and afterwards she remained greatly consoled.
ANNOTATA.
* ideo
* vanis
* coarctaretur
* omits.
* immo
* omits.
* particulam
* segregata
* adds et specialis amica, rogavit quamdam neptem Benevenutæ
* zoculis
* in
* quas
* illud
* omits.
* omits.
* omits.
* adds magnis
* scrofulæ
* miracula
* membrorum
CHAPTER XV.
Healings obtained at the prayer of Blessed Benevenuta in two monasteries of Friuli.
In the monastery de Cella, Sister Matilda, Of the miracles wrought after death in the place of our Sisters. In the place of our Sisters of Cividale there is a certain Sister named Matilda of Istria, who is believed to be more devout than the others, for she keeps much vigil in prayer: therefore more than any other Sister she has seen lights * shining by night on the front of the church above the tomb of Benevenuta. She was a special friend of Benevenuta when she lived in the flesh. She began to be sick in one foot and in one leg, and in her hands, and in her head on one side; for in these parts she seemed to be insensible, and as if dead: so that when she touched anything with these members, or was touched by anything, she felt nothing at all. Many times, while sleeping at night, she was suddenly forced to wake, feeling a strong trembling of her members: all of which seemed to be signs of a paralysis to come, and near at hand. The said Sister, fearing lest she should become wholly useless to herself, and too heavy a burden on the other Sisters, began to be vehemently afflicted, and betook herself to the Lord Jesus Christ, begging with her whole heart with many tears that it might please Him, by the merits and prayers of the most devout Benevenuta, that she should not come to so grave an infirmity, always asking with devotion and much confidence the intercession of her devoted Benevenuta concerning this. This Sister, hearing also that the earth of Benevenuta's tomb had been for the healing of many infirmities, took three little stones which had been in the earth of that tomb, and began to touch her sick members with them, and to sign them with the mark of the cross with such prayer and devotion as she could. This done, all the signs of the aforesaid infirmity departed, her former health being entirely restored, and no small thanksgiving being rendered to the Lord Jesus Christ and to the most devout Benevenuta.
[117] and the prioress Likewise the prioress of our said Sisters, on the vigil of blessed Mary Magdalene, began to be sick of a certain very unusual infirmity, and not a little frightening. On the aforesaid day, before dinner, the fingers of one hand, against her will, began to separate from one another, moving irrationally; and when they had remained so for a little while, they joined themselves to one another and rubbed together most violently; and after a short while, as before, they separated from one another, and sometimes they were drawn most violently backwards; sometimes also the whole hand was horribly turned in some direction; and so, against her will, it did this very often or almost continuously. And after dinner on the aforesaid day, the toes of the same side began to do likewise with the foot, and the toes began to move so very violently that a strong woman could not hold them when, against her will, they were moved in this way. That commotion also passed up to the knees, and this infirmity lasted from the aforesaid vigil until Advent. The Friars and Sisters, fearing lest she should incur a spasm, and so be useless for the whole time of her life, had the advice of various physicians on this, and so in the whole aforesaid time, many potions having been taken and various medicines applied, they could obtain no remedy for the infirmity or help to health. And a certain devout Sister came to the prioress and said to her: "Why do you not do as Sister Matilda did, who, by touching and signing herself with the little stones which had been in the earth of Benevenuta's tomb, was entirely healed by her merits and prayers?" Then the prioress conceived that she wished to do likewise, since the helps of the physicians did not help her, and she found some of the earth of Benevenuta's tomb, and bound it with devotion and much confidence upon her toes, and besides began to carry some of the aforesaid earth upon her body, and from that hour onward she could find upon herself no sign of the aforesaid infirmity. Indeed, from an infirmity of the breath, which she had had for many days, for at times she was as if suffocated, nor could she take her fill * of breath, together with this and another infirmity she was entirely cured, and in every part of her body was entirely restored to her former health.
[118] and Sister Mattiuza are healed; Likewise in the said convent of our Sisters there is a certain young woman named Mattiuza a. She for many days, about half a year, suffered in her stomach so grievously that she could not keep down food; wherefore she endured much weakness and anguish. Hence, when on a certain occasion the infirmity had grown strong against her, she came to the prioress, and began to complain to her of the excessive pain of her stomach and of no small weakness. Then the prioress said to her: "Why do you not do as I did? When I saw that I could not be cured of my infirmity by the advice of physicians, I betook myself to the help of Benevenuta with confidence and devotion. For hearing that the earth of her tomb had been for the healing of many sick people, I put some of that earth on my infirmity, and I carry it on me daily, and therefore I am entirely cured." And Sister Mattiuza, hearing these things from the prioress, was on the one hand suffused with shame and struck with fear; for though she had several times heard from many of the miracles wrought by the merits of Benevenuta, she did not believe, but rather mocked. But seeing on the other hand in the prioress so great and most manifest a miracle suddenly wrought by the merits of Benevenuta on a long and horrible infirmity, she began to be raised up by hope of cure and by confidence. For which reason, doing penance in her heart for the unbelief which she had had concerning Benevenuta, her merits and holiness, she promised her that henceforth she wished to have full belief in her holiness; and that if she were cured of her infirmity of the stomach by her merits, she wished to honour her holiness with a thousand Hail Marys and as many prostrations b; and she asked the prioress for some of the earth of Benevenuta's tomb which she carried with her. Having received it, she laid it on her stomach, and thereafter neither pain of the stomach nor vomiting troubled her any more: but, full health having been received, she began without delay to serve the Lord in common in the convent with the other Sisters, cheerfully and with thanksgiving.
[119] likewise in the Greater Monastery, Sophia, Of some miracles wrought after her death in the Greater Monastery. There is a certain aged lady in the Greater Monastery of Cividale named Sophia, who has led a long and honourable life for more than 70 years, serving God in the habit of a nun. She for more than two years was struck with grievous pain and infirmity in one of her arms: for the bone of the arm had gone out of the joint of her shoulder, as the swelling of the protruding bone showed outwardly. Because of which she could neither work nor do anything with the hand of that arm, but remained in continual pain and affliction. And labouring over this infirmity for many days with various medicines, she could find neither remedy for the pain, but rather the contrary, nor any benefit of health. And hearing that God, through the merits of Benevenuta, whose special friend she had been when she lived in this life, was bestowing great benefits of health on many sick people, she betook herself to imploring her benefit, saying with much devotion and great confidence: "Most devout virgin Benevenuta, help me, your wretched devotee, who in this tribulation of mine can find no remedy either of health or of pain; and so that you may more willingly give me help, I promise you that I will say one psalter, and, saying one Hail Mary at the end of each psalm in your honour, I will adorn the whole psalter;
moreover I will also greet the Queen of mercy a thousand times for you." And beginning her psalter, wishing to fulfil her promise *, as she proceeded in the psalter, so she was helped by remedy of the pain and benefit of health, so that in a few days the pain departed with the infirmity, her former health being entirely restored.
[120] Elizabeth, In the same monastery there was a certain noble young woman, a nun named Elizabeth of Guarmo, who was very frequently sick with a most grievous pain of the head: for sometimes once a month, sometimes every fortnight, sometimes even more often, for three or four days, she was troubled with so very monstrous a pain of the head that she did not know how to find any remedy. And once this pain grew so grievously strong that she could scarcely restrain herself from crying out, and from going out of the cloister, and from going raving through the country c. And there was in the said monastery a certain nun named Beatrice, who was a very special friend of this sick woman, who stood by her, giving help and consolation as she could. This nun had been the sister according to the flesh of the most devout Benevenuta, and she had a veil which Benevenuta had been accustomed to wear on her head, and she made this known to the sick woman. The sick woman said to her: "Why have you hidden from me so great a gift, and have not shown me the remedy for my great pain?" for this sick woman too had been very devoted to the most devout Benevenuta and a special friend, and she had the said veil brought to her, and taking it in her hands, she made a prayer * to Benevenuta, saying: "O most holy virgin Benevenuta, with great devotion and much confidence I come to you, asking your help; for I do not wish to ask of you that you obtain for me from the Lord that He should wholly heal me of this infirmity; for neither did you wish in this life to be wholly well, but rather you wished always to carry about in your body the mortification of Christ Jesus with your most holy flesh. But I ask that by your merits you obtain for me so much mitigation of the pain that it may not take away my reason, nor hinder my understanding, lest I be forced to run about the country raving, and so be confounded for ever." And this prayer completed, she laid aside her own veil which she had on her head, and afterwards bound herself with Benevenuta's veil, and after a very short interval of time, in which one could scarcely say the psalm Miserere, she felt a wonderful change made in her, for it seemed to her that she was not the one she had been a little before, being suddenly changed, namely, from an intolerable infirmity of the flesh and affliction of the spirit into the entire soundness of both the outer and the inner man; and she said to Beatrice: "I feel nothing bad, but I am wholly healed"; and she remained in this health, nor did the infirmity return to her as before.
[121] and Raynildis. There was in the aforesaid monastery a certain other nun named Raynildis d, who for many days suffered most grievously from the pain of migraine. Likewise * this nun too, because she was devoted to Benevenuta, many times asked her to obtain for her from the Lord by her prayers and merits that He would either take so grievous a pain from her, or mitigate it, and for many days she could not be heard. But when the vigil of the Assumption of the blessed Virgin had come, this nun said in prayer to Benevenuta: "O Benevenuta, most holy virgin, how can you leave me, your devotee, to be so grievously tormented in so great a pain? If tomorrow, on that feast of the blessed Virgin so dear to you, you allow this pain of mine to continue, I will not believe that you are with the blessed Virgin in the kingdom of heaven; for if you were, you would not leave me to be so grievously tormented on the feast of so great a gladness." And when the feast came, the pain departed wholly with the infirmity, nor did it trouble her any more.
[122] A woman in labour is helped. Likewise there was a certain married woman in Cividale who for nineteen years * and more laboured in childbirth, and could not give birth; whence all who stood by her despaired of her life. There came a certain devout widow, and she began to comfort the sick woman, and to say that she should have confidence in the blessed virgin Benevenuta, who had already freed many others in a like case, and should make a vow to her, and without doubt await the divine help. And the sick woman declared herself at fault, because she had been accustomed to mock the persons who bent their knees upon her tomb and made prostrations, and said: "O blessed virgin Benevenuta, do not regard my evil deserts, but for the sake of all the grace which God did you in this life, help me in this my need; and if it happens that I am freed by your merits, I wish always to be your special devotee, and I will have your tomb girded round with a candle and burned there in your honour, and the creature to which I give birth I will have named with your name e." And she had a paper given to that widow who had made her make the vow, so that with it she might measure the tomb for making the candle. And when she had come to measure it, before she returned to her, she had given birth to a beautiful and living male child: and she ordered, as she had vowed before, that after Benevenuta he should be named Benevenutus.
[123] The scribe of the patriarch of Aquileia is healed, Likewise Jacobina, the devout widow, Benevenuta's confidante, of whom mention has been made many times above, has a brother according to the flesh, a canon of Cividale, and he is the scribe of the lord Patriarch f, whom she loves above all other persons; and deservedly, for he in turn greatly reveres and loves her. He, about the feast of All Saints lately past, began to be sick of a quartan fever; and at another time he had suffered the same fever for a good year. And after he had had the fourth attack in this fever, Jacobina his sister, with such desire and devotion as she could, poured out a prayer for him to Benevenuta, saying: "O devout and blessed virgin Benevenuta, you know that I loved you, that I stood by you, that I accompanied you wherever you wished, that for your sake I left all my affairs: I know in turn that you showed me great signs of love: I know that while still in this life you found such favour with the Lord that you merited to obtain whatever you asked with urgency; I know that now you can do more with the Lord than before: I ask that you ask the Lord that He deign to cure my brother of this quartan fever; for at another time I experienced how much I endured for a similar fever." And behold, as she asked, by the merits of Benevenuta she merited to obtain the effect of being heard, for in the following attack he felt almost nothing, and afterwards never, and he became sound and strong.
[124] and also the wife of a physician, Likewise in Cividale there was a certain devout woman, the wife of a certain physician, who because of certain infirmities had prepared for herself a bath of herbs boiled in water, and when the water in which the herbs had been boiled was to be poured into a vessel, and the water was then boiling very strongly, through carelessness the water was poured over the woman's leg, so that her whole leg was drenched with that boiling water. And when a most grievous pain had come upon her from this, she remembered Benevenuta, for she had much devotion towards her; and she cried out and said: "O blessed virgin Benevenuta, I ask you by that grace which God gave you on the day of the Annunciation of our Lady, on which you were cured of all your infirmities by the merits and prayers of blessed Dominic, that by your prayers and merits I may be freed from this so grievous pain. And if it happens, I will have three candles carried to the church of blessed Dominic, and burned there in your honour." And the prayer having been made and the vow uttered, without delay all pain ceased, and * a redness remained on the leg for many days as a testimony of the miracle.
[125] and a noble lady Likewise there was a certain noble and devout lady named Palma, in a certain castle which is fifteen miles distant from the city, who had been familiar with and devoted to Benevenuta, for she had well known her holiness; for she was the sister according to the flesh of Brother Conrad, her confessor. And after Brother Conrad had committed Benevenuta to burial, he wished to visit this sister of his before he went to his priorship. After that visit his sister was so grievously sick of a certain pain which came upon her about the kidneys and the flanks that her husband, attending her with the whole household, could find no remedy for the pain. And the lady remembered a certain pillow-cover which Benevenuta had sent her, and which she had laid away in a secret place; and having called her daughter, she had it brought to her, and having received it and applied it upon the place of the pain, she begged with much devotion of Benevenuta that by her merits she might be freed in so great a need of hers from so very great a pain. And immediately the pain ceased, and she began to sleep, and was wholly freed.
[126] Palma Likewise this same lady suffered for many years two other great infirmities, namely an affliction of the womb and a trembling of the limbs; and because of these infirmities she came to Cividale, so that she might be cured of them by medical counsel: and, many expenses having been incurred, she could by no means find a remedy of health. And this lady, seeing that the help of the physicians had not helped her, and that Benevenuta had suddenly freed her from her other infirmity, returned to that most devout Benevenuta with the whole affection of devotion, and vowed, saying: "Blessed virgin Benevenuta, I believe you to be of great merit with God; help me, your devotee, in so great a need; for if by your prayers and merits I merit * to be freed from these infirmities of mine, I promise you that barefoot and in a humble and rough garment of wool, without linen, as soon as I can, I will visit your tomb, and keeping vigil beside it under the open sky, I will spend the night there, giving thanks to God and to you for the benefit of health received; and I will return home in the same manner and form in which I come to you." And this vow having been uttered, the troubles of the said infirmities ceased, and she was never troubled by them any more; but when the devout lady wished to fulfil her vow, her husband began to oppose it, asserting that because of her weakness she could not fulfil the vow as she had made it. Brother Conrad too, who was then there, began to persuade his sister not to expose herself to so great a danger, but in this respect to consent to her husband. But the lady began to press and humbly to ask that, since God had done her so much good, they would let her go. And Brother Conrad, seeing her urgency, began to help her, and
to persuade his brother-in-law that he should securely let her go, for He who had helped her in her infirmities would help her also on this journey. And for this reason, as she had uttered the vow, so she fulfilled it. And over and above these wonders there happened another thing not a little to be marvelled at, for in so long a stretch of road, for it is fifteen miles, a lady so delicate, who had never been accustomed to make a long journey on foot, nor even to walk barefoot about the house, nor to spend the night in vigils, on a road so long and stony, and with such vigils, had no injury in her feet, no weariness in her limbs, no weakness from the vigils, but was as free of all heaviness and pain as if she had remained in her own house; while the other persons who had made the journey with her were quite wearied.
[127] and others. Many other signs indeed the Lord Jesus Christ did through the merits of the most devout virgin Benevenuta, which are not written here, especially in pains which occurred in various parts of the body, and especially in the head, and in the danger of women in childbirth: in all of which, prayers having been completed and vows uttered, effects of health followed without delay; which would too much occupy the writer, if they were written one by one. Some too have been hidden, and have not come to public knowledge because of the shame of the infirmities; and also for other reasons those who received the benefits of healings do not wish to make them known. But the signs of healings are made manifest in the lights and wax votive offerings which are very often sent to her tomb: and sometimes they burn upon her tomb, and sometimes they are carried into the church; by which the altar of blessed Dominic is often lit up through the whole night. Besides these, many genuflexions and prayers are continually made upon her tomb. Moreover many men and women wishing to enter the church, out of reverence for the most holy body which lies there beneath the stone, do not dare to set their feet upon the stone of the grave, but turning aside from the side to the head or to the feet of the tomb, by the corner of the grave, they set their feet upon the threshold of the church. And because of these and the other things mentioned above, her good fame grows daily among the people g.
ANNOTATA.
* luminaria
* ab
* faciebant
* potuerat
* read anhelitu;
* quæ
* omits.
* promissa
* qua
* illud
* It is read in the margin of our codex: Here the codex of the Preachers ends.
* ista
* diebus
* in
* omits.
EPILOGUE.
The Life of Blessed Benevenuta The things said above compel belief in this. And although many things written above seem too unusual and wonderful, yet to a wise and discerning person they ought not to seem remote from the truth, since almost all of them were uttered from the mouth of the most devout Benevenuta and confirmed by her testimony; for they are neither contrary to her merits nor incongruous with the divine goodness. And these things she would make known only to persons worthy of belief, who were suited to hide, as long as she lived, under the seal of secrecy, the things she made known to them. And in making them known she always spoke of herself in the third person, as if speaking of another: "There was a certain person who saw or heard thus"; just as Paul the Apostle, making known his revelations to the Corinthians, speaks of himself as of another, saying: "I know a man in Christ, whether in the body or out of the body, who saw or heard, etc." And when, in the course of her speech, not noticing, she changed her manner of speaking, at times speaking in the first person and saying: "I answered thus, and thus it was said to me," and the like, she stood terrified and suffused with the blush of shame. And then the devout widow Jacobina, her confidante, would say to her: "Why do you strive to hide yourself before me? I know that you are the one of whom you are speaking." Nor did she deny it, but said: "Take care that you do not wish to make it known to anyone; for if it were done, I should reckon it the greatest injury done to me." And the said lady Jacobina answered: "I pledge to you my body and my soul before God, that you may be certain that as long as you live I will reveal it to no one: and if I do the contrary, may the devil receive full power over my body and my soul. Indeed, even after your death, if I survive, if you wish, I will always keep this secret with me." And Benevenuta answered: "I do not say this; but where you see that edification will follow, I wish that you may make it known." And Benevenuta was not induced to make these things known by her own will, but by the counsel of her confessor: indeed at times he constrained her through the obedience by which she was bound to him, especially concerning the miracle which the Lord had wonderfully wrought in her on the day of the Annunciation of our Lady through the merits of blessed Dominic. The manner and form of which miracle she had as yet told to no one, nor did she intend to tell; but Brother Conrad compelled her to make it known to everyone who asked, as she had received in command from the blessed Virgin, as the form of the miracle has been described above.
[129] was written in accordance with the truth. How then is it likely, or to be believed, that a woman who was of such and so great a life, whose life, concerning all the things mentioned above, her confessor confirmed by the testimony of his preaching at the rites of her burial, who also utterly refused that they should be published in her lifetime (which was both faithfully and firmly observed), should speak words, or deeds, or miracles of falsehood about herself? All the miracles mentioned above, which God did in her and through her in her life and after death, also strongly confirm it, the miracles of heavenly lights and of the cures of various infirmities, which followed afterwards. And above all that astonishing prodigy of the archangel Gabriel, how for five years, or about that, she was nourished not by the food of man, but of the archangel Gabriel. Which is proved not only by the assertion of Benevenuta herself, but is confirmed also by the testimony of all those of Cividale who knew her condition: that there was no person who had seen her take food, which she took in small quantity and very rarely, without her throwing it up entirely, in the whole time mentioned above a. But if perchance there should be any person who would refuse to give the assent of belief to the things said above with such open reasons and strong arguments (since it is pious to believe them, and it redounds to the honour of the Order b, and to the great praise of blessed Dominic), he may fear lest what was prophesied and fulfilled concerning Christ the head and concerning His adversaries, namely: "Behold, this one is set for the fall and the rising of many, and for a sign that shall be contradicted," may also some time be said, and also fulfilled, concerning a member of Christ, Benevenuta the most devout virgin, and concerning her adversaries. For if the things which have been described above
and of the most devout virgin Benevenuta proceeded from her mouth, are not confirmed by the strength of truth, but she lied many times, to the injury of truth, in speaking of God and of the saints and of herself, it necessarily follows that she is not a member of Christ, who is the truth, but of the devil, who is a liar and the father of it. Which it is wicked not only to believe, but even to suspect, of such and so great a virgin; in whose mouth, as long as she lived in this life, falsehood was not accustomed to be found. The injury done to her redounds also upon Christ, who will say at the last judgment: "What you did to one of the least of mine, you did to me."
ANNOTATA.
* adds vestrum
* eam
* et quem
* adds non