ON BL. ALBERT BESUTIUS, HERMIT,
BY LAKE MAGGIORE IN THE DUCHY OF MILAN,
In the year MCCCLIX.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The place, the public veneration, the body, the Life, the chronology.
Albertus Besutius, hermit, by Lake Maggiore in the duchy of Milan (Bl.)
BY J. P.
Lake Verbanus is one among
the other lakes of great name and vast
size in Lombardy beyond the Po, The situation of the place: namely
the Larian, the Benacus, and
the Sebine, commonly called Lago Maggiore.
These things and many others the reader will find
in Orlendius in part 2 of the Sacred and Profane World,
volume 1, book 1, chap. 3. According
to Baudrand's measurement, it is XIV thousand paces distant from
Novara to the north, and XXXVI from Milan
to the summer sunset. Upon this lake, in
the geographical map of the Milanese state exhibiting
the Alpine or Northern part, in
Blaeu, there is set the place of S. Catharine, of which
it will be helpful to make mention below, and not far
thence Besozzo among the mountains, which is the very
Italian name of our Besutius. That this place
was the birthplace of the Blessed one Franciscus Maria
Guazzo records in the Italian Life chap. 3, p. 23,
and he affirms that he departed thence
toward Lake Maggiore, that he might explore mount Ballazzo [*], and might find
serves the reader for forming an idea
of the place in which our Hermit washed away the sins committed
in the world, and lived and died piously.
[2] Galesinius thus announces him on this day: In
the diocese likewise of Milan, his cult; the finding and translation of saint Albert the confessor,
calling him indeed a Saint, as also
Auxanus, of whom we treated above, from
he says, we have seen written out the Lives
of the Saints who have churches or altars in that diocese.
Ferrarius in his General Catalogue records him under the title of Blessed:
In the territory of Milan, of Bl. Albert the hermit.
But in his notes he observes these things: His body
is laid up in the church of saint Catharine de Saxo by Lake
Verbanus. With the same title also
he is marked by the same Ferrarius in the Catalogue
of the Saints of Italy; and in the alphabetical index which
is prefixed to it, of the names of the Saints who are venerated
in Italy, he is entered Albertus conf. in terr.
Mediol. III Septemb. Corp. in eccl. S. Catharinæ
de Saxo. But in the same Catalogue, in his Life,
it is narrated that his body, when it had lain hidden for some time,
was found by Domnina, a noble woman of Besozzo, … with a marvelous
and sweet odor breathing forth from it: which
was afterward translated into the chapel of S. Catharine:
and to many who flee to his help divine benefits
are granted; as will be said below.
[3] But the things which pertain to the finding and
translation of the body of the body: are narrated in another manner and a little more fully
in Guazzo chap. 7, p. 91,
which from the Italian I render to this sense: In the year,
he says, of restored salvation MDXXXV, on the XIII day of July,
while certain foundations were being built about the chapel
of S. Catharine, on the side which looks toward the mountain, his sepulcher
was found with the body wholly
entire, as if he had died but a few months
before. It was found by master Zacharias
and master Peter Maria, brothers, masons
of Bersago. When that holy tomb was being opened,
there came forth from it so sweet an odor that
it surpassed the fragrance of balsams and of the other Sabæan perfumes;
whence those who were present remained
stupefied and motionless like statues
from wonder, since they could not learn what
kind of fragrance this was, which lasted
many days.
[4] are reported: There were present there also Master Priest John
Peter Sabbadinus of Caravate, and Master Gaspar
of Leggiuno, besides many others whom I pass over
for brevity's sake: who all, filled with a mind
most well disposed, poured out a great abundance of tears
for the inward consolation
which they had, because of the treasure found.
Today it lies deposited in the chapel of S. Catharine
together with other holy relics. It was found
seventy-nine years ago now. Thus Guazzo:
to which he had premised that the revelation of his relics
happened eighty-five years after
his death.
[5] the chronological reckoning: But neither of these chronological notes holds.
Not the first: for from the year 1535, in which the body
was said to have been found, to the year 1625, in which that biographer
published and dedicated his book,
are ninety years. Nor the second either: for indeed
the death of the Blessed one happened, as I shall presently say, in the year
1359, from which, if you reckon to the year 1535,
in which the revelation or finding of the said body took place,
you must needs find a hundred and seventy-six
years, as will be plain to one who counts the reckoning. And
these things indeed follow the chronological note of Ferrarius and
Castellanus, who fix the Blessed one's death at the year 1359,
whom I too have followed above; but by no means
Guazzo, because he does not combine the times rightly enough.
For in chap. 6, p. 77, he attaches the Blessed one's death
to the year 1450, under the Pontificate of Nicholas V, after
forty years spent in the desert; and yet
in chap. 1 he refers his conversion to a better life
to the year 1316, under the Pontificate of John
XXI, called XXII.
[6] The Life is given from Ferrarius His Life was published in Ferrarius in the Catalogue
of the Saints of Italy on this day, from the monuments,
as is added at the foot of that same Life, of the church
of S. Catharine, which the Brethren called of S. Ambrose ad Nemus
at Milan possess, frequented by the peoples
dwelling by Lake Verbanus:
out of which the history of Bl. Albert was extracted and printed
at Pavia in the year of the Lord MDCI. This copy
I have not yet seen. A Life of the Blessed one in Italian also
Brother Franciscus Maria Guazzo, of the Order of S. Ambrose
ad Nemus of Milan, published in the year 1625 from the Milanese press,
but interpolated with so many
digressions that it is rather a panegyrical oration,
nay indeed a forest of various matters, than
upon the account of Ferrarius, which I subjoin.
Annotata* otherwise.
LIFE
From Ferrarius's Catalogue of the Saints of Italy.
Albertus Besutius, hermit, by Lake Maggiore in the duchy of Milan (Bl.)
The Blessed one's conversion to a better life: Albert a of the family of Besozzo b, under John
XXII, Supreme Pontiff c, was giving his labor to increasing his wealth by
right and wrong. He, being once caught within
Lake Verbanus d in the utmost peril of his life
because of a sudden and most savage storm that had arisen,
vowed that he would change his life for the better
if he escaped alive. The storm therefore being calmed
after the vow, Albert, having returned home,
restored his usuries, distributed his goods to the poor,
and obtained leave to lead a solitary life from his wife,
who herself also, vowing continence, shut herself up in a monastery,
and he climbed a lofty mountain
overhanging the aforesaid Lake, not
without labor, crawling on hands and feet,
carrying nothing with him but a basket, a flask, and
the eremitic life, receiving bread from those who sailed past
by lowering the basket, and water by the flask, on the rope.
There he overcame most grievous snares of the demons
and temptations, being strengthened by an angelic vision.
[2] But when, being fed by angels, he had for a long time ceased
to let down the basket and the flask,
and was believed by the sailors and the neighboring inhabitants to be dead,
by his counsel a church was built to S. Catharine, Virgin and Martyr a certain unwonted brightness appearing about
his hut, at the time when a huge
pestilence was raging, induced a certain priest
to persuade the neighboring peoples that Albert was still alive,
and to hasten to him, that he might bring them help
in so great a scourge. Without delay, many
devices being employed and the mountain at last climbed, they find Albert
having gone forth not far from his cave,
and beg him to succour the people by his prayers
before God. He, using stricter fastings, when
with assiduous prayers he had entreated God and the Lady Catharine, virgin
and martyr, an angel appearing to him,
heard that the plague would cease if he should raise a church
to the aforesaid virgin and martyr in that place;
and he saw, after the angel's departure, a stone of square
form sprinkled with blood, bearing before it the form
of the church that was to be built.
[3] After VIII days, when the peoples returned according to the agreement,
Albert sets forth the angelic answer.
They, the sacred building being presently begun, which in a short time
was completed, are freed from the pestilence: but Albert,
already worn out with age and vigils, [the pestilence ceases. The Blessed one's death: the finding and translation of the body.] being seized by a brief fever,
rendered his soul to God on the III of the Nones of September
in the year of restored salvation MCCCLIX e. Whose body,
when it had lain hidden for some time, was found by Domnina, a noble
woman of Besozzo, in a marble sarcophagus, the earth being dug up,
with a marvelous and sweet odor breathing
forth from it: which was afterward translated into the chapel
of S. Catharine; and to many who flee to his help
divine benefits are granted f.
ANNOTATA.
a Guazzo
after the Prologue, writes nothing either about the year of this Blessed one's birth, nor about his upbringing and his secular life before his marriage: but he thus begins his narrative: In the year therefore of the Lord MCCCXVI … there was .. a nobleman .. Albert by name, joined in matrimony &c. But consult the Preliminary Commentary num. 5.
so great a multitude of ravening wolves ranged over that tract of country
that, coming forth from the woods in troops, they devoured not only beasts, but
also men, women, youths, and children, human remedies being applied in vain
to hinder their fury. Fasts also were instituted,
solemn supplications, and the help of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, was invoked,
and likewise that of S. Catharine, virgin and martyr, and of Albert the confessor.
And when their prayers had been sought before the divine Majesty, that
rage of the wolves ceased, and the peoples escaped unharmed. But that this heavenly
favor, obtained especially by the patronage of the Mother of God, might flow down to
posterity, in her honor they built a chapel near the chapel of S.
Catharine on mount Ballaro: where in the course of time out of those two chapels
one single great church was constructed, as it is seen today,
the sepulcher of S. Catharine remaining in its first form, but enclosed in
the fabric of the church, just as the holy House of Loreto is contained within the compass
of a great church. The foregoing I have extracted from Guazzo's longer account: who
at p. 88 reports that in his own time this Mountain was inhabited by fourteen Brethren.
See above num. 6. He adds at p. 88 that it attained the celebrity of its name
under the patronage of S. Catharine, Virgin and Martyr, and of Albert the confessor,
to whom he indicates that it owes the same, in that it has inhabitants and houses. Finally he records
the yearly supplications, and at p. 89 he weaves a good long catalogue of many
territories whose peoples flow thither every year. And
these things indeed, which I have thus far reported of Bl. Albert, seem to me to deserve
something more than the title of venerable alone, by which
Castellanus names him in his universal Martyrology on this day.