Rose of Viterbo

ON ST. ROSE OF VITERBO, VIRGIN,

OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS, AT VITERBO IN ITALY.

More probably in the year 1252.

PREVIOUS COMMENTARY.

Rose, virgin of the third Order of St. Francis, at Viterbo in Italy. (S.)

BY C. S.

§ I. The Saint's cult, the writers of her Life, the Acts to be published.

[ ] Viterbo, a city of Etruria in Italy, head of the province of the Patrimony of St. Peter, celebrates on this day her once fellow-citizen, The Saint's cult at Viterbo from the Martyrologies now her patroness, St. Rose the virgin, a daughter of the Third Order of St. Francis; who by the holiness of her life, the frequency of her miracles, and the prodigious wholeness of her uncorrupted body, made her fatherland illustrious. She enjoys among her fellow-citizens a twofold festival every year: the one on the 6th of March, which is performed without any solemnity, the other on this day, as we have said, which is celebrated with the utmost apparatus and a most numerous concourse of people: of both there will be occasion to speak below. Further, among the sacred Calendars which make mention of this Virgin, the editions of the Roman Martyrology, although they refer her to this same day, yet do not announce her with the same title. The Plantin edition of Antwerp, printed with the Notes of the most eminent Baronius in the year 1613, calls her Saint; At Viterbo, of St. Rose the virgin: but others, which came forth from the same press, assign only the title of Blessed, in this manner: At Viterbo, of blessed Rose the Virgin. In the same way reads the archbishop of Otranto, Francesco Maria De Aste, in his Disputations on the Roman Martyrology.

[2] On the contrary Arthur in the Franciscan Martyrology marks her with the title of Saint, writing thus: At Viterbo, of St. Rose the virgin, a Tertiary: who, giving herself to works of humility and piety, shone forth with the spirit of prophecy and with wonderful signs. and from proper Offices. With Arthur agree the praised archbishop in the Franciscan Martyrology, Castellanus in the Universal Martyrology, and the manuscript Usuardine Codex of Haguenau drawn up in the year 1412, in Sollier's Additions to Usuard. But from whatever source this variation crept into the Roman one, that the title of Saint lawfully belongs to Rose is established abundantly, both from the letters of the Supreme Pontiffs and by name of Sixtus IV, which we shall recite in the course of this work, and from the proper Office of Rose granted by the sacred Congregation of Rites in the year 1668 for the whole clergy, both secular and Regular, throughout the diocese of Viterbo, and extended by Benedict XIII in the year 1728 to all the faithful of either sex who are bound to the canonical Hours, throughout the whole Ecclesiastical state and Etruria. From these things, I say, it is established abundantly that the title of Saint is owed to Rose, since both in the aforesaid letters and in the Office she constantly enjoys it. The same may be seen in the Office with an Octave granted to be recited of her by the sacred Congregation of Rites in the year 1743.

[3] The writers who have made mention of our Saint Arthur, praised above, reviews in a long series at the present day, Various writers of her Life. and Wadding in the Annals of the Minors at the year 1252, number 17, where he also notes that there are extant several legends of her, manuscript and printed, by uncertain authors, out of which, together with the Process of her life and miracles, he says that Girolamo Vittorio, a canon of Viterbo, put together one; yet he denies that it was printed in his own time. Whether it has now been published I do not know. Pietro Coretini of Viterbo wrote of set purpose a Life of the Virgin in the Italian tongue, gathered, as he says, from her Process and from other authentic records, which he published from the presses of Viterbo in the year 1638. But it is not free from its own errors, as will manifestly appear from what we shall observe in the course of this work. In the same tongue Camillo Maria Rinaldi of Florence, of our Society, published a Life in the year 1677: but since he clings too credulously to Coretini, he is to be held in the same place with him. Another Life Antonio Giannelli, likewise of our Society, printed in the year 1698. He professes in his preface that he will write nothing which he has not drawn from the historians of her Life or from sure records: but among these he seems to give the first place to the same Coretini; whence his historical trustworthiness in some things wavers.

[4] That there once existed authentic Acts of St. Rose, which long since perished, The earlier authentic Acts have perished. we have from the Process instituted for her canonization by order of Pope Callistus III in the year 1457; in which, in article 10, it is thus had: Item, tenthly; that whereas the life of the said blessed Rose had been described and set down in several ancient authentic writings together with her miracles, they were lost through the negligence and calamity of the said city of Viterbo, and burnt with fire; and that of this there is a public voice and report. This irreparable loss was somewhat lightened, if the author of the manuscript Life narrates truly, by certain records, of which he makes mention thus: For her (St. Rose's) commendation and fame I shall relate some things which I have found related in certain ancient instruments by trustworthy and devout persons, and faithfully written down, even as the above-said persons testified that they had heard and seen them from the mouth of the above-said virgin Rose. These persons the author nowhere names, as neither himself: but whoever he was, his Life seemed worthy to be put forward in the Process to be examined and confirmed by suitable witnesses from constant report.

[5] The Life together with the Process of canonization That very Life, together with the Process in which, as I have said, it is inserted, copied from the autograph which is kept with the nuns in the monastery of St. Rose at Viterbo, and sent to my elders chiefly by the care of Possin and Vanni, priests of our Society, I have. That the autograph is ancient and ample the Reverend Father Domenico Brunacci testified, through the Roman province

of the Society of Jesus at that time Provincial superior, in a letter to our Papebroch given at Rome in the year 1676. The chief difficulty, he says, which presents itself in copying the Process drawn up for the canonization of this Saint, is that it will turn out an entire and fairly ample volume, besides the difficulty of the ancient hand. From this last head I think it came about that certain errors crept into our copy, some of which Fr. Vanni corrected with his own hand, and would have amended all, if the nuns had allowed it. I have, he says in a letter given in the year 1681, the Process of St. Rose copied from the autograph. It was not permitted to compare the whole copy with the original; because the nuns of Viterbo insisted that it should be sent back with all speed: I took care to compare the chief parts.

[6] faulty here and there Wherefore I ask the reader to pardon me if in the surnames and proper names of the witnesses to be cited I shall have erred here and there, for on account of the difficulty of the hand both I often, and he himself probably, have had to guess at them. Moreover certain things seem to be wanting in our copy: and this I suspect from the fact that Coretini narrates some things from the Process which I do not find in our copy. The same Life the most eminent Baronius had, as he himself testifies in his notes on the Roman Martyrology at this day, writing: We have received her Acts from the church of Viterbo… Their beginning is: Among others. In our copy nevertheless a certain preface is prefixed, which begins: Since, as Augustine says: and rightly, unless I am mistaken; for the beginning assigned by the most eminent Cardinal runs thus: Among others, however: and that conjunctive particle however denotes the continuation of a discourse, not a beginning.

[7] to be published. To the aforesaid Life is subjoined a certain fragment of another Life of the same Saint, which in the course of this work we shall call the second Life. Its author, having begun by relating the infirmity into which the Saint had fallen, narrates the ecstasies she had in it; then describes the habit of the Tertiaries of St. Francis taken up at the Mother of God's bidding, with many circumstances which come very near to fables: again he mingles in heavenly apparitions. Finally he relates the holy Virgin's exile, her coming to the castle of Soriano, and afterwards to Vitorchiano. Hence, having referred the reader to the earlier Life, he subjoins certain miracles. I shall publish the earlier Life, as being more shapely, entire and more genuine, yet in such a way that I shall transfer into the annotations those things which the second Life adds to the rest, whether truly or fabulously. To this Life I shall subjoin another, divided in the Saint's proper Office into the lessons of the second nocturn throughout the Octave. The lessons of the first day I shall not reprint, because they are a kind of summary of the rest: the fifth, sixth and seventh days, being taken up by other Offices, have no proper lessons: there remain therefore twelve lessons, which I shall publish distinguished by as many numbers. Besides these Acts we have also the Process, which consists of two parts. In the former, signal miracles obtained through the powerful patronage of St. Rose are set out in a long order to be examined by the delegates and confirmed by trustworthy witnesses: in the latter these same, as also the Saint's Life, are proved and confirmed by the testimonies of suitable persons, an oath being taken. The first part I shall print entire; the second I shall deliberately pass over: for since it consists wholly of the examinations and answers of more than two hundred and sixty witnesses, a continual repetition of the same matters and terms would breed a useless bulk for the work and a loathing for the reader. Nor yet will the studious reader be thereby defrauded in any part; for whatever those testimonies have that is singular or worth knowing, all this he will find in the annotations, each in its own place.

§ II. The year of the Saint's birth uncertain: that of her death inquired into.

[ ] The years of her birth and death are nowhere expressed in the authentic records. Nowhere in the Acts or Life of St. Rose which I have read have I found the year of her birth or death set down for certain; nowhere did Wadding, the Annalist of the Order of Minors, find it. The latter he plainly testifies in volume 3 of the Annals of the Minors at the year 1252, number 6, writing thus: I have consulted all her Acts which are current, as also the manuscript Life which is kept in the monastery in which she lies; and nowhere is the certain time of her death expressed. The other he sufficiently indicates by his silence about the year of her birth. With Wadding agrees Vanni of the Society of Jesus, in his letter to Papebroch in the year 1686, in which he testifies that neither in the Life inserted in the Process of Callistus III, nor in any authentic writing (although, he says, I have most diligently examined all the records which are kept in the archive of Viterbo and with the nuns of St. Rose) are the years of the birth, death, and translation of Bl. Rose reckoned. Equally uncertain is the age at which she died. Wherefore I do not know on what foundation Coretini rests, when in book 1, chapter 1, he confidently says that she was born in the year 1240, in the spring time, under the Pontificate of Gregory IX: and when in book 3, chapter 16, he asserts as from the tripod that she ceased to live in the year 1258, on the 6th of March, when she numbered seventeen years and ten months, more or less. Nevertheless Rinaldi and Giannelli agree with Coretini, led, I suppose, by his authority alone.

[9] But other writers vary in fixing the year of her death. Various opinions about the year of her death: Wadding's is set forth Marcos of Lisbon in the Chronicles of the Minors, part 2, book 2, chapter 15, places the Saint's death about the year 1261: Bzovius in volume 13 of his Annals binds it to the year 1254: Ferrari in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy judges that she passed to her Spouse on the day before the Nones of September after the year of salvation 1254, Alexander IV being supreme pontiff: the most eminent Baronius in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology, no year being assigned, thought that the holy Virgin reached the times of Alexander IV, which nevertheless he is afterwards said to have retracted, as we shall see at number 27. On the contrary Luke Wadding, Annals of the Minors, volume 3, at the year 1252, number 6, and after him Arthur in the Franciscan Martyrology, lay down that the death of St. Rose cannot be drawn out beyond the year 1252. Wadding proves this from a letter given by Innocent IV at Perugia on the seventh of the Kalends of December in the tenth year of his Pontificate, which year fell in the year of Christ 1252. This letter the praised Annalist brings forward from the Vatican Register, letter 240. The same Odorico Rinaldi recites in volume 13 of the Ecclesiastical Annals at the said year, number 7, citing in the margin book 10, letter 240; and Antoine Brémond in the Bullarium of the Friars Preachers, volume 1, page 218, taken From the archive of the Order, book A, folio 730. This letter, because it seems to settle the present controversy, I transfer hither entire from the praised Brémond.

[10] and is proved from a letter of Innocent IV Innocent, bishop, servant of the servants of God, to his beloved sons the Prior of the Friars Preachers, and the archpriest of St. Sixtus of Viterbo, greeting and apostolic benediction. If our God, wonderful in his Saints and blessed for ever, is said to have made firm with virtue and fortitude, in the solitude of this life, Rose of venerable memory, so that amid the assaults of the world and the allurements of vices, the wholeness of her virginal flower being preserved, passing through the steep places of the virtues by an unspotted path and bearing brightness in her conscience, she gave forth abroad to others a fragrance like a rose by her example, and at last, according to the faith of piety, deserved to ascend the throne of glory, joined to the choirs of virgins; as the clear tokens of miracles which the divine goodness is said to work on earth attest, lest the lamp lie hid under a bushel, but shine to the acknowledgment of the truth for unbelievers, and for the support of faith for the faithful; by these signs of miracles and prodigies our beloved son the Bishop-elect, the clergy , the council and the people of Viterbo, deservedly, nay rather meritoriously stirred, have humbly and courteously besought us that we would cause the testimonies of the faithful concerning the fragrance of this new Rose, that is, concerning the merits of her life and the assertions of her miracles, to be received. So that she who is believed to enjoy the rewards of happiness in the Church triumphant, may in the militant also be held famous with fitting honour; and she who as a glorious Virgin of God shone before men, may become known as a loving patroness for men before God.

[11] written for the examination of the Saint's life and miracles. We therefore, desiring to follow their praiseworthy wish with kindly favour, since in a matter of such deep judgment it is fitting to proceed with such great caution of maturity that to those who, corrupted by the leaven of heretical perversity, dare to speak evil of the good, and to paint a stain upon the elect, that the beauty of the Church the bride of Christ may be discoloured in her members, no opening may be left of insulting the faithful: we command your discretion, in which we have full confidence in the Lord, by apostolic writings, that you take care lawfully to receive before you trustworthy and lawful witnesses concerning the life and miracles of that same Rose, whomsoever it may happen to be produced from any quarter, and prudently to examine them upon each circumstance according to the form of interrogation which we send you under our Bull, and be zealous to lay up their sayings, faithfully reduced to writing and enclosed under your own seals, to be carefully kept in different places; until, at the request of the aforesaid Bishop-elect, clergy, council and people beseeching us, or of our own motion , we shall see them to be required, that then, having inspected them, we may proceed in the business according to God, as the matter more clearly known shall shape our decision. Notwithstanding the indult by which to thee, son Prior, specially, or to thy Order generally, from the apostolic See, etc. Given at Perugia on the seventh of the Kalends of December in the tenth year of our Pontificate. Of exactly the same tenor is this letter in Wadding and Rinaldi, save that it has not the whole title prefixed.

[12] From these letters of Innocent the praised Annalist of the Minors thus proves his assertion: We adhere to Wadding. From which, he says, I should evidently gather that she died either in the preceding year (1251) or in this very one. For in her Life described by several it is related that she received from an angel the death of Frederick II, which fell at the end of the year 1250. And since toward the end of this year it is entrusted by the Pontiff that a process of the miracles wrought by her be drawn up, it comes about that she ceased to be among the living either in the year just past or in this very one (1252). Thus far he, to whose opinion I subscribe; for what can be solidly objected to this reasoning I do not see, unless someone should wish to call into doubt the authenticity of the aforesaid letter, which no one hitherto, so far as I know, has dared to do. Nay, Coretini himself, and those who have followed him, would rather torment themselves wretchedly than deny that it was given by Innocent IV.

[13] And indeed that it is authentic is proved both by the citations brought forward above from Wadding, Brémond and Rinaldi, The authenticity of the letter is proved: and by the place and time at which it was given. For Innocent IV, raised to the Apostolic See in the year 1243 in the month of June, had already for five months entered upon the tenth year of his Pontificate in the month of November 1252, at which the letter is dated. And that at that time he was staying at Perugia, Pagi plainly reports in his Historical-chronological-critical Breviary of the Roman Pontiffs, where on page 320 and following he teaches that he came to Perugia in the year 1251, and there to the Roman

offended with good reason, remained there in the following year also, until at last in 1253, fearing the violence of the Romans, he withdrew to Assisi, as he has it on page 326, number 62. Moreover, that by the command of Innocent IV an examination was instituted for the canonization of our Virgin is attested by Ciaconius, volume 2, column 103, who says of Innocent IV: At Viterbo he committed the examination for the canonization of Bl. Rose, the maiden of Viterbo. No Acts indeed survive of the process ordered by this Pontiff's command; but these are perhaps the very ones which are said to have perished through the negligence and the calamity of the city of Viterbo and to have been consumed by fire, in the process drawn up under Calixtus III.

[14] The prophecy also concerning the death of Frederick is reported by the Life so often praised, and it is confirmed and by Coretinus himself with his followers, page 69. All likewise hand down unanimously that it was uttered in the year 1250 on the vigil of St. Nicholas, that is, on the fifth day of December (although Giannellus errs in the Roman numerals). Nor is there less agreement in assigning the fatal year and day of the aforesaid emperor, which was the year of Christ 1250, the thirteenth of December, sacred to St. Lucy. Let us hear Pagi upon it in the work praised above, page 316, number 45. In the year, he says, 1250 Frederick, formerly emperor, was extinguished on the feast of St. Lucy, the thirteenth of December, as is the concordant opinion of all writers, if you except a few. Whence the manuscript Life is to be corrected, where it says: But when a few days had passed, news was brought to Viterbo that the heretical emperor Frederick, who was persecuting the Church of God, had died on the vigil of Bl. Nicholas. This delusion seems to have arisen in the writer from his believing that on the very day on which the Saint prophesied, the prophecy had been fulfilled; but that was by no means required for its truth. So much in passing; now let us confirm our opinion further.

[15] our opinion from another letter of the same Innocent Father Vannius of our Society, in a letter to Papebroch given at Rome on the fourth of the Kalends of July, 1686, recites two letters bearing on this matter. The former, which is of the same Innocent IV, to the Prior of St. Matthew of Viterbo, runs thus: Our beloved daughters in Christ, the abbess and convent of the monastery of St. Mary of Viterbo, of the Order of St. Damian, have shown us by their complaint that Peter called Caputosto, priest of the church of St. Mary de Podio of Viterbo, on his own authority, next to their monastery, after the denunciation … of the work and after an appeal lawfully lodged with us, has presumed to construct a certain building, to no small prejudice and burden of the said monastery: therefore we command your discretion by apostolic writings that, the parties having been summoned, you hear the case and, appeal set aside, decide it with a due conclusion, causing what you shall have decreed to be firmly observed by ecclesiastical censure. Given at Assisi on the fifth of the Ides of September, in the eleventh year of our Pontificate. This was the year of Christ 1253.

[16] and of Alexander IV, The other letter which Vannius exhibits was written by Alexander IV, the successor of the aforesaid Innocent, to the bishop of Viterbo. From it we learn that the building of which Innocent was treating was a certain monastery under the invocation of St. Rose. Receive the Pontiff's plain words. Our beloved daughters in Christ, the abbess and convent of the monastery of nuns of St. Mary of Viterbo, of the Order of St. Damian, have shown by their petition that, whereas we had given command by our letters to the Prior of St. Matthew of Viterbo that on our behalf, under pain of excommunication, he should take care to forbid anyone to presume, within the space of a thousand paces to the Communal ford, around all the boundaries adjoining and neighboring that monastery, to transfer a monastery or oratory or regular house; and that if any oratory or dwelling or cloister of religious persons had been built within the aforesaid space, since it would stand built to the prejudice of the aforesaid monastery, he should forthwith by our authority cause it to be demolished … Peter called Caputosto, priest of Viterbo, in a certain house which he holds within the aforesaid space, and which he names the monastery of St. Rose, is striving to gather together certain religious women, to the prejudice and burden of the said abbess and convent; the same Prior neglecting to proceed in the execution of our mandate. Wherefore the aforesaid abbess and convent have humbly besought us to take care to provide for them in this matter with fatherly solicitude. Wherefore we command your fraternity, strictly enjoining it in virtue of obedience, that, causing the said house to be wholly demolished, you proceed in the other matters above said according to the tenor of the letters directed to the same Prior. Given at Anagni on the fifth of the Kalends of July, in the first year of our Pontificate. The year of this letter's date was the year of Christ 1255.

[17] from which it is shown that she died Hence flows an argument altogether like that which we adduced above from Wadding: Innocent IV in the year of the Lord 1253 orders an inquiry to be made concerning a certain building which Peter de Caputosto was contriving in honor of St. Rose, as is plain from the letters of Alexander IV. In the said year, therefore, our Saint had already ceased to be among the living. Her death, however, could not have taken place before the year 1251, since at the end of the year immediately preceding she foretold the death of Frederick: it remains, therefore, that we say she died between the years 1251 and 1253. But now it is not likely that Peter de Caputosto began at once upon the Virgin's death to build a monastery under her invocation. Nor is it any more likely that these very efforts of Peter, the complaints brought by the abbess and the nuns to the Pontiff, the letters obtained from him upon this matter, and in short whatever he attempted in promoting and they in disturbing the work, were accomplished in the space of a few months. Let us suppose for the moment that the sixth day of March, 1252, was St. Rose's last: the eighteen months elapsing from thence to the fifth of the Ides of September of the year next following seem easily to require all the things aforesaid. I set the matter out thus.

[18] Let our Saint have died in the year and on the day assigned; after a month or two the clergy and people of Viterbo, out of pious affection toward their holy fellow-citizen, pressed Innocent under the pontificate of Innocent IV. to order her life and miracles to be examined, since the memory of them still stood so fresh. At their suppliant prayers, by letters sent from Innocent on the twenty-fifth of November of the same year, the aforesaid priest could have been stirred up to snatch the palm of piety from the rest by building a monastery for a fellow-citizen so highly deserving and, as he judged, to be canonized very soon. On the other hand the nuns, fearing lest this should turn to the damage of their own monastery, complained of the injury to the same Pontiff, from whom in the month of September of the year 1253 also they obtained the letters they desired. These nine months, which passed between the earlier and the later letter of the Pontiff, seem sufficient to carry the controversy that had arisen so far that what is reported of it in the said letters could conveniently have been brought about. But since even so they did not obtain the desired end, they were compelled to have recourse to Alexander, Innocent's successor. I should wish the learned reader, however, to be warned here that the earlier letter is reported by me on Vannius's word, who, since he dwelt at Rome, was able to consult the Vatican Registers, as he testifies that he consulted them on other occasions. And hereby falls the opinion of those who, as we said at number 8, think that St. Rose reached the times of Alexander IV, who succeeded Innocent IV. For how could she have lived under the Pontificate of Alexander, when for the canonization of her, certainly already dead, Innocent about two years before the Pontificate of that same Alexander had ordered an examination to be instituted at the request of the men of Viterbo? How is she said to have lived under Alexander IV, when a monastery was already being raised in the name of her as a Saint under Alexander's predecessor? Let us hear, nevertheless, by what arguments the followers of the opposite party attempt to overthrow this our opinion and to establish their own.

Wadding: Sicut.*

others: clerus.*

Wadding: nostro.*

Wadding and Raynaldus do not have Pontificatus nostri.*

§ III. The arguments opposed to this opinion are refuted.

[ ] They are refuted As many adversaries as we suffer in this part rely upon the Acts of the process instituted by command of Calixtus III for the canonization of our holy Virgin. To those Acts and to the Life inserted in them very many openly appeal, as to the most certain of documents, from which it is a crime to depart: whatever is brought forward contrary to these they bend and twist to them as to a rule. I confess indeed that it is asserted in them in more than one place that she reached the times of Alexander IV. Nevertheless those Acts are not of such authority with me that it is not lawful to depart from them, when they conflict with other authentic documents, such as we have produced above. What of this, that those very passages from which the adversaries draw their weapons destroy themselves, and demonstrate a manifest ignorance of persons and times in their authors? I shall give specimens.

[20] the arguments of the adversaries The first article of the process runs thus: In the first place they set down, and, if there be need, they intend to prove, that Rose of the Third Order of St. Francis, of Viterbo, of memory to be revered, some two hundred years ago or thereabouts, in the city of Viterbo, in the time of Alexander IV of happy memory and of the emperor Frederick II commonly called Barbarossa, was miraculously born, etc. And among the witnesses, Nardus Mazzatoste of Viterbo … said that he had many times heard it said that the said blessed Rose lived a Christian life in the time of Frederick Barbarossa. Again, Nicholas Ciaccie of Viterbo … said that all and singular the things contained in the said articles and in her Life were true, and reciting them word for word, and especially that the said blessed Rose was born of a Christian father and mother in the time of Alexander IV and of Frederick Barbarossa, etc. Again, James, son of Master Oddo, of Viterbo … said that it was true … that blessed Rose, born of Catholic parents at Viterbo, lived in the time of Frederick Barbarossa in the highest virginity, etc. Finally the venerable woman herself, the lady Margaret Petruzzi of Viterbo, abbess of the monastery of Bl. Rose, … said that it was true … namely, that the said Bl. Rose lived two hundred years ago or thereabouts, in the time of Alexander IV and of Frederick Barbarossa, etc. I forbear to report more, lest I breed disgust.

[21] taken from the Process: Behold the spring from which the defenders of the contrary opinion have drawn: but how muddy it is, is more than sufficiently clear from the foul anachronism and the confusion of persons with which it labors. Come, let us discuss the matter. They make the empire of Frederick Barbarossa, or Ahenobarbus — who, having died in the year 1190, had already been dead sixty years and more before Alexander IV ascended the Chair of Peter in the year 1254 — his empire, I say, contemporaneous with the Pontificate of the same Alexander, whereas more than sixty years came between the one and the other. But this error, someone will object, turns upon the name alone: for in the first of the passages cited it is handed down in express words that she lived in the time of Alexander IV of happy memory and of the emperor Frederick II, although it is there wrongly added that he was commonly called Barbarossa. And the rest are to be explained to this sense, that when they name Barbarossa they understand Frederick II. Be it so: (for I have no wish to quibble) let them all have meant to signify him: yet then too they must needs concede that all those men erred shamefully in this matter, and so that of these same

men the authority in assigning the time at which the Saint lived is in these very passages overthrown of itself.

[22] whose credit is unsound Moreover, even so they fall into another anachronism, while they connect the empire of Frederick II with the Pontificate of Alexander IV. The former died in the month of December of the year 1250; but the latter began to preside over the whole Church of Christ only in 1254, in the same month, that is, four years afterward: how, then, is she said to have lived in the time of Alexander IV and of Frederick II, when that emperor departed this life under Innocent IV, Alexander's predecessor? The most eminent Baronius doubtless noticed this, who in the Roman Martyrology on this day, using these Acts, tries silently to correct the aforesaid error, saying thus: She was famous in the times of the emperor Frederick, and reached even to the times of Pope Alexander the Fourth. I do not doubt that this manner of explanation suggested by Baronius will be embraced with both arms by all who think with Coretinus: for indeed I find no other way by which they may extricate themselves. Nevertheless the words reported from the Acts sound something else, and carry another sense on their face. Let us set down an example. Would anyone among our posterity, reading perhaps after two hundred years that someone flourished in the time of our Most Holy Lord Benedict XIV, Supreme Pontiff, and of Francis I, the most august emperor — would anyone, I say, among posterity not judge that he lived at that very time in which, by divine providence, the one was happily guiding the reins of the universal Church and the other those of the Roman empire?

[23] Wherefore I judge thus, that all those witnesses whose testimonies we have recited referred from an anachronism their holy fellow-citizen, by a certain common error, to one and the same time at which Alexander IV held the Apostolic See and Frederick — whether Barbarossa or the Second — held the empire, as they supposed, at the same time; which assuredly can by no reasoning stand. Nor will anyone accuse me of rashness for so thinking, if he will not think it burdensome to weigh the few points which I repeat, drawn together into one from what precedes. It is plain, at all events, that it came about from a common error that by unanimous consent they substituted Barbarossa for Frederick II: what wonder, then, if from a like delusion they extended Frederick's empire down to the Pontificate of Alexander IV, as the words cited hint that they did in fact extend it, more clearly than needs any further proof? Truly it is more wonderful that they confused Ahenobarbus, dead some thirty years before Frederick II reigned, with that same Frederick, than that they supposed the empire of this latter to have reached to the Pontificate of Alexander IV, between which and the death of the said emperor only four years intervened.

[24] Nor is a reason lacking by which they could slip into this error. it is shown. Alexander IV, as we shall say below, while staying at Viterbo solemnly translated the sacred body of the Virgin from the church of St. Mary in Podio to the nuns of St. Damian. Hence it easily came about that the name of that Pontiff, as of one who had deserved excellently well of their city, was continually on the lips of the men of Viterbo whenever they made mention of St. Rose. And since from her most welcome prophecy of the death of Frederick II (whom, because he was persecuting the Church of God, they could call Barbarossa) it was established that she lived under that emperor, they could easily hence be led to believe that she was famous under his empire and that Pontificate: especially since Alexander IV was substituted for Innocent IV, under whom it is manifest that St. Rose flourished. Who, then, is to make me certain that witnesses so doubtful did not slip in assigning the Pontiff under whom the Saint lived? Who, I say, is to persuade me of this, even while the letters of Innocent IV declare the contrary? Let us pass on to other matters.

[25] I said at number 12 that the maintainers of the contrary opinion prefer to torture themselves wretchedly The answers concerning the bull of Innocent IV are refuted rather than deny the letter of Innocent IV by which he orders the life and miracles of St. Rose to be examined. Here I make good my word. Coretinus in book 3 of the Life gave this title to chapter 12, which I here render into Latin: Pope Innocent IV ordains that a process be instituted concerning the sanctity of Rose while she was alive. Then after a little he says: He commanded by his bull the Prior of St. Mary ad Gradus of the Order of St. Dominic, and the archpriest of St. Sixtus of Viterbo, to describe her life and miracles and to draw up a process concerning her sanctity, when she was twelve years of age: that he might afterwards canonize her: as was done. Was it so indeed, that St. Rose, a girl of twelve years, was still among the living, and that the Pontiff, already anxious for her canonization, at the supplication of the clergy, the council, and the people of Viterbo, ordered a juridical inquiry to be made into the life and miracles of the same Virgin, testimonies produced from every quarter to be received, and in short whatever is customarily done in the process of the Beatification of the Servants of God to be most diligently observed, that he might afterwards canonize her? A new manner of proceeding indeed, and unheard-of hitherto in a like cause.

[26] and the empty Coretinus's defenders Giannellus and Rinaldus saw this, and therefore, to make it credible, had recourse to her singular sanctity. It will be worth while to hear their words. The former, in book 1, chapter 18, begins in this manner: Since Rose excelled in sanctity beyond what is credible to anyone, it was fitting that honor should be paid her even out of the ordinary course. Wherefore in the same year 1252, on the eighth (rather, the seventh) of the Kalends of December, the same Pontiff Innocent IV sent apostolic letters to Viterbo, to the superior of the monks of St. Dominic in the illustrious monastery of St. Mary ad Gradus, and to the archpriest of St. Sixtus, commanding that they should take cognizance of the acts of Rose, then twelve years old, and should describe all the things which from infancy she had wrought beyond the powers of nature: (a special honor, and, so far as I know, conferred down to this time upon St. Rose of Viterbo alone!) Rinaldus agrees, in whom, in the annotations added to book 3, the following are read, which I here exhibit turned as to their substance out of the Italian: That Innocent dealt so singularly with the virgin Rose came about because she was singular in her most sublime virtues and most prodigious graces: whence it was fitting that she should be exempted from the ordinary manner of acting, who altogether exceeded every ordinary manner of sanctity. So they: but I fear that that extraordinary honor will find scarcely any credit among the learned.

[27] the adversaries' And indeed who would believe her to have been among the living at that time, at which Innocent expressly asserts of her, in the letter given at number 10 and following, that she gave forth fragrance to others abroad like a rose by her example, and at last, according to the faith of piety, deserved to ascend the throne of glory, joined to the virginal choirs, as the clear tokens of miracles which the divine goodness is said to work on earth testify, etc.? Who, I say, will suffer himself to be persuaded that she was then alive, when the Pontiff was ordering witnesses to be received concerning the merits of her life and the assertions of her miracles? So that (the words are Innocent's) she who is believed to enjoy the rewards of felicity in the Church triumphant may in the militant also be held famous with fitting honor; and she who as a glorious Virgin of God shone before men may become known as a devout patroness for men before God. Could the Pontiff have expressed the Saint's death in plainer words? For truly, she who according to the faith of piety deserved to ascend the throne of glory, joined to the virginal choirs; she who is believed to enjoy the rewards of felicity in the Church triumphant — I know not by what reasoning she is to be numbered among mortals. Assuredly the most eminent Baronius understood this Bull no otherwise than of a Virgin already dead, who, as Felician Bussi testifies in the History of Viterbo, part 1, book 3, when he had read it through, wished the Note which he had appended in the Roman Martyrology concerning Bl. Rose to be so corrected that Innocent should be substituted in Alexander's place, and it should be read: and she reached even to the times of Pope Innocent the Fourth. The praised author testifies that it is so read not only in the manuscript corrections at Rome in the Vallicellan library, but also in the later editions, and namely in the Antwerp Plantin edition of the year 1630, before which these words are prefixed: But this last edition presents, after his death, some things which the author himself had noted as to be restored or changed. The Mainz edition of the year 1631 also reads Innocent in place of Alexander.

[28] Coretinus's defenders saw, I suppose, the force of this argument: evasions wherefore, to extricate themselves, they devise a thing incredible to me. Let us hear Giannellus discoursing in book 1, chapter 18. Wadding, he says, believed that Rose had been snatched away by death at Viterbo from the charge of the examination committed by Innocent. But since through these authors (Wadding and Ciaconius) it is ascertained that the pontifical diploma indicated above was given by the supreme pastor Innocent IV; and since through the cause of her being placed in the order of the Saints, taken cognizance of by the command of the most blessed father Calixtus III (which, it must be confessed, lay hidden from Wadding), it is clear that the holy Virgin survived Innocent's life: the copyists must be said to have slipped in opinion in transcribing the Apostolic letters from the exemplar, judging her to be dead, because it is established as a custom that such diplomas be issued on behalf of those who have already departed from the body; which error was the occasion of Wadding's and afterwards of other writers' so thinking; as was acutely discoursed in the Life of this incomparable Virgin, which Father Camillus Maria Rinaldus of Florence, of our Society, accurately described in the language of his country. Thus far Giannellus.

[29] On first reading these things Giannellus seemed to me to be saying and quibbles that that Bull had afterwards been interpolated by copyists, and so that the one we have exhibited is not the pure letter which Innocent transmitted to the men of Viterbo. But after I went back to the sources, I found something quite different. For Rinaldus, whom he praises, in the additions to book 3, page 234, has the following, which I subjoin turned from the Italian into Latin: Which juridical Process, drawn up by the express mandate of Calixtus III, if Wadding had inspected it, he would not with difficulty have believed that she was living at that time at which it (the letter of Innocent IV) was given, on the supposition that Rose was already then dead. It would be no extraordinary case if the officials who copied out the said Brief from the exemplar had erred. And since a like faculty of drawing up a public process concerning the life and virtues is not wont to be granted save of those who are already dead, hence it was easy for those officials to fall into this error. And so, according to the mind of Rinaldus, and hence of Giannellus too, the letter printed by Wadding and the rest is the very one which Innocent transmitted to Viterbo, yet in such a way that, beside his own intention, it had already been interpolated and altered. I explain the matter in few words. Innocent draws up a letter by which he orders a juridical inquiry to be made concerning the life and miracles of St. Rose while still surviving: this letter he hands to his officials to be transcribed: but they, well aware that a like examination is instituted only concerning the dead, believed Rose to be dead: wherefore on their own authority they change the Pontiff's letters, and send them changed to Viterbo. So they appear to think.

[30] But with their leave let me say it: this subtle reasoning appears to me not probable, much less subtle. they are examined. For hence they must needs admit one or the other; namely, either that they gave the Pontiff's letters to be transcribed

on their own authority, or that Innocent gave them the business of drawing up the letter, no mention having been made of St. Rose's life or death. If the first, they charge the officials of the Apostolic letters with intolerable faithlessness, which assuredly ought not to be lightly asserted but solidly proved. If the second, they relate a thing not likely. For how could it have come about that the Pontiff, wishing to honor St. Rose with so singular a favor, and one granted down to that time, as Giannellus confesses, to absolutely no one, said not a word about this peculiar favor to the very men through whom he was ordering his letters on this matter to be drawn up? Was Innocent proceeding so negligently in a matter so grave and so unusual? It is a crime to affirm this of so great a Pontiff.

[31] [The emptiness is shown of the alleged tradition concerning an examination for canonization instituted,] It remains that we examine another argument by which they defend their opinion. Besides the Process so often praised, about which I think enough has been disputed, the adversaries appeal to tradition. Hear Giannellus, book 1, chapter 18: Moreover, posterity received it handed down from their forefathers, perpetually and without any doubt at all, that Rose was numbered among the living when the Pontifical diploma was transmitted. Rinaldus has the same in his additions, page 234, from which Giannellus took, or rather translated, these words. How ancient this tradition is, I do not inquire: two things, however, I hold for certain. The first is that it was born of that other tradition from which they suppose that St. Rose reached the times of Alexander IV; the second is that the former was already flourishing before the men of Viterbo thought of this latter. I prove both. If it is true that the Saint died under Alexander IV, it must be that she was still living among men when the praised diploma issued from Innocent IV, the predecessor of the aforesaid Alexander. Whence from the first tradition the second follows by what they call a necessary consequence: but not conversely; for though you suppose that Innocent IV had permitted the virtues and miracles of Rose, still living, to be examined, it cannot hence be concluded that she reached the Pontificate of Alexander IV: for she could have departed this life within that two-year interval which passed from the letter given in the year 1252 down to the month of December of the year 1254, in which Alexander entered upon his Pontificate. I proceed to the other part of my assertion.

[32] concerning the Virgin while alive: It cannot be denied that two hundred years after the Saint's death that opinion flourished among the men of Viterbo which refers her to the times of Barbarossa and Alexander IV; for the words so often repeated by the witnesses in the Process plainly signify this. But that at the same time the other tradition, which the praised authors bring forward, lay hidden, the deep silence about it in that same Process demonstrates no less clearly. For what cause could there be that out of so many witnesses not one was found who said a single word about a favor so absolutely singular? Could anything more illustrious have been produced to prove the sanctity of Rose than that she was judged worthy, in the judgment of the supreme Pontiff himself, that such an examination should be entered upon concerning her while she was alive in her twelfth or thirteenth year? What cause, then, could there be for so obstinate a silence, unless that they did not know that that unaccustomed honor had ever been conferred upon their holy fellow-citizen? But if they did not know it, then at that time that tradition still lay hidden: and if it then lay hidden, we rightly hold suspect a tradition about a matter so unusual, especially since it openly contradicts the Pontiff's letters and rests upon the report of witnesses whose ignorance of times and persons not even our adversaries themselves can excuse. From all this I conclude that the tradition alleged by Rinaldus and Giannellus has no more strength than that from which it was born. In vain therefore do they seek from it a support for their opinion, since it not only does not strengthen it, but even weakens it not a little.

[33] Further, the letter of Alexander IV reported at number 16 is admitted by Coretinus in book 3, chapter 14, and the conclusion is drawn against Coretinus's interpretation. adding that it is preserved among the nuns in whose favor it had been granted. But he so interprets it as to force it to fight for his own opinion. First he prefixes this title to the chapter: An oratory was erected under the name of St. Rose while she was still alive. Then he relates that Peter de Caputosto, a priest whom (as he himself says) the Saint used as the director of her conscience, wished to gather together certain virgins over whom Rose, a girl of fifteen years, should preside. But as for the house being called in the Pontifical letters the monastery of St. Rose, he judges that from this only it is proved that she, while she still lived among men, was endowed with that title on account of her extraordinary sanctity. St. Rose, he says, was not the founder of this monastery, but the priest Peter Caputosto, as is read in the Bull, in which, signed in the year 1255, while she was living, the Pontiff shows that she was called a Saint. So he, and those who have followed him, think that whatever they find contrary to their opinion is either easily dissolved or favors them. If you bring forward the letters of Innocent IV by which the examination for canonization is ordered, they contend that that examination was ordered while the Virgin was alive. But if you show that this conflicts with Innocent's letter, an easy answer seems open to them, by saying that it came about against the Pontiff's mind, through the error of his officials, that in it she was treated of as one dead. Will you reply that it is unheard-of that an examination for canonization should be instituted concerning anyone alive? So it is, they say; but it was fitting that she should be exempted from the ordinary manner who altogether exceeded every ordinary manner of sanctity. If you object the monastery under the title of St. Rose, you will accomplish just as much: for she was then living, they say, and was to be set over that monastery; and as for the title, no account need be taken of it, for she enjoyed it while alive, on the Pontiff's own testimony. See how wretchedly they must torture themselves to defend a certain popular tradition, the frequent falsity of which is taught by the lucubrations of the learned, who assuredly waste oil and labor if documents so authentic must yield to such traditions.

§ IV. The Saint's burial and translation: what Coretinus and others have written on these matters is discussed.

[34] The Saint's body is buried in a lowly tomb. After the most blessed Virgin's soul had flown away to the embraces of her heavenly Spouse, her sacred body was committed to the earth, not without tokens of sanctity, in the church of St. Mary de Podio, as is read in lesson VI of the Saint's proper Office. Her body, illumined with a wondrous splendor and suffused with a sweet fragrance, was buried in the church of St. Mary de Podio, the ground being dug out and heaped up over it. On this place of burial all agree, and it is so expressly asserted both in the manuscript Life and in the Process, to be printed below. Coretinus in book 3, chapter 16, assigning the site of the tomb more distinctly, says that the Saint was buried at the very entrance of the church on the left side, near the vessel of holy water; and in book 4, chapter 2, he adds that she was not enclosed in a coffin, as is usual at other funerals, but was laid away merely with the earth dug out and thrown back. That this place, after the body was translated to the nuns among whom it now rests, is still held in honor, Felician Bussi writes in part 1, book 7, of the History of Viterbo, where he says that in the same place in which the Saint was buried — namely on the left, at the very entrance of the church — an altar has been erected with this inscription.

> Rose . the . heavenly . virgin . > who . still . blooms . among . you . her . fellow-citizens . > first . hidden . in . this . little . grave . flowered . again . > the . leaf . of . her . plant . does . not . fall . > & . the . fruits . of . graces . are . not . wanting . > the ministers to the sick m: a. p. p.

At what time this altar was erected the praised Felician does not indicate: but so far as may be gathered from the inscription, it is not older than the seventeenth century, since the Clerks Regular Ministers to the Sick are said to have set it up, who at the beginning of the aforesaid century, on the same writer's testimony, were first admitted to Viterbo and presented with the church of St. Mary de Podio.

[35] The prodigy of the bells at her death is examined, Hither also looks the prodigy which Giannellus in book 1, chapter 21, relates to have happened at the Virgin's death: namely, that the bells of this church, in which she was to be buried, sounded of their own accord. I report the matter in his own words: It was found in the memorial notebook of a certain parish priest of those times that at the holy Virgin's departure the bronze bells, which were two in that church of St. Mary in Podio, gave forth sound, no one striking them, for more than one day. Giannellus had received this, as he testifies in the preface, page 14, at Viterbo from Father A. Carriddus, at that time superior of the Clerks Regular who are in charge of that parish; who, being afterwards asked by Giannellus in writing about the foundations on which that report rested, replied, on the same testimony, in this manner: In the year 1673 a certain old man of the family of the Servants of the Blessed Virgin came to our house, and calling to a conference Father Achilles, at that time Provost of the house, asked of him that he might see the bells; and I remember that I too went thither. He found a record in Gothic characters on the greater bell, which has now most recently been recast, and it had been cast in the year 1109. And the lesser bell was less ancient. The said religious man related that he had read, in the writings of a certain parish priest of that time preserved for the sake of record, that both had of themselves given forth sound. Thus far Giannellus, from the letter of Father A. Carriddus. Felician relates the same prodigy in the place cited above, affirming that it is held also from tradition. I have nothing whereby to confirm or refute these things; nevertheless I do not see how, from the fact that it is read in the writings cited that both bells gave forth sound of themselves, it can be deduced that this happened at the holy Virgin's departure and lasted more than one day. Or does tradition perhaps so bear it? But that tradition does not seem ancient and certain enough to find undoubted credit. For what cause shall we say there is that neither in the manuscript Life nor in the whole Process is any mention made of so memorable a prodigy? What cause, I say, shall we say there is, unless that in the fifteenth century that tradition either did not exist, or was at any rate so obscure and uncertain that it seemed to be despised?

[36] The sacred little body of Rose had already lain some months, or rather years, in a tomb lowly indeed, as we have said above, but nevertheless famous for miracles, It is translated by Alexander IV, three apparitions going before. when at last it was drawn forth into the light and elevated the more gloriously in proportion as it had lain hidden the more humbly. The opinion of all writers, founded on the Acts of the process and the manuscript Life, is concordant, that the translation of which we treat was performed by the supreme Pontiff Alexander IV. But about the time there is not the like agreement: we shall examine both below,

after we shall have set out the sequence of the event from the praised documents. While St. Rose still lived among men, burning with desire for the religious life, she went as a suppliant to the monastery of St. Mary of the Roses, which is now called St. Rose's, that she might be admitted into the number of the nuns. Having suffered a refusal, she prophesied thus: Be this known to you, that her whom you scorn to have living, you will rejoice to have dead; and you shall have her. See, if you please, chapter 4, number 22. And that the prophecy was not empty, the outcome afterwards proved: for when Alexander IV was staying at Viterbo, she appeared to him three times, addressing him with these words: Since it has pleased Christ to number me among his handmaids, do thou, whose place he holds on earth, not delay to do what thou oughtest to do: but going quickly to the church of St. Mary in Podio, thou shalt lift my body thence and carry it to the monastery of St. Mary of the Order of St. Clare; for there ought to be the place of my rest. And when the Pope had neglected this the first and the second time, being warned the third time he understood that it was a divine miracle. He rose forthwith in the morning, and went in person with four Cardinals to the wondrous place, and digging out the sacred body from thence, carried it away to the monastery of which he had been warned. So much from the manuscript Life.

[37] Coretinus, moreover, relates two circumstances which must be briefly reported and discussed. The circumstances asserted by Coretinus concerning the burial In book 3, chapter 16, he writes that the men of Viterbo, when they heard that their most holy fellow-citizen was already at the point of death, ran in crowds and full of veneration to her house: whence it could be conjectured that out of rash piety they would violate the sacred body when it was to be carried out, and tear her garments and limbs to pieces for themselves as holy relics. That, to meet this evil, the Saint's death was for some time concealed from the people, and the funeral secretly committed to the earth. Further, that this was done by the mandate of Alexander IV, he hands down in the Chronological Summary of the bishops of Viterbo, saying: But on the sixth day of March, Rose, the virgin of Viterbo, distinguished for sanctity and famous for countless miracles, fell asleep in the Lord. Whose body the Pontiff (Alexander IV) ordered to be buried secretly, lest a tumult should arise among the people by reason of devotion. What is to be thought of this mandate of Alexander is clear from what was said above about the year of her death, and from what is to be said about the time of the translation: wherefore I proceed to other matters.

[38] The same author in book 4, chapters 1 and 2, and after him Rinaldus and Giannellus, adorn the finding of the body with a certain prodigy, and the translation are discussed. which I would wish better proved before I give it credit. They say that St. Rose, when she was now appearing to the Pontiff the third time, gave him this sign for finding her body: that where he should see a rose flowering from the floor of the church, there he need not doubt that her body rested. That the Pontiff, roused by these promises, hastened together with the Cardinals and the clergy to the designated church, and having found a rose at the very entrance, dug out the earth with a mattock, and at last discovered the sacred little body, most like to one alive, not without astonishment to himself and to all the bystanders. Whence Coretinus learned these things about that rose, I do not know: certainly in the whole Life and Acts of the process which I have, no mention anywhere is made of a rose sprung up at the translation, although the translation is many times recalled. Ricciardus Tome indeed has these words in his testimony: Over whose (Rose's) tomb a certain rose was miraculously born, but he does not add that that miracle happened at the translation, or that it had been promised to Alexander IV by the Saint herself as a sign for finding her body. Besides, the testimony of Ricciardus alone, while the other witnesses are silent, is suspect to me; especially since he premises that he had learned many of the things to which he testifies from a certain paternal grandmother of his, when he himself was a boy of sixteen years and she was sixty-five years and more: hence I fear that this rose is to be relegated to old wives' tales. Perhaps someone has interpreted in a proper sense something said metaphorically about St. Rose's body found in that same place. Certainly the universal silence of all the other witnesses leaves the matter at the very least doubtful.

[39] That translation was not performed There remains the controversy about the year in which this translation was performed. Occasion for error was furnished by the manuscript Life and the Acts of the process, in which it is asserted to have happened in the eighteenth month after her death; but how improbably, is plain from §§2 and 3, where we showed that the Saint had certainly already departed this life in the year 1252, and indeed in the month of March, as is the common opinion: whence it follows that she had already been dead thirty-three months before Alexander IV was created Pontiff. It will nevertheless be worth while to have examined the opinions of others who do not think with us about the year of her death, and by the same labor to have refuted the arguments which they draw from the time of the translation for establishing the year of her death. In the first place occurs the opinion of Coretinus, who in book 3, chapter 16, says: She died (or rather was born, that she might live forever) in the year 1258, on the sixth of March, being about seventeen years and ten months old. But in book 4, chapters 1 and 2, he fixes the translation to the fourth of September of the year 1260. He does the same in the Chronological Summary in these words: Alexander in the year 1260 returned to Viterbo with his whole court, and residing there had three visions in the morning hours of the holy virgin Rose of Viterbo, after the eighteenth month from her death. Warned by her speech, he translated her body from the church of St. Mary de Podio, on the fourth day of September of the same year, to the monastery of her name with solemn pomp.

[40] in the eighteenth month after her death, in the year 1260 This opinion destroys itself, in that from the Saint's death, met on the sixth of March of the year 1258, down to the fourth of September, 1260, it counts only eighteen months, whereas nearly thirty intervene. This error was detected and amended in the Saint's proper Offices printed in the years 1668, 1728, and 1743 with the approval of the Sacred Congregation of Rites; in which about thirty months are counted between the Virgin's death and the translation of her body. But saving the respect due to the Sacred Congregation of Rites, let it be permitted to say that this opinion too does not seem sufficiently conformable to the truth, as has been shown in the two preceding paragraphs. Besides, it tells against Coretinus that Alexander does not seem to have resided in the said year 1260 at Viterbo, but at Anagni. This is gathered from various of his letters which Raynaldus exhibits in his Annals at this year. And at the year 1258, number 6, he asserts that he set out at the beginning of September from Viterbo to Anagni, and stayed there about two years, as, he says, his letters show. And that he had not yet departed from Anagni in the month of September of the year 1260 is drawn from the letter to the bishops of Prague and Olmütz given at Anagni on the second of the Nones of October, in the sixth year. Coretinus indeed says in the Chronological Summary that the aforesaid Pontiff went to Viterbo in that year to see his palace recently enlarged, but he does not prove it. But let it be as Coretinus will; it will not yet become likely that the translation of St. Rose was carried out in the eighteenth or the thirtieth month after her death. See what was said in the preceding paragraphs.

[41] Further, lest anyone here object to me our own Papebroch, as Coretinus will have it; a few things are to be noted out of his own mind. In the Chronological-historical Attempt at a catalogue of the Roman Pontiffs he adopted the words of Coretinus already recounted. But afterwards he recognized his error; and as he was a great lover of truth, lest anyone should fall into the same by his example, he noted the following in the margin with his own hand. This from Coretinus, a writer of small credit with me, after I observed how foully he was deluded concerning the death of Bl. Rose of Viterbo, whose Life nevertheless he wrote professedly in a separate little book. For there and here he asserts that she died in the year 1258, in the time of this Alexander, who ordered her body to be buried secretly lest a tumult should arise among the people by reason of devotion; but that afterwards, in the year 1260, on the fourth of September, he translated it to the monastery of her name, after the eighteenth year from her death. Then, with the correction we have given subjoined, he concludes: Accordingly this passage too must be struck out, and the question deferred to the month of September, whether and what Alexander did in her cause. Thus Papebroch: to me, however, it seems certain that the virginal little body of Rose was translated by Alexander IV: for so many witnesses recounted in the Process prove it, and a continuous tradition with no one contradicting, and the manuscript Life: but that an error was made in the time assigned (an error which could easily creep in) the reasons brought forward thus far prove.

[42] Rinaldus, in book 1 of the Life, chapter 20, having detected Coretinus's delusion, nor in 1259, a year and a half from her death, as others hold: enters upon another way. And first indeed he binds the Saint's death to the same year and month as Coretinus does; then he contends that the sacred remains were translated by Alexander in the eighteenth month from her death, relying upon the authority of the Process, from which he thinks one must not depart. But to this translation he assigns not the year 1260 but 1259. Giannellus agrees with Rinaldus in book 2, chapter 1, thinking that by this reckoning the authority of the Process remains whole and unimpaired. But while they are anxious to correct Coretinus's error, they have not guarded against others. For besides the fact that between the year of her death — which we have already shown above cannot be deferred beyond 1252 — and the year 1259, seven years would have intervened, whence will they prove that the Pontiff with his court, as they assert, resided at that time at Viterbo? Truly all the Bulls which Raynaldus, Wadding, Bremond, and others exhibit at the aforesaid year persuade the contrary, and from them all it is gathered that Alexander at that time sat at Anagni, as we have already noted at number 40. It will nevertheless be worth while to confirm this here in a few words. He was still residing at Anagni on the twenty-sixth of July, on which day he wrote a letter to the Minister General of the Minors signed: Given at Anagni on the seventh of the Kalends of August, in the fifth year of our Pontificate. And it begins Mente sollicita, in Wadding, volume IV of the Annals, in the Register of the Pontiffs. Nor was he away from thence on the seventeenth of September; for then he sent another to the Friars Minor with this subscription: Given at Anagni on the fifteenth of the Kalends of October, in the fifth year of our Pontificate.

[43] but more probably in the year 1257 or 1258, some years after her death, From what has been said thus far one of two things seems to me certain: namely, either that that space of eighteen months between the burial and the translation of the body is wrongly asserted in the Process, or at any rate that it must be referred to another translation than that which was made by Alexander. If the first, Alexander could have performed it in the year 1257 or in the year immediately following, in the September of each of which he resided at Viterbo, as is established from the subscriptions of letters which may be read everywhere in the registers of the Pontiffs and in the Bullaria. But if what is said in the Process is true: Had not the aforesaid Alexander departed from human affairs too hastily, he would already have numbered the said glorious Virgin in the catalogue of the Saints, male and female, of God, as he had already promised when he translated the sacred body: if, I say, this truly

be said, it seems to me more probable that the translation fell in the year 1258, nearer to the death of Alexander, which fell in May of the year 1261. And this opinion, which holds that an error crept into the Process concerning those eighteen months, seems to me the truer, as the arguments brought forward thus far prove.

[44] A conjecture concerning the year and a half asserted in the Process. But if anyone should nevertheless altogether insist that no more than a year and a half passed between the day of the body's burial and that of its translation, he must refer that time not to that solemn translation instituted by Alexander, but to another, which could have been made long before within the same church, and which should be called rather an inspection of the body than a translation. This opinion will perhaps seem not improbable to one who considers the few points I subjoin. Let the Saint have died on the sixth of March, 1252, as we said above: soon her tomb, as we have it from the Life and the Process, began to grow famous by various miracles. These prodigies, together with the power granted by Innocent IV of instituting an examination, were fitted to induce the clergy and people of Viterbo to inspect her body and, finding it free from all corruption, to commit it more becomingly to the earth. This, then, they could have carried out on the fourth of September, 1253, in the eighteenth month from her death. But since a few years later, on the fourth of September likewise, that solemn translation was made by Alexander IV, hence posterity two hundred years afterwards, when the Process was drawn up by command of Calixtus III, could easily confound the inspection of the incorrupt body with its translation. From which confusion it followed that they believed that that sacred deposit was translated in the eighteenth month after her death, and so that their holy fellow-citizen had ceased to live under Alexander IV. This foundation once laid, they must needs answer the difficulties objected from the letters of Innocent IV and Alexander: that the life and miracles of Rose while still dwelling among the living were ordered to be juridically examined; that the priest Caputosto wished to erect a monastery under the name of St. Rose for the same Virgin while she yet survived; and the rest, which we have refuted abundantly. It must nevertheless be confessed that what we have just said about the inspection of the body is a mere conjecture, and therefore altogether uncertain. We should have more certainty about all these matters if the acts of the examination ordered under Innocent IV survived, which perhaps were numbered among those authentic writings which through the negligence and the calamity of the said city of Viterbo were lost and consumed by fire, as the Process has it at number 12.

[45] The opinion of the same writers The writers mentioned relate besides that the nuns among whom the sacred body was deposited embraced the Rule of St. Francis, leaving the Benedictine, for St. Rose's sake: which if it is true, it does not a little to display the Saint's glory and the esteem conceived of her sanctity. Let us hear Coretinus, book 4, chapter 2. The monastery, he says, and the church, having laid aside the ancient title of St. Mary of the Roses along with the Order of St. Damian and the Rule of St. Benedict, took up the title of St. Rose with the Order of St. Clare and the Rule of St. Francis; which the blessed Virgin professed as long as she lived. Of the changed title of the monastery and church I am sufficiently satisfied, but not so of the Rule. I do not indeed deny that it could have so happened: for I hold it ascertained that the followers of St. Clare divided into two classes, of which the one observed the Rule of St. Benedict delivered to them by Cardinal Hugolinus, who was afterwards called Gregory IX, while the other was governed with St. Clare by the proper institute of St. Francis. The nuns of Viterbo, therefore, could have passed over from that former Order to the other, that they might thus show how highly they valued the treasure entrusted to them. But since Coretinus cites no document of this matter, and not a few arguments from elsewhere may persuade the contrary, I leave the matter in doubt until something certain be produced.

[46] Truly, if that change of Rule be true, I cannot sufficiently wonder at the obstinate silence of the older writers whom I have seen concerning the nuns' institute changed by reason of this translation, about a matter so memorable and so honorable to the Saint's glory. The manuscript Life has nothing of it, nothing the Acts of the process, nothing the proper Office. Many indeed hand down that the name was given to the aforesaid church and monastery from St. Rose, but of the Rule of St. Francis then first admitted they say not a word, even when it most concerned them to have said it. What of this, that the contrary is asserted in more than one place in the Life and the Process? For in the Process indeed Contutius, priest and canon of St. Angelo, formerly rector of the church of St. Mary in Podio, expressly affirms that that monastery, while the Virgin was still surviving among the living, was a monastery of St. Clare: for among other things he testified thus of the Saint: She wished to enter the monastery of St. Clare, now commonly called el monasterio di santa Rosa. And a little after: Although where her (St. Rose's) monastery now is, there was formerly also a monastery of St. Clare, yet after the body of this Virgin was carried thither, it grew wonderfully and grows every day. But that by "the monastery of St. Clare" is signified a monastery of the Order of St. Clare, is drawn from the Life, in which, at number 23, the holy Virgin, appearing after her death to Alexander IV, addresses him thus: Going to the church of St. Mary in Podio, thou shalt lift my body thence and carry it to the monastery of St. Mary of the Order of St. Clare. What can be said more clearly? But I know not whether it was done of set purpose or by chance that the aforesaid three writers, in treating of this apparition, struck out the little words of the Order of St. Clare and read: thou shalt carry it to the monastery of St. Mary of the Roses.

[47] Nor may you say that that monastery is called St. Clare's in the passages cited by anticipation, it is shown not to be certain. and of her Order, because forsooth the nuns afterwards subjected themselves to her institute: for besides that this would be said gratuitously, the words of Contutius sound altogether the contrary, since they expressly assert that where her monastery now is, there was formerly also a monastery of St. Clare. But indeed, someone will object, in the letters of Innocent and Alexander recited above the aforesaid nuns are called of the Order of St. Damian. So it is; but hence nothing certain can be concluded on either side, since from the church of St. Damian near Assisi, in which the religious life of the Poor Clares took its beginning, all the followers of St. Clare were once called Damianites and of the Order of St. Damian, whether they used the rule of St. Benedict or that of St. Francis: wherefore, even if, having laid aside the rule of St. Benedict, they had embraced the Franciscan, they would not on that account have ceased to be Damianites. Finally, not to be longer, I do not dispute whether and when the Poor Clares of Viterbo changed their old institute: this one thing I say, that it does not seem to me sufficiently certain that it was done by them on the occasion of this translation: and I am willing to change my opinion if anyone shall bring forward anything more certain.

§ V. The body after several centuries remains free from all corruption; it endures fire unharmed.

[ ] The wholeness of the body after several centuries The virginal body of Rose had already lain many months, as we said above, in the church of St. Mary in Podio beneath the earth, when it was thence lifted up, wholly entire and free from all corruption, and translated to the aforesaid nuns. This prodigious wholeness of the body appears the more wonderful in proportion as the place in which it had been deposited was the damper and the fitter, by the laws of nature, to bring on corruption, as Felician Bussi rightly notes in the History of Viterbo, part 1, book 3; where he observes in the margin that the church of St. Mary called del Poggio is situated at the foot of a hill, and thence, by reason of the continual flowing down of waters, is extremely damp. Further, this wholeness of the sacred body has persevered, not without a perpetual miracle, down to our own times. So concordant is the narration on this matter of all the writers who have mentioned the Saint, that no one save foolishly could doubt of its truth. Receive a few testimonies out of many. First, in the praised Process, instituted two hundred years after the Virgin's burial, among the various articles which they proposed to be confirmed on oath by persons of approved credit, the eighth runs thus: Item, in the eighth place, that at her venerable body — which even until now (namely, in the year 1457) so miraculously remains whole and unharmed, whose flesh yields when it is pressed down and, when let go, returns to its state, although it lay buried and interred beneath the earth for a year and a half (or more) without any stain or injury; and every day it is shown to all who wish to see it, etc.

[49] it is shown from the unanimous testimony of the writers The Hagenau codex of Usuard, written in the year 1412, and so before the aforesaid process was instituted, in our Sollerius's Additions to Usuard at this day, attests the same wholeness of the body of St. Rose (whom it wrongly calls an abbess) in these words: At Viterbo, of St. Rose, virgin and abbess, whose body, lasting through many ages, is still shown whole. Fortunatus Hueberus in the Franciscan Menology, part 4, treating of the same Virgin, says: Her body, incorrupt after four hundred years, is visited as a perpetual and stupendous proof of the heavenly life and a lovable miracle by men of every condition — Pontiffs, emperors, kings, dukes, princes, magnates, nobles, and commoners. Illustrious too is the testimony of Luke Wadding in the Annals of his Order, at the year 1252, number 17, writing in these words: The nuns turn and turn again the body, and put upon it more precious garments; and this without injury or loosening of the limbs. They clothed her in the habit of St. Clare, and set a veil upon her head, because of her desire while living to receive that same habit. From which it is assuredly clear that the flesh of that virginal body has remained not only incorrupt but even firm and like to living flesh.

[50] I forbear to report the rest, not to be longer: yet I cannot and by the eyewitness testimony of Papebroch and Sollerius. but adduce two eyewitnesses, and those by no means suspect — Papebroch and Sollerius, formerly, as is plain to the learned world, distinguished promoters of this Work. The former of these, in the little book which he left in manuscript on his return from the city of Rome into Belgium, among the other things which, while staying at Viterbo in the month of October of the year 1661, he judged worthy of note, set down the following about our Saint: The church of St. Rose too, adorned with a frontispiece lately and neatly added to it, is far more spacious than the external frontispiece as drawn would promise. Above the entrance the nuns have their choir; the rest of the ceiling is now elegantly adorned with plaster work: on the right side of the high altar is a place comely with plaster carving, where are gilded lattices closed by leaves drawn inward: and when these were opened, we saw behind the altar, through the clearest crystal, the wholly entire body of Bl. Rose, save that the face and hands, otherwise conspicuous with full flesh, had been blackened by the flame of the burning sacristy; nor have we anywhere hitherto seen a body so entire. The very ample shrine, the whole interior of which was in view, with silken

hangings, was strewn with roses: the Saint's head was encircled with a good large garland woven of silver roses. Thus far Papebroch. More briefly Sollerius adds to the words cited from the Hagenau codex: We saw it (the whole and incorrupt body of St. Rose) in the year 1697, when it still lay open, exposed to those who came.

[51] Nor did it withstand only the voracity of time through so many centuries, When fire reduced the reliquary and the very garments to ashes, but it also sustained the force of fire unharmed, with only that blackness contracted, of which we made mention out of Papebroch, in memory of so great a prodigy. Let us hear Wadding, already praised above. Her tomb was consumed by fire in the year 1357, the flame devastating all that was in the chapel, nay, reducing to ashes even the garments in which she was clothed, and melting several rings which she had on her fingers; and yet it inflicted no violence nor the least injury upon the sacred body, God preserving the body from the fire, to the commendation of so remarkable a treasure, while men and nuns stood astounded. Wadding drew these things from the Process, in which the prodigious preservation of the body from the violence of the fire is juridically affirmed in several places by witnesses there named, on interposed oath. It will be worth while to have inserted one passage into this commentary.

[52] The sixty-first miracle, confirmed by the oath of trustworthy witnesses, runs thus. that the same body remained unharmed In the time also of the Lord, the Lord Pope Innocent VI, in the year then current 1357, a certain wooden chest placed in the chapel of the church of blessed Rose, as it also stands at present, being kindled by accidental fire, was burnt up together with all and singular the jewels [] and ornaments with which the body of the said glorious virgin Rose was adorned and encompassed on every side, below and above. For the aforesaid consecrated body then lay in the aforesaid chest, as it lies even now, nor did anything else in the said chapel remain unburnt except the aforesaid venerable body, which was miraculously preserved untouched and unharmed from the aforesaid fire, as if no fire had been there at all, since all the rest had already been reduced to dust, even to the garments with which the aforesaid body was covered, and the ornaments with which the fingers and the head of the same Virgin were adorned; as is the public voice and report concerning the aforesaid miracle in the city of Viterbo, and as the lady Clara, daughter of the late master Angelinus of Viterbo and a nun of the aforesaid monastery, plainly affirmed that she had seen with her own eyes and had been present; who died some twenty-eight years ago or thereabouts, being set in extreme old age: yet many times in her life she was wont to recount this in order to several persons, and especially to the lady Frances Benedicti, the lady Margaret Paulutii, the lady Margaret Stefani, the lady Magdalen Johannis, the lady Angela Petrutii, and the lady Jacoba Angeli, then and now nuns of the said monastery, and to several others at Viterbo, as is the public voice and report in the said city of Viterbo.*

[53] is proved, Further, the greatness of this miracle demands that we inquire whether the circumstances of the persons cohere with what is said; let us therefore dispatch this in a few words. First, the lady Clara, daughter of master Angelinus, an eyewitness of the prodigy, is said to have died twenty-eight years before the Process was drawn up in the year 1457: she died, therefore, about the year 1429. And since she is said to have died in extreme old age, let us grant that she reached the ninety-second year of her life, and so was born in the year 1337: whence it will further follow that in the year 1357, in which the miracle happened, she was able, counting the twentieth year of her life, to be living as a nun in the aforesaid monastery and to be a witness of the prodigy. Nor is there greater difficulty about the remaining witnesses, who are said to have heard it from Clara; for they could all have lived with her in the same monastery, as is clear from the age of each set down in their juridical testimonies, which I therefore add. Frances Benedicti is said to be sixty-four years old or thereabouts: the testimony of Margaret Paulutii I have not found: perhaps it was passed over through the copyist's carelessness, or the name was badly written out. Margaret Stefani is noted as fifty years old, Magdalen Johannis forty-four, and Angela Petrutii about as many. The testimony of Jacoba Angeli is lacking, unless she be the same as Joanna Angeli, a nun of Viterbo, who likewise is there written as about forty-four years old. And all these gave sworn testimony for confirming the truth of the miracle of which we treat. Perhaps for Margaret Paulutii we should read Margaret Petrutii, who, being juridically interrogated upon the sixty-first miracle concerning the body of the blessed one miraculously preserved from the fire, … said that the things contained in it were true, as all the nuns know.

[54] It escapes another danger of fire likewise Besides this, it is said in the same Process, article 13, that it escaped another danger of fire also, where both are set forth in these words. Item, in the thirteenth place: how the chest and all the things which were above and below the said glorious body, where it was laid up, were burnt by accidental fire, and the aforesaid body remained unharmed without any stain (scorched upon it, that is; for that it contracted a blackness we have noted) and was preserved unstained and untouched by the fire. And how thereafter, after a long interval of time, from a lighted candle which through the nuns' forgetfulness had been left in the said chest, although it was burnt, from the said candle and fire her holy body again remained miraculously preserved and untouched: and this is notorious, public, and manifest. Of the former enough has already been said: the latter is also related at length among the miracles which are appended to the Life inserted in the Process, from which I draw the following into a compendium. In the year 1429 certain persons had come to the monastery of St. Rose to venerate her sacred body: and to satisfy their desire, Margaret Petrutii, afterwards abbess of that place, upon whom the charge of showing the body lay by office, opens the reliquary and lights a pair of candles, the one at the Virgin's head, the other at her feet, for the sake of veneration, as I suppose, according to custom.

[55] After the devotion of those venerating had been satisfied, it escapes a candle left behind. Margaret closes the shrine, the candle which she had set at the sacred feet being through inadvertence left burning. And now the space of an hour had passed when her negligence came into her mind: and without delay she runs trembling with Sister Clara, who had been with her, to the sacred body, opens the shrine, which was framed of boards, and finds the candle burning, but the flame harmless, since it had done no damage save that it had scorched some mark on the board of the lid. But this miracle, if indeed it is to be held for a miracle, seems slight; unless the constitution of that shrine was such that it must necessarily otherwise have caught fire: the former prodigy is certainly far more illustrious, and without doubt exceeds the ordinary laws of nature; and the more it exceeds them, the more admirable it renders the wholeness of the virginal body, which withstood unharmed the violence of the fire by which all else, and the very metals, were dissolved, and so withstood it that it did not lose even its former flexibility; wherefore we rightly read in the Saint's proper Office, approved anew by the Sacred Congregation of Rites on the eleventh day of March of the year 1743: even to this present day it is preserved whole and flexible, to the astonishment of the whole world.

[56] But that admirable wholeness, which the raging element spared, A nail plucked from a finger of the sacred body the sacrilegious avarice of a certain person made bold to violate. The matter is related at length among the miracles reported in the Process, with us in the Appendix from number 3: wherefore I shall here set it out only in a brief report, with certain circumstances added which it has been possible to learn elsewhere. When a certain German, a man of power, was devoutly visiting the body of St. Rose, a desire came upon him of obtaining some particle of it for the sake of veneration. And so, indulging his zeal not according to knowledge, he bargains with the nun to whom the custody of the sacred body had been committed, money being offered, that she should give him one of the nails of the fingers. She, allured by the gold, obeys, and that excellent guardian hands over to the German the nail violently torn from the finger: and he, having paid the wages of iniquity, returns rejoicing into Germany.

[57] Not long after, the simoniacal trafficker, struck by the atrocity of her crime, is prodigiously born again. began to be shaken with wondrous anguish of soul: to the remorse of conscience was added fear lest her crime, which the finger reproached with a manifest wound, should shortly become known. Agitated by these straits of mind and destitute of counsel, she runs to the Virgin whom she had injured, bewails her crime with the most abundant tears, confesses her fault, implores mercy. But while she groans and sighs, she casts her eyes trembling upon the finger which her avarice had disfigured; and lo, she finds a new nail prodigiously grown in the place of the one torn away, like to the rest, save that they were blackish, while this one shone with a translucent whiteness. The nun was indeed astounded; and without delay, hastening to the abbess, she openly confessed at once her own crime and the Virgin's mercy. So it is reported as to its substance in the place cited; where the author immediately subjoins: These things I, who (or she who; for the word is written doubtfully) wrote the above, recall that I saw with the credit of an eyewitness. Now a few things come to be noted.

[58] Certain circumstances belonging to this miracle. Coretinus, describing this miracle at length in book 4, chapter 3, says that it happened not long after the translation; and that the finger from which we have said the nail was torn is the fourth of the right hand. He adds that the aforesaid German, having returned into Germany, honorably placed those sacred relics in a magnificent chapel built in honor of the Saint, where at the time at which he was writing, namely about the year 1636, they were still preserved: but he does not indicate the place; which nevertheless, if he relates the truth, most needed to be done. Finally he concludes that chapter with these words, which I render from the Italian into Latin: The report of this thing was spread through the city and the world with the inexplicable admiration of all: since the nail torn away was carried into Germany, where it is preserved to this day, and on the same finger of the Saint there was seen and is seen another, new and whitish, whereas before they all appeared bloodless and black. But that miracle was confirmed with due solemnity and testimonies, and it was further ordained that there should be two keys of the shrine of the sacred body, of which the one should be kept with the abbess, the other with one of the twelve senior nuns; as is read in her Process. In book 5, chapter 7, he further asserts that the bishops of Viterbo and Orte, when in the year 1457 by the command of Calixtus III they were juridically examining the life and miracles of Rose, went to the body of the same Saint and confirmed the miracle of the nail prodigiously born again: but I, besides the praised report which I have related, find nothing in the Process on that matter; whence one may suspect that those things were omitted by the copyist. I wonder more that none of so many witnesses made mention of this matter: and perhaps it was done so that they might have regard for the reputation of the nuns; for they could not relate that miracle without at the same time recalling the simoniacal trafficker.

* that is, gems or rings

§ VI. The veneration shown to the Saint's body by men of the highest rank.

[ ] The Saint's body, for the sake of veneration So prodigious an incorrupt wholeness of the virginal body drew not only the neighboring peoples but

even men of the highest rank, conspicuous in sacred as well as in profane dignity, to its veneration. There exist very many sworn testimonies on this matter in the Process: receive one or two. In the testimony of Nardus Mazzotoste of Viterbo these words are read: Asked the ground of his knowledge, he said that the body's incorruption is plain to the sight of the eyes for all who wish to see it: and that he himself always heard it said that it was beneath the earth for many and many months; nor is it possible, as he judges, that it should have been preserved in so great incorruption save miraculously. And that continually, out of devotion and reverence, a great multitude of peoples flows together thither, and especially on the day of her solemnity, with the paying of vows for the graces and miracles which are said to have been wrought through her invocation. Nicholas Ciacce in the same cause of canonization testified that he had seen several most eminent Cardinals and other sacred prelates coming full of veneration. It will be worth while, to the Saint's glory, to descend to particulars, and to recount the names of the Pontiffs, emperors, and kings who have venerated the sacred remains of Rose.

[60] Coretinus, in book 4 of the Life, chapter 10, writes this to our purpose about Eugenius IV: it is visited by the supreme Pontiffs, Pope Eugenius IV, moved by the report of so many miracles, came himself to Viterbo in the year 1446, to visit the body of St. Rose with great devotion; where, being thoroughly instructed by the clergy and people concerning Rose's sanctity, he promised at their prayers to inscribe her in the Martyrology and in the catalogue of the other Saints. The same author in book 5, chapter 9, relates that Pope Pius II in the year 1460, and again in 1462, venerated the same sacred relics at Viterbo. Of like mind toward the Virgin was Julius II, who, on the testimony of Felician in the work so often praised, part 1, book 6, on the twenty-seventh day of September in the year 1509 devoutly visited her body, and on that occasion confirmed to the nuns the faculty granted by his predecessor Sixtus IV of reciting the Office of the same Saint in their church and monastery: and he added that he would place her in the roll of the Saints. Finally, in book 7 he reports that Benedict XIII in the year 1727 paid like homage of piety to St. Rose in her body.

[61] Nor is Sixtus IV to be passed over here, who wished to make his mind toward the admirable Virgin attested by an annual gift. he is honored by Sixtus IV with an annual gift. The Brief granted to this end Coretinus exhibits in book 5, chapter 9, in these words: To our beloved sons the Priors and the Commune of our city of Viterbo, Pope Sixtus the Fourth. Beloved sons, health and the Apostolic benediction. Some time ago indeed Pope Nicholas the Fifth of happy memory, our Predecessor, by his letters in the form of a Brief willed, and commanded the Priors for the time being, as also the Commune of our city of Viterbo, that on the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin Mary every year they should offer, and cause to be offered solemnly thereafter, to the monastery of St. Rose of Viterbo, of the Order of St. Clare — as the same Nicholas had learned had been established long ago in times past — out of the revenues of the Chamber of Viterbo, three torches of new wax of the weight of those of the other churches to which offerings of this kind are wont to be made. Desiring therefore that in that monastery the Most High be yet more amply honored and divine worship increased, we will, and command you by Apostolic authority, that, all delay, expense, and every condition set aside, you cause to be made every year on the same Purification just as many, and on St. Clare's three, and also on the aforesaid festivities of St. Rose another three torches of wax equal to the other torches, out of the revenues of the Chamber of Viterbo of this kind, and finally that on the aforesaid appointed festivities you offer them to the church of that monastery, to the praise, exaltation, and glory of almighty God and of blessed Mary and of St. Rose, with the solemnity that is fitting and becoming.

[62] I have recited this Brief on Coretinus's word, who certainly has slipped not lightly in assigning the year he is honored. in which he says it was given: for he says it was Given at Rome at St. Peter's, under the ring of the Fisherman, on the twelfth day of January, 1457; in which year, namely, Sixtus did not yet hold the helm of the Church, since he was not raised to the Pontificate before the year 1471. Rinaldus and Giannellus make mention of the same Brief, who say it was granted in the year 1471, on the fifth of November, as the latter adds. In this, however, these three agree, that they say that in the year 1512, on the fifth day of May, the University of Viterbo in general council decreed that those nine torches should thereafter be solemnly carried to the church of St. Rose, on one and the same day, the fourth of September, on which the Saint's translation is celebrated, by the magistracy, the nobles, the guilds of craftsmen, and the people of Viterbo.

[63] Emperors likewise visit it, That two emperors also, Sigismund and Frederick, paid their devout homage to the body of St. Rose, was attested in the cause of Canonization by the eyewitnesses James, son of master Odo, and Michael de Alexiis, doctor of laws. The latter's testimony is as follows: He himself saw the emperor Sigismund come thither with great reverence to visit the said place, some twenty years ago or thereabouts: and likewise in the year of jubilee the emperor Frederick, together with the Cardinal of Bologna, the protonotary de Odæis, the bishop of Ventimiglia, and other prelates; and that they made very many offerings to that monastery. Sigismund could have done this in the year 1433, in which, hastening to Rome to receive the golden crown from Eugenius IV, he entered Viterbo in the month of May, as we have it from Odoricus Raynaldus, Ecclesiastical Annals at this year, number 14. By Frederick he understands the Fourth, by others the Third, who about the year of jubilee, namely 1450, came into Italy to be crowned with the golden crown by Nicholas V. That sacred prelates sent by the Pontiff for honor's sake, and namely the Cardinal of Bologna, were then with him, is sufficiently established from Ciaconius and others: about the year, however, they do not agree, some assigning 1451, others 1452. These offices of veneration the same emperor repeated in the year 1469, returning from Rome, which he had visited for religion's sake, on the testimony of Coretinus and of Felician, part 1, book 5; who adds that on that occasion certain indulgences were granted to the people by the Cardinals who were in Frederick's train, the Bull of which is said to be still preserved in the archive of the same monastery.

[64] kings, and other princes. Arturus in the Franciscan Martyrology at the fourth day of September has this to our purpose: Charles VIII, most Christian king of the Gauls, coming to Viterbo on his return from the Neapolitan expedition, visited on the day of Pentecost the body of the same St. Rose, virgin. So he, citing the Additions to Monstrelet, volume 3, at the year 1495; in which year Coretinus also notes that Charles was at Viterbo, in his work on the Bishops of that see, page 164. The praised Felician adds two more recent instances, which, before I set an end to this paragraph, I subjoin turned from the Italian into Latin. The first, which from the Life of the Saint, enlarged and reprinted at Viterbo in the year 1702, he brought into his history, part 1, book 7, he thus reports: With equal piety and devotion, in our own age, Cosmas III, grand duke of Tuscany, a most pious and most devout prince, was seen to prostrate himself to venerate the sacred relics of St. Rose, when in the year 1700, by reason of the jubilee of the holy year, after honoring the sacred places of the city of Rome, returning to his own Florence, he passed through Viterbo and there halted with this end alone, that he might pay that tribute of homage to the Saint. Another he hands down in the same book in this manner, but in Italian words as well: It is fitting to set forth how in the year 1725, on the eighteenth day of May, his majesty James III, king of Great Britain, came to this city together with his royal consort Maria Clementina Sobieska, both with this mind, that having entered the monastery of St. Rose they might, by honoring the sacred body of the said Saint, indulge their spiritual delight. I can bring forward more on this theme; but let these suffice.

§ VII. The Saint's house is described, is held in veneration, and is enclosed within the precincts of the monastery.

[ ] The cell of her father's house, The author of the Life which we are to give, being intent solely on relating the more illustrious prodigies which the Saint performed openly, left nothing written about her house and little cell and the solitary life she led in it: on the contrary, mention of it is frequent in the Process: wherefore, that the reader may lack nothing, I transfer hither those things which I have judged to make for illustrating St. Rose's private life and dwelling. At the very threshold of the Process I find this: In the first place they (the witnesses to be examined) set down, and if there be need intend to prove, that Rose of the Third Order of St. Francis, of memory to be revered, … despising the allurements of this world, drawn to the love of the supernal heavenly glory, macerated her flesh with fastings, continual vigils, hard chastisements, and a hair-shirt, out of charity and a great affection toward almighty God; always content with the meanest habit and girdle and rough tunics, she prayed and contemplated with very great humility and subjection in a most narrow little cell after the manner of a prison. In almost as many words the venerable lady Margaret Petrutii, abbess of the monastery of St. Rose, affirmed the same, testifying among other things that the said Bl. Rose … lived in the city of Viterbo in the highest virginity, macerating her body with continual fastings and prayers, and in a most narrow little cell built like a prison near the church of St. Mary in Podio; which the aforesaid witness deposes that she had seen and had been there out of great devotion.

[66] The same house and cell is described a little more fully by the Reverend Lord Contutius, canon of the church of St. Angelo de Spata of Viterbo, in which the Saint lived, is described from the Process; of whose juridical testimony the Process speaks thus: He said … that some thirty years ago or thereabouts he was rector of St. Mary in Podio, and that he well remembers that in the said church (that is, parish) there was a certain house which was commonly called la casa di santa Rosa, both by its neighbors and by other men of the city of Viterbo; which house this witness saw many times, where several images of the Saints, male and female, of God were painted, which seemed to declare the greatest antiquity. In which house there was also a certain most narrow little cell after the manner of a cave, where there was a certain little window so small that a boy could scarcely have got out by it: which little cell was commonly called la cella di santa Rosa. So much from the acts of the Process: but Giannellus in his often-cited little work, book 1, chapter 4, hands down a far fuller description, with instances added also of the veneration of that place, approved by heavenly favors. Before I recite his words, it will be worth while to have noted from himself on what authority they rest.

[67] And so in his preface he thus premises: Moreover I have inserted certain chief matters and more fully from Giannellus. which John Anthony Gnazza, a citizen of Viterbo, skilled in human and divine law, sent me in writing concerning the holy Virgin's house, with the miracles wrought in it both in the time of his forefathers and in his own, whose

parents, when he was then a lad, sold it to the virgins of the monastery of St. Rose (for it was part of his mother's goods) at the time when (according to what was foretold by the Saint to her own parent) it was to be joined into one body with that same monastery: and he affirmed on oath, two witnesses being called and a notary dignified with apostolic authority, that the things which he recounted concerning the house he had either seen himself with his own eyes or had heard from his forefathers. These things premised, receive the matter itself. After he had reported from the manuscript Life that St. Rose could not obtain admission into the monastery in which she now lies, he pursues his narration in these words: Bearing the refusal with an equal and willing mind, since the convent was not granted her she changed to a chamber of her own house, so narrow that it scarcely held her together with a poor bed and a tiny altar; since the house itself too was very cramped: for it consisted of two dwelling-rooms only, the one larger, which they call the hall, the other narrower; above which was a granary. Adjoining the narrower room was the cell which Rose had claimed for herself in place of a prison (as she said), hollowed out within the thick wall of the citadel (traces of which wall are still to be seen), about ten palms long, about four and a half wide, receiving a little light from a window of a palm's breadth. In this condition St. Rose's house was preserved down to the twelfth of the Kalends of May, 1661, on which the nuns entered upon possession of it; and it was always held in veneration by the inhabitants, and indeed with no small fruit.

[68] [Receiving a woman in childbed into itself, it keeps her offspring unharmed from sorceries.] For Laura Biellia, whose own house that was, and who was using it, being quite unable to rear children, because as soon as she had brought forth a child the witches attacked it, bewailed her loss to the hearers of her confessions, who exhorted her that as soon as she perceived she was with child she should withdraw into St. Rose's dwelling, and there bring forth, and keep the child she had borne there for some time. Laura used the counsel when it was needful: and lo, in the year 1632, immediately after the birth in which she brought forth a girl by night — and she ceased to bear thereafter — a huge noise arose, and the door of the house itself opened, although closed with its own bars, without, however, anything presenting itself to the eyes of the bystanders. But the girl who was born, receiving the name of Catherine at the font of lustration, lived long in safety.

[69] Not without a prodigy it is enclosed within the precincts of the monastery, The rest that pertains to this he recounts in book 2, chapter 2, where, looking back to the prophecy which in a fragment of the second manuscript Life our Saint is handed down to have uttered to her mother in these words: Christ has blessed for me one of the sides of this house, which shall remain in my monastery, he writes thus: Perhaps, reader, you may ask of me (since this seems to be the place, because she foresaw conjointly both the translation of her body and the future joining of her house with that convent) at what time Rose's house was associated with the monastery of St. Mary of the Roses. This was done in the year 1661, about the ninth or the eighth of the Kalends of May, as we hinted above; and not indeed without miracles. For from that day, namely the twelfth of the Kalends of May, on which it was bought for the continuing of the cloister wall, for the two or three days in which they were planning to join the house to the walls, while very many both of the men of Viterbo and of strangers were flocking thither in pious eagerness to see the house, a most sweet odor of roses began to spread through the nostrils of all; impelled by which the multitude carried off, as consecrated things to be kept for the sake of memory and devotion, the very rubbish and bricks from which the sweetness of that same odor was breathed. Within that time also, when certain lads, I know not who, had begun to trifle with too little reverence in the granary which was above the ceiling, a huge crash was heard above the roof, at which all in consternation took to flight.

[70] Besides, you may wish to learn, reader, what the present state of this house is. a chapel then being built over the Saint's little cell, Eleven years after it was enclosed in the convent, namely in the year 1672, when they were demolishing a certain arch of a house adhering to it, part of St. Rose's house, on the side where it slopes toward the road of her own church, falling down, a part of that same cell of hers collapsed: the rest remains entire, as it was described in chapter IV of the previous book, with veneration increased, however. For the virgins consecrated to God in this convent took care to have a chapel erected over the Saint's cell, in which they set upon an altar an image of Christ the Lord, as he was once shown by the governor to the people of Jerusalem, crowned with thorns and covered with a purple cloak, wrought by the brush of a famous artist. For entering this chapel wooden stairs were built with as many steps as those at Rome consist of, which, because the supreme Judge of the whole earth ascended by their steps when he was to be judged, they call Holy; and these are like to them.

[71] The nuns climb the steps on bended knees, lingering in prayer on each of the steps; it is piously frequented by the nuns. then, when all have been traversed in this manner, they enter the chapel through gates of walnut. From thence through a little door there is an entrance by a descent of two steps into the room which we said had been the granary above the broader of the two chambers of St. Rose's house, which is called the hall. In that room the religious Sisters, that they may be in some manner like to their holy Patroness, by the faculty received from the directors of their souls indulge in private scourgings so severely that both the pavement and the walls are seen sprinkled with blood. From that room the descent is by wooden stairs into the hall of St. Rose's house; whence they pass into the less broad chamber, which we have shown to be joined to the holy Virgin's cell (and thither, after the ascent of the holy steps, they always proceed to pray), and there they remain in prayers for whatever each pleases, before the altar where an image of St. Rose lying, such as she is seen in the shrine of the church, is venerated, before which a lamp hanging over a silver vessel shines unceasingly; nor is anything else kept in it save a stool shaped for the placing of the knees. And this is the condition and veneration of St. Rose's house in these times.

§ VIII. A twofold festivity of the Saint among the men of Viterbo; the annual solemnity of the translation; the proper Offices.

[ ] A twofold festivity of the Saint anciently instituted. We have already intimated at the beginning of this commentary that St. Rose enjoys yearly a twofold festivity among her own people of Viterbo: of both it comes to be treated here. By the former feast, which recurs on the sixth of March, the most blessed passage of the Virgin to the Heavenly Ones is honored: by the latter, which falls on the present day, the translation of the same sacred body is celebrated: the institution of both is very ancient. Concerning the anniversary day of her death this is manifest from the Process, in which Peter, son of Nicholas de Bussis, says in express words that he had heard the Saint's miracles preached on the day of the festivity of the anniversary of her death. In other places also frequent mention is made of the day of festivity and solemnity. Likewise that the feast of the translated body is most ancient is taught by the old Order of the proper Offices of the cathedral church of St. Lawrence of Viterbo, in which, in the month of September, I read this: On the fourth day ✠ of Rose, virgin of Viterbo and patroness of that same city. And below: This feast is celebrated by all at Viterbo by decree of the supreme Pontiff Alexander IV. Hence it is clear that this festivity was instituted in her native city not many years after the Saint's death by Alexander IV, and that probably when, warned three times by her, he solemnly translated the sacred body to the nuns of St. Clare. Of the same celebration the most eminent Baronius doubtless speaks in his Notes on the Roman Martyrology, saying that by decree of the Roman Pontiff it was granted to the church of Viterbo to keep a solemn day of Bl. Rose. The same seems to have been approved by Sixtus IV, who kindly bestowed indulgences upon those who recalled the memory of this translation, as we learn from the most eminent Cardinal Prosper de Lambertinis (who now happily presides over the whole Church of Christ as Benedict XIV) in his work On the Beatification of the Servants of God: we shall recite the words below at number 76.

[73] The annual solemnity of the translation Further, that the two days are not kept with the same festivity Coretinus indicates when he says: The feast day of her death is kept on the sixth of March: but her solemn feast is celebrated at Viterbo on the fourth of September, on the very day on which (as we have said) her body was translated from St. Mary in Podio to the monastery of her name. Lindanus of our Society agrees, in a letter on this matter given at Loreto to our Bolland in the year 1648, saying: Of St. Rose I have received this from Viterbo. The feast of St. Rose is celebrated on the sixth of March in her own church, but with no solemnity: but it is celebrated on the fourth of September with the greatest possible solemnity in the whole city, and with a most crowded concourse of people. Through almost the whole Octave many spectacles are exhibited, and prizes to the victors in the games which are celebrated. Each year one man is chosen upon whom lies the burden of promoting the spectacles. All these things Giannellus describes more distinctly in book 2, chapter 22, which, since they seem to make not a little for the Saint's cult and glory, I have judged should be inserted into this commentary.

[74] is described. Let me speak of the most ample procession and honor with which the men of Viterbo adorn the feast of their holy fellow-citizen. For besides the gifts of wax torches, of which we made mention in the previous chapter, (see number 62) during the divine Service, which is celebrated with solemn ceremony and with music, a sacred orator speaks of her praises to a most crowded people. But on the eve of the feast, about the first hour of the night, from the Roman gate toward St. Rose's, men of every rank and age, drawn up in a long train, perform the procession with great pomp, carrying wax torches before them, while everywhere through the windows of the houses the little flames of lamps shine out: the pious train is followed by a framework carried on the shoulders of bearers, on which appears aloft the statue of the holy fellow-citizen, representing some one of the admirable works of her life, which countless clusters of wax lights encircle with their glow. You would believe that Rose then triumphs in her image; so many natives and strangers, of every kind and sex and age, doing homage to her, does she look round upon in it, from the windows and everywhere in the streets. Certainly not a few find that by that spectacle she impresses herself upon their minds more than she presents herself to their eyes. The devotion of the sacred day is followed by festive fires by night and games by day, and races of four-footed beasts for prizes through some days (if that is any glory to the Saint). These annual observances Viterbo renders excellently to its Heroine. Thus Giannellus on the annual festivity of the translation: from here let us proceed to the ecclesiastical Offices.

[75] Although I find no proper Office of our Saint granted before the year 1668, The ecclesiastical Office customarily recited from the common it is nevertheless undoubted that she was honored with an ecclesiastical office already before that time, at least in her native city: but in what year this cult began to be paid her is not equally certain. If anyone shall refer it to the times of Alexander IV, I shall not gainsay him: for it is likely that at the same time at which they began to keep her feast day, they also began to recite

the Office from the Common as permitted; and this is very conformable to the words of the Directory praised above: This feast is celebrated by all at Viterbo by decree of the supreme Pontiff Alexander IV. And the Office is prescribed in this manner under a double rite: All from the Common of a Virgin. The prayer Exaudi nos Deus. At Matins likewise all from the same Common except the lessons of the first Nocturn, which are read from the occurring Scripture. At Mass the introit Dilexisti justitiam from the Common of one Virgin, and the Creed is said. This directory was printed between the years 1638, in which Cardinal Brancatius, by whose command it is noted to have been published, obtained the see of Viterbo (on Ughelli's testimony in Italia sacra), and 1668, in which the same bishop obtained the proper Office, as we shall presently say. Nevertheless this antiquity of the Office is rendered somewhat doubtful by Felician in the History of Viterbo, part 1, book 6, affirming that Julius II in the year 1509 granted to the nuns of St. Rose the faculty of reciting the Office of the same Saint in their said church and monastery, according to the ordinance of his predecessor Sixtus IV. By which words it seems to be hinted that in the year 1509 the Office of St. Rose was not yet customarily recited, except by the aforesaid nuns, to whom it had been granted by Sixtus IV, who presided over the Church as the fifteenth century was growing old. The matter, however, is not certain, since these words may have concerned some proper Office permitted only to the aforesaid nuns.

[76] Further, the same Sixtus IV bestowed indulgences upon those reciting the Office of the translation, to which Sixtus IV seems to have attached indulgences: whether he then first instituted it, or himself confirmed one permitted by one of his predecessors. We learn this from the most eminent Cardinal Prosper de Lambertinis, who in the place cited above, treating Of certain … grants of Offices for certain particular places, proceeds thus: In my animadversions I admitted the practice of granting Offices for sacred translations; … I added that indulgences were sometimes granted by the supreme Pontiffs to those recalling the memory of a translation of sacred relics, and namely by Julius II for the translation of blessed Catherine of Sweden, and by Sixtus IV for the translation of blessed Rose of Viterbo. By these words, if I have rightly grasped the mind of his Eminence, he seems to say that he admitted not only that a canonical Office was permitted to be recited for the translations of holy bodies, but also that indulgences were granted by the supreme Pontiffs, and namely by Julius II and Sixtus IV, to those reciting it.

[77] With the lapse of time the veneration of the men of Viterbo toward their holy fellow-citizen grew: wherefore the most eminent Cardinal Francis Brancatius, their bishop, offered to the Sacred Congregation of Rites for approval proper lessons of St. Rose, protectress of the city of Viterbo, Proper Offices granted, even with an Octave. and obtained from it in the year 1668, on the twenty-first of July, that on the fourth day of September the feast of the translation should be celebrated with a proper Office and Mass under the rite of a greater double, and on the sixth day of March her blessed death under the rite of a lesser double, by the whole clergy of Viterbo, both secular and regular, of either sex. And the Mass assigned is Dilexisti, the proper prayer being this: O God, who didst deign to add blessed Rose to the college of thy holy Virgins, grant us, we beseech thee, that by her prayers and merits we may be cleansed of all our faults and may enjoy the eternal fellowship of thy Majesty. In the year 1725, on the seventh day of July, the recitation of that Office was raised to the rite of a double of the second class with an Octave, in the same manner in which it had already been granted to the Friars Minor Conventual. Again in the year 1728, on the twenty-eighth of January, Benedict XIII, at the prayers of the Minister General of the Minors Observant of the Order of St. Francis, as also of the nuns of the monastery of St. Rose, granted that the aforesaid Office should be recited, and the Mass respectively celebrated, by all the faithful of Christ of either sex dwelling in the whole Ecclesiastical State and in Tuscany who are bound to the canonical Hours, with … the lessons of the second Nocturn and the prayer proper … under the rite of a lesser double. Finally in the year 1743, on the eleventh day of March, the bishop of the same city obtained from the Sacred Congregation of Rites, for his whole diocese, an Office with an Octave under the rite of a double of the second class, to be performed on the feast of the translation. This Octave has lessons of the second and third Nocturn proper to each day: a proper Mass also, Loquebar, is assigned. But this is worthy of note, that both in this and in the other Offices of which we have treated, Rose is distinguished with the title of Saint.

§ IX. The men of Viterbo by common counsel press Calixtus III for obtaining Rose's canonization: a process is instituted; she is inscribed in the Martyrology.

[ ] The men of Viterbo, the canonization of their fellow-citizen Equity assuredly demanded that the men of Viterbo should repay grateful returns to their fellow-citizen, by whom they saw their fatherland so gloriously illustrated, and should take care that she be inscribed in the annals of the Saints by a solemn canonization. Nor indeed were they wanting to their own part: nay, they attempted so often to obtain this from the Holy See that I cannot sufficiently wonder what stood in the way of that business obtaining the desired issue. Scarcely had she departed from the living when the Bishop-elect, the clergy, the council, and the people of Viterbo besought Innocent IV (on his own testimony) that he would cause the testimonies of the faithful to be received concerning the fragrance of that new-blown Rose, namely the merits of her life and the assertions of her miracles. So that she who is believed to enjoy the rewards of felicity in the Church triumphant may in the militant also be held famous with fitting honor; as may be seen more fully in the letters recited at number 10. But this process of canonization was indeed ordered by the aforesaid Pontiff, but either it was not drawn up, or at any rate it did not answer to the pious desire and expectation of the city of Viterbo, hindered perhaps by the calamities of that time, or by the death of the same Innocent which followed. If, however, any acts of this examination existed, they perhaps were numbered among those authentic instruments which, together with the Miracles, we showed at number 4 to have been lost and burned through the negligence and the calamity of the city of Viterbo.

[79] A few years later Alexander IV, Innocent's successor, raised their hope; having attempted more than once in vain to obtain, to Calixtus III who, as we saw above, having translated the body of St. Rose after her threefold apparition, resolved to decree sacred honors to her by the accustomed solemnities of the Church: and he would doubtless have done it, had not his premature death prevented him. Frustrated of this hope again, they left the matter untouched down to the times of Eugenius IV, who in the year 1431 ascended the chair of Peter. Under that Pontiff the cause was resumed, but again with a fruitless attempt: for although Eugenius kindly assented to their petitions and permitted a juridical examination of our Saint's merits and miracles to be instituted, it nevertheless lacked a happy issue, for the reasons to be brought forward at number 82. At length in the year 1455, on Coretinus's testimony, and again in 1456, they sent as delegates to Calixtus III the most illustrious man Christopher de Malvicinis, doctor of laws and count palatine, together with Friar Luke Benedicti of the Seraphic Order of St. Francis, that they might attempt the matter anew. The petition which the aforesaid orators offered to the Pontiff to that end I have found transmitted to us together with the Process: the same Coretinus, rendering it into the Italian tongue, inserted into the Life of St. Rose. And since it contains almost everything that was piously done by the men of Viterbo in the cause of the Canonization, I think it worth the labor to exhibit it here.

[80] Most blessed Father. Formerly, on the part of your devoted orators of Viterbo, they offer a petition, the archpriest, the canons, and the chapter of the greater church of Viterbo, and the magnificent Priors of the people, the Commune of the men and the university of your city of Viterbo, as also the abbess and nuns of the convent and monastery of St. Clare, now commonly named under the title of St. Rose, it was set forth to your Holiness that once Rose, virgin of Viterbo, of holy memory, while she was engaged in human affairs, kindled with the highest fervor of the Catholic Faith and of devotion, despising things transitory and earthly and always seeking things heavenly and eternal, professed from her childhood the Rule of the Third Order of St. Francis, and in the highest poverty and humility observed the religious life which she had entered. And she is asserted to have been in her life of so praiseworthy a conversation and life, and of such piety toward her parents and neighbors, and of such observance of chastity of manners and mind and body along with the highest virginity, and distinguished with so many other wondrous virtues, and of so great sanctity, that the divine clemency poured into her and instilled the grace of its kindness to such a degree that, strong in the brightness of so great holiness, when she macerated herself with continual fastings, vigils, and prayers in a certain most narrow little cell of hers, where she prayed for the most part, she shone forth while she lived with many miracles by the power of almighty God; and after her happy death she was famous for countless miracles.

[81] For which reasons your aforesaid orators, moved by a pious intention, in which, various matters being set forth, contemplating the holiness of the life of the same virgin Rose, desired that she, as one pleasing and most acceptable to God, should, in imitation of the footsteps of others, be inscribed in the Catalogue of the Saints. Alexander the fourth of happy memory, your predecessor, to whom she had appeared by a vision and had shown very many signs of her sanctity, had he not been forestalled by death too hastily and departed from this world, would most firmly have inscribed that virgin Rose in the catalogue of the other Saints, male and female, of God. Then, after the courses of many years had rolled by, because of the calamities and fortunes that befell your city of Viterbo, humble supplication was made by the same persons to Eugenius IV of happy memory, your predecessor, that first, through those grave and experienced men to whom he should judge it should be committed, information and trustworthy testimonies being received concerning the holiness, virtues, and miracles of that virgin Rose, as the weight and gravity of so great a matter demanded, he would deign to cause her to be inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints of God.

[82] the causes of the deferred canonization, That same predecessor, intending to proceed in a cause of this kind with due deliberation and maturity according to the gravity of the matter, signed the petition for the said canonization: which was not afterwards brought to a due and fitting end, because of the negligence and sloth of those whom it concerned; and also because of the variety and change of the times, in a cause of this kind no further steps were taken. But afterwards, in the course of time, upon a matter of this kind, through the most illustrious doctor of laws and count palatine Lord Christopher de Malvicinis, orator of the aforesaid archpriest, canons, and chapter, of the Priors, men, and persons, and of the abbess and nuns — who judged it would be worthy that a Treasure hidden so long a time should be shown to the faithful of Christ, and, as a shining lamp and a flower of virginity, should lie open for the example and instruction of others, for the exaltation of the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and of the splendor of the glory and honor of his Church militant — upon the premises and other things concerning the aforesaid cause, humble supplication was made to your Holiness that you would deign fittingly to provide in the premises out of the kindness of the Apostolic See; and the same Holiness, not having certain knowledge of the premises, inclining to supplications of this kind, promised to commit the said cause of canonization. In which matter no act was performed or prosecuted, because of new calamities

and miseries, and the intestine seditions of the citizens, which came upon this your afflicted city.

[83] they plead for the resuming of the cause. But since, holy Father, at present nothing else is more desired by the orators of the same, humble supplication is made to your same Holiness on the part of the venerable man Friar Luke, and of the most illustrious doctor of laws and count palatine Lord Christopher de Malvicinis of Viterbo, orators of the aforesaid archpriest, canons, chapter, Priors of the people, Commune of the men, university, abbess, and nuns of the convent and monastery; that the same Holiness would deign to commit to some one or more of the most reverend Fathers of the Holy Roman Church, the lord Cardinals, as shall seem to your Holiness more expedient, the cause of the said canonization, and that they should diligently inform themselves concerning the life and miracles of the said virgin Rose, as is fitting in so great a matter, and concerning the other premises, and with due maturity and gravity should proceed to the examination of witnesses and to the other things necessarily incumbent and in any way opportune, required in the acts and solemnities of this canonization; and that these things, kindly and most diligently examined and pondered and discussed as aforesaid, they should report to your same Holiness, to the end and effect that the aforesaid Holiness may afterwards be able to canonize the said virgin Rose and to command her to be inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints, as is the custom. Thus far our copy, with no note of time subscribed.

[84] Calixtus assented to the petitions, and committed the process to be instituted in the cause of canonization to the most reverend and most eminent lords Bessarion, Cardinal of Nicæa, bishop of Tusculum, The process of canonization is ordered. Dominic, Cardinal of Fermo, of the title of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, and Prosper Colonna, Cardinal of the title of St. George ad velum aureum. But these, being hindered by other cares, by the power they had received substituted for themselves the bishops Paul Santa Fede of Syracuse, Angelus Alterius of Sutri, and Angelus Capranica de Caranzonibus of Rieti. And since the bishops of Syracuse and of Rieti, being likewise distracted by other business, could not undertake that charge, in their place there were subdelegated by the same Cardinals John, bishop of Viterbo and Toscanella, and Nicholas, bishop of Orte and Città Castellana. Afterwards the bishop of Sutri also excused himself; notwithstanding which, the remaining two set about examining witnesses and treating the cause committed to them: for so they had it in their mandate.

[85] At length in the year 1457, on the fourth Sunday of Lent called De rosa, and is begun. which day fell on the twenty-seventh of March, a beginning was made of the process. There appeared, therefore, before the aforesaid bishops of Viterbo and Orte, subdelegated commissaries, the Reverend Father Luke of the Order of St. Francis, and the most illustrious doctor of laws and count palatine Christopher de Malvicinis, syndics and procurators appointed by the archpriest and clergy of the church of Viterbo, and also by the senate and people of the same city, and finally by the abbess and nuns of St. Rose's. They exhibited fifteen articles, in which they comprehended in general the Saint's virtues and miracles, requesting that witnesses be heard upon them. I deliberately pass over the protestations, the decrees published, and the rest of the order of law, both that I may not be troublesome to the reader, and because certain of these instruments are lacking in our transcript, passed over, I suppose, of set purpose. Some things, however, which seem to make more for the Saint's glory, I shall recount on the word of Coretinus, who praises authentic documents. The most excellent Peter Ludovicus Borgia, captain general of the Holy See and governor of the duchy of Spoleto and of the province of the Patrimony, published an edict through all the cities and places of his jurisdiction, commanding that they should transmit to Viterbo in authentic letters any miracles or benefits which they knew to have been obtained among them by the patronage of St. Rose: and should testify what public veneration the same Virgin obtained in each place.

[86] The edict published, letters as commanded were presently brought to Viterbo from every side, Letters sent to this end by the neighboring towns. which the praised Coretinus in book 5, chapter 6, asserts to have been inserted into the Process; but in our transcript they are lacking. One set the same author recites, transmitted by the Priors of the people of the city of Bagnoregio: from which I cull a few things from the Italian into Latin, that it may appear how great was the esteem of St. Rose among the men of Bagnoregio: We cannot, they say, write with certainty particular miracles (which without doubt are innumerable) because of the calamity of times past, or perhaps inadvertence, or merely, as we believe, the negligence of our forefathers. But we confess in every way that it is a wonderful thing, or rather a divine one, and worthy to be celebrated with reverence by all, as being clearer than the light itself, that all (without any doubt) agree with one voice in this matter and confirm that the virgin Rose is the bride of the heavenly King. This they say, this they cry, this they affirm, this they proclaim — men, women, trustworthy old men, youths, boys, girls: so that the very sucklings do not cease to proclaim all these things in their cradles (so to speak), provided only that the faculty of speaking be given them, etc. This letter is signed as given at Bagnoregio in the year 1457, the thirtieth of March. The Priors of the people of the city of Bagnoregio. And below: James de Carolis, Chancellor. Of the other towns which gave like letters to the same end the praised Coretinus recites only the names.

[87] The wholeness of the body is examined: The same author in chapter 7 relates that the aforesaid bishops-commissary on the second day of April of the same year 1457, together with the procurators of both parties and three deputed notaries, went to the monastery of St. Rose, that they might examine, being present themselves, the things which were affirmed about the prodigious incorruption of the sacred body. And when they found these most true — namely, that the body remained wholly entire, free of all corruption, and, no otherwise than if it were alive, retained the flexibility of flesh and limbs, and preserved also the nail once sacrilegiously cut away wonderfully born again — they commanded the notaries to enter all these things into the acts, together with the ancient inscriptions, paintings, and monuments of the same church and monastery, as appears, he says, in the Process: in which, however, I do not find this inspection of the body nor the other things already recounted in our transcript: wherefore I leave them to his credit. Moreover in chapter 8 he produces a letter of Alphonsus, king of Aragon, given on the fourth of May of the same year to Pope Calixtus in favor of the canonization; adding that it, written in the Latin idiom, was likewise inserted into the Process at folio 132; but that too is lacking in our copy. Let us return to the process.

[88] 264 witnesses heard: Rose inscribed in the Martyrology. On the ninth day of April of the year 1457 the juridical examination of trustworthy witnesses was begun, whose number reached two hundred and sixty-four: of whom some had been eyewitnesses of the miracles which they asserted, others had experienced those very things in themselves. All these, cited by name and bound by the religion of an oath and examined according to the order of law, gave their testimony respectively concerning the life, virtues, and miracles of St. Rose. The testimonies of each I have with me: but these, as I have already warned, I shall deliberately pass over, lest by perpetual repetitions of the same things I breed disgust in the reader. This examination held until the fourth day of July of the same year, on which at length an end was set to the process, and the Acts were closed by the notaries and duly fortified with the seals of the bishops subdelegated in this cause, of Viterbo and of Orte: but a solemn canonization by no means followed. Nor yet did that process lack all fruit, if what Coretinus has in chapter 9 be true: for he says that by Calixtus III, when the Acts of it had been read through, her sanctity was confirmed without any solemnity, and it was ordained that she should be inscribed in the catalogue of the Saints.

VITA

by an uncertain author

In manuscript, inserted into the Process of Canonization.

Rose, virgin of the Third Order of St. Francis, at Viterbo in Italy. (S.)

BHL Number: 7339

By an uncertain author.

PROLOGUE.

The author commends the perpetual Since, as Augustine says in On True Religion, the words and examples of the Saints are certain fragments of that heavenly bread which came down from heaven, which have power to stir up the hearts of readers and hearers to divine love and to devotion toward those Saints who in this life accomplished perfect works, hence they none the less ^a confer strength for undertaking a perfect and arduous penance and for obtaining the grace of eternal life. Therefore our Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel according to Matthew not without reason commanded his disciples, saying: Gather up the fragments that remain, lest they perish. Likewise the apostle Paul cries: Whatsoever things were written, were written for our instruction; understand it of the life and acts of the Saints. In which words it is shown clearly enough how great ought to be the diligence of the faithful in searching out and holding in memory the works of the Saints, men and women, who have gone before; which in truth are known to have been set down in writing by divine instinct not so much for their glory as, so to speak, for the instruction of all and the correction of life. For as Seneca says in On Morals, the deeds of the imprudent are not corrected save by rules.

[2] And therefore the faithful of Christ, desiring to correct their life and to amend their manners for the better, the memory and imitation of the Saints, and especially of tender virgins. ought * with a diligent mental gaze continually to meditate upon the words and acts of the Saints and, as at a certain mirror, having laid aside evil manners, to beautify the soul with sacred virtues; and most of all to those virtuous works which the Lord has deigned to display in the frail sex and in tender girls. For if men today wonder not a little at the life of grown holy men, and magnify and extol God in the acts of those who in this life were complete in age and strength, and correct and amend their life by their examples, how much more at the arduous penance, the untiring faith, and the virtuous works of holy girls, who from their very childhood clove with all their heart to Christ the Lord: assuredly far more than at the life of the blessed Peter and Paul, or Andrew, who had in this world the fullness of age and strength.

[3] And the reason of this is that in the least of created things in nature — for instance, the bee or the spider or the ant — the divine wisdom shines out more than in great ones increased with an ill mass of body, for instance, the elephant, the buffalo, or the camel. Whence Augustine in the book of Confessions: I wonder more at the agility of a fly than at the greatness of a camel. And therefore at the harsh penance of holy girls, who were in this life the least in nature, so far as concerns age and bulk of body, men ought exceedingly to wonder, and to praise the most high God in their acts, and to correct their life and amend it for the better.

[4] Extolling St. Rose among these But among the other sacred virgins whose fame is not today spread everywhere, there was a certain girl, a sacred virgin, by name Rose, who, like a certain lovely thing sprinkled with the dew of heaven, sprang up in the pleasure-garden of Viterbo; and a name worthy in virtues and holiness fittingly befell her. For what the laws proclaim, that the name ought to follow the thing, stands out fulfilled in the virgin Rose. For as the rose-flower stands loftier in beauty above the flowers of spring, so the virgin Rose sits high among all virgins. To the married

and to the continent she is raised higher at least by the whiteness of virginity, since the life of virgins is happier than theirs. Therefore by a long persistence ^b in holiness the virgin Rose goes before the other holy women, as the rose-flower excels all other flowers whatsoever. The rose-flower indeed feeds the eyes with immense beauty, and feeds the other members too with its far-reaching fragrance; so the virgin Rose feeds with her holiness the Christians who behold her. She feeds now also all the sound ^c with the sweet odors of the virtues she left behind. She closed her last day in the time of our most holy Lord, the Lord Pope Alexander the Fourth ^d.

[5] from trustworthy documents Of her, first to the honor of that heavenly Spouse who is delighted and feeds among the lilies of virginal modesty, hedged about with the dances of virgin girls, to whom from her very childhood this sacred Virgin was joined in most chaste embraces; and consequently to the honor and praise of that virgin Rose herself, to whose commendation and fame I shall recount some things which I have found related in certain ancient documents ^e by trustworthy and devout persons, and faithfully written down, as the aforesaid persons testified that they had heard and seen from the mouth of the aforesaid virgin Rose. And therefore we endeavor with all our power to describe in the present volume the holy deeds and miracles of Bl. Rose the Virgin, lest the minds of those who know them should disown them through the daily cloud of a black antiquity when they have read them ^f, since the memory of men is held to be slippery and vain, according to what the moralist Seneca shows: Memory loses nothing save what it has not often looked back upon.

[6] he undertakes to write down her life for the faithful to imitate. And therefore with the pen also we undertake to unfold the wondrous life of the aforesaid Virgin, that it may not be able to lie hidden from posterity; so that by these writings she may, being known, be loved in the choosing, and being loved be prized, and being prized may direct to the imitation of herself those whom the care of blessedness ever presses. For indeed if she had lain hidden, she would be unknown, and of one unknown there would be no imitation and no desire, because those whom we do not know we can in no way imitate, Augustine being witness in these matters: A thing unknown is not loved. The more loved, the more prized, as Boethius says. Who desires what he does not know? And again a certain moral poet: What lies hidden is unknown; of the unknown there is no desire. I confess that all the virtues, signs, and prodigies which our Lord Jesus Christ deigned to work by the merits of blessed Rose cannot be reckoned up, even if the members of the body were turned into tongues: but we have here written down a few of these many.

ANNOTATA.

se* is superfluous

that is, conatu* (with effort)

read ne*

supply ad*

quæ*

CHAPTER I.

Her devout pursuits and miracles in childhood and youth.

[ ] [The grace of predestination shone forth in the Saint from her very infancy, when she raised a dead woman,] Now the eternal maker of things, as the Apostle says, before the foundation of the world predestined the elect, and called the predestined to his kingdom by grace alone, with no necessity or preceding merits. Which grace indeed in the Saints and the elect, as is said, was long ago displayed in some before they came forth from the womb, as in Jeremiah ^a and John the Baptist ^b, who at the coming of the Lord leaped in the womb. In some, however, it was displayed from their very cradles, as appeared in blessed Nicholas ^c, who on the day on which he was born stood in the basin, and on the second day of the week began not to suck the breasts. In certain others this grace appeared in the age of childhood, as in blessed Agnes ^d, Agatha ^e, and several who endured martyrdom in a childish ^f and tender age; as it also appeared in its own way in this girl, the virgin Rose, who, as is written in the aforesaid documents, showed herself in her childhood so pleasant a dwelling for God, and was so acceptable to him , that, while she was three years old, she raised up ^g an aunt who had been dead a day.

[8] But in her childish age this Virgin began devoutly to go with her mother to church, and frequently to hear the preachings of the Friars Minor and to take in the word of God with a devout attention of mind. [she was given to divine worship and the maceration of her body: she turns bread into roses:] For which reason she began to despise the world and the mockeries of worldlings, to shun the avarice of the covetous, and vehemently to shudder at carnal allurements; she began moreover to love the Lord Jesus Christ with her whole mind, to be drawn to him and to cleave to him with all her heart, and thereby to renounce simply and irrevocably the world, the devil, and their pomps. She began to restrain her body with fastings, to withdraw her food from herself and to bestow what she withdrew upon the poor ^h. And the aforesaid Virgin was of such piety and mercy toward the poor of Christ that when on one of the days she was carrying loaves from her parents' house to be bestowed upon the poor, as she was wont and accustomed to do, at the command of her father, who asked what she was carrying hidden in her bosom, she at once, her bosom being opened and laid bare with the utmost obedience, her bosom appeared full of roses of divers colors.

[9] birds fly to her; she restores whole a girl's broken pitcher: So much so that, the divine clemency continually coming upon her, birds ran to her while she was eating, and ate crumbs of bread in her bosom. And when this Virgin, upheld by so great a grace of almighty God, in her childhood betook herself with other girls to the fountain with a pitcher * to draw water, as is the custom, and the pitcher which one of those girls was carrying was broken and divided into very many fragments, and she was rebuked by her parents, since the aforesaid girl had falsely reported that Bl. Rose had, after the manner of girls, given occasion to this mishap; they went to the place where the pitcher was broken, and its fragments and pieces being brought together, the aforesaid Virgin deserved that almighty God should display his power over her, so that so many fragments, scattered and divided here and there, were brought back to their own place, as if it had never been broken. And so the pitcher was restored to the girl whole and sound, without any harm or defect, by the grace of almighty God, the merits of the said blessed Rose requiring it.

[10] [by a wonderful token she forces a woman to confess her theft: on her confessing, she frees her from the penalty.] For which things the aforesaid Virgin also deserved that, when once a certain hen of starling color ^k had been stolen from her by a certain godmother of hers ⁱ, and the said godmother denied it, the supreme justice of God willed that on the right side of her face feathers of the same color as the stolen hen should visibly appear: and when, because of this strange thing befalling and meeting her , she confessed the theft of the hen to the said Virgin, her goddaughter, the feathers at once miraculously disappeared from her face ^l. On account of which miracles the virgin Rose was then reckoned by all as one who would become a holy woman if she lived, since the most high God poured so much grace into her ^m.

ANNOTATA.

read illi*

read resuscitaverit*

read amphora*

read occurrentem*

elsewhere confessa*

CHAPTER II.

Lying gravely sick, she is bidden by the Mother of God to embrace the Third Order of St. Francis and to refute the heretics; which, being suddenly healed, she carries out: she bends her father, who withstood her devout undertakings, to her own wishes.

[ ] [Afflicted with a grave sickness, she learns the state of several of the dead; and is visited by the Mother of God;] Now in the course of time the hand of the Lord being laid upon her, she began to sicken with the heaviness of a long languor, in which sickness, when she was held by the bystanders as already near to death, suddenly, her eyes being opened, she began to speak. And she declared to those standing about her that she beheld the state of the good and of the evil who were departing. She also knew with a most clear knowledge, and called by their proper names, certain Sisters who had departed this life twenty years before her own birth, and whom she had never seen ^b. So then, as the flower-bearing virgin Rose lay and reclined on her little bed, there appeared to her the most glorious Mother of God, adorned with immense necklaces and, like a most beautiful bride, graced with a crown and hedged about on either side of her by the dances * of virgins: beholding whom the virgin Rose, to those standing about her,

said: Why are you so discourteous , why do such delays hold you, that you do not rise up to her? Rise up, therefore, let us go to meet her.

[12] And forthwith she rose from her bed and went out of the house with the aforesaid persons standing by her, and went to meet the Queen, the royal Mother of God; [and she is healed, and is bidden by her to embrace the third rule of St. Francis and to bring back the heretics to the faith:] whom the Virgin Mother, fragrant with lilies, thus sweetly addressed: Rose, taken up on the topmost shoot, planted together with other flower-bearing virgins, look upon me with the eyes of the mind, adorned as I am, and delay not so to adorn thyself after my pattern; and thus adorned, and accompanied by an honorable retinue ^c of women, thou shalt most devoutly visit the church of John the Forerunner and of the poor confessor Francis ^d. Then thou shalt return to the church of St. Mary in Podio ^e, and there at the solemnities of the Masses thou shalt receive the tonsure of thy hair, and having laid aside worldly garments and ornaments, and being thus clothed in a hair-shirt and girded with the cord of thy little ass, thou shalt celebrate the nuptials of the most high Spouse: which being devoutly performed with the praises of God, and the habit of penance thus received, thou shalt return to thy father's house, and there in the habit of a holy conversation thou shalt give thyself to prayer and the divine praises. Moreover thou shalt press on fervently with exhortations of thy neighbors, and shalt manfully and boldly, all fear set aside, refute the insolent and those straying from the path of the Faith. And if for these things thou shalt suffer reproofs and troubles from thy parents, or from those of thy household, or from strangers, cease not to bear them patiently; for from these thou shalt obtain merit, and after merit an eternal reward. But those who shall be willing to comply shall obtain graces from God, eternal life and gifts: while those who shall gainsay thee, or shall spurn thee, and shall persevere to the end, shall receive bloody misfortunes.* And having said these things the Virgin Mother of God disappeared. And the virgin Rose, hearing all the aforesaid things from the Virgin Mother, on the following day carried out in order all that had been enjoined upon her ^f.

[13] she appeases her father, who strove against her holy labors. But since a multitude of people came constantly to the house of the Blessed Virgin to see these things which she did, her father began to threaten the same Virgin, and said to her: If thou dost not leave off these things which thou doest, I will cut off all the hairs of thy head: and the Virgin answered: I care not, for the hairs of the beard were plucked from our Lord Jesus Christ for us, and I do not fear to endure these things for him. And her father said: If thou dost not leave off, I will perhaps bind thee: and the aforesaid Virgin answered: Our Lord too was bound to the column; and I do not fear to be bound for him. And she said to her father with great devotion and weeping bitterly: Father, do not gainsay me; but if thou gainsay me not, our Lord Jesus Christ will join thee to his angels in Paradise: and if thou gainsay me, I shall not for this leave off, because the Lord has commanded me to do these things. And her father began to weep and to say: Daughter, do it with the blessing of God. And then the blessed Virgin said to her father and her grandfather and the priest and the others standing by her and to the aforesaid lady Sita ^g: Bless me in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And continually women came to the said Virgin, and she went with those who had been with her to the church, and said to them: Let each of you go as soon as possible to the church and pray for the whole Christian people.

[14] [Christ fastened to the cross appears to her, and at the sight of him she is affected with the bitterest grief.] After very few days had passed, Jesus Christ appeared to her as it were crucified: at the sight of whose cruel spectacle her bowels were moved, and the sting of so vast a grief and compassion pierced through her soul that for the space of very many days she by no means left off beating her breast and tearing out her hair and lacerating her other members ^h. And from that time she always bore upon her breast the image of Jesus crucified and of the glorious Virgin; and because love does not permit the mind of the lover to rest, she would rise from her little bed by night and go about the city through the lanes and squares, chanting the divine praises with tuneful voice.

ANNOTATA.

said to her mother: Mother, take this herb and hold it exceedingly dear, because our Lord Jesus Christ blessed it upon my breast. What these trifles mean I do not grasp. Hear, however, the pretty interpretation of Coretinus, Rinaldus, and Giannellus. They say that Christ appeared to the Virgin a second time, not now crucified but conspicuous in heavenly glory, of whom she asked (the words are Giannellus's, book 1, chapter 9) that he would consecrate to her her breast together with the little bundle of sweet-smelling mint which she had caused to be brought by her mother, made up out of a household pot, and had placed there; and that he would dedicate her narrow room and that corner of the house — foreseeing in prophetic manner that it would come into unity with the convent of St. Mary of the Roses, to which it was adjoining (which convent she called her own when she reported the matter to her mother), and that the remains of her mortality would be kept and guarded in that same convent. Of that prediction the discourse will recur hereafter: but the consecration of her breast and of the corner by means of a little bundle of mint seems to me next door to old wives' tales. As for the second apparition of Christ, let the credit rest with those writers.

read choris*

that is, inhumanæ* (inhuman)

perhaps assurgens*

that is, populi* (of the people)

that is, fortiter* (bravely)

CHAPTER III.

Ordered by the prefect of the city to go into exile with her parents because she had refuted the errors of the heretics, she withdraws to Soriano, where, having prophesied the death of Frederick II, she removes to Vitorchiano: she instructs the inhabitants with devout admonitions, gives light to a blind woman, and, remaining unharmed in a burning pyre, bends the obstinacy of a heretical woman.

[ ] [She publicly professes the Catholic faith, despising the threats of the heretics:] In simplicity of heart, indeed, she preached Christ Jesus daily to the peoples ^a, proclaiming to the good eternal good things, and to the evil everlasting torments. And against the heretics she raged terribly, and confuted their heresies with arguments open to the senses, refuted their false arguments, and to all who heard her showed by open reasonings, clearer than light, the false appearance of the said arguments. And so to all who heard her it plainly seemed, and it was so, that the Spirit spoke through her mouth, since whatever the Saints of God have spoken, they have spoken through the mouth of the Holy Spirit. But the heretics, who then sprang up at Viterbo like tares among the wheat ^b, began to rage against this Virgin like mad dogs, and, threats being first uttered, gave order that she should be silent from the words of the Faith. But the Virgin of Christ, strengthened in the love of God and the support of the Faith, despising their threats and driving off all their terrors, spoke against them the word of God with confidence, asserting that she was ready most gladly to endure death for the favor and the defense of the Catholic Faith.

[16] But the mad and perfidious heretics, hearing these things, wherefore, cast out of the city with her parents went to the governor of the city, who then presided in the city of Viterbo on behalf of the heretical emperor Frederick ^c, and, so far as was in their power, they made it out to him that unless he expelled her with her parents from the city of Viterbo, the people of the said city would raise a commotion against him, and after the commotion he would meet with assault, and after the assault with expulsion. On hearing this, the said governor, sending his officers, ordered the virgin Rose to be summoned with her parents ^d and to depart abroad. And when they were presented, he commanded them under personal penalty and the proscription of all their goods that they should immediately go out of the city. But they, hearing this monstrous command, and seeing the harshness of the season with the rigor of ice and snows and cold, begged that he would temper the command and that they might delay until the harshness of the season should abate. For if we were to depart now, they said, the danger of death would hang over us. But the governor with an angry mind repeated the command, asserting that he was hastening their departure for this very reason, that they might not escape the danger of death.

[17] But the parents of the virgin Rose, urged by the order of him who commanded, in a most harsh winter she reaches Soriano: where went out of the city, making their way through the rough places of Mount Cimino ^e and the hollows of its valleys, full of snow, the whole day. But on the second day they came to Soriano ^f. And while the virgin Rose was there with her parents, she announces the death of the impious Frederick II, made known to her by God. and had received a divine oracle by night in a vision through an angel, she prophesied in the morning among the people, saying: Hear, faithful of Christ, and rejoice with confidence, that within a few days you shall have new trophies* ^g. And this prophecy was made by blessed Rose on the Vigil of Bl. Nicholas. And after a few days had passed, news was brought to Viterbo that the heretical emperor Frederick, who was persecuting the Church of God, had died on the Vigil of Bl. Nicholas ^h. Holy Mother Church therefore rejoiced that so great a persecutor was taken away, and the prophecy of the virgin Rose was rendered authentic and proved.

[18] [Entering thence Vitorchiano, she trains the minds of the inhabitants to piety, and gives sight to a woman blind from birth:] But departing from the aforesaid castle, the virgin of Christ Rose came with her parents to Vitorchiano ⁱ and stayed there some days ^k. And the men and women of that castle received her with a joyful and devout mind; and she, simple as she was, with simple converse exhorted them to the laying aside of vices and to the taking up of good manners and holy virtues. And they heard her with devotion, and daily received from her admonitions of salvation. Meanwhile in the aforesaid castle there was a certain maiden named Delicata, who from her very birth had lacked the power of sight. Her indeed her parents brought to the virgin Rose, earnestly beseeching that she would deign to pray for her, and that by her humble prayers, dear to God, she might recover the power of sight which she lacked. But the virgin Rose, moved by their prayers, gave herself to prayer: and when the prayer was made, she rose, and laying on her hand recovered for her * the desired light.

[19] having tried in vain to convert a heretical woman, Moreover in that same castle of Vitorchiano of which we have spoken there was a certain perfidious heretical woman ^l, who daily barked out horrible things against the Catholic Faith and resisted the words of the virgin Rose as much as she could: but the faithful virgin Rose struck the said heretic with the darts of truth, and by altercation and disputation confuted her with clear reasonings. But what more? When even so she would not acquiesce, the most holy virgin Rose thought to convert her by the power of the faith infused into her; namely, by fasts drawn out over a long space of time, so that the heretic might evidently be convicted, and that they could in no way be done by ^m the way of nature. Wherefore she offered that she would fast twenty days, in which she would take no food, and yet by the power of her faith would remain safe without any injury. Said the heretic: Wolves and cranes abstain a long time and live: what nature has bestowed on them, it could do this same for thee also.

[20] [she orders a huge pyre to be kindled: and remaining long unharmed in it, she gains the obstinate woman for Christ.] But the faithful woman of Christ, seeing that she could recall that heretic from her perfidy neither by reasonable words nor by exemplary deeds, caused a great fire to be prepared, and asked the priests to ring the bells, so that the people might come together to such a spectacle: and trusting in the clemency of God, for whose faith and law she was contending, she sprang into the midst of it, and turning herself over many times this way and that, hedged about on every side by globes of flame, she drew out her stay there so long until that fire was wholly extinguished. Finally, coming out thence and walking safe and sound before the heretic, with the people of the said castle standing by, she appeared thus unharmed, without burning of her garments or her body, as if she had been staying among dewy flowers ⁿ, crying out and saying: Now lay aside thy unbelief and with a devout mind submit thyself to the divine law. At which stupendous miracle that depraved heretic, being astounded, laid aside her unbelief and wholly converted herself to the faith of Christ; and thus all the people standing by broke out into praise of the Most High, giving thanks to Christ, who bestowed so great a power upon the virgin Rose.

ANNOTATA.

it is established from the writers cited in Raynaldus and in the other annalists everywhere that the men of Viterbo, who in the year 1240 had revolted from the Pontiff to Frederick, returned to the Church in the year 1243. But it must be said that Frederick afterwards again got possession of that city. Peter Coretinus hands this down in On the Bishops of Viterbo, in the fifteenth Exchange of bishops, writing thus: About the same time, the same Innocent (IV) being Pontiff, and having been put to flight by Frederick Cæsar together with his Cardinals, the city of Viterbo, which was kept for the Apostolic See, being besieged by the emperor's army, on account of hostile incursions, wicked slaughters, and frequent troubles, altogether destitute of help and wearied in strength, and grievously oppressed not only by the war then threatening but also by famine and pestilence, most wretchedly succumbed in its calamities at the beginning of the year 1247. Thus far Coretinus: with whom Ughelli agrees, Italia sacra, volume 1, Col. [ ] number 17, where he confirms it by a diploma of Innocent IV, in which, granting pardon of the past to the people of Viterbo returning to the obedience of the Church after leaving Frederick's party, he took them under Apostolic protection. Its beginning is: Non est in justo malorum vindice. And it is given at Perugia on the fifteenth of the Kalends of May, in the ninth year: and so in the year of Christ 1252. Further, you will find the whole diploma in the place cited.

that is, illi* (to him)

read suggesserunt*

read existens*

that is, illi* (to her)

CHAPTER IV.

She gives light to a blind man, foretells a penalty to an impious man, and asks to be admitted into the Order of St. Clare: refused, she prophesies: she dies, and after a threefold apparition is translated by Alexander IV.

[ ] She restores sight to a blind man, and foretells a penalty to an impious man. At a certain time, namely, a certain man named Andrew, who had been blind for a long time, kept asking help of the virgin Rose, that she would intercede for him with the Lord: and she, being pious of heart, having compassion on that wretched man, poured forth devout prayers to God for him; and when these were poured forth, she restored to him the light which he lacked. A certain undevout and furious man, wholly headlong in word and deed, struck the virgin Rose on the arm as she was uttering the divine sayings: to whom the Virgin, turning, said by way of prophecy: Three days from now a manifest sign shall appear on thy body, by which thou shalt be distinguished from other men. Truly so it happened: for when the third day came, all the hairs both of his head and of his face, and also of his whole body, fell off. And so he seemed not a man but a certain most hideous monster.

[22] And since by the Handmaid of God he was rendered despicable to the world for this cause, [She asks to be admitted among the nuns of St. Clare: being refused, she prophesies concerning the receiving of her body after death.] that she had despised herself in order to gain Christ, who is not found save through lowly things — while she was still living in the flesh and dwelling in her father's house, she came to that very monastery in which she now lies; and asked of the nuns to be received into their fellowship, that among the sacred virgins she, being a Virgin, having paid the debt of the flesh, might come to her Spouse for whom she eagerly thirsted, namely our Lord Jesus Christ. And when the Sisters had answered her that since the number of ladies received was full, they could not therefore receive her, the sacred Virgin said: I know, indeed I know, and I know, that this is not the reason, but because you despise in me what God accepts in all men, namely that for his sake the wise of the world are foolish, that they may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God: but be this known to you, that her whom you scorn to have living, you will rejoice to have dead; and you shall have her* ^b.

[23] What more? It came to pass that the sacred Virgin departed from this life ^c and was buried in the church of St. Mary in Podio, [After her death, appearing three times to Alexander IV, she bids her body be translated,] where she lay for eighteen months ^d. And straightway she began to flash with miracles; and because it was fitting that her whom God had glorified in the heavens the world should honor on earth, and also that her prophecy might be fulfilled by which she had prophesied concerning her burial, within the space of eight days she appeared three times to the supreme pontiff, the holy Lord Pope Alexander IV, who then was dwelling with his court at Viterbo, saying to him in a vision: Since it has pleased Christ to number me among his handmaids, do thou, whose place he holds on earth, not delay to do what thou oughtest to do: but going quickly to the church of St. Mary in Podio, thou shalt lift my body thence and carry it to the monastery of St. Mary of the Order of St. Clare, for there ought to be the place of my rest.

[24] [which the Pontiff carries out with the highest esteem of her sanctity: manna is said to have been found in the tomb.] And when the Pope had neglected this the first and the second time, being warned the third time he understood that it was a divine miracle. He rose forthwith in the morning, and went in person with four Cardinals to the wondrous place: and digging out the sacred body thence, he carried it away to the monastery of which he had been warned, and conceived so great a devotion toward her that, had it not been necessary for him to go to Rome, he would have canonized ^e her, as he himself said with his own mouth to those nuns. But after the disinterment of the sacred body it was asserted by many that in her tomb there had been found manna after the manner of a fragrant oil.

ANNOTATA.

quia* is superfluous

SECOND LIFE

From the ecclesiastical Office of St. Rose.

Rose, virgin of the Third Order of St. Francis, at Viterbo in Italy. (S.) ^a

From the Proper Office.

The Saint's devout pursuits in infancy Rose, sprung of pious parents, soon began to be famous for virtue: she knew nothing of the impediments of age: in a milky breast she bore an aged mind: from those things which are the delights of children she, riper in virtue itself and not in years, vehemently shrank away. She did nothing childish in her deeds: she went to the temple of the Lord and, though still a little girl, observed the law of God. From her very infancy she was taught from heaven to fear God and to abstain from every sin. As the rose among flowers, so this Girl easily shone forth among virgins. Her devotion was above her age, her virtue above nature, so that she seems to have had not the name of a human being, but the oracle of a virgin. They have therefore in Rose, the holy virgin of Viterbo, whose feast day we keep today, what men may wonder at, what little ones may not despair of, what wives may be astounded at, what the unwed may imitate.

[2] Scarcely could she loose her tongue in her first accents, when first from her mouth the sweet

name of Jesus and Mary sounded. her exercises of the virtues. Thus God, wonderful in his Saints, perfects his praise out of the mouth of infants and sucklings, and makes eloquent the very tongues of infants. She was seen to have sucked in piety toward the Saints with her milk. She was free from those defects of manners of an otherwise harmless age which sufficiently betray that man is conceived in iniquities. She walked in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame. She was in all things most renowned, since she feared the Lord greatly, nor was there anyone who might speak an evil word of her. To all she portended something great: astonishment came upon all her kinsfolk and neighbors, who said: What, thinkest thou, shall this girl be? For the hand of the Lord was with her.

[3] Not yet out of infancy, she was called a mistress of manners, and the gravity of her manners. and she was one: she fulfilled the mastery of virtue, who carried a prejudgment of her age. The grace of the Holy Spirit knows no slow endeavors. In this first course of her life she was so forestalled by the blessings of God that she seemed to have reached the goal of absolute perfection. When others begin, she had already finished: she exulted as a giant to run her way: she ran the way of the Lord's commandments, because the Lord himself had enlarged her heart: she did not run in vain or as at an uncertainty, who also laid hold. Thus in the very flower of infancy she was made a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men: to the world, because she relished nothing of what is of the world: to angels, because she was ever eager to emulate their innocence: to men, because she shone before them with the example of sanctity.

[4] The innocent Virgin raged so far against her harmless little body Still a little girl she holds penance among her delights, as if the penalties of graver crimes had had to be paid by her, of which by reason of her age she could not even be conscious. So little did she spare her tiny age that, whereas other infants are wont to give themselves to delights and games, she on the contrary gave herself to sharper penances. She could not yet suffer the struggle between flesh and spirit; yet she wore down the flesh as a rebel with constant mortification. It was therefore wonderful and beautiful to see, to behold in her angelic innocence joined to anchoretic penance, like a rose hedged about on every side with thorns.

[5] The innocent Rose knew how to cut off from herself by penance things lawful, she hates womanly adornment, who nowhere remembered that she had committed things unlawful. She brought forth worthy fruits of penance, who had admitted no great crime. All the pomps and vanities of the world, in which the weaker sex is wonderfully delighted, she trod under a lofty foot: she was eager no longer to be adorned or to please anyone save her Lord: she had nothing in common with the world, who dwelt in heaven with her mind. She counted all things as dung, that she might gain Christ: nowhere did she bear upon her head the sign of pride in the day of its display: this she always detested as a menstruous rag. Nowhere did the Handmaid of God rejoice save in the Lord her God: he was to her every good; she desired to be clothed over with that nuptial garment alone by which she might be rendered worthy to be made a partaker of the nuptials of the Lamb.

[6] she macerates her harmless little body, she raises a dead woman. To be covered with a rough garment, to walk with bare feet, to bloody her little body with repeated scourgings even to the color of a rose, to macerate her slender limbs with hair-shirts, fastings, and many other acts of that kind of a more austere penance, she made her regular practice. In a short time she so reduced her body that nothing hindered her from remaining in continual contemplation of divine things with an unaverted keenness of mind. With this extraordinary sanctity the young Rose shone forth to a miracle: to which miracle of sanctity another notable one was added, that she, while still a girl, obtained by earnest prayers to God the life of a dead aunt ^b. And report has it that she performed other wonders too at that most tender age, by which God willed her sanctity to be attested.

[7] [The Virgin breathes virginal modesty into others: she hides an alms by a miracle:] The virgin Rose, with a countenance plainly composed to angelic modesty, instilled purer feelings of virginity into the minds of those who beheld her. The good odor of Rose, like the odor of a full field which the Lord has blessed, is diffused everywhere and clings to others. Hence it came about that the flower which she perpetually cultivated grew up in another's soil also. Further, lest, like a foolish virgin destitute of the oil of charity, she should earn the rejection of the heavenly Spouse whom she most ardently loved, she opened her hand to the needy and stretched out her palms to the poor, and unlocked the bowels of charity as widely as could be. She loved not in word nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth; most zealous of charity as well as of temperance, she spent upon virtue what she withdrew from pleasure, and the abstinence of the faster became the refreshment of the poor. In giving alms she by no means sounded a trumpet, but so hid it that the left hand knew not what the right was doing. She bestowed as alms upon the poor the bread plucked from her own frugal sustenance; and when once in wintry weather she was carrying it secretly for the relief of another's want, being compelled by her father's command to disclose what she was hiding in her lap, the bread at once blossomed into roses ^c.

[8] [Out of love of solitude, shut in a narrow room, she is bidden by the Mother of God to put on the habit of a Tertiary:] When she had passed her seventh year ^d, being seized with love of solitude, she set her tabernacle in a narrower little cell of her father's house ^e. It was good for her to be here: for that little cell seemed indeed a prison to Rose's body; but to her soul it was heaven; while the one was filled with the bread of tears, the other enjoyed heavenly delights. It happened once that from the long maceration of her body she fell sick unto death; but the hand of the Lord was so laid upon her that, strengthened by a visitation of the Blessed Virgin, and admonished to put on the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis, she took up again her former strength for life ^f. Set in that same solitary workhouse, it could by no means come about that she should forget the common necessities of the Church: and when in those most difficult times the impiety of the emperor Frederick the second had stirred up huge tumults in the Church of God, the Virgin devoted to God and full of zeal did not fail to entreat with earnest prayer that God at whose nod the winds and the sea obey, that he would deign to still the moved waves and to make a calm.

[9] for defending Holy Church she goes into exile: what she did in exile. She was no more than ten years old ^g when, breathed upon by the divine Spirit, partly by devout exhortations, partly also by most brilliant arguments, she reconciled to the Roman Church in a closer bond several of its most bitter enemies. Hence she incurred the common hatred of the traitors, and being ordered to change her native soil together with her whole kindred, she removed to the neighboring towns ^h. Carried away into this exile, which she always bore with an even mind, she is said to have foretold the death of Frederick and the peace of the Church; she also gave light to a woman blind from birth, and, roused by the same divine Spirit to establish the firmness of the faith, sprang into a kindled pyre, and there remained untouched for the space of three hours ⁱ. For the charity of Christ could not be overcome by flame; and slower was the fire which burned without than that which had kindled within. Thus she gained for Christ a certain refractory and heretical woman together with several others. At these things all were astounded, that she should already stand forth as a witness of the Godhead who by reason of her age could not yet be mistress of herself.

[10] At length Rose, returning from exile ^k, was received at Viterbo with the immense exultation and applause of the whole city. [Returning to Viterbo, she asks to be admitted among the nuns: refused, she prophesies:] As much as all the citizens had grieved at her exile, so much did all congratulate her on her return: there was no one who did not leap for joy while the Virgin of Israel returned freed from exile: for she was the consoler of mourners, the helper of the poor, the directress of souls, the flower of innocence, the lily of virginity, the rose of charity, a vessel of election and of sanctity, and a most absolute pattern of perfection. And so as soon as she sought her native soil again, that she might remain more widely sequestered from the world, she asked again and again to be enrolled in the number of the nuns of St. Mary of the Roses: but being frustrated of her wish because of her own poverty and the monastery's, she foretold again with a prophetic spirit that she would obtain when dead what living she could not obtain ^l.

[11] Returned therefore to the former workhouse of her father's house, returning to her father's house she led an exceedingly solitary life. God led her and led her back to this solitude, that he might speak more familiarly to her heart. The Lord did not command her to go out of her land and from her kindred and from her father's house: for he had built for her a convent of sanctity within her domestic walls, which the Bride of God alone should inhabit with her Spouse. Here wings were given her as of a dove, and she flew away and rested, that she might rise up into the height of contemplation. The body, which otherwise weighs down the soul, was to her not the burden of one laden but the wing of one about to fly: since by the long force of mortification she had taken from it all weight. She was indeed mortified in the flesh, but quickened in the spirit, and the more she was severed from all human intercourse, the more she enjoyed the fellowship of the angels ^m.

[12] Wherefore, wearied of the world and ever and again panting for the blessed fatherland, [she dies a holy death: her body, committed to the earth, is translated after thirty months, and, incorrupt, is famous for miracles.] knowing that the laying down of her tabernacle would be swift, she desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ. Her prayer was heard; for being seized by a deadly disease she exchanged for heaven the little cell in which she had remained two years ⁿ after her exile. And so, heavy not with years but with merits (for a spotless life is the age of old age), in the eighteenth year ^o of her life not yet completed, she flew away to her Spouse. She was snatched away lest wickedness should alter her understanding, or deceit beguile her soul. Being made perfect in a short space, she fulfilled a long time; for her soul was pleasing to God; therefore he hastened to bring her out of the midst of iniquities. Her body, sending forth a wondrous splendor and breathing out a sweet odor, was buried in the church of St. Mary de Podio, until, some thirty months [p] having elapsed from her burial, by the command of Alexander IV, then residing at Viterbo and thrice admonished by her in sleep, it was disinterred and found without any corruption, and on the day before the Nones of September was translated with solemn pomp to the aforesaid monastery, which afterwards began to be called by the name of St. Rose; where to this present day it is preserved whole and flexible, to the astonishment of the whole world, and ever shines out with new miracles.

ANNOTATA.

p. Note here the corrected error of Coretinus and of the witnesses in the Process about the body's being translated in the eighteenth month after her death. But whether he does not thus strike upon another delusion, the Commentary, §§2, 3, and 4, may be consulted.

ACTS

of the Process instituted for the Canonization of St. Rose by command of Calixtus III.

From a copy of the Autograph, which is preserved among the Nuns in the monastery of St. Rose at Viterbo.

Rose, virgin of the Third Order of St. Francis, at Viterbo in Italy. (S.)

BHL Number: 7346

From the Process.

Preface to the subdelegates Before you, reverend fathers in Christ, and lord, lord John ^a of Viterbo and Toscanella ^b, and lord Nicholas of Orte ^c and Città Castellana ^d, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See most worthy bishops, and in this part and cause commissaries and subdelegates for information about the fame and for the examination of the life and miracles of the blessed virgin Rose of the Third Order of Minors of Viterbo — appointed by the most reverend fathers in Christ and lords, the lord B. of Tusculum ^e, commonly called of Nicæa, the lord Dominic of Fermo, of the title of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem, and the lord P. of the title of St. George ad velum aureum, of the Colonna, bishop, priest, and deacon by divine mercy Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, commissaries chosen and deputed by our most holy lord the Pope in the cause of the canonization of the glorious virgin Rose — as well in your own proper name as also in the stead and name of the reverend father, the lord A. ^f, by the grace of God and of the Apostolic See bishop of Sutri, your third colleague in the said cause of subdelegation, for receiving witnesses and examining and informing them, and for saying and doing all things, as is more fully contained in the Bull of your delegation, concerning the fame, life, and miracles of the said Bl. Rose — he being lawfully required, yet not appearing nor willing to appear, being hindered by certain lawful causes alleged by himself.*

[2] And on this account committing his stead to your paternity according to the form and tenor of the said commission and subdelegation of bulls made to you, in the cause of canonization. as thus, or otherwise, more or less, as is more fully contained in the Acts made and produced before your Paternities, to which we refer ourselves: there appear and present themselves the venerable and honorable men Friar Luke of the Order of Minors, and the lord Christopher de Malvicinis, doctor of laws and count palatine ^g, syndics and procurators, in the syndical and procuratorial name of the archpriest, canons, and chapter of the church of Viterbo, and of the magnificent lords Priors of the people, the commune of the men and university of the city of Viterbo, and also of the venerable ladies and women, the lady Margaret Petrutii, abbess, and the nuns of the Convent of the church and monastery of St. Clare, under the title of St. Rose aforesaid, of Viterbo; and in every better manner, way, right, and form in which it more and better can and ought by law to be done, before you the aforesaid lords commissaries and subdelegates sitting in tribunal in the Podium, of the second window of the greater hall ^h of the palace of the bishopric of Viterbo, a place chosen and deputed by your Paternities for this act, they exhibit and produce before the tribunal the articles or chapters written below, severally and jointly, upon which they ask that all men and persons, citizens, inhabitants, and dwellers of the magnificent city of Viterbo and of the province of the Patrimony, and of divers other places, informed upon the articles or chapters written below, and especially the witnesses above written, be diligently examined and interrogated.

[3] [The things to be proved by the witnesses are set out in a compendium: the Saint's birth, the harshness of her life,] In the first place they set down, and if there be need intend to prove, that Rose of the Third Order of St. Francis of Viterbo, of memory to be revered, some two hundred years ago ⁱ or thereabouts, in the city of Viterbo, in the time of Alexander the fourth of happy memory and of the emperor Frederick the second, commonly called Barbarossa ^k, was miraculously ^l born of her father the lord, lord John ^m, and her mother Catherine, Catholics and most Christian, and always so held and commonly reputed; who, being imbued with the teachings of the orthodox faith, lived as a Christian among Catholics and was held and accounted such; having in her childhood an aged wisdom, despising the allurements of this world, drawn to the love of the supernal heavenly glory, she macerated her flesh with continual fastings, vigils, hard chastisements, and a hair-shirt, out of charity and a great affection toward almighty God; always content with the meanest habit and girdle and rough tunics, she prayed and contemplated for the most part with very great humility and subjection in a most narrow little cell after the manner of a prison, and performed most hard penances: and that of these things there is public voice and report in the city of Viterbo, and almost everywhere, and it was always so commonly held, maintained, and reputed.*

[4] her various virtues, Item, in the second place they set down, and if there be need intend to prove, how the said Bl. Rose the virgin, while she was in human affairs, lived praiseworthily in her profession, resplendent in life and conversation, discreet, wise, kindly, chaste, humble, modest, and always held in the greatest devotion and reverence as a holy virgin, of great understanding, faithful, patient, given to almsgiving: with the highest virginity and continence of the flesh, ever bearing the greatest reverence toward almighty God, in the utmost poverty, visiting churches, with the greatest obedience to the lords ecclesiastical, and also to those who were accounted persecutors of the Church, the religion of the orthodox faith being always preserved: most devout toward her parents and her neighbor, and for the most part preaching to the people she announced the word of God, and especially upon a certain stone which miraculously raised and lowered itself; and that of these things there is public voice and report in the city of Viterbo and in several other places, and they have always been so held and reputed as most true.

[5] Item, in the third place they set down, and if there be need intend to prove, her knowledge of secrets, that the aforesaid virgin Rose, when she was in human affairs and was once gravely sick, miraculously saw the souls of many dead, and especially of those who had died many years before her birth: whom, although the aforesaid Virgin had never seen or known, she nevertheless distinguished one by one by their proper names, and their qualities, conditions, and life while they were in human affairs, and their good and evil deeds. Who nevertheless, when she was laboring in her last extremity, wished to be clothed in a most rough and hard hair-shirt, and out of devotion to be girt with the little cord of her ass; having thereafter a prophetic spirit from the power and grace of almighty God; as of all these things there is public voice and report, known and notorious in the city of Viterbo and almost everywhere.

[6] Item, in the fourth place, that the aforesaid Virgin was of the greatest faith and of miraculous and profound knowledge, without having been her prodigious knowledge, her zeal for the Catholic faith, taught by any human teacher; inviolably observing the precepts of the ancient law ⁿ and the precepts and counsels ^o of the holy Gospels; in each of her acts most honorable, most chaste in body and manners and mind, burning with the highest charity of God, and having a prophetic spirit, she confuted with the most pressing reasonings, in favor of the holy Christian faith, the obstinate perfidious woman and convicted the heretics, transcending human strength by the greatest abstinences [p]; and springing and casting herself bodily of her own accord into a burning fire, trusting in the power of the holy faith, she publicly confounded and overcame the heretics, since she had preserved herself and her body untouched by the fire; and that of all these things there is public voice and report in the city of Viterbo and everywhere, and they were continually preached as true, and held, maintained, and reputed.

[7] Item, in the fifth place, that the aforesaid Virgin with the greatest humility and prudence and patience bore the persecutions of the heretics [the persecutions endured for the cause of the same Faith, her zeal for prayer, her miracles,] and of the persecutors of the Church, after the example of our Lord Jesus Christ answering sweet words for harsh ones. And keeping watch in continual prayers, she was so pleasing to almighty God and so heard by him that of that Virgin's*

merits and intercessions God granted and poured out his grace upon many; namely, in the putting to flight of demons, the raising of the dead, the miraculous transfer of abscesses from one place and member to another, the curing of the dropsical and the paralytic and of divers other infirmities; and she shone forth while she lived with several other miracles, so far that at the carrying of her body the fire divided itself and drew back [q]. And of all these things there was and is public voice and report at Viterbo and everywhere, and they were always so preached, held, and maintained as true.

[8] Item, in the sixth place, how the death of the said glorious Virgin was precious and acceptable in the sight of the most high and supreme God: her tomb famous for prodigies: since at her tomb, after she yielded to nature, very many miracles and graces have appeared in divers places, not by the force of words but suddenly, without any labor on the sick person's part, to the edification of the holy Catholic and orthodox Christian Faith, sometimes against, sometimes above and beside nature: by raising the dead, giving light to the blind, cleansing lepers, granting hearing to the deaf, walking to the crippled, speech to the dumb, freeing captives from their bonds and sailors imperiled by the force of storms; and by the touch of her little cord and girdle, which are made of linen and silk in the said venerable monastery where her sacred body rests, bringing pregnant women to bring forth, and dead and unformed fetuses to be cast out by a draught of the washing of her hands: freeing the fevered and the plague-stricken, and flashing with several other great and divers miracles, from her death down to this present day; all which could not have been done otherwise than miraculously. And of all and singular these things there is public voice and report everywhere, and most of all in the city of Viterbo, and it has always been and is so held and maintained.

[9] [whence it came about that her monastery flourished in the number and sanctity of its nuns.] Item, in the seventh place, that in honor of her holy name and to the edification of her continual miracles, many venerable matrons, virgins noble and of the people, having entered her monastery [r], have professed the regular life and observance down to this present day, and continually profess it without number; and because of their just and holy life and the highest honorableness, since they have lived and live continually without stain, they so edify the whole people that devotion toward them grows greater every day: and that of this there is public voice and report, known and notorious.

[10] The Saint's incorrupt body is visited, health-giving to many. Item, in the eighth place, that at her venerable body — which even until now so miraculously remains whole and unharmed, whose flesh yields [s] when it is pressed down, and when let go returns to its former state; although it lay buried and interred beneath the earth for a year and a half [t] without any stain or injury, and every day it is shown to all who wish to see it. To which a multitude of divers peoples and nations, both on this side and beyond the mountains, continually runs together and flows, with the greatest devotion and reverence, and especially on the day and Vigil of the anniversary of her death and solemnity [u], with the carrying of palls and the offering of sacred images and of divers other things, thus paying vows to almighty God and to blessed Rose, as to the other Saints of God; since it is most firmly believed and reckoned by all that these miracles are wrought by the grace of almighty God, the merits of the said glorious virgin Rose requiring it, and that the aforesaid things could in no way have been done save miraculously; especially that her body has been preserved in so great wholeness, and was not corrupted beneath the earth through the length of so many months. And that of all the aforesaid there is public voice and report, and they have always been so preached, held, reputed, and maintained as most true, and so it is known and notorious.*

[11] All which things they contend to prove. Item, in the ninth place, that all and singular the aforesaid things which are to be proved from report, the elders of the people of the said city of Viterbo, and the graver persons of the said religious bodies , and laymen above all exception, so recall having continually heard and perceived from their predecessors and the elder men of the said city, and so most firmly believe and hold, as is known and notorious.*

[12] The Saint's authentic Acts lost: Item, in the tenth place, that the life of the said blessed Rose, together with her miracles, when they had been written down and noted in several authentic ancient writings, were lost through the negligence and the calamity of the said city of Viterbo, and consumed by fire: and that of this there is public voice and report.

[13] the honor paid to her body. Item, in the eleventh place, that by many supreme Pontiffs and other prelates and graver persons [w] recourse has been had to that Virgin, that she might intercede for them with almighty God, as to the other Saints of God, men and women.

[14] Item, in the twelfth place, that the aforesaid virgin Rose, having lived canonically and having been buried ecclesiastically in a certain church of Viterbo commonly named St. Mary del Poggio, After a threefold apparition she is translated by Alexander IV: as she had appeared in a vision to Alexander IV, then supreme Pontiff, her body was translated with the greatest solemnity to the church then commonly named of St. Mary, which is now called the church of St. Rose: and had not the aforesaid Alexander departed from human affairs too hastily, he would already have numbered the said glorious Virgin in the catalogue of the other Saints, male and female, of God, as he had already promised: and that of this there is public voice and report, known and notorious.

[15] Item, in the thirteenth place, how the chest and all the things which were above and below the said glorious body, where it was laid up, it sustains fire without harm: it wards off the danger of a burning. were burnt by accidental fire, and the aforesaid body remained unharmed without any stain and was preserved unstained and untouched by the fire; and how thereafter, after a long interval of time, from a lighted candle which through the nuns' forgetfulness had been left in the said chest, although it was burnt by the candle and the fire, again her holy body remained miraculously preserved and untouched; and this is known and notorious, public and manifest.

[16] Item, in the fourteenth place, that all and singular the aforesaid things were and are miraculously done and granted by the power and grace of almighty God, All which things appear to have been done prodigiously, by the intercessions and holy works of the said glorious virgin Rose. And that it could not have been done otherwise, by the force of words, or with fraudulent suggestion or diabolical operation intervening, beside, above, against, and beyond human nature: for which reasons it has always been commonly believed by all and reckoned that the said glorious virgin Rose ought to be numbered and joined, described and noted in the catalogue of the other Saints, male and female, of God. And this is known and notorious, public and manifest, and was always so commonly held and maintained.

[17] Item, in the fifteenth and last place, that of all and singular the aforesaid things above written there was and is in the city of Viterbo, and are proved from common report. and almost everywhere throughout all the parts of Italy, and in many places beyond the mountains, public voice and report; and every year, and most of all on the day of the anniversary of her death and solemnity, all and singular the aforesaid things, together with her praiseworthy life, fame, and miracles, have been publicly preached as true, and held, reputed, and maintained as true by all who have heard them, as even now they are held, maintained, and reputed; and so it has always been held and maintained from generation to generation by the elder and senior men of the said city.

[18] For proving all and singular which things the aforesaid procurators and syndics, Wherefore it is asked that the examination proceed juridically. in the procuratorial and syndical name as above, exhibit and produce generally all and singular the men and persons of the said city of Viterbo and of the other places, and especially the witnesses above said; whom they ask to be received and admitted by your Paternities upon the premises and upon each of the premises, and to be diligently examined, jointly and severally, in the contumacy of Silvester de Malvicinis of Viterbo, substitute procurator fiscal of the Roman court, who was nevertheless lawfully admonished and cited by Nicholas Francigena, public and sworn messenger; whose contumacy they charged, and they asked that further steps be taken, especially since it came about by chance, by a miracle [x] of almighty God, that the process of the said glorious Virgin should be begun on the day preceding the Sunday called della Rosa [y]. And as on that same day the multiplication of the loaves and fishes was miraculously wrought by our Lord Jesus Christ, as is sung in the Church: Lætare terra sterilis [z], so on that same day, by the great power of God and the intercessions of the said glorious virgin Rose, the process was begun miraculously on the Sunday della Rosa; and they ask that the aforesaid be done by your Paternities in every better manner, way, right, and form in which they more and better can and ought by law, both by your office and also by the force of the articles produced before your Paternities, saving always the right of adding and diminishing, and not binding otherwise*, etc. [aa]

ANNOTATA.

p. By these words it seems to be indicated that St. Rose not only was willing to undergo a long fast in the castle of Vitorchiano in order to bend the obstinacy of the heretical woman, but also actually underwent it either then or at other times in a like cause.

q. Tutius Lorenzeti of Viterbo explains the matter thus in the Process: When once a certain house in the district of St. Mary in Podio was being consumed by fire, and it could by no means be extinguished; yet as soon as the body of the said Virgin was carried past the fire, in that same instant the conflagration drew back and the fire was extinguished.

r. How greatly the number of nuns in the aforesaid monastery grew on the occasion of Rose's sacred body being brought thither, we learn from the testimony of Frances Benedicti, a nun, in which we read this: In which monastery indeed this witness very well remembers that there were scarcely nine nuns, or thereabouts; and yet down to this present day the said glorious body has been famous for so many miracles that every day their number has grown from good to better, since at this moment there are thirty or thereabouts, who for the greater part entered the said monastery after miracles and graces received by them from the said Bl. Rose. But at this time in the same monastery fifty-six nuns ordinarily live, on the testimony of Felician, History of Viterbo, part 1, book 1. The same author in book 7 reports a benefit conferred in the year 1705 upon the same nuns by St. Rose, as they devoutly believe, in memory of which this inscription is read in their choir:

> A. P. R. M.

> > On the eighteenth day of December, 1705, which fell on a Friday — at that time, namely, at which Christ willed to suffer — he permitted his brides to be afflicted with a most dreadful mishap; for while they were chanting, when they had come to that verse of the canticle, Et exultavit, etc., almost the whole ceiling of this hall collapsed, and a foul ruin overwhelmed the nuns: who, while they see the falling beams and the loosened stones rushing down upon them, implore the patronage of St. Rose with such success as may have the appearance of a miracle; so that not one of the fifty-five who were buried together in that rubbish died Note: rather, has died, although among them a certain one, already nearly in her eightieth year, received a most grievous wound. Wherefore say not that this happened by chance, but by the providence of a most loving Godhead, for the enlarging of Bl. Rose's glory; so that one may cry out: A standing roof could not have proved her a Goddess Note: that is, a Saint.

s. This passage seems faulty: but it is clear what it means: namely, that that flesh is so free of all corruption that it is even soft, and no otherwise than living flesh yields when pressed, and when let go returns to its former state.

t. Consult the Commentary, §4.

u. The day of the "solemnity" probably denotes the feast of the translation.

w. Of the illustrious persons who honored the Saint in her body we have treated in §6. Of Alphonsus Borgia, Cardinal of Valencia (who was afterwards supreme Pontiff, called Calixtus III), restored to health after a vow made to St. Rose, see among the Miracles, number 137: of Amicus, bishop of Aquila, number 177, etc.

x. I see no miracle here: but, I think, they merely hint that it seems not to have happened without divine providence that the examination for St. Rose's canonization should begin on the Sunday of the same name as herself.

y. That was the fourth Sunday of Lent, called de Rosa, from this, that the Pontiff was wont on that day to bless the golden rose; on which matter whoever desires more may consult Francis Pagi in the Breviary of the Pontiffs under Innocent IV, Raynaud, and Du Cange in the Glossary, under the word Rosa aurea, etc. This Sunday fell, in the year 1457 in which the process was instituted, on the twenty-seventh day of March.

z. Unless the copyist has erred, the Missal or Breviary of Viterbo must have differed in the aforesaid words from ours of today and from other ancient ones: for the Introit of the Mass of this Sunday is Lætare Jerusalem: while in the Hours the chapter at Sext does indeed begin with these words, Lætare sterilis, quæ non paris: but nowhere do I find Lætare terra sterilis: the rest agrees.

aa. There is subjoined the protestation of Silvester de Malvicinis, in which he demands that proceedings be had according to law, etc.; which, that I may not detain the reader longer than the matter requires, I pass over.

* Prosper Colonna, a Roman nobleman

that is, suam* (her own)

perhaps perfidiam* (perfidy)

that is, suum* (her own)

read persecutorum* (of the persecutors)

that is, not otherwise than*

perhaps religiosarum* (of the religious women)

that is, Paternitates* (Paternities)

MIRACLES

From the Process of Canonization.

Rose, virgin of the Third Order of St. Francis, at Viterbo in Italy. (S.)

BHL Number: 7347

From the Process.

CHAPTER I.

The dead raised, speech restored to a dumb man, sight to the blind, various diseases of the eyes prodigiously cured.

[ ] The miracles are set forth. The names and protection of almighty God and of the most glorious virgin Mary his mother, and of the apostles Peter and Paul, and of the whole triumphant heavenly court, and of the glorious blessed virgin Rose, whose cause is in hand, being invoked, the miracles written below are those wrought by the most high Creator, by the prayers and merits of the same blessed Rose, for the men and persons written below.

[20] [A boy is raised, a vow being uttered by his mother; which, being rebuked by the Saint, she discharges.] In the first place, it is now eighteen years, or thereabouts, since a certain woman named Catherine, wife of Peter de Vaschi, of the diocese ^a …, dwelling in the city at St. Angelo ^b, had a certain son three years old by name James , who had lain dead for some space of time. Which Catherine his mother, since she had the greatest devotion to the said glorious virgin Rose, with the utmost abundance of tears and reverence made a vow to the said Bl. Rose, that she would deign to pour forth prayers to almighty God, that by her prayers and merits he might raise her son from death to life, vowing and promising to visit her church and venerable body with the said son of hers, thus dead, with a certain wax candle. And the said James, the boy thus dead, straightway, when the vow was made, was raised from death to life. And when Catherine was negligent in carrying out the said vow, the aforesaid glorious Rose appeared to her by night, while she was awake, saying: Fulfil thy vow diligently: go to Viterbo to my house. And Catherine, terrified and astounded by this vision, answered and said: Who art thou? And to her thus asking she answered and said: I am blessed Rose the virgin, whom the Roman bishop received ^c; and straightway, these words being said, she vanished from her eyes. And the said Catherine on the following morning, taking the road toward Viterbo with the said James her son, fulfilled her vow, as she had promised, with the greatest devotion, in the presence of Nardus Mazzatoste ^d, John Perine ^e, and the nuns.*

[21] Moreover in the year of the Lord 1451 the lady Paulina, wife of John Voccus, when she was with child and the time of bearing was already near, [Laboring in childbirth, having invoked the Saint she brings forth a dead child: who, on a vow being made, comes to life again.] and was afflicted with great pains and anguish, and could in no way bring forth the child, vowed herself to almighty God and to the glorious virgin Bl. Rose, that by her merits and intercessions she might be freed from so many anxieties and be able to bring forth. Which vow being uttered, although she already seemed to be set in danger of death, she straightway was and is freed by the prayers of the aforesaid blessed Rose, although she had labored for fifteen days ^f before she could bring forth, and had borne a dead infant; who straightway, when the vow was made, revived and survived for several months, the abbess ^g and the nuns being present.

[22] In the year 1419 Menicus, son of Marcus Gualdi of Viterbo, being dead A wife obtains life for her dead husband before the Saint's body. and laid upon the ground ^h according to the custom of the country, with very many standing by there before the funeral; Covella, wife of the dead Menicus, standing before the body of Bl. Rose, most humbly prayed that Menicus her husband might be raised by her prayers and merits from death to life, promising to have the said miracle painted on the chest ⁱ in which the Glorious One then lay. Which vow being made, the woman, returning home, found her husband alive and raised from death to life, who thereafter survived several years. Which said miracle appears on the said chest, as Peter Angelus, son of Nicholas ^k, of Viterbo, has many times heard it recounted by his maternal aunt, his mother, and the daughter of the said Menicus thus raised, and by John, son of master Anselm, witnesses, and the lady Angela, daughter of Giles Marcus Gualdi ^l, and the lady Joanna, daughter of Giles Transmundus.

[23] Moreover in the year of the Lord 1450, which was the year of Jubilee ^m, [A German, deprived of sight and speech by a grave infirmity, recovers both by the merits of St. Rose.] a certain German, having lost his eyes and his speech from a certain deadly infirmity of his, hearing the report of the miracles and graces which our almighty Lord Jesus Christ, to display his omnipotence, was continually working through the merits and intercessions of the glorious virgin Rose of Viterbo, commended himself to her with the utmost humility, that if he should recover sight and speech by her merits and grace, he would visit the basilica where the glorious Virgin's body rests, or the monastery. Which vow being uttered as above, the merciful Lord extended the clemency of his mercy upon this devout suppliant: for at once, perhaps within the space of two hours, this devout petitioner recovered his sight and his speech, and so saw and spoke as he had been wont and accustomed to see before. And when he had betaken himself to Viterbo in the year of Jubilee for the sake of visiting the said body, he made known to John, son of Peter of Parma ⁿ, and to several standing by there, that the said miracle had thus befallen him, as he testified to them and to the nuns.*

[24] Item, that when a certain woman named Rita, By the same Saint's benefit a woman from one, of the castle of Magliano ^o in the Sabina, was blind in one eye and deprived of its light, vowing herself to God and to the said glorious Virgin, straightway the eye and the light

she recovered. Which miracle indeed she publicly made known, in the presence of the lord Paul of the church of St. Andrew de columna, the lord Salvatus, beneficed of the church of St. John Lateran, the lord John of Tivoli, beneficed of St. Mary Major of the City [p], and several others standing by there.

[25] and another, blind in both eyes, are cured. Moreover in the year of the Lord 1453 then current , a certain woman named Bartholomea [q], daughter of Angelus del Messere of Viterbo, when she had been made blind by a certain terrible infirmity, so that she saw nothing at all upon the earth, as all who saw and knew her manifestly attest: although she had tried the powers and counsels of several physicians, and nothing had availed her for the recovery of her lost sight. At last, seeing herself set in so great a calamity and misery, not without groaning and many sobs, weeping and wailing with tearful eyes, prostrate on the ground she vowed herself to almighty God and to Bl. Rose, saying: If thou wilt free me from this calamity, visiting thy sacred and holy body for a whole month, I will cause a Mass to be celebrated in thy honor and reverence: which vow being thus solemnized, she was straightway restored to her former light and the sight of her eyes, as if she had never suffered any ill in her eyes [r]; in the presence of Paulina, daughter of Matthew Lucas, and Ludovica, daughter of Michael Paloccio, of the district [s] of St. Matthew, testifying the same, and Gianna Col. [ ] del Messere testifying that she had brought the said Bartholomea, thus blind, to the church of St. Rose, and at last had seen that she, the vow being made, at once saw and had recovered her eyes.*

[26] Various In the year 1444, when a certain boy, Peter Dominic, son of James Boccacerase, of the district of St. Sixtus, and Cecilia, daughter of Matthew Cencius, of the district of St. Quiricus of Viterbo, were spotted in their eyes with a certain film [t], so far that they could scarcely see; they also appeared to all to be blind. Leonarda, mother of the said Peter Dominic, being with the aforesaid sick persons before the body of Bl. Rose in her church, devoutly kneeling with a certain quantity or filza [u] of corals or ambers [w], with which she said the Pater noster, touched the said glorious body: then with them she sprinkled [x] and touched the eyes of the said sick persons; who at once, the film which they had upon them being removed, wonderfully grew clear and were wholly freed from every mark, as is notorious at Viterbo, especially in their neighborhood. This Gianna, of the third order of St. Dominic, testifies, that she saw him, blind, and afterwards sound in his eyes. The same the lady Leonarda his mother testifies, and Laurentia his sister, that they heard it [y] from his mother and others of the household.

[27] dangerous diseases of the eyes In the year of the Lord 1451, when a certain Mary, daughter of Anthony Abo the Lombard, of Sutri [z], was suffering from measles [aa], from one of which, breaking out in her left eye, she was made wholly blind in her eyes; she vowed herself to God and to Bl. Rose, that if the said eye should be restored to her sound and free by her prayers and merits, she would bring a silver eye to her sacred body: which vow being made, within the space of not many days she was healed and so far made free in the said eye as if she had never suffered any ill, and without any blemish, as she testified to the lady Frances [bb] and the other nuns.*

[28] are suddenly taken away by her patronage Moreover in the year of the Lord 1454, in the month of August, when a certain Angela, wife of John, son of Nardus Palottus of Viterbo, had been made blind by a certain most grievous infirmity of hers and had lost the light and keenness of her eyes, destitute of all human help, when she had been without light for a year, she turned her mind with the utmost devotion and reverence to almighty God and to the glorious virgin Rose, that by her intercessions she would deign to restore her eyes to her, at the least that she might see so much as would enable her to go out of the house and to visit churches: which prayers being uttered as above, she deserved to be heard; because straightway, as soon as she rose from prayer, she saw, and recovered the light of her eyes, as she sees even today, as if she had never been blind, since she vowed that she would continually keep the day of her holy solemnity. The same is testified [cc] by the lady Tomassa her mother, Angilella daughter of Marcus, Petrutius Butius and Peter Dominic, and Constantia Mascini of the district of St. Marcus.

[29] Philomena, a girl five years of age, and daughter of Benedicta, wife of Justus, suddenly taken away. of the district of the street of St. Peter of Viterbo, about the year 1448 [dd], when she was suffering most grievously from a certain infirmity commonly detta delle quate [ee], seven of which had come upon her in one eye, so that the pupil and light of the eye was so covered and darkened that she saw nothing, and was judged blind by all who saw her there. And this girl, being thus sick, since she was drawn with great devotion to Bl. Rose, as she had been instructed and admonished by her parents, on one of the days went to the church of St. Rose, before whose body a certain venerable nun of that monastery known to her, by name the lady Margaret Petrutii, at present abbess of that place, being called, she asked of her a certain girdle [ff] of the said Bl. Rose, asserting that she would put it upon the eye in which she was suffering, and by which she saw nothing. I hope also, she said, that as soon as my eye shall have touched this girdle, which touched the body of this Bl. Virgin, it will be freed, and that I shall see thus and the light will be restored to me. And this nun, at the words and prayers of this girl, a certain girdle being given her and placed upon the eye thus blind, by which she saw nothing — a wonderful thing! — no otherwise than as clouds shaken by the winds flee from the air, so in that instant the aforesaid seven delequate fled and ceased, and the eye remained clear and clean, as it also had been before, and she saw. And she, thus given light, coming to her house, said to her mother: Seest thou, mother, that I am free and healed by the merits of Bl. Rose? At which wondrous spectacle Benedicta her mother, the neighbors being called, showed the eye thus restored and recounted the miracle. This Philomena testifies [gg], and Benedicta [hh], and Margaret the abbess.*

[30] Moreover in the year of the Lord 1437 there was a certain woman named Palotia Ricci, The Saint, appearing to a woman, frees her from blindness. of the district [ii] of St. Leonard of Viterbo, blind in both eyes [kk], since she had seen nothing at all for a whole year, despairing of ever seeing again, since that was against human nature [ll] and the power and art of physicians [mm]. Once, mindful at her house both of what she had formerly seen, and of how great was the misery and calamity of the blind and of those who see nothing, and moreover how great the grace of those in whom nature had failed in nothing, commending herself, not without tears and very many sighs, to all the Saints of the heavenly court. To her, kneeling, not asleep, but thus a little coming to herself [nn], Bl. Rose was seen visibly to appear in the form in which she is painted [oo], as she seemed to herself to see by the understanding, since she could see nothing with her eyes; to whom the aforesaid woman had continually been devout, saying to her: Palotia, Palotia, thou hast invoked all the Saints save me: and when the woman had answered, asking: And who art thou? she answered: I am blessed Rose of Viterbo: and when the woman, thus kneeling, weeping, said reverently to her, Help me; Bl. Rose enjoined her, saying that she should open her eyes: into which she breathed three times. Which being done, at once, before she departed thence, her eyes were opened and the cataracts [pp] of her eyes were lifted, and she saw without any blemish [qq]. This the aforesaid Palotia testifies; and Peter, son of Dominic Sciarvatelli, John, son of Jutius Fanciulli, Thomas Capati, the lady Margaret and the lady Magdalen [rr], nuns, say that they heard it from her.*

[31] Adornina, daughter of Peter, a certain Corsican woman [ss], dwelling at Viterbo in the district of St. Leonard, A mother obtains by her prayers the use of one eye for her son. since she was already given to great devotion toward the said Bl. Rose, had a certain son of hers named Laurence, twelve years of age or thereabouts, wholly blind in one eye as to the light and pupil of that eye. And when he had lived thus blind for several years, she most devoutly vowed [tt] to the aforesaid Bl. Rose, commending herself to her, that she would intercede with almighty God for her son Laurence, that he might restore the light and to his eye its sight with light. Which vow being thus uttered, on the following morning the aforesaid Laurence rose from his bed with both eyes, and saw; nor did it ever appear to anyone who had known him that he had been blind, so clear and bright was it. This the lady Adornina testifies [uu].

ANNOTATA.

h. In

a bier, that his kinsfolk might perform the last office of lamentation to his body before it was buried. So nearly does Coretinus interpret this passage, who in this matter could very well have known the custom of the country.

p. From these it is plain that this miracle was obtained at Rome. And those churches are too commonly known to need notes.

q. Coretinus, reporting this same miracle, reads not Bartholomea but Bartholomew: but that it was a woman is manifest both from her own and from the other witnesses' juridical deposition.

r. This notable benefit she to whom it fell attested on oath. Her testimony, although rather lengthy, it has seemed good to transfer hither from the Process: and it is of this kind: The lady Bartholomea, daughter of Angelus del Messere of Viterbo, a witness brought in, produced, cited, reported, sworn, and diligently examined upon the fifth article and especially upon the sixth miracle wrought in her person, testifying on her oath said that the things contained in it were true, that some four years ago or thereabouts, when this witness, from a certain terrible infirmity which she had suffered, had become blind in both eyes, so that she saw nothing at all, and had remained thus blind for a month and more, although she had tried several remedies. On one day, however, considering within herself the calamity in which she was bound, and how great was the misery of the blind, she turned her mind to Bl. Rose, sighing and weeping and devoutly committing herself to her, that she might be freed from anguish of this kind, vowing that she would visit her sacred body for a whole month, if it should come about that she was healed. Then she had herself led step by step by Gianna Col. [ ] to the said church, and when she came to it, prostrating herself before the said body, with several looking on there, the cataracts of her eyes were opened, and she saw, as she had been wont to see before the said infirmity … Being asked, In whose presence? she said, Of herself the witness, the lady Gianna, Paulina daughter of Matthew Lucas and Ludovica daughter of Matthew Palotius, Michael Palotius, several nuns, and almost her whole neighborhood, etc. With these the testimonies of the women cited agree.

s. Contrata and Contrada is a street, a region, a neighborhood, says Ludovicus Muratorius, [ ] Italiæ, volume 2 Col. [ ]. Here it signifies a region of a city, or a parish. This word will recur rather often below: wherefore, that I may not be compelled to repeat the same thing frequently, I refer the reader hither.

t. Panno in Italian is called a spot arising in the eye.

u. It is an Italian word signifying any things whatever cohering with one another by a thread passed through them. Here it signifies prayer-beads, as is clear from what follows.

w. This word too is Italian, signifying amber: and so a filza of corals or ambers is prayer-beads of coral or amber.

x. In what manner she sprinkled the eyes, Gianna of the third Order of St. Dominic explains, a sworn witness of this miracle, whose testimony I recite: Asked the ground of her knowledge, she said that some twelve years ago or thereabouts, when a certain Peter Dominic, her brother, and Cecilia, daughter of Matthew Cencius, were so affected by a certain infirmity which is commonly called li morviglioni (it is a kind of pox) which had come upon their eyes, that they saw almost nothing and were wholly blinded: which children, thus blind, when she had led them to the body of Bl. Rose, kneeling before it and devoutly praying for their deliverance, she touched the said holy body with certain corals which she held in her hands, and washed them for her (the mother) with the water of the washing of the hands and eyes of the said Bl. Rose. Then she placed the said corals upon the eyes of the aforesaid children, which she also sprinkled with the said water. And at once, with all looking on, the film of the eyes of the said children fell away, and their eyes grew clear in that instant miraculously, etc. Of the washing of the hands the discourse will recur hereafter.

y. That she not only heard it, but also had kept the blind children, nay even was present when they were healed, the aforesaid Leonarda testified: but her testimony, as also her mother's, since it contains nothing beyond what has been said, I pass over.

z. In Italian Sutri, it is an episcopal city in the province of the Patrimony.

aa. Morbille in Italian are called reddening pustules or pox.

bb. She was a nun of the monastery of St. Rose, about sixty years of age, as is had in her own testimony. Further, the venerable lady Margaret Petrutii, abbess of the aforesaid monastery, being asked upon the eighth miracle, concerning Mary daughter of Abo of Sutri, blind in one eye and restored to health, said that the things contained in it were true. Being asked the ground of her knowledge, she said: Because she saw the aforesaid Mary free in the said eye, and afterwards wholly blind because of the measles; and at last, a vow being made to Bl. Rose the virgin, as soon as there was laid upon the said eye, thus blind, the water with which the hands of the said Bl. Rose the virgin had been washed, the eye was in that same instant restored to light, as is contained in the said miracle. Being asked, in whose presence? She said: Of herself the witness, the said Mary, the lady Frances, and Sister Jerome of Città Castellana, cousin of the said Mary, and several other nuns.

cc. So in fact all those cited, and Angela herself too, juridically testified.

dd. The often-praised Coretinus in book 5, chapter 9, says that this miracle happened in the year 1458, after Calixtus III, the process being now finished, had confirmed for Rose the title of Saint. But this narration of Coretinus convicts him of no small negligence in tracking down the truth: for if he had been willing to inspect the Acts of the Process even with a light eye and to attend to them, he would certainly have found this benefit inserted into the Process drawn up in the year 1457 for proving Rose's sanctity; and he would have discovered that it was plainly proved and confirmed there by Philomena herself and by her mother, the lady Benedicta, wife of Justus, sworn witnesses.

ee. Perhaps this word is written down faultily: for I do not find it in the Italian dictionaries: but there seem to be denoted rheum, or a flow of sharp humor into the eye, and the spots arising from it; for in Philomena's own testimony it is said thus: Which being done (when she had touched the eye with the girdle which had touched the Saint's body) the said delequatæ disappeared: and in her mother's testimony: The said delequatæ melted away and disappeared. So Rinaldus and Giannellus also understood this passage.

ff. This girdle seems to have been a little cord such as the Tertiaries of St. Francis use, and such as the Saint herself had used while she lived. Further, those little cords were made of silk and linen in the monastery of St. Rose, as is said above at number 8, and that they were used by many exceedingly wholesomely we shall see in the course of the work.

gg. She was in this year 1457, in which she testified, about fourteen years old.

hh. That is, the mother of the aforesaid Philomena. The testimony of both, since it differs from the account given only in its words, I pass over, that I may not be longer.

ii. That is, of the parish, as our Rinaldus of Florence has it.

kk. From a certain infirmity, she says in her deposition.

ll. That is, since the cure of such an ill exceeded the powers of nature.

mm. She had already used very many medicines, as she testified when juridically interrogated; but in vain; she adds also that by all the physicians and others who saw and treated her she was abandoned and forsaken, because it seemed impossible that she should ever see.

nn. This word is faultily set down or transcribed: what it means, however, is explained in her juridical answer, where it is said: To her (Palotia) praying thus on her knees and as if a little asleep, there appeared, etc. He means, therefore, that she was like one drowsing when St. Rose appeared to her.

oo. If she is wont to be painted as Coretinus prefixed her, engraved on copper, to his little work, she must have appeared in the habit of a religious of the third Order of St. Francis.

pp. It is a metaphorical expression, by which he indicates that, as when the floodgates are raised, cities

lie open to those entering, so, this blindness being dispelled, a passage was as it were laid open for colored things to the retinas of the eyes.

qq. That is, without any remaining spot or dimness in the eyes.

rr. The sworn answers of the witnesses cited agree.

ss. Sprung from Corsica, an island of Italy.

tt. Understand the obscure sentence thus: She vowed to the aforesaid Bl. Rose a certain son of hers (that is, her own) whom she had, etc.

uu. So in fact, an oath being interposed, Adornina his mother asserted.

read Jacobum*

add &*

se* is superfluous.

rather currente*

read unquam*

quod* is superfluous.

read suam*

read domo*

that is, anno* (in the year)

read umquam*

rather quænam*

CHAPTER II.

Possessed and bewitched persons freed, speech restored to the dumb, the use of their limbs restored to the crippled.

[ ] [She appears to a possessed woman grievously vexed by a demon, and drives out the demon:] Moreover in the year of the Lord 1449, on the eighth day of the month of July, a certain woman Frances, wife of Angelus, son of Dominic De Jovi ^a, daughter of Dominic of Mugnano, of the district of St. Marcus, being possessed and having a demon in her, after the manner of the possessed and of those who have demons in them, did countless mad things at home and abroad, publicly and privately, with neighbors and certain others standing by and looking on. Among which she had sometimes been wont to bite her tongue so sharply that she tore away half of it, so far that, while she was set in this madness and in the disturbance and vexation of the demons, it once happened that for three days and as many nights she remained without speech and without uttering any word. She, however, had formerly been devout to the aforesaid glorious Virgin, before the demons invaded her. Blessed Rose, who never forsook her devout ones, appeared to her while she persisted in so great a trance, in a gilded garment, comforting her and saying: Dost thou know me? To whom the possessed woman, her voice being restored to her, answered: Thou art Bl. Rose, to whom I have always had great devotion: help me, and I in reverence of thee will wear thy girdle. To whom the blessed Virgin answered: Fear not, for thou art freed and made whole.

[33] She rebukes her for deferring her vow. Which words being said, the demon in the form of a certain monster or four-footed thing of a black nature went out of her body, and falling to the ground fled away. And she, being thus healed, went at once to visit the body of the said Bl. Rose, by whose merits and prayers her half-torn tongue had been restored to her with her speech, and she had been freed from the vexation of the demons: who even now to this present day lives whole and free with her household. Since, however, she had promised to wear her girdle for a certain time, and neglected to carry this out, the said Blessed one appeared to her by night with a troubled face and clothed in black, saying to her: E quel cordone? ^b For which vision, being roused from sleep, on the following morning she girt herself with the said girdle, and so continually has lived and lives in the highest health ^c. These things are proved by the lady Catherine, daughter of James Jeminus ^d, son of master Stephen, Frances daughter of Marcus Barberius, Joanna daughter of Peter the Mason, Angela daughter of John Forlanus, Angilella daughter of Giles Marcus Gualdi, Margaret daughter of Cecchinus, all of the district of St. Marcus of Viterbo, and Friar James Maltempi and Friar James, son of Philip, of the Order of Servants, James son of Stephen, Simon son of Angelus, Anthony Tutius the butcher, and master Anthony the pack-saddle maker ^e, all of Viterbo.

[34] In the year 1455, on the tenth day of September, a certain Anthony, A possessed man brought once to the Saint's body a Slav by name, called Friar Andrew of the Order of Minors, who had been vexed by a demon for about nine years. And so, during the said time, certain tremblings often came upon him in his mind, from which he was compelled to twist back his hands, arms, and face: and while this frenzy lasted no one could hold him, since he asserted that there were several demons in his body. Which fits used then chiefly to befall him when he approached some solemnity or some devout place. He, having once been made a Friar at Viterbo, and being about to be led by a certain companion of his to the monastery of St. Rose for the sake of visiting the sacred body of that Virgin, could by no means endure that body, crying out with a loud voice: I will not see it, for it is hostile to me.

[35] When at length, bound in his arms, he was being led thither, continually refusing to look at it, [and led thither again, was wretchedly tormented; to whom, sleeping, Rose promises help:] he struck himself several times against the very rough iron grate of the said monastery, with which that place or chapel is fenced where the aforesaid consecrated body rests ^f. And when at last it was objected to him that he would in no way otherwise be loosed from thence unless his word were first given that he would leave the body of the said Friar Andrew free without harm, he answered that he could not so easily go out of him, since there were in him seven companions, whom he distinguished by name with the names of demons; and that on the following morning they would all go out, they promised. And when, being loosed, he had gone away thence, at the coming of night he was tormented beyond measure: to whom nevertheless, being thus wearied and resting a little, there appeared in his sleep a certain Virgin crowned with laurel; to whom, when he wished to defer and to honor her, she said: Fear not, my son, for thou shalt be freed. And when he was roused from sleep, his understanding was made sound and he was master of his mind, as it seemed to him. Yet when day was already growing bright, at the said church his former torments and trance returned, nor could he enter the said church otherwise than with hands and feet bound.*

[36] And when he had been brought by force to the body of this Bl. Rose, and thence brought thither a third time is at last delivered. and most tightly bound before it, with several pains and anxieties coming upon him, in distress with frenzy, from earliest morning until the hour of None he could not endure to look at the said body, nor to drink the washing of the hands ^g of the said Virgin, although his teeth were several times forced open with a certain bastone or wooden staff thicker than a finger, which the possessed man thrice broke with his teeth and tore apart without effort, crying out continually: Woe to us, let us go into the deep. Although he was unlearned, yet he spoke thus in Latin; and when the ring ^h from the Blessed one's finger was held to his mouth that he might kiss it, it was several times thrust away by him. Yet as soon as he had kissed it by force ⁱ, he fell to the ground as if dead, vomiting and spitting out a certain black thing, which could not very clearly and openly be seen, what it was, because of the multitude of those standing by there; and it afterwards disappeared. And he, a little after, when he had come to himself, said: Ajutatemi, che mi voglio inginocchiare ^k. And thus, by the help of Bl. Rose, the demons being expelled, he was miraculously freed. And continually out of devotion the said Anthony the Slav, now called Friar Andrew of the Order of Minors, by visiting the said church every day serves and attends upon that monastery. Which miracle he himself declared and attested ^l, in the presence of the lord Christopher de Malvicinis ^m, doctor of laws and count palatine, and of S. James Jutius of Viterbo, Andrew Capati, John son of Jutius Fanciulli, Friar Ludovic of Gallese, Friar Anthony of Sezze, and Friar Bernardine of Sezze.

[37] Another woman snatched from the vexations of demons. The lady Margaret, daughter of Angelus Jignosus of Viterbo, since in 1447 she had a certain daughter of hers, twelve years of age or thereabouts, who from a certain fright was for eight days so vexed by spirits that she spoke day and night like one mad and fantastic, after the manner of those who have malignant spirits in them: at which occurrence the afflicted mother, being most devout to the said Bl. Virgin Rose, humbly commended to her her daughter, thus possessed and having a demon in her. Which vow being made, most instantly, in the twinkling of an eye, the girl's mind returned sound, and she spoke prudently, as she had been accustomed to speak before, nor did the spirit thereafter return. So the lady Margaret testifies ⁿ, and Lucretia her daughter, and her father ^o.

[38] A dumb boy, carried at the Saint's bidding to the sacred body, receives speech. In the year 1443, Ludovic, a boy, son of Tutius, son of Angelus della Teja, of the district of St. Faustinus, was dumb, who had never spoken; for whom, when a certain Egidia [p], the said boy's paternal grandmother, had consulted Angilella, daughter of Luke the cobbler of Viterbo, a woman of good condition and life, as to what was to be done; on the following night Bl. Rose, appearing in a vision to both the said women, seemed to set her mouth to the mouth of the dumb boy. And these women, being roused from sleep and from the vision, on the following morning carried the dumb boy to the blessed body of the aforesaid Rose, and when they had set the mouth of the dumb boy to the mouth of the aforesaid Virgin, imploring her help, at once the boy began to speak perfectly and well, in the presence of the aforesaid women, the boy's parents, and the nuns of the said monastery.

[39] Appearing to a mother praying for her two sons, she restores both to health. A certain Francis, son of the lady Petrutia, daughter of Paris of Viterbo, now called the wife of Anthony of Valeritano [q], when he was nine years of age, because of a certain infirmity which he suffered, lost his speech; so that for a whole month he was dumb, without speech. And this Francis had a brother named James, who continually, while sleeping, was always grinding his teeth: with which infirmity he had been vexed for a month and a half. For which two little boys Petrutia their most loving mother, moved with maternal piety, not without sobs, tears, and sighs, by night in her bed commended herself to Bl. Rose, that she would deign to restore to her her sons, the one dumb, the other half-dead . To her, drowsing a little while, Bl. Rose appeared in her sleep, in the form in which she is now painted, saying to her: Fear not, Petrutia my devout one, for thy devotion has deserved to be heard. For I am Bl. Rose, who have freed thy sons. And she, thus terrified, being roused from the said sleep and vision, called Anthony her husband, telling him what vision she had had. Then, having received a certain girdle or cord of Bl. Rose, she touched the aforesaid sons with it; which being done, in that instant the arteries [r] of the said Francis were opened, and he spoke, saying: Mother, I should like a little fish. And the other, James, so recovered that at the whitening of day he rose from his bed sound, in the presence of the said parents and of the nuns.*

[40] Item, that in the year of the Lord 1451 … a certain James de Lagolpe of Viterbo, Crippled in all his limbs by a fall from a horse, at present rector of the hospital of the Disciplinati and of Charity of Viterbo, riding upon a certain horse near the Justice [s] outside the walls of Viterbo, almost a mile off, fell from it. From which fall or throw he was made contracted in all*

his limbs, and since neither foot nor hand could perform its office, he lay in bed for forty days [t] and more, in which he could not turn or move himself because of the contraction. And at last, when he scarcely walked a little with wooden crutches [u], knowing himself to be thus maimed [w] and contracted, he lifted up his mind to Bl. Rose on the day of St. Clare, in the month of August, on which day with the said crutches, though with the utmost difficulty, he betook himself to the church of the said Bl. Rose, where her venerable body rests.*

[41] Where with the greatest and hugest abundance of tears he prostrated himself upon the ground, is restored to his former soundness. near the chapel of the tomb of that Bl. glorious Virgin, imploring her protection: and at last, when the Body of Christ had been elevated, since the solemnities of the Masses were then being celebrated, the aforesaid prayer being made, with the people who were there looking on, he rose thence sound and unharmed, giving thanks to almighty God and to the glorious Virgin herself. Who at present still lives free and sound [x], in the presence of the reverend Father Master John of Tivoli, provincial minister of the Order of Minors, George Trombetta, the nuns, John Cifarella, Master Gentilis, and Veronica the wife of the said James, and several others.

[42] Moreover in the year 1439 a certain Nardus, son of Palotius, of Viterbo, Another likewise contracted, an apparition going before, of the parish of St. Peter della Rocca , when he was oppressed with the greatest pains and wrenchings of the body, and was as it were contracted in hands and feet — and so he could in no way move himself from one place to another by himself without another's help — to him, while he was thus tormented, the aforesaid Rose appeared by night, to whom he had always been most devout: which vision indeed considering on the following morning, and turning himself to almighty God and the glorious Rose, he said: O glorious blessed Rose, help me and free me from this grave infirmity, promising to visit her body with a certain waxen image. Who straightway, with several looking on, was miraculously restored to his former health, as today he is sound and lives with his household, the lady nuns being present.

[43] Angela, daughter of Benedict Zellus of Viterbo, being still an infant, and she heals an infant of a grave infirmity. was wholly dried up by a certain most grievous infirmity, so far that of her body nothing appeared to survive save the breath; and when her mother had committed her by a vow to the aforesaid glorious virgin Rose, she was straightway healed [y], the nuns being present.

[44] To a certain girl named Laura, daughter of the noble man Laurence, called de Casteldensibus of Viterbo, and commonly de Monte Alto, in 1454, A noble girl, her fingers contracted by a mournful mishap, after a vow uttered, after the bitter and cruel death of the said Laurence her father — which is said to have befallen him rather by fate [z] than for any ill deserts, I shall not say by the malice of certain envious men — all the fingers of her hands, she being terrified with fear, were weakened and contracted, and, as is commonly said, agrancati [aa], in such a manner that neither of her hands could sufficiently perform its office, nay, she could by no means even set it to her mouth, but she had need of others' hands both to drink and to eat. Which girl, while she was thus sick, vowed herself to almighty God and to Bl. Rose, that she would take her habit, and as a nun would serve and live in her monastery, if it should come about that she was freed.*

[45] and the sacred body being touched, she receives the use of both hands. Which vow being made and told to the nuns of the said monastery, by the aforesaid nuns, having compassion on her and on her youthful age, she was led to the consecrated body of Bl. Rose: and when she had most devoutly touched that glorious body with her contracted hands and closed fingers, straightway, with those standing by there looking on, she was and is miraculously freed, and all the fingers were brought back to their former health and soundness [bb]. In the presence of the lady Margaret the abbess and certain other nuns, and of the lord Prior of the church of St. Bartholomew of Viterbo, with several kinsfolk and friends of the said girl, as is public voice and report at Viterbo, and in the presence of Pacificus Bonelli [cc] of Viterbo.

[46] Two others by a like infirmity Margaret Antonia Bonanni, of the castle of Bagnaia [dd], in 1449, when she had a daughter almost withered, who could be helped by no human aid, having recourse nevertheless to blessed Rose and presenting her to her , she was straightway freed, the nuns being present.*

[47] freed. Moreover a certain man of the Kingdom [ee] was so contracted, withered, and weakened in his feet and hands and all his other limbs, that neither foot nor hand nor any other member of his could sufficiently perform its office. When he had come to the baths of Viterbo, or rather had had himself carried thither, and neither the force of medicines nor of the baths could avail him in any way, in the inn or house of Thomas the huntsman, where he was lodged, it was urged upon him that he should vow himself to Bl. Rose the virgin of Viterbo: and that if he did this devoutly, he would most surely be heard and freed from so great an infirmity; since the bosom of grace and of clemency is never closed to those who devoutly beseech her. Moved by these urgings and words, that man of the Kingdom offered his prayers to the said Virgin: which being uttered, a few hours after he began little by little to move himself from limb to limb, and so far that within a short time he was restored to his former health. And thus sound and safe he departed from the inn into his own parts, whither he had come led with the greatest distress, by the grace and merits of the said glorious virgin Rose. So the said Thomas testifies* [ff].

ANNOTATA.

and spoke perfectly in Latin, though he was unlearned) and they had answered that they could not leave the body of Friar Andrew, since there were seven companions in the said body: yet on the following day they promised to leave him free. And when the said Friar Andrew was released Note: perhaps thus he is released: on the following night, as he slept, Bl. Rose appeared to him in his sleep, saying to him: Fear not, for thou art already freed (that is, it is at hand that thou shouldst be freed). When day came, however, being again led by force before the body of the said Bl. glorious virgin Rose, and there bound again, he did many mad things, of which he does not particularly remember, save that it seems to him that he was then pressed with many distresses, and that his tongue was being cut off. At last, when he was compelled by violence to kiss the said body, he fell as if dead, and it seemed to him that a certain thing went out of his mouth. And that from that time onward, when he then rose up sound, he was never disquieted by the aforesaid demons, etc.

p. Egidia, wife of Tutius della Teja, who had brought up the aforesaid dumb boy in her house, as she herself testified.

q. In her testimony she is called the lady Petrutia, wife of Anthony of the castle of Valentano. And Valento, in Latin Varentum, is a town of Italy in the Patrimony of St. Peter near the lake of Bolsena, on Baudrand's testimony.

r. I think we should read arteriæ. Further, arteria here seems to signify not a vital vein but the throat or gullet, in which signification it is also used among the Italians, and this is what the thing itself requires in this place.

s. That is, the place appointed for punishing the guilty, or for hanging up their corpses. It is a figurative expression, the name being transferred from the virtue which punishes the wicked to the place of execution.

t. For thirty days and more is what is had in James's own testification.

u. Again he uses Italian. Croccia in Latin is a crutch.

w. Stroppiato in Italian is in Latin maimed, or crippled in some limb.

x. Nay, he himself on oath plainly testified to the benefit.

y. So the aforesaid Angela and her mother left it attested.

z. Understand chance, or rather the permission of providence.

aa. From the Italian aggranchiare, which is said of the fingers when they are contracted from cold or from a convulsion of the sinews.

bb. Laura, bound by her vow, stood by her promises, as is plain from the Process, in which among the other testimonies of the nuns of that monastery it is thus read: Sister Laura, daughter of the late Laurence de Monte Alto, a nun of the said monastery, another witness cited, reported, sworn, and diligently examined upon the twenty-first miracle conferred upon her person, testifying on her oath said that the things contained in it were true. Being asked the ground of her knowledge she said that she saw and was present, and deserved to receive the said grace and miracle in her own person, out of devotion for which miracle and grace received she entered the aforesaid monastery.

cc. He calls himself a kinsman of the aforesaid Laura in his testimony, and says that she dwelt in his house when these things happened.

dd. Bagnoregio is a city of Etruria in the dominion of the Church.

ee. He is said in the testimony of Thomas the huntsman to be from the kingdom of Apulia.

ff. He plainly confirmed this benefit, as also Frances daughter of Thomas, and Nicholas the son of Thomas.

read suam*

read perturbatione*

rather respondit*

supply duceretur* (he was being led)

supply alterum* (the other)

others La Volpe*

that is, facere* (to perform)

that is, de rupe* (of the rock)

ejus*

read ne*

read illi*

perhaps unde*

CHAPTER III.

Various ulcers and abscesses taken away; prisoners delivered from their dungeons; the falling sickness cured; the plague driven off from several.

[ ] A woman is freed from a dangerous fistula: In the year of the Lord 1452 a certain woman named Catherine, wife of Paul Vannellus of Viterbo, was vexed with a pestilential disease or fistula ^a in her shin, so far that she seemed brought almost to death, nor could she stand upright any longer. Destitute of all human aid and of the physicians', she turned herself to almighty God and to the glorious virgin Rose, promising that she would wear her little cord upon her for a whole year, if it should come about that she was freed from so great a plague. Which vow being made, she was made so sound and free that scarcely a sign of the opening and of the scar appeared in it ^b.

[49] a girl with three abscesses in the face, Item, how about the year of the Lord 1435 a certain girl named Angela, daughter of John, son of Thomas, son of Master Jerome, of Viterbo, of the parish of St. Matthias, was oppressed with three pestilent abscesses in the face near the ear; and, being distressed lest from the aforesaid abscesses her face should remain disfigured and marked, because of the cuttings and scars of those abscesses, the lady Andicotia her mother, fearing about the aforesaid, turned her mind to the most high God and to the glorious Rose, most devoutly beseeching that by her prayers and merits and intercessions no sign or scar of the aforesaid abscesses might remain on the face of her said daughter, and that she would place them upon the head of the aforesaid sick girl, or in a place where, because of the incisions of those abscesses, the face of the aforesaid Angela might not be disfigured. Which prayers being thus made and uttered by night, it appeared on the following morning that her prayers had already been heard by Bl. Rose. And so the said abscesses were evidently transferred from the place near the ear, where they were, to the head, and thus the aforesaid girl was and is freed by the prayers of Bl. Rose without any harm or disfigurement of the face; who today also lives married with her household ^c.

[50] A certain woman, Philippa Jacoba by name, daughter of Angilellus, of Sutri, had suffered for eight whole years fistulas in her right shin, and two others afflicted with fistulas in which eighteen most horrible ones had appeared; nor could any of the physicians cure these pestilent and terrible sores, although she had continually with her, for the cure of a disease of this kind, two solemn physicians, her kinsmen: yet she was altogether destitute of all human help. Which sick woman, after she saw that mortal attempts could do nothing, nothing the arts of healers, seeking heavenly help, in 1451, kneeling most devoutly with a very great abundance of tears, her sores uncovered, commended herself to the glorious virgin Bl. Rose, vowing that if she were freed she would enter her monastery and live continually as a nun and her handmaid. Which vow being thus solemnized and her prayers thus set forth, she deserved to be heard by the glorious Rose, so that suddenly, within a little space, she was miraculously healed of so great a horribleness of sores, of which for the eight years before she could not be healed by the hand of physicians: who today lives devoutly in the aforesaid monastery* ^d.

[51] in their shins are healed. Antonia, wife of Peter Angelus of Viterbo, in 1451 having a fistula in her shin which could never be healed, a vow being made to Bl. Rose about a Mass to be celebrated, is healed, the nuns being present ^e.

[52] Evils of the throat, In the year 1450 a certain woman named Frances, wife of John Spolglia, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Peter, had abscesses in the throat, so far that she could swallow nothing and was already set in her last extremity , by prayers to the aforesaid glorious Rose herself , was and is miraculously freed from the aforesaid disease. A certain woman named Jerome Mancini, of Chia ^f, wife of John of Bassano, in 1452, when she was suffering in the throat from a certain ulcer born there, a vow being made to wear the little cord of Bl. Rose girded upon her, was healed after three days.

[53] dangerous ulcers When a certain woman of Viterbo about 1449 was suffering grievously in her shin from certain ulcers after the manner of abscesses, and feared the incision which the physicians foretold to her and affirmed to be necessary for the curing of the aforesaid ulcer and infirmity, and that she would not otherwise escape from it; with the greatest devotion, weeping, she vowed herself to the aforesaid Bl. Rose, that by her holy merits and prayers she would deign to intercede with Jesus Christ, and to do her the grace that she might be freed from such an infirmity, that she might not have to come to the incision of the said ulcer or abscess. Which prayers and vow being thus uttered, she was straightway wholly healed of her said infirmity and ulcer, since in the twinkling of an eye, in that instant, the ulcer burst, the word being scarcely finished; in the presence of John, son of Peter of Parma ^g, Petrutius Butius, and Peter Dominic of Viterbo, of the district of St. Marcus.

[54] and an abscess driven away. To a certain Gianna, daughter of Dominic, of Monteleone ^h, most grievously sick and infirm from an abscess in her breast, Bl. Rose, to whom she was given with great affection, appeared by night in her sleep, saying to her: Fear not, my daughter, commend thyself to me: for I also will free thee. And she, still sleeping, commended herself to her with what reverence and devotion she could. Thence not long after, being roused from sleep, the abscess appears as she had had it in her sleep, that it had burst, and that she was restored to her former health by the merits of the said Bl. Rose the virgin, as the same Gianna testifies.*

[55] Matthew Sciacchia, of the castle of Vitorchiano, when about the year of the Lord 1444 his foot had been made by a certain fistula or abscess so rotten and putrid that it was judged by the physicians that it must altogether be cut off, [A shin, shortly to be cut off, is restored to its former vigor by the application of the Saint's girdle.] if he wished thereby to escape death, and a day had been appointed for cutting it off by master Gentilis of Viterbo; when on one of the days Julian of Toscanella, commonly called Juliano Delloriolo, dwelling at Viterbo, of the district of St. Simeon, had come to him, and had recounted to that sick man a miracle received in his own person concerning a fever, by the power of a certain girdle with which the body of Bl. Rose had been touched, the sick man came to such devotion that he deserved to be heard by so great and glorious a Virgin, so far that, when the said girdle was stretched out for him by the aforesaid Julian and girded upon him where the rotten foot was shortly, according to the physicians' judgments, to be cut off, by the merits of the said Virgin, through the touch of the said girdle, he was healed. This the aforesaid Julian testifies ⁱ, and the lady Frances, a nun.

[56] Item, when a certain Uginus of Albano, a stipendiary ^k and companion of the valiant man Angelus Ronconus, Appearing to a man held in prison, she promises and procures his liberty. in the year of the Lord 1442, by the mandate of the reverend father the lord John of Rieti, apostolic protonotary, then governor ^l of the province of the Patrimony, was held most tightly bound in the prisons of Viterbo, and himself heard the famous report of that glorious Virgin; he invoked her help with the greatest devotion, that she would take him out and free him from the said prisons, promising thereafter to visit her venerable body and continually to

show her devotion and reverence most devoutly. To whom on the following night that same glorious Virgin appeared, and taking his person with her own hands said to him: Fear not, for I will lead thee by a safe road and free thee, and tomorrow morning thou shalt go out. And when day was already growing bright, by the prayers and merits of that glorious Virgin he went out of the said prisons and was freed ^m. And that he might be mindful of the benefit received, he visited her venerable body according to his promises. Which miracle he publicly recounted in the presence of the lady Frances, a nun of the said monastery, of Colella de Cavaza and Lallus of Montepulciano ⁿ, then stipendiaries of the aforesaid Ronconus, and of Friar Erasmus of the Order of Minors, who made a record of the said miracle by his writing, the nuns being present.

[57] In the year of the Lord 1450 also, when a certain William of Bussinetura, She succors an innocent monk before the judges, and frees him: of the diocese of Arles ^o, a monk of the monastery of Montmajour [p] and Prior of Vembrenum, was lodging at Rome near the castle of St. Angelo, and certain pilgrims had been despoiled by some robbers, the aforesaid clerk was seized by the officers on pretext of the said theft. And when he had been led to the torture, that he might be tortured, though he was innocent, destitute of all hope, kneeling he cast himself upon the ground, lifting his mind to the most high God and to Bl. and glorious Rose, crying out with a loud voice thus: O blessed Rose, if the things which are said and preached of thee are true, help me, set in so great a peril. Which words being said, the officers, terrified, said no other word at all to him, but at once took the said clerk out of the prisons, and being thus freed he departed.

[58] A certain Juvenalis of Narni [q], when he was held most tightly in prison and in fetters because of a certain calumny falsely laid against him, she opens the fetters and the prison of a man unjustly held: with great contrition of soul and devotion most humbly commended himself to Bl. Rose the virgin, that, as he was there detained on a false calumny, she would deign by her merits to show that he should go out miraculously, lest the iniquity and injustice of the false accusation should avail more than the pure truth and justice would avail him. Which vows being thus uttered, straightway the bolted fetters were miraculously opened, and the gates of the prison lay open to the prisoner and were opened of their own accord, until he went out freely. And thus he took himself out of the hands of those who falsely detained him, by the merits of the said Bl. Rose the virgin [r].

[59] she heals a girl laboring under the falling sickness. A certain girl Galiana, daughter of Peter of Orvieto [s], dwelling at Viterbo, in 1453, in the month of August, was vexed with the disease commonly called the falling sickness. And when once, being struck by the said disease, she had fallen to the ground, a woman called Simonetta, daughter of Bartholomew Jutius of Viterbo, seeing her thus prostrate on the ground and lying, and being astounded, moved with compassion of soul prayed for her to Bl. Rose, kneeling and saying: O glorious Bl. Rose, if this girl shall be freed from this infirmity, I will once visit thy most sacred body with her. Which words being thus said, the girl immediately rose up, and in that hour was healed of the said infirmity.

[60] [A woman brought to her last extremity by a pestilent fever, the Saint being invoked, recovers on the spot.] Item, that in the year 1449, in the month of July, a certain woman named Angela, daughter of Dominic Sardus of Viterbo, when she was afflicted with a pestilent disease in several places of her person, with a pestilential fever, so far that she could neither eat nor even swallow anything distilled : and when no hope of her life remained any longer; because of which most grievous infirmity, although she could not speak, she lifted her mind with great devotion to the most high God and to the aforesaid glorious Virgin, invoking her help. Straightway, miraculously, by the merits and prayers of the aforesaid glorious Virgin, she was and is freed from the said infirmity and pestilent fever, as Antonia her mother also testified.*

[61] [Another affected with a like plague, having drunk the water with which Rose's hands had been washed,] Item, that in the current year of the Lord 1448, in the month of July, a certain Angelina, daughter of Tutius Lorenzetti of Viterbo, was grievously sick with a pestilent disease, namely with two in the groins and one in the arm. And so all the signs in her seemed to be the beginnings of death for her; especially since over her whole body there had appeared the marks which are commonly called lenticulæ [t], so far that everyone despaired of her life. Which Angelina indeed, thus near and close to death, the lady Ludovica her mother, a vow having first been made to God and to Bl. Rose, caused to be carried to the tomb of that virgin Rose: and the hands of the said glorious virgin Rose being washed with water, she gave it to the sick girl to drink: and when she had drunk it, straightway she was and is healed. And who, moreover, continually urged with Ludovica her mother that she would enter the monastery of the said glorious virgin Rose, since she had received health from her. In the presence of the lady Ludovica her mother [u] and Petrutia daughter of Bartholomew, Anthony asserting the same, and the lady Frances, a nun, of the district of St. Mary in Podio, and in the presence of Tutius Lorenzetti her father.*

[62] another by a girdle applied to the infected part, In the year of the Lord 1449 Menicus, son of master Angelus the Saddler, when he was most grievously oppressed with a pestilent disease in the thigh and set as it were at his passing, Paulina his mother, perceiving her son to be as it were altogether given up from this life, most devoutly poured forth prayers to almighty God and to the glorious Rose for the health and deliverance of her son. Which vow being made, on the following night the said glorious Virgin appeared to her with a certain little cord, which seemed to her to be laid by her upon the place where the pestilent disease was, namely on the shin of that boy thus sick: from which laying-on and touch it seemed to her that he returned to health and was freed from the said pestilence and infirmity. After which vision, on the following morning the said boy, thus sick and infirm, was made sound and free from all the infirmity of that epidemic by the prayers of the aforesaid Bl. Rose.*

[63] Item, how in the aforesaid year of the Lord [w] and in the month of July, others by a vow uttered of entering the monastery are healed. Angela, daughter of Benedict Zellus of Viterbo, of the parish of St. James, while she was grievously sick with a pestilent disease and set as it were at her passing , since the signs of death which are commonly called lenticulæ already appeared in her, Frances, mother of the said girl thus given up and half dead, vowed her to the aforesaid glorious Virgin, that, if it should come about that she was freed, as soon as she should reach her fourteenth year, she should enter the religious life of the said monastery. Which vow being thus solemnized, the said girl was miraculously healed of the aforesaid infirmity …* [x]

[64] In the year of the Lord 1454, when a certain boy fourteen years old, A mother obtains a like benefit for her son. named Nicholas, son of Peter the Spaniard, dwelling at Viterbo, of the district of St. Stephen, was grievously sick from a pestilential pontura [y], and on the feast day of Bl. John the Evangelist, in the month of December, labored so grievously that he was given up by all the physicians, being judged to be about to die; he was taken up by his mother Perna out of despair, that he might die upon her arms, since it was believed by all that he would scarcely live an hour, she saying: I wish that my son should die in my hands. And when a blessed candle was held lighted before his mouth by the said Perna his mother, the aforesaid Perna, moved with maternal charity and affection, weeping, prayed to Bl. Rose for his health: during which prayer and words the sound of the bells of the church of the aforesaid Rose was heard ringing; at whose sound she said: O glorious St. Rose, deign to do me this grace, that I may know whether my son lives or is dead. Which being said, he straightway opened one eye a little: which the aforesaid mother perceiving, said: My son, commend thyself to God and to Bl. Rose. And this boy, thus sick, when at his mother's voice he had said: O glorious blessed Rose, to thee I commend myself, began to sleep a little, for about an hour, and then, awakened from sleep, said: I am freed, by the mediation of the intercession of blessed Rose. And thereafter, his recovery being had, he visited her holy body with a certain waxen image, in the presence of his father, her husband, and several others whom he does not remember.

ANNOTATA.

When a certain Matthew Schiacchia, of the castle of Vitorchiano, had been brought to Viterbo because in the physicians' judgment his foot had to be cut off, since it was rotten and as it were consumed by putrefaction, and he could not otherwise escape, as the said physicians asserted. Yet when, on the day appointed for cutting off the said foot, the aforesaid Julian had come thither to visit him, and the physicians were preparing the irons and the other necessaries, the said sick Matthew, terrified at the coming pain, turning to the aforesaid Julian, begged him by the faith of their spiritual kinship, by which he demanded of him that he would not allow the said foot to be cut off. And Julian, having promised him this, said that he should commend himself to the said Bl. Rose, reciting to him the miracle which he had received in his own person by the power of that girdle, and how he himself had been freed so many times from fever. Turning at whose words, the sick man with great devotion and many tears commended himself to Bl. Rose and girded himself with the said girdle, vowing himself to the aforesaid Rose. Which being done, at once the foot, which could not be cut off by the physicians (Julian, namely, forbidding it), began to recover, and so within a short time was restored to health, by the merits and intercessions of the aforesaid Bl. Rose. Being asked the ground of his knowledge, he answered: Because he saw the aforesaid and was present. Altogether like to this is the deposition of master Gentilis the surgeon, likewise an eyewitness.

p. Giannellus is deluded when in book 2, chapter 20, he places this monastery in the city of Manliana: deluded, I say; for the monastery of Montmajour is situated near Arles, as may be seen in the geographical map of the diocese of Arles published by Dionysius of Sainte-Marthe, Gallia Christiana, volume 1, before column 515. Mabillon mentions the same monastery outside the walls of Arles, Benedictine Annals, volume 1, page 128.

q. Narni is an episcopal city in Umbria under the dominion of the Pontiff.

r. This prodigy Margaret Petrutii the abbess confirms from constant tradition: and then subjoins: As the paintings show, described and painted at that time in memory of a miracle of this kind on a certain most ancient chest of the aforesaid monastery, which is shown to all who wish to see it.

s. Orvieto to its inhabitants, a city of Italy situated in the province of the Patrimony, the chief town of the Orvietan territory.

t. That is, freckles or spots.

u. Here is the mother's testimony for you: The lady Ludovica, wife of Tutius Lorenzetti of Viterbo, a witness cited, reported, sworn, and diligently examined upon the thirty-eighth miracle, said on her oath that the things contained in it were true. Being asked the ground of her knowledge she said: Because she saw and was present when Angelina her daughter was, from several pestilent signs, adjudged to death in the physicians' judgment and as all who saw her could reckon: who nevertheless, by the devotion going before which this witness had and always had toward Bl. Rose, was led to her monastery, and there drank of the water with which the hands of the said Virgin had been washed, and promised that she would enter her monastery; and from that time the girl, panting toward death, began to recover, and a little after was restored to her former health.

w. By a faulty manner of speaking the year 1449 is indicated, as is plain from the testimony of Angela herself and of her mother Frances Benedicti confirming the aforesaid miracle.

x. What those dots mean I do not know: perhaps the characters could not be read by the copyist.

y. The Italian word here seems to denote a pestilent carbuncle.

read monialem … servam*

add cum*

supply honorem fusis*

that is, senserat* (had perceived)

that is, guttatim* (drop by drop)

perhaps to be added, tuberibus & in*

in Latin femore* (in the thigh)

supply esset*

CHAPTER IV.

Those infected with the plague, the fevered, the consumptive, a leprous woman, and other sick persons healed.

[ ] One boy healed of the plague, John Chrysostom, a boy, son of Christopher Bartholomew, otherwise Boccafrolla, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Mary in Podio, being sickened with that disease which is called anguinalia ^a, was already set in his last extremity in 1451. Whom Frances his mother, vowing him to Bl. Rose, said: O glorious blessed Rose, to thee I have recourse, as thy least devout one, and this my son I commend to thee: which words being said, the boy was healed.

[66] another of a grave evil of the throat. In the year 1441 a certain boy sixteen months old, son of Christopher Bartholomew Boccafrolla, of the district of St. Mary in Podio, when he was sick with that disease which is called Grossum in gutture ^b, the mother of that boy, turning to God and to Bl. Rose, said: If thou wilt free my son, glorious Rose, I will visit thy consecrated body for a whole month. Which vow being made, the boy was made free from so great a danger.

[67] A woman set at her last extremity by the bubonic plague, Moreover in the year of the Lord 1451, on the twenty-eighth of the month of October, when a certain woman, called the lady Agnes, wife of Mariottus Materca, of the castle of Magliano ^c, perhaps twenty-four years of age or thereabouts, was most grievously sick with that disease which is commonly called Languinaglia. By which infirmity indeed she was brought so far to the last breath of her life that she seemed to have departed from this life. And when she had already been given up by all her people and labored in a continual passing for the space of three days, for her funeral there had been prepared the wax, the burial, and all the other funeral things. The lady Lucretia, however, her mother, not unmindful of maternal piety, which continually takes counsel for its children and never wholly despairs so long as any breath remains, humbly and devoutly, not without a great abundance of tears, vowed her daughter, thus grievously sick, to almighty God and to the glorious virgin Rose, that if by her prayers it should come about that she was healed, nay, that being dead she was brought back to life, since she was already dead ^d, she would lead her to her church, where her sacred and venerable body rests, with a certain wax candle of one pound, and would there gird her with her little cord or girdle, which she should wear for a whole year to her honor and reverence.

[68] a vow being made by her mother, escapes death and the disease. Which prayers and vow being uttered as above, the glorious Virgin, who never refuses those who devoutly pray, moved to compassion and mercy at the afflicted mother, assented; and showing her power out of the grace of almighty God, straightway, these words being said, the woman thus sick, nay dead, began to recover, so far that within a few days (a wondrous thing it is) she came out into the most prosperous health, free from all infirmity and epidemic. Which miracle indeed was revealed by the said lady Agnes before the body of Bl. Rose in her church at Viterbo, to which place she had come for the sake of discharging her vow, in the year of the Lord 1452, on the twenty-third day of April, in the presence of Ser Rosatus, son of Matthew, notary called upon concerning the said miracle, and of Charles Grugnus ^e and Peter, son of Angelus Trie, of Viterbo, witnesses.*

[69] Those laboring under a pestilent fever Peter Dominic , son of the late Nicholas de Bussi of good memory, of Viterbo, when he was six years of age or thereabouts, in 1450 was distressed with an intolerable fever, a mark coming upon him. And since the plague ^f then hung most heavily over the city of Viterbo, the breath so failed the sick boy that a little while after it was reckoned that he would prematurely fulfil his days. A certain Catherine, daughter of James Geminus of Viterbo, the sick boy's nurse, moved with compassion for the venerable woman the lady Sueva, the boy's mother, weeping like a beaten child — who in that same year, sorrowful and afflicted, mourned a threefold funeral, of her husband, her sons, and her kinsfolk, and to whose consolation out of the ample household which she had this one alone was left her with her sister Elizabeth — and moved by the maternal piety and affection which she had toward the boy whom she had suckled from his tender years, not without the greatest abundance of tears, commended to the glorious virgin Rose the boy, already near to death and gasping, in whom little or no breath remained, and vowed that she would deign to have mercy on the afflicted mother, who, after the manner of those accepted by the most high Jesus Christ, since she had continually lived most honorably and purely beyond the rest, so beyond the rest seemed to be afflicted, after the example of Job: which vow being thus made, and a little of the water of the washing of the hands of the said Bl. Rose being drunk, which they had made him swallow by force, straightway without any delay the fever with the mark ceased, and being restored to health he lives today by the grace of the said Bl. Rose and is greatly drawn to her for the grace received. This Petrutius Bussi testifies, and the said Catherine, and the lady Sueva, his mother.*

[70] Angelus, son of Pasquina, son of a mason, of the district of St. Leonard, and other grave ills when he was grievously sick, being infected with the disease, and so was reckoned by all who saw him to be nearer to death than to life; Pasquina his mother, turning to almighty God and to Bl. Rose, promised by a vow that if Angelus her son should escape from so great an infirmity, she would for a whole year cause him to be clothed in her habit. Which vow being uttered as above, the aforesaid Angelus was healed, as the same Pasquina testified, and Angelus.

[71] The venerable matron the lady Perna, daughter of Cola, of Capranica ^g, she restores to health. when she saw Joanna her niece infected with a grave disease and laboring toward death, and that no mortal attempts availed her in any way, vowed her to the glorious virgin Rose, and prayed for her health as long as she could; after which her prayer was heard, and the said Joanna was healed. The same the said lady Perna testifies, and Joanna.

[72] In the current year of the Lord 1450, when the city of Viterbo was oppressed with a most hard plague, When the plague was raging at Viterbo, she frees her nuns from the danger. so far that it seemed almost forsaken by all its inhabitants and dwellers, because of the utmost intemperateness and influence of the air, it happened

that in the monastery of St. Rose, where her consecrated body rests in the highest veneration, several nuns fell sick unto death of the disease and the epidemic; namely the lady Margaret Petrutii, abbess of the said monastery, the lady Angela her sister, the lady Magdalen, the lady Ludovica, sister Seraphina, sister Perna, and sister … And they, seeing themselves in so great a danger of death, most humbly and most devoutly commended themselves to almighty God and to the most glorious virgin Bl. Rose, that she would deign to preserve and guard her house and household from so great an infection and sickness of the epidemic. Which prayers being uttered thus most devoutly and with the utmost contrition of mind by these venerable women and by all the other nuns of the said monastery, their voices were heard, as of those who worthily asked of the glorious virgin Rose; so that not one of them in the said monastery miraculously perished of such an infirmity and disease ^h, whereas scarcely another house of Viterbo remained untouched by the aforesaid contagion, the dwelling of Bl. Rose alone — inasmuch as it contains sacred virgins and chaste matrons strong in all holiness and goodness — was preserved by the grace of almighty God and the merits and prayers of Bl. Rose; and that for sixty years now not one has died in the said monastery of the plague.*

[73] When a certain lady Agnes had a son twenty-eight years of age, sick and infected with a grave plague in the groin , and he was gasping toward death, She restores unharmed a young man from the plague, fearing lest his breath should fail him, since he was continually at his passing, she commended and vowed him to the said glorious virgin Rose. Which vow being made, in that same instant he was healed, as the said Agnes publicly testified.*

[74] and a nun from gangrene. A certain nun of the monastery of the aforesaid Bl. Rose, about the year of the Lord 1454, named Catherine, daughter of Augustine Longus of Viterbo, was suffering a cancer in her left breast; at the sickness of which most horrible disease the lady Frances, a nun of the said monastery and spiritual mother of the aforesaid Catherine, being astounded, lest the other nuns should be defiled, being infected by this contagion, prostrating herself before the body of the said Bl. Rose, said contritely and devoutly: Most holy mother and our hope, help us, that we be not all infected by this pestilent disease: for the health of which sick and diseased woman I will set up for thee a silver breast. Which prayers being made, straightway that disease made a head and beginning ⁱ, as is commonly said. And whereas humanly speaking ^k such a disease cannot be cured without danger by medicines, the aforesaid Catherine was cured, and by the prayers of Bl. Rose was within a short time restored to health ^l.

[75] She takes away sciatica; When sister Drusiana of Bomarzo ^m, a nun of the said monastery, was most grievously sick with the infirmity which is called la sciatica ⁿ, in 1452 and in the month of April; from the gravity and length of which infirmity a catarrh had come upon her. From which infirmities none of the physicians could free her. A vow being made about a certain waxen image to be brought to her body, if she should be delivered, straightway health is restored and she is wholly freed from every disease and infirmity* ^o.

[76] Moreover in the year 1440 Narda, daughter of Nicholas Thomas of Viterbo, of the district of St. Peter, from that infirmity which is called sciatica, was so worn away that the pains had already come upon her as far as the neck. To her, thus grievously sick and lying in bed, a certain Catherine, daughter of Baptist, said: Vow thyself to God and to Bl. Rose to bring her an arm with a shoulder-blade [p] of wax: and when she had so vowed, in that same instant she rose from her bed sound.*

[77] she frees an infant Moreover in the year 1453 a boy of four months, named Joseph, son of Sanctus della Coldusta of Viterbo, of the district of St. Angelo, being made consumptive by a grave infirmity, as it were parched and dried up, had been brought to the last breath of his life: for whom Antonia his mother prayed to Bl. Rose for her son's health; and when she had devoutly carried him to her church and had laid him upon her glorious body, straightway he came out into the most prosperous health, by her prayers and merits [q].

[78] and a woman from consumption, The lady Joanna, wife of Francis, commonly called Frances de Veritate, when in 1443 she had fallen into consumption from a certain infirmity — which infirmity is commonly called el mal sottile — and had been burdened with the said infirmity for nine months or thereabouts, nor could any of the physicians help her, commended herself to Bl. Rose: which vow being made, she recovered and was healed. This the said lady Joanna testifies, and Antonia, wife of George the Trumpeter, and the lady Laurentia Gemini, her neighbors.

[79] she cleanses a leprous woman: A certain lady Titia, daughter of James of Foligno, of the third Order of St. Francis, about 1451, on the fifth day of the month of August, was affected with so great a leprosy that none of her sisters clung to her, nor had any communion or attachment with her in eating, standing, or sleeping, lest they should be corrupted by the said leprosy; but she continually stood alone, separated from the rest. Whence it came about that, when on one of the days she saw herself set in so great a calamity and misery, alone she betook herself into a more secret part of the house, where, kneeling upon the ground, weeping with the utmost contrition of heart, she said: Thou who never forsakest those who devoutly beseech thee, glorious Bl. Rose, help me and cleanse me from this leprosy. For I will come to visit thy holy body, and will wash my face with the washing and water of thy holy hands. And she, the vow being thus made, rose up and went to the aforesaid body, and did as she had promised. A wondrous thing! Mass was straightway celebrated, and as soon as she washed herself with the said water, she was healed and made free from that most unclean leprosy, as even today she lives sound and free; in the presence there of the lady Julia, minister of the third Order, a daughter of the magnificent lord Raymitius of Farnese, and of the lady Constantia, a daughter of Rubeus of Viterbo, of the district of St. John, to whom the lady Angela, wife of Peter of Capranica, thus revealed it in confession* [r].

[80] Moreover in the aforesaid year, when a certain young man at Rome was grievously sick of the gout [s], she drives away arthritis; he devoutly commended and vowed himself to Bl. Rose, promising to bring her a wax candle if it should come about that he was freed from an infirmity of this kind: which vow being made, he was straightway restored to his former health. That this miracle so happened he made known before the lord Nicholas, a priest of the diocese of Metz [t], Ubertus Bergucidus, subdeacon, and John Peter of the diocese of Pavia [u].

[81] Moreover in the year of the Lord 1454, when a certain woman she suddenly heals a woman at once paralytic and dropsical, named Rita Destangano, dwelling at Viterbo, of the parish of the Holy Cross, was at once dropsical and paralytic, and had labored under the said infirmity for some months, nor could be freed in any way or by any human help, since the aforesaid infirmities are incurable, with the utmost humility and devotion she commended herself to Bl. Rose the virgin, offering that, if by her merits and intercessions she were freed from so great an infirmity, she would for a whole year visit her glorious body with bare feet in the basilica where at present it rests. Which prayers and vow being uttered as above, by the grace of almighty God, who does not cease continually to display his power in this glorious Virgin, suddenly, without any other interval or moment of time, the paralytic and dropsical woman was miraculously healed and recovered from her said infirmity; as the said Rita testified, and the lady Cecilia, wife of the late lord Augustine, and the lady Laura of the third Order of St. Francis, and Gregoria [w], wife of Simus.

[82] Moreover a certain John, son of Andrew, of the district of St. Luke, she dissipates a swelling of the legs; about 1456, when from a certain great and long-standing infirmity his legs had been swollen throughout all their parts and thickened after the manner of two columns, so that the shins were of the same thickness as the thighs [x], at last betook himself, though with the utmost difficulty and labor, to the church of Bl. Rose; and when he had come to that place, having received the washing of the hands of the said Bl. Rose the virgin, and reverently and devoutly washing with it his shins and legs, praying continually for his health, in that same instant, while he was in the church, in the presence of the nuns and of certain others standing by there, the swelling of the legs and shins suddenly departed in a moment, and he was so far freed that he returned to his house as it were running [y] for the grace received, by the merits and intercessions of the said Bl. Rose the virgin. The same the said John, son of Andrew, testified, and Andrew Capati [z] of Viterbo, and the nuns.

[83] she renders a serpent's bite harmless. Catherine, daughter of Philip Bartholomew, in 1452, when she was once assailed by a certain terrible serpent, and it had venomously bitten her foot with its teeth, and she had fallen from its bite, Angela Tomai her mother, standing by there, vowed her to Bl. Rose, that if it should come about that she escaped, she would make her her handmaid and a nun: which vow being made, she straightway rose up as if she had never had any ill, and within five days was wholly freed.

ANNOTATA.

of the holy faith it befell, because she deserved to be heard, and the girl was freed. Peter, son of Angelus, agrees, and Margaret Petrutii the abbess with her nuns.

p. A spatula is a surgical instrument with which they spread plasters. The same word, on Du Cange's testimony in the Glossary, also signifies the shoulder or the shoulder-blade: in the latter way the word here seems to be taken: for the shoulder was afflicted with the disease.

q. That it was so done is established from the juridical testimony of Antonia, the boy's mother.

r. This notable miracle both she to whom it happened and all those named confirmed on oath. Their testimonies, since they contain nothing beyond what has been said, I pass over: which, that I may not breed disgust, I shall observe also in what follows.

s. It seems to denote arthritis or the disease of the joints.

t. Metz is an episcopal city of Gaul, situated on the river Moselle where it receives the Seille, the chief town of the Metz district.

u. Papia, Pavia to its inhabitants, a city of Lombardy in the duchy of Milan.

w. All these in their sworn answers assert that they were with Rita when she was prodigiously and suddenly healed of that twofold disease.

x. It is an inept manner of speaking: for the tibia is the larger bone of the leg: but unless I am mistaken, by tibiæ he understood the calves. He means, therefore, that the legs so swelled that from the ankles up to the knees they were of the same thickness.

y. For joy, namely, on account of the benefit obtained.

z. Receive his testimony for the rest. Andrew Capati of Viterbo, another witness cited, reported, sworn … said that in the past year, when the legs of John, son of Andrew, from a certain preceding infirmity had been swollen beyond measure, so that they exceeded the shins, and he had gone to the body of Bl. Rose, and before it, in the presence of the nuns, was washing his said legs, thus swollen, with the washing of the hands of the said Virgin, with all looking on Note: that is, gazing, the swelling departed, and the legs were brought back to their due measure, as if they had been stripped of a certain hide or skin; and he departed sound and free from the said infirmity. Being asked the ground of his knowledge he said: Because he saw and was present, and saw and knew the said John with his said legs thus thickened and swollen, and afterwards sound and free and them brought back to their nature. Being asked who were present he said: Of himself the witness, the said John, and several others, together with the said nuns. The same John, son of Andrew, to whom it happened, testified in the same place. The abbess agrees with the nuns.

that is, agonia* (the death-agony)

that is, magistro* (master)

add filius* (son)

read continens*

supply: ut*

add &*

rather devexata*

read transtulerit*

CHAPTER V.

She wards off the danger of fire from her reliquary; in the midst of the fire, the rest being consumed, the Saint's body alone remains wonderfully unharmed; she heals a girl who had fallen into the fire; she succors the shipwrecked; she drives away diseases.

[ ] A candle left burning in the reliquary does no harm to the sacred body: Moreover in the year 1429, when the charge of showing and of caring for ^a the sacred body of Bl. Rose had been committed to the venerable woman the lady Margaret, at present the well-deserving abbess of the said monastery, and when certain persons had come together to visit the said body, and sister Clara had been called by the said lady Margaret to be a help to her; two candles being lighted according to custom, one at the head and the other beside the feet, and the blessed body being laid open to those who had come, through carelessness and inadvertently, when they departed, the chest where the said body rests was closed by the aforesaid lady Margaret and Sister Clara, the candle which had been placed beside the feet of the said sacred body being left burning there. And when these nuns had thus departed, after an hour it was brought back to the memory of the aforesaid lady Margaret that a lighted candle had been left there through their carelessness and forgetfulness. At which thing being thus astounded and trembling, the said Clara being called to her, she said to her: Clara, Clara, did we put out that candle? And so together with the greatest amazement they ran to the said body, and found the aforesaid candle burning within, thus shut up as it had been left by them, the nuns, which had brought no harm or injury thither, nay, no sign appeared from it that it had remained lighted, save a very little mark on the upper part of the chest. Which naturally could not have come about, save miraculously by the prayers of the said Bl. Rose, that her body might not thus be injured and wholly burnt ^b.

[85] [nor the conflagration in which the reliquary and the ornaments of the body were burnt.] In the time also of the Lord Pope Innocent ^c VI, in the year then current 1357, a certain wooden chest placed in the chapel of the church of Bl. Rose, as it also stands at present, being kindled by accidental fire, was burnt up together with all and singular the other jewels and ornaments with which the body of the said glorious virgin Rose was adorned and encompassed on every side, below and above. For the aforesaid consecrated body then lay in the aforesaid chest, as it also lies now ^d, nor did anything else in the said chapel remain unburnt except the aforesaid venerable body, which was miraculously preserved untouched and unharmed from the aforesaid fire, as if no fire had clung to it ^e, since all the rest had already been reduced to dust, even to the garments with which the aforesaid body was covered, and the ornaments with which the fingers and the head of the same Virgin were adorned ; as is the public voice and report concerning the aforesaid miracle in the city of Viterbo, and as the lady Clara, daughter of the late master Angelinus of Viterbo, and a nun of the aforesaid monastery, plainly affirmed that she had seen with her own eyes and had been present; who died some twenty-eight years ago or thereabouts, being set in extreme old age; yet many times in her life she was wont to recount this in order to several persons, and especially to the lady Frances Benedicti ^f, the lady Margaret Paulutii, the lady Margaret Stefani, the lady Magdalen Johannis, the lady Angela Petrutii, and the lady Jacoba Angeli, then and now nuns of the said monastery, and to several others at Viterbo, as is the public voice and report in the said city of Viterbo.

[86] Benevenuta, an infant, daughter of John Piccinus of Florence ^g, She restores an infant wretchedly burnt to her former wholeness. dwelling at Viterbo, being left at home by her mother beside the fire in 1444, in the month of November, fell into it after the manner of children. And her mother, returning home and seeing her daughter burnt by the fire in feet, hands, and face, being struck with immense grief, implored the help of Bl. Rose, that her daughter might not either die by so cruel a death or live thus monstrous, since her face appeared like rather to a monster than to a human one. Which prayers being heard by Bl. Rose, the girl came free from the danger of death, without stain from every scar and disfigurement of the face; her parents testifying this ^h, and her neighbors and kinsfolk.*

[87] In the year 1422 a certain lord Alphonsus, a Spaniard, To a certain shipwrecked man imploring her help then secretary of the most reverend lord Cardinal ⁱ of St. Eustace, when he was at Viterbo in the inn of the Crown , was led by John, son of master Anselm, the landlord of the said inn, at his own command, to the church of Bl. Rose, where on the following morning he caused Mass to be solemnly celebrated with four wax torches and very many candles: at which he remained kneeling from the beginning to the end of the Mass. After the celebration of which, when he was devoutly visiting the body of Bl. Rose, being asked by the said John to what end he did this, with weeping eyes he answered , saying that he had received a very great grace from almighty God by the prayers and merits of Bl. Rose; for that when he was once at sea upon a certain galley ^k, so great and so horrible a tempest of winds came on that the aforesaid galley, where he was with others, was filled with the waves and waters of the sea.

[88] And when he was so near to sinking and so close to a death so horrible, appearing, she leads him safe with his companions to harbor, forsaken by the master of the galley and the other sailors, since several of those who were there had been drowned, and for the rest there was no hope any longer, the same Alphonsus, set in so great a danger of death, mindful of the fame and the miracles which almighty God our Lord Jesus Christ was working by the prayers of Bl. Rose and showing among the peoples, cried out most devoutly with a loud voice, invoking the help first of God the creator of all, and then of that glorious virgin Rose, that she would free them from so great a tempest and danger. To him thus crying out Bl. Rose at once visibly appeared, saying: Fear not; for thy prayer is heard. And taking him with her own hands, together with all who were in the said galley and who remained, she led them to the harbor of salvation. And this lord Alphonsus, before he departed from Viterbo, caused an image of the aforesaid glorious Rose to be painted in the said church*

out of devotion to her ^l.

[89] likewise another in peril by the sinking of his ship A certain pilgrim, called John de Greconium, of the kingdom of Poland by birth, about the year of the Lord 1454, near the end of the month of May, when out of devotion he was going upon a certain boat to visit the body of St. James ^m of Galicia, where several pilgrims were present for the sake of the said visitation, and was sailing by the kingdom of France, near a certain city commonly named Bordeaux ⁿ, a strong tempest arising at sea, the aforesaid John straightway with all the devotion he could commended himself to the glorious Rose of Viterbo, vowing that he would visit her sacred body at Viterbo and the church where it rests, if by the intercession of her merits he should be snatched from so great a shipwreck and danger and escape.*

[90] a vow being admitted, she withdraws him from shipwreck: Which vow being thus solemnized and uttered, suddenly the boat was broken and sunk and swallowed by the waters, together with ten sailors and twenty pilgrims who were being carried over there for the sake of the aforesaid devotion. And the aforesaid pilgrim John, when he had escaped safe and sound from so great a shipwreck and from the death near him which he beheld before his eyes, while his other companions and the sailors perished, for the sake of discharging his said vow thus solemnized went to Viterbo on the sixteenth day of November, 1455, to visit the sacred body of the aforesaid virgin Rose; and he reported the said miracle to several present and standing by there; namely to Friar Ludovic of Gallese, Friar Simon of Viterbo, of the Order of Minors, Friar Gabriel of the third Rule, and Andrew Capati of Viterbo, witnesses, and the rest in the convent of St. Francis.

[91] likewise she snatches another from the danger of drowning with her own hands. In the year 1440, to a certain Geminus della Torre of Viterbo, going out of devotion to St. Angelo of Apulia ^o, scarcely drowsing a little, in the morning, through a certain chink of the roof of the inn, whence the sun came in upon him, Bl. Rose appeared as he was waking, saying in the vulgar tongue: See that thou make thyself a son of the holy Angel. To whom, when Geminus said: Who art thou? the Saint answered : I am thy fellow-citizen: which being said, she straightway disappeared. And he in the morning, when in his passage he had come, together with a certain companion of his, to a certain river, and by the very great force of its waters had been all but choked and sunk, mindful of the aforesaid vision which he had seen the preceding night, seeing himself set in so great a danger, devoutly invoked the help of that Bl. Rose who had appeared to him. And she, being thus called, straightway stood there, and taking hold with her hands of Geminus, who had been rolled over by the waters, together with a certain companion of his who was holding him, and they were as good as sunk and drowned, led him out free from the danger in which they were. Which miracle indeed Jacoba, daughter of James, formerly wife of the said Geminus, attested that she had many times heard from Geminus her husband, and in the presence of Anthony, Baptist, and Francis, sons of the said Geminus.*

[92] She stills a savage tempest at sea. A certain German merchant at Venice, when he was shaken at sea by a very great shipwreck, so that all who sailed with him feared to be sunk and to perish. When the danger of death and drowning hung over them, he devoutly commended himself to the glorious virgin Rose of Viterbo, and thus the merchant's prayers deserved to be heard, so that out of the greatest tempest a calm appeared at sea, until they came to the harbor of the health they desired. And he, as soon as he returned to Venice, where he carried on the trade of several divers wares, caused the figure of the said Virgin to be painted on a certain little panel of his, which out of the utmost devotion he kept continually with him in his chamber. Which picture and image indeed, and the report of the said miracle, master Peter Dominic [q], a physician of Viterbo, testified that he had seen and heard from the aforesaid merchant.

[93] Moreover in the year of the Lord 1435 a certain Giles of Viterbo, [A wife obtains health for her husband in peril of life from disease, a vow going before;] of the district of St. Marcus, was laboring under a most grievous and manifold infirmity, in such a manner that he was already set at the point of death, nor did any hope of his life remain. Angilella his wife, turning to the most high God and to Bl. Rose the virgin, to whom she was most devout, devoutly besought her on bended knees, with joined hands, that she would restore to her the said Giles her husband, if it were better so for his soul and body, vowing and promising to fast continually on the Vigil of her festivity. Which vow being thus uttered and made, the aforesaid Giles was straightway restored to his former health, in the presence of master Anthony the pack-saddle maker, James son of Stephen Vitus, Anthony son of Vitius, butchers, and Simon son of Angelus, all of Viterbo, witnesses [r].

[94] In the current year of the Lord 1455, in the month of July, a mother a like benefit for her son; a certain boy [s] named Dominic, son of Augustine the smith, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Peter, when he had been most grievously sick for three days and nights, appeared as if dead: and so no hope of his health remained any longer. And while he was thus most grievously sick, Antonia the mother of this boy, turning to Bl. Rose, promised to lead him to her venerable body, and to wash him with the water and the washing of the hands of the aforesaid Virgin, and to gird the said boy's neck with the little cord with which her glorious body had been touched. Which vow being thus made, he was at once healed and from that time began to walk about; and he lives even today.

[95] In the year of the Lord 1456, in the month of November, the horse of a certain Angelutius of Porchiano [t], and another obtains it for his horse. dwelling at Viterbo, lay as if dead, given up by all who have skill in infirmities of this kind. The aforesaid Angelutius, vowing himself to Bl. Rose, said: Glorious Rose, who hast never forsaken me, help me in this hour, for if the horse comes to life again, I will cause one Mass to be celebrated for thee in thy holy church. Which vow being made, the animal at once rose up sound and free, before Angelus Tavuglia.

ANNOTATA.

Peter Damian, a most upright of writers, that the emperor Otho went from Rome to Mount Gargano with bare feet, and that by the admonition of St. Romuald, that he might expiate by that affliction of the body a crime committed a little before.

p. That is, a German.

q. Here for you is what the Process has of his testimony. Master Peter Dominic, doctor of arts and of medicine, of Viterbo, another witness … said … that once, some years ago now, when he was at Venice in the chamber of a certain German merchant, he saw there upon a certain little panel an image of St. Rose painted; and asking the said merchant what the said image imported, the merchant answered: that when at sea a certain galley, in which he was with certain other companions, was shaken by the force of storms and was as good as perishing, so that the danger of death, being before their eyes, hung over them; mindful of the said Bl. Rose, the aforesaid merchant devoutly commended himself to her: which vow being made, straightway a calm arose out of the tempest, and he escaped from so great a danger, in which he was together with his companions, by the merits of the said Virgin. Out of devotion for which he had caused the said image to be painted.

r. Angilella, wife of Giles, James son of Stephen Vitus, and Anthony son of Vitius profess themselves eyewitnesses, and confirm what Giles said.

s. He cannot have been quite a boy in the year 1455, since in the year 1457 he attested the aforesaid benefit on oath, together with his mother, before those delegated in this cause: perhaps the former year is badly noted.

t. Perhaps Porcianum is here indicated, which Orlendius in The Sacred and Profane World, part 2, page 1294, places at the sources of the Arno, a river of Italy which rises in the Florentine territory out of the Apennine mountain.

read convenientibus*

non* is superfluous

* that is, gems or rings

ornata*

supply vultui* (to a human face)

* that is, under the sign of the Crown

* that is, the host, or innkeeper

* that is, torches

respondit*

* that is, the shipmaster

* that is, the ship

respondit*

* that is, trade

CHAPTER VI.

She suddenly restores to health a woman in peril from a premature birth, and others dying of various diseases.

[ ] [A woman with child, part of an immature fetus being brought forth, was for three days in agony and at the point of death;] Donata, a woman, daughter of Nicholas Ciaccia, and wife of Nicholas called del Vicario, about the year of the Lord 1455, in the month of July, when she was five months with child and had been continually in distress for three days and nights, brought forth an abortive birth: in which, because those signs and accidents did not come upon her which are commonly wont to happen to other women in childbirth, on the second day after the aforesaid abortive birth thus brought forth, her whole body and breast was swollen and puffed up, and stretched and made even like a drum; for she was four months with child, and was afflicted beyond measure with the most burning pains. From the anguish of which she strove to bring forth the abortive birth in this manner; namely, that she brought forth first the whole arm entire, the remaining part of the body staying for three days in her bowels; in which pains she was destitute of all human help. Whence it came about that on the third day thereafter, when she knew that she had already come to the last of her life, calling to her a certain Luke Caprinus of Viterbo, she said: To thee I commend all these my sons, since their father is absent.*

[97] whom her father, believing her dead, Which words being said, there came a little after Nicholas Ciaccia, father of the said Donata; who with the greatest abundance of tears said to the sick woman — who, like a sleeping child with closed eyes, seemed to be tending toward death: My most sweet daughter, hope of my eyes, out of charity and love of me thy wretched father, open thine eyes a little. Which words, when he had repeated them many times like a weeping child, his daughter, moved by her father's affection, opened her eyes. At which act all standing by there praised God with one mouth; since none of them had thought that she would live any longer; for she had already been made cold in all the parts of her body, and had already begun beyond measure to be like a dead and buried corpse . To whom when her father said again: My dearest daughter, this grace I wish and demand of thee, since I already see thee, wretched one, to have come to the last point of life, unless thou wilt have me die with thee, that thou answer me.*

[98] [vowed a silver offering to St. Rose; the vow being made, she rose safe on the spot.] And when the half-dead woman gave him no answer, nor made a sign of a word; a vow being made by her said father to almighty God and to the Bl. glorious virgin Rose, that if the soul should return into the dead body or corpse (for she was reckoned wholly dead) he would bring to the church of the said Bl. Rose a certain silver votive offering. It is a wondrous thing and beyond the opinion of all: these things being said and the vow uttered, the woman thus dead straightway said: And I offer also to put on and to wear her holy habit ^a for four months; the aforesaid woman adding moreover: My dearest father, I am sound and freed; I wish also to rise, since she had brought forth the remainder of the said birth: and she rose. And she lives even today; all standing by there being astounded and glorifying God and Bl. Rose for so solemn and so great a miracle. In the presence there of Luke Caprinus, the priest Nardus of the Holy Cross, her godfather, John and Mariottus, sons of Nicholas Ciaccia, and Nicholas Ciaccia ^b, and Peter Paul Cucumella ^c, witnesses.

[99] The dying, Dominic, moreover, born of Constantia his mother and Maximus his father, of the district of St. Marcus, when he was a boy four years of age, was in so great an agony of infirmity that, since he could neither drink nor eat, he seemed set at the point of death; so that he seemed continually to gasp toward his passing, as is commonly said. Bl. Rose, however, being invoked by Constantia his mother, and a vow being made to her with devotion, he was wonderfully freed and restored to health. This his mother Constantia testifies ^d.

[100] after vows pronounced In the present year 1457, when the lady Nicola, a woman, formerly wife of Silvester commonly called de Bocca Infula , of the district of St. Marcus, prayed for a certain Petrucius ^e, a kinsman and relation of hers, mortally sick and ailing, to Bl. Rose for his health, vowing and promising her a certain votive offering; miraculously, the prayer being made, at that point the fever began to abate, and a little after he was healed. This the said lady Nicola testifies.*

[101] Dominic, son of Augustine Baptist, of Arezzo ^f, or the water with which the Saint's hands had been washed being drunk, when he was two years and a half old or thereabouts, and by reason of a certain very long infirmity was half dead and had as it were been brought to the last breath of his life, was led by Catherine, the maternal grandmother of the same Dominic, the sick boy, to the body of the virgin Rose. To whom , as soon as he drank a little of the water of the washing of the hands of the said virgin Rose, in that instant without delay, the water being scarcely drunk and swallowed, he was made sound, as he had been before the said infirmity. This Antonia the boy's mother testified, and Augustine his father, and Catherine his grandmother.*

[102] A certain Laurence, son of Angelus Longus, when he was one year old are given sudden health. or thereabouts, in 1448, of the district of St. Mary in Podio of Viterbo, and was held by a great fever, so far that he was reckoned nearer and closer to death than to life, was carried after the manner of suckling infants by the lady Ludovica his mother to the church of the aforesaid Bl. Rose the virgin. And when there was given him by force to drink and swallow a very little of the water of the washing of her hands, in that same moment, in that instant, he began to suck milk and to revive . This Ludovica his mother testified, and Angelus his father.*

[103] Moreover in the year 1453 John, son of Jacoba, wife of Giannis , of the district of St. Andrew of Viterbo, Others lying dangerously sick, then an infant of five months, was so consumed with sickness that, half dead, he was tending to the way of all flesh. At length, a vow being made by his mother to Bl. Rose, the boy revived and was healed. This the said lady Jacoba his mother testifies, and the lady Antonia, wife of Sanctus the cobbler* ^g.

[104] A certain half-dead girl, three years of age or thereabouts, a vow being made, daughter of Anthony of Rieti ^h, a citizen of Viterbo, when she was greatly burdened by a certain infirmity of hers, so that she was adjudged by all as about to die. For her breast seemed continually without ceasing to be beaten with panting, and to send forth her breath in distress: her eyes were sunken and dead, since they were yellow. A vow being made, however, for the girl , and she being commended to the aforesaid virgin Rose, she recovered and was freed. This the said lady Lucretia her mother testifies, and the lady Margaret, wife of Nicholas Nannis, mother of Lucretia* ⁱ.

[105] In the year last past, 1456, in the month of August, or the aforesaid water being applied, a certain boy named John Laurence Magnardi, mistrusted by all the physicians and utterly despaired of as to his life, when he had remained for twenty days with his eyes closed and covered, and knew no one: it was urged upon the lady Angelina, mother of the sick boy, to whom the care of the boy chiefly belonged, by a certain neighbor of hers, that she should wash the boy with the water of the washing of Bl. Rose, and should afterwards give it to the sick boy to drink, with devotion and reverence. Which when she had done, the boy in that hour recovered, opened his eyes, and was healed. This the lady Angelina his mother testifies.*

[106] Marianus, son of Thomas Magdalenus, of the district of St. Faustinus, with the aforesaid water, when he was mortally sick unto death; and so his health was utterly despaired of, nor could any of the physicians help him to drive away the said infirmity. On one of the days, as the sick boy lay thus in bed, he heard his mother the lady Petrutia sending a cask of wine to the monastery of the said Bl. Rose the virgin out of the devotion which she bore toward that venerable place because of the residence there of the sacred nuns and matrons; and he said to his mother: Sweetest mother, I too wish to send another cask of wine to the said venerable monastery, that the aforesaid glorious Virgin may deign to snatch and free me from so great an infirmity; and so she will free me from death. Which cask of wine being sent thither, and the washing of the hands of the said Virgin being brought back and given with devotion to the sick boy to drink, by a miracle of almighty God, the water being scarcely swallowed, the sick boy recovered and was restored to his former health. So Petrutia, daughter of Thomas, his mother, testifies.

[107] or with a girdle, are prodigiously restored to health. A certain Bartholomew the Lombard, dwelling

at Viterbo, when in 1453 he was sick unto death and was looked for to die within an hour, in a certain hospital of Viterbo, the girdle or cord of Bl. Rose being brought to him by a certain boy, and being girded upon him with devotion, he straightway recovered: and this the same Bartholomew testifies.

[108] A mother, vowing a Mass, suddenly obtains health for her dying infant. When the lady Angela, daughter of S. Valentinus, wife of S. ^k Scolarius, of the district of St. Faustinus, had a certain daughter five months old, as good as dead from a certain great infirmity which she suffered, from which she had come as it were to the last breath of life, nor was there need of a physician for her because of her infant age: the said Angela her mother vowed her, that if it should come about that she escaped from so horrible an infirmity, she would cause one Mass to be celebrated in honor and glory of almighty God and of the aforesaid Bl. Rose, in the church where her holy body rests. Which vow being scarcely uttered , the infirmity ceased, and the girl, already half dead, was restored to her first health. This the said lady Angela testifies.*

ANNOTATA.

that is, quamdiu* (as long as)

perhaps livere* is omitted, or something similar

elsewhere de bocca infure*

read Qui ebibens*

that is, convalescere* (to recover)

elsewhere Nannis*

* that is, for the girl

* that is, given up

* that is, uttered

CHAPTER VII.

She avenges a neglected vow; she heals various infirmities; she keeps her body untouched from thieves; she takes away a flux of blood and other ills.

[ ] An infant sick because of a neglected vow recovers when the vow is fulfilled. A certain woman named Luminata, of the district of St. John, having vowed, for the sake of bringing forth freely and without danger, that the child to be brought forth and born of her, if it came into the light alive and were a female, she would name by the name of the said Bl. Rose the virgin; and the child being born and a female, and being baptized and named under another name, the girl thus born wasted away no otherwise than a candle or wax beside the fire, like salt set in warm water. Yet the aforesaid girl, half burnt away and consumed, being led to Bl. Rose and named Rose out of reverence for her, in that same course of time ^a in which the girl was led to the virgin Rose, the infirmity began to tend and turn to good health, and within a short time the girl was healed, as Nicholas Ciulpe her neighbor testified.

[110] A certain Angela, a girl, daughter of Ser Francis, son of Ser Nicholas, Grave infirmities, most grievously sick and gasping unto death from fever and pains, a vow being made by Ser Francis her father, in that same instant is healed by the merits of the said virgin Rose. So the same Ser Francis testified ^b, and her mother.

[111] Moreover in the year of the Lord 1451, when James, son of master Odo, of Viterbo, returning from the island of Sicily ^c, the Saint being invoked, was held at sea by a great infirmity, so far that he never thought that he would return home alive . Turning his mind, however, to the said virgin Rose, and beseeching that it might not come about that he should die outside his fatherland and lie naked on an unknown shore, in that same moment, the vow being thus uttered, he began to recover, so that on the following day, when he had put in at the port of Corneto ^d, he leaped out of the ship onto land sound and free . So the same James testified ^e.

[112] A certain woman named Catherine, daughter of Peter Ennis, when she had a certain son sick unto death and given up by nearly all, since no hope of his life now remained any longer, are driven away: for she believed that he would altogether die very shortly; when, ill at rest, she was resting and had long before fallen asleep. At last, when by night she was sleeping little or not at all, she straightway uttered a voice, saying as it were thus in her sleep: O glorious virgin Bl. Rose, to thee I commend my son. Which vow being uttered as above, whereas before his mother and all the rest had despaired of the boy's life, the boy so recovered and revived and the fever departed, as if he had never had any ill. This his mother testifies.*

[113] offspring obtained. A woman called the lady Felix, daughter of Bonus, wife of Anthony Rubeus of Viterbo, in 1436, then wife of Marcus Lucas de Bussis, when for two years she could not conceive by her husband Marcus, kneeling with many sighs and tears prayed to Bl. Rose, saying: O glorious Rose, if thou wilt do me this grace, that I may conceive by my husband a male or a female, I will bring the child to thy church, and, of whatsoever ^f sex it be, will name it by thy holy name. Which vow being thus uttered, within fifteen days she was made with child by her husband. And when in her own time she had borne a son, she named him, according to the obligation of the vow made, Marcus Rosatus ^g.

[114] Appearing by night to certain nuns, she bids her body be guarded: In the year 1451, as the lady Margaret the abbess ^h, the lady Angela ⁱ, sister Catherine, sister Seraphina, and sister Drusiana, nuns of the aforesaid monastery, slept by night each in her own cell, Bl. Rose appeared to each of them severally, saying: Guardatemi, che due vermi mi rodono la spalla dritta ^k. After which vision, the chapter of the nuns being gathered and it being laid open to all, the nuns severally, being astounded, set themselves to prayer at the abbess's command, devoutly praying with tearful eyes to God and to Bl. Rose that it might be declared to them by the power of almighty God what this dream meant. And Bl. Rose the virgin on the following night appeared again to Drusiana, saying: If you ask me tomorrow what a dream of this kind signifies, I will lay it open.

[115] [and they thereafter find that thieves had tried in vain to carry off the sacred body.] Then, when day was already growing bright, when master Anthony, son of Matthew Denanzi, and Peter Faccenda, of Viterbo, had come to visit the lady Magdalen, a nun of the said place, their kinswoman, they found the iron grate ^l as it were removed from its place and violently torn away, as if someone had wished secretly and by force to open it. Which signs the nuns observing, and searching subtly, they found manifestly that certain persons, instigated by a diabolical spirit, were seeking to carry off thence the aforesaid relics of the venerable body of the aforesaid glorious Rose, and to transfer them to another church and place: which was revealed and brought to light miraculously by the apparition and vision of the glorious virgin Rose, as above.

[116] To a woman laboring grievously in the throat she promises and grants soundness: The lady Petrutia, wife of Ser Valentinus, son of Ser Fredus of Viterbo, of the district of St. Blaise, in 1425, in the month of September, so suffered in the throat for seven months that in the said time she could swallow nothing save water with sugar ^m and the yolk of an egg. Whence it came about that she was utterly consumed and brought to nothing . Nor could any of the physicians avail her. To her, sleeping by night, a certain woman clothed in a white garment appeared, saying: Petrutia, commend thyself to Bl. Rose, who works a thousand graces and miracles daily; she will help thee and free thee from that infirmity. And she, being now roused from sleep, mindful of the said vision, vowed herself to Bl. Rose, to visit her church and there to cause one solemn Mass to be celebrated, and to visit her holy body with one wax candle: and after this holy vow she immediately recovered and was healed* ⁿ.

[117] In the year 1455 Gemma, daughter of Dominic, of Monteleone ^o, appearing to a woman she heals her ulcers: dwelling at Viterbo, suffering in the breast five ulcers or sores, exceedingly horrible, which could be cured by no medicine or human help. Commending herself, however, humbly to God and to Bl. Rose, she said: Glorious and blessed Rose, if the things which are said of thee are true, help me out of so great a pain and danger. Which being said, at once, as she slept a little while, the Glorious One appeared to her, saying: Since thou hast commended thyself to me, know that at thy waking thou shalt be sound. And she, being roused, appeared free and sound from the said infirmity.*

[118] A certain lady Petrutia, wife of the late Anthony Nannis, of the land of Acquapendente [p], she stops another's flux of blood. of the province of the Patrimony, when she was suffering a flux of blood, from which infirmity of the flux she could be freed by no medicine or aid of physicians

for three months: yet a vow being solemnized to the said Bl. Rose about visiting her body with due reverence, almighty God, by the prayers and merits of the said Bl. Virgin, freed the aforesaid Petrutia from the infirmity of the said flux. And she, now made sound, still lives [q], staying in the said land of Acquapendente.

[119] A certain woman Angela, wife of Forlanus, of Viterbo, She confers the same benefit on a woman with child, about the year of the Lord 1430 being with child, when she was suffering the greatest anguish and pains with a wrenching of the body, a very great flux of blood coming on, there was no hope of her life any longer, since every sign tended to death. And she, amid such sudden convulsions and deadly signs, being alone in her vineyard half alive outside the walls of Viterbo, lifting her mind to almighty God and to his Bl. virgin Rose, when she most humbly besought her for her health and deliverance, was at once freed. And she lives even today [r] with her household, in the presence of Angilella, daughter of Giles Marcus Gualdi, and Catherine, daughter of James Ceccus Bianchi.

[120] Item, that in the year 1450, when a certain lady Catherine, and likewise on another. wife of the late Anthony Æascia, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Giles, had suffered a flux of blood for three months, nor could be helped in anything by any of the physicians, she went to the church of Bl. Rose on the day of her festivity. And while the office was being said and the sermon preached, she humbly commended herself, not without tears, vowing and promising that she would fast perpetually on her Vigil and would keep her solemnity as a solemn day, if she were freed from the said infirmity of the flux. Which vow being made, she straightway remained healed of the aforesaid flux [s].

[121] A certain nun of the said monastery, named Jerome, daughter of Anthony, of Città Castellana [t], [To a nun set in her last extremity by a flow of blood from the mouth she appears, and wholly heals her:] in 1452, when for a whole month the blood did not cease to come out and flow from her mouth day and night, so that she could in no way rest, and since nothing could avail her, and it was despaired that she could be healed, received Extreme Unction with all the Sacraments of the Church. To her, set in so great anguish, sleeping by night, Bl. Rose appeared, saying three times: Jerome, dost thou know me? And when she had answered : I have seen thee, but I do not know thee. And when Bl. Rose had answered her: I am blessed Rose: three times she roused herself from sleep, and when her eyes were opened, so much blood had gone out from her nostrils that it seemed already to have run far along the ground. Being awakened, however, and mindful of a vision of this kind, by the prayers of the said Blessed one she felt herself wholly and miraculously freed, although the plague then was strong in the city, so that scarcely any sick person was healed: and although so much blood had gone out that it had soaked through the bed.*

[122] She frees a girl from a flux of blood and a hectic fever, Moreover in the year of the Lord 1447, when a certain girl named Joanna, daughter of Francis , of the castle of Capraia [u], in the province of Tuscany, dwelling at Viterbo, had suffered a flux of blood and a hectic fever [w] for some months; which was so rooted [x] in her sinews and bones that it could in no way be rooted out of her; Antonia her mother [y], when she had heard the report of Bl. Rose of Viterbo and of her miracles, devoutly commended the sick girl to the aforesaid Virgin: which vow and prayers being uttered as above, the girl was straightway healed.*

[123] and a woman from torments of the heart. In the year of the Lord 1453, Angilella, daughter of Anthony, otherwise Maccarone , wife of Jacobutius Gerardus, of the castle of Ronciglione [z], when she was vexed with a wondrous suffocation and pain of the heart, vowed herself to the glorious virgin Rose, promising to visit her body and to cause a Mass to be celebrated. Which vow being made, straightway she felt herself relieved of the said pain, and so was healed [aa].

ANNOTATA.

p. Acula, or Aquula, a city of Etruria, in the province of the Patrimony.

q. The benefit received Petrutia herself asserted on oath.

r. As is clear from her testimony, in which I read this. Item she said that some twenty-eight years ago, when she being with child was suffering the greatest wrenchings with a flux, and once in her vineyard the said pains came upon her, so that she was adjudged as good as dead: turning to Bl. Rose, she was straightway healed, as is contained in the ninety-second miracle (with us the ninetieth). Being asked who were present she said: Of herself, Angilella daughter of Marcus Gualdi, and Catherine Bianchi. Hence note that, whereas above she is said to have been alone in the vineyard, either it must be taken conveniently, or the aforesaid two witnesses came upon her while she was thus laboring.

s. That miracle she herself confirmed on oath.

t. It is a town of Italy in the province of the Patrimony.

u. Probably it denotes Capras, a village of Etruria, which Ferrarius in his Lexicon calls Capresi, and places near Mount Alvernia, not far from the source of the Tiber.

w. The Italian word signifies a hectic fever. And a hectic fever is a dangerous and continual fever, consuming the solid, substantific, and radical heat, as the physicians speak.

x. Read radicata, from the verb radicare, that is, to strike roots, and it is here taken metaphorically for to cling fast.

y. Who testified to this miracle.

z. Roncilio, a town of Italy in the province of the Patrimony and the chief town of the district of the same name, is situated on the river Faliscus, ten Italian miles distant from Viterbo, on Baudrand's testimony.

aa. So she herself asserted on oath.

read vivum*

read prosilierit*

* he revived, or recovered.

read sua*

read Deum & B. Rosam*

* that is, wasted away

read comperit*

respondisset*

elsewhere Franciosi*

elsewhere Maccaroni*

* that is, to be relieved

CHAPTER VIII.

She preserves a soldier's life, composes those at variance, succors women in peril in childbirth, wards off fevers.

[ ] She preserves a soldier from slaughter: In the current year of the Lord 1370, while the war of Viterbo with the Bretons ^a was going on, a certain Matthew, son of Dominic Transimundus, of the district of St. Marcus, being outside the walls of Viterbo, the aforesaid Breton enemies rose up against him and pursued him; until one of them, a horseman, sprang upon him with his horse as he lay on the ground, to kill him: and leaving him thus half dead, when he had invoked Bl. Rose, the stipendiary horseman departed, reckoning him dead. Whence it came about that on the following night Bl. Rose appeared to a certain woman called Menica, telling her that she should warn ^b the mother of the aforesaid Matthew not to allow him to go out any more, because, though he had escaped that time, he would not escape another time in the future.*

[125] She foretells that a concord between those at variance shall soon be composed: A certain Mariottus, son of Silvester Boccaifusa , was subject to a long enmity with a certain Raphael Sanctorius of Viterbo: about which the mother of the aforesaid Mariottus greatly feared lest under some sought-out pretext he should waylay Mariottus her son. The said lady Nicola, his mother, vowing herself by night to Bl. Rose the virgin, and then to the mother, drowsing a little while, the aforesaid virgin Rose appeared, announcing to her thus: Since tomorrow morning peace shall be made, be of good cheer. Which being done, when day was already whitening, Mariottus and Raphael made peace, as the mother had seen by night in the vision; of which peace it had been utterly despaired. This Mariottus testifies, and the aforesaid lady Nicola his mother.*

[126] She happily brings back a runaway son. Anthony, son of Dominic, otherwise Cortopasso, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Marcus, in 1448, being disturbed, departed and committed himself to certain stipendiaries, as is commonly said, al soldo ^c. Whom his father, moved with fatherly affection, followed everywhere. And when a certain woman named Rose, their kinswoman, had awaited these two, the father and the son, a long time , that they should return, she vowed to Bl. Rose that she would visit her sacred body for a month, if the father should return sound with the son. Which vow being made — a wondrous thing! — on the following day sound and with joy*

the father and the son returned.

[127] [A woman laboring in childbirth, a little cord being laid upon her body, happily brings forth:] Item, that when the noble woman the lady Joanna, wife of the valiant man James of San Gemini, was in childbirth, in which she was so oppressed with pains and anguish that no medicine could avail her for bringing forth the child. Yet at once, a little cord which had touched the body of that glorious Rose being laid upon her body, and her help being invoked with the greatest devotion and reverence, she brought forth, and thus was and is freed and healed.

[128] [a woman with child, vowing to wear the Saint's little cord, is taken out of her pains:] A certain woman named Frances, daughter of Herculanus, and wife of Anthony Colecta, of Viterbo, in 1443, being five months with child, was so oppressed with pains that she could nowhere rest because of the said pains, which she had suffered continually for the said five months. And she, set in so great anxiety and distress, as soon as she humbly vowed to God and to Bl. Rose that she would wear her little cord girded upon her, was healed and freed. And she, when the days of childbearing came, brought forth without distress and pain.*

[129] In the year 1450, on the fourth day of the month of April, Frances, daughter of Nardus de Maltempo, of Viterbo, a woman laboring in childbirth, the praised water being drunk, brings forth, of the parish of St. Mary in Podio, being with child, at the time of childbearing suffered most grievous pains and burning anxieties continually for four days and as many nights, nor could she bring forth; so that her life was as good as despaired of. And she, set in so many languors and anxieties, implored the help of Bl. Rose, asking of the bystanders that the washing of the glorious Rose be brought to her. Which when she had drunk, straightway the child began to come out, though in a disturbed order: for first came out the buttocks, second the feet, then the hands, and last the head. And this child seemed as good as half dead. Whereupon three women, namely Vitorbese, Antonia Franciosi, and Bartholomea, daughter of Baptist Nerius, standing by there, began to blow ^d into its ears, continually invoking the help of Bl. Rose the virgin for the health of the mother and the infant. Although the boy appeared to be born in so heteroclite ^e a manner and in a disturbed order, by the patronage of the said Bl. Rose they were and are delivered.

[130] Paulina, wife of master Angelus of Perugia ^f, another is relieved in a difficult birth. dwelling at Viterbo, of the district of St. Luke, when in 1451 at the time of birth she was oppressed with great pains for two days and as many nights, and could not bring forth, so that her life was in doubt, nevertheless by the prayers of Bl. Rose she brought forth a son ^g.

[131] In the year 1453, when a certain Laurentia, daughter of John called de Vacoduva, [A woman in peril in childbirth obtains life for the child to be brought forth, until it should be baptized:] a woman of Viterbo, was with child and was prematurely pressed with great pains and anguish, so that she could by no means in the world bring forth the child, which she felt in her bowels as it were divided: yet she commended herself with the utmost humility to the glorious virgin Rose, to whom this woman, her bowels torn ^h, was given and devout, that she would deign to impart to her so much grace that the fetus born of her might at least live so long as until it could receive holy baptism, out of zeal and great affection for the holy orthodox and Catholic faith. Which prayers and vows as soon as she uttered, she brought forth: although the fetus seemed in a manner divided into pieces, yet there was and remained in it so much breath, until it was baptized with holy baptism. The same the said Laurentia testified.

[132] The lady Margaret, wife of John Veltrus, of the district of St. Sixtus, when about 1437 she had labored most grievously in childbirth for three whole days and more, likewise others after many pains, nor could by any means, by any aid of physicians or human help, bring forth the child, as soon as she commended herself to Bl. Rose, in the same hour in which the vow was made she brought forth and was healed, as if she had never had any ill. This the said Margaret testified, and Lucia her mother ⁱ.

[133] Moreover in the year of the Lord 1050 ^k, when the lady Matthea, daughter of John of Siena ^l, vows being made; dwelling at Viterbo, of the parish of St. Marcus, was near her delivery and labored in distress for three days, nor could bring forth in any way, turning in her mind to almighty God and to Bl. Rose, she devoutly commended herself to her, that, if by her merits and intercessions she should be freed from so great anxiety and distress, so that she might bring forth and the child be born with soul and breath, so that it might be baptized, she would visit her holy church for one whole month and there cause a Mass to be celebrated. Which vow being made, the woman brought forth without distress, and the boy lived eight months. This the said lady Matthea testifies.

[134] The lady Bartholomea, daughter of Peter Paul Petrutius, being with child, when she could not otherwise bring forth the child, although for some days she was distressed with most grievous and most burning pains in her labor; bring forth conveniently. as soon as she vowed and commended herself to Bl. Rose the virgin, the child, the prayer and vow being made, came out most freely from the womb of its mother, without any distress or anxiety of her who bore it. The same the said lady Bartholomea testified.

[135] Those dying of fevers In the year of the Lord 1425, Corona of Capena ^m, wife of Peter Paul of Viterbo, of the district of St. Laurence, when, being vexed with a continual fever, she had received the Sacraments of the Church, vowed herself to God and to Bl. Rose, that if she should escape she would cause one Mass to be celebrated in her honor: which being done, she was straightway freed.

[136] are suddenly healed. In the year 1447, a certain John, son of Menicus del Pelofatto of Viterbo, of the district of St. John de Noctula ⁿ, had suffered terrible fevers with a flux, by occasion and anguish of which, when he had come to the last and utmost point of life; Catherine his mother, going to the body of Bl. Rose, with many tears cried out there to Bl. Rose for the health of her son. Which prayer being thus hastily made, she straightway returned home, fearing lest she should find her son dead at home. And when she had entered there, she found her son sitting beside the fire out of danger, who, being made sound miraculously, lives even now* ^o.

[137] [The Cardinal of Valencia, afterwards Calixtus III, recovers from a dangerous fever,] Item, that when our most holy lord the lord Calixtus [p], by divine providence the third Pope, while he was set in a lower state [q] and Cardinal of Valencia [r], in the year of the Lord 1445 in the city of Rome was afflicted with great fevers, so that the life of the same Holiness was then in doubt, with the greatest devotion he lifted his mind to God and to that blessed glorious Rose, promising to that Bl. Rose a rose of silver. Which vow being made, by the inspiration of divine help — that at length God might miraculously and divinely provide for his holy Church, for the preservation and increase of the Catholic and orthodox Christian faith, out of the person of the same Holiness, to the honor, glory, and exaltation of the whole Christian religion, since this was to be in the divine mind — being preserved by the prayers of that Bl. glorious Virgin, he recovered, and the aforesaid was and is delivered.*

[138] and discharges the vow which he had pronounced. And in the current year of the Lord 1446, on the twentieth day of the month of November, the excellent doctor of decrees, the lord Bernard Rompia, of the diocese of Gerona [s], by the command of our aforesaid most holy Lord, then Cardinal of Valencia, brought a silver rose to the monastery of Bl. Rose in the city of Viterbo, which still hangs above the body of that Bl. Rose and is publicly shown to all who wish to see it.

ANNOTATA.

p. Namely Calixtus III, by whose command this process was instituted. He was Alphonsus Borgia, a Spaniard by nation, of Xàtiva by birth, of the diocese of Valencia, on Platina's testimony in the Lives of the Pontiffs. For business prosperously carried through for the Church he obtained from Martin V the bishopric of Valencia; then in the year 1444 he was created cardinal priest of the title of the Four Holy Crowned Ones by Eugenius IV; finally in the year 1455 he was raised under the name of Calixtus III to the sacred chair of Peter, which he held until the year 1458.

q. That is, while he was not yet Roman Pontiff.

r. Valencia, the chief town of the kingdom of Valencia, a large, noble, and elegant city of Tarraconensian Spain, on the coast of the Mediterranean sea on the river Turia, commonly called Guadalaviar, is handed down as founded in the 616th year of the City by Junius Brutus. It is distant from Barcelona 49 leagues to the southwest, as also from Toledo to the east and from Saragossa to the south; says Baudrand.

s. Probably he means the diocese of Gerona, whose chief town is Gerunda, to the inhabitants Girona, an episcopal city of Catalonia under the archbishop of Tarragona in Spain.

apparuerit*

elsewhere Rocca infuse*

add erat*

* that is, he feared

supply ut*

read ut*

read posset*

read nullibi*

* that is, fearing

read orthodoxæ*

CHAPTER IX.

Various fever-stricken persons prodigiously healed.

[ ] The fever-stricken, Item, a certain boy, son of Barnabas of the castle of Ribello, of the county of Orvieto ^a, when he was held by a grave fever, so that his life was much in doubt, straightway, a certain little cord which had touched the body of that Bl. Rose being laid upon his body by a certain lady Polisena, servant of John the chancellor of Narni ^b, then being in the said castle, and the help of the same glorious Bl. Rose being invoked with devotion, within the space perhaps of three hours he was and is freed from such an infirmity.

[140] a little cord which had touched the Saint's body being laid upon their limbs, Item, that when Benedicta, daughter of master Marcus, son of master James, of Acquapendente ^c, three years ago now, was held by a most grievous fever with the greatest pain of the head, and was set in such an infirmity, hearing about the body and miracles of that glorious Bl. Rose, she straightway began to have the greatest devotion to that glorious Virgin, longing with the utmost desire for one little cord which had been laid upon her venerable body. To her, thus thinking and desiring, there came a certain woman called Antonia ^d, wife of Peter Angelus of Acquapendente, carrying the said little cord with her: which the same Benedicta, thus sick, with the greatest reverence and devotion toward that Bl. Rose laid upon her body and head: and she straightway was and is miraculously freed from the said most grievous fever and pain of the head, by the prayers and merits of the aforesaid glorious Virgin.

[141] or girded with the girdle which had touched the Saint's body; Item, that in the year 1450 a certain clerk of the church of Astorga ^e, named Martin, when he had suffered a fever for fifty-five days, a certain kinswoman of his said to him: Take this little cord of Bl. Rose, and girding it upon thyself with devotion with a Pater noster and an Ave Maria, thou shalt straightway be freed. Which being done, he was straightway freed from his infirmity.*

[142] others, vows being uttered about offering a wax candle, In the current year of the Lord 1452, a certain lady Matthea, wife of Ventura, when she had suffered a fever for a long time, vowing herself to Bl. Rose, promised her a certain torch of the weight of a pound and a half of wax, and to keep the feast of her solemnity. Which vow being made, she was suddenly healed of the fever and made free.

[143] about causing the sacrifice of the Mass to be celebrated Moreover in the above-said year, a certain woman named Antonia, wife of Anthony, otherwise Capati, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Matthew, was suffering a quartan fever together with her daughter, nor could anything avail them, although they had tried very many things after the manner of the sick. And when they were thus utterly despairing of human help, they made a vow to the glorious Rose, that if it should come about that they were freed, they would cause one Mass to be celebrated at her altar, to her glory and honor. Which vow being thus made and promised, each of them in the same hour was freed from the said fevers* ^f.

[144] In the same year, a certain Matthew Lucas and his wife, about wearing the Saint's girdle, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Matthias, were suffering continual fevers, from which they could be helped by no remedy or aid of physicians. Yet vowing themselves humbly to Bl. Rose, that if they were freed from fevers and torments of this kind they would wear her little cord girded upon them for a whole year, to her honor and reverence. Which vow being thus made, they were and are straightway freed ^g.

[145] about sending a gift to her body, In the same year, a certain woman named Paulina, wife of Bartholomew called Dellabruza, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Matthias, was vexed with the evil and continual disease of fevers, together with her father-in-law: who vowed themselves to the glorious virgin Rose, to carry one torch to her tomb. Which vow being made, both were and are straightway freed; as the lady Tomassa, wife of Anthony Marrocchus, testified.

[146] In the aforesaid year, a certain woman named Felix, about wearing her girdle for a year a daughter of Lazarus, of Pisa ^h, was suffering continual fevers, from which she could be freed by no human help, although she had implored the aid of several physicians; at last she vowed herself to the aforesaid glorious Rose the virgin, that she would wear her little cord for a whole year, if it should come about that she was healed of the said fevers. Which vow being thus made, she was straightway restored to her former health ⁱ.

[147] In the year of the Lord 1455, in the month of July, a certain Francis the Neapolitan , laboring under a grave fever, and about visiting her sacred body, come off unharmed. a vow being made to the glorious virgin Rose, promising for his deliverance to visit her venerable consecrated body with a certain image of wax, is straightway restored to his former health, wholly free from the fevers.*

[148] In the year of the Lord 1443, a certain Peter Jennius, Another, a like little cord being touched, son of Menicus Tondus of Viterbo, of the district of St. Leonard, was grievously oppressed by a fever for a long time: for whose deliverance, when Angilella his mother vowed him before the body of the said Virgin, and thereupon brought a little cord to him, with which upon his back and person , he straightway was and is made sound and free from the fevers ^k, by the merits and prayers of the same Virgin.*

[149] Master Simon Baptist, a locksmith of Viterbo, in 1449 had suffered a quartan fever for eleven months, another girded with it, and when he could not otherwise be freed, devoutly vowing himself to Bl. Rose, he girded on her little cord. Which vow being made and the little cord thus girded on, he was suddenly and wonderfully healed of the said fever.

[150] A certain boy named Bernardine, four years old, a boy, the water so often mentioned being drunk, are freed from fevers. son of Bartholomew, son of Francis the Coppersmith ^l, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Leonard, in 1455, in the month of July, was grievously sick with a daily fever, which he had suffered for eight days. By Vannotia his mother there was given him to drink the washing of the hands of the said glorious Rose, that is, the water with which her glorious hands had been washed, with great devotion; and when he drank it, on the following day he was and is freed ^m.

[151] In the year 1446 John, son of Herculanus, of Viterbo, was so grievously sick with a daily fever that his life was as good as in doubt: Likewise others of the same ill, and at last vowing himself with Frances his wife to Bl. Rose, that he would wear her little cord for a whole year. Which vow being thus uttered, he suddenly felt himself somewhat relieved of the fever, and thereafter within a few days was made wholly free* ⁿ.

[152] are suddenly restored to health Sanctes, son of James Boccacerase, in 1449 was so grievously vexed with a daily fever for several months that his life was in doubt. And when he vowed, through Leonarda his mother, to Bl. Rose that, if he were freed, he would in her church, to her honor, cause a Mass to be celebrated with the said Sanctes, and would wear a little cord girded on for a certain time. Which vow being thus made, he was miraculously made free from the fevers.

[153] after invoking the Saint, A certain Paulotia, wife of Cecus the miller, and Joanna her daughter, in 1451 were most grievously sick with fevers and were destitute of nearly everyone's help. And so one night the aforesaid Joanna, when she had come to the last breath or point of life, in the sight of her mother who was exceedingly afflicted, for whom the aforesaid mother, turning to God and to Bl. Rose, said: O glorious Rose, help me. To her, drowsing a little while, the glorious Rose appeared, saying: Be sure that both of you shall be well this morning. And they, being roused from sleep, found themselves so sound and free as if they had never suffered fevers ^o: in the presence of Catherine, daughter of Baptist of Arezzo … [p]

[154] or vows In the year 1441 Frances Bacchini of Viterbo, of the district of St. Peter, being feverish for a year with pain of the hips [q], although she could not be healed by the hand of physicians, yet a vow being made to Bl. Rose about causing a Mass to be celebrated in her church and bringing a pound of wax, is suddenly freed [r].

[155] pronounced in her honor In the year 1434, Christopher, son of master Angelus Boccafrolla, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Mary in Podio, being feverish, could help himself no longer: for whom a certain sister of his by blood, named Vitorbese, vowed to Bl. Rose, saying: If thou wilt free my brother from an infirmity of this kind, I will visit thy sacred body for a whole month. Which being done, the fever departed, and the sick man was healed.

[156] In the year 1455, in the month of July, a certain Leo, Gaetano by name, being feverish and set at the point [s] of death, because of the fame and the miracles of Bl. Rose which he had heard, went to visit her glorious body, though with difficulty and distress. Commending himself to her humbly and devoutly, he vowed to wear her little cord: which being done, wholly free from the fevers, he was brought back to prosperous health.

[157] or by taking Friar Mariottus of Viterbo, in 1454, in the month of October, of the Order of Hermits, was vexed with a daily and a tertian fever at once and at the same time, nor could any care or medicine avail him. And when Lucia his sister was watching him by night, she said to him that he should commend himself to Bl. Rose and should with devotion drink the water of the washing of her hands. And this sick man, when at his sister's bidding he had done this and had drunk the water, straightway came off miraculously sound and wholly free from the fevers [t].

[158] the water used for washing the Saint's hands. In the year 1450 Gabriel, a boy, son of Tutius

son of Angelus Teia, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Faustinus, being burdened with continual fevers and destitute of the help of all the physicians, was placed under a vow by his mother to Bl. Rose; and as soon as some of the said water of the washing was given him to drink, he was made free.

ANNOTATA.

p. See in the Annotations at number 78, letter f. Further, what those dots denote I do not know. Did our copyist perhaps omit some things which for the difficulty of the character he could not read?

q. Ancæ, an old Latin word, or rather an Italian one, signifies the hips, or the top of the hip.

r. As she herself asserted.

s. Interpret it conveniently as the point of death: otherwise he could not have gone to the Saint's body even with difficulty.

t. The testimony of both on this matter is recited in the Process.

read tibi*

quod* is superfluous

read Neapolitanus*

supply posita*

read vovit*

CHAPTER X.

Others cured of fevers: one who violated his vow three times is three times punished; as often as he repented, so often was he healed.

[ ] Various persons In the same year, a certain Tutius, son of Angelus Teia ^a, being burdened with a puncture ^b and a fever for several days, although he had striven to drive out the infirmity with many medicines, yet asking with reverence for the water of the washing of the hands of Bl. Rose the virgin, and after he drank it, he rose sound and was made free and went out of the house, though he had been at the point of death.

[160] In the same year, on the day of the Nativity of the Bl. Virgin, Francis, son of Nardus, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Peter, in peril a boy of two years, was sick with a fever and suffering in the throat. And so he had been brought as it were to the last of his life: whom his mother carried to the body of Bl. Rose: to whom the nuns said: Dost thou wish that Bl. Rose should raise this dead child? Yet when he had been humbly commended to Bl. Rose, the boy was straightway healed* ^c.

[161] from fevers In the year 1445, Ser Thomas, son of master John, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Sixtus, when he was twenty-two years old and had suffered continual fevers for a long time, was made as it were withered. His mother, afflicted with which grief, going to the monastery of Bl. Rose, and receiving the washing and water of her hands, gave it to her son to drink with devotion; and he after the draught was healed in that hour.*

[162] are afflicted, In the year 1440, in the month of August, Cecilia, daughter of Butius, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Justinus, had been made dry from a terrible fever which she had suffered a long time, and had received Extreme Unction, being set in her last extremity: yet by the prayers of Bl. Rose she was freed ^d.

[163] and by various vows Paul ^e, otherwise Tuscierna, of Viterbo, in 1451, of the district of St. Faustinus, being oppressed with continual fevers, had been brought to the last of his life. A vow being made by his mother to Bl. Rose, he was made free.

[164] imploring the Saint's help, In the year 1453, in the month of September, Nicholas, son of Peter the Spaniard, dwelling at Viterbo, a boy of two years, of the district of St. Angelo, was so oppressed by a terrible fever that he had been brought to nothing. For whom ^f she commended him to Bl. Rose; a vow being made by his mother, he was straightway healed.

[165] A certain Menica of Amelia ^g, and Peregrina her daughter, dwelling at Viterbo, had been oppressed a long time with burning fevers; yet by the prayers and merits of Bl. Rose they were freed ^h.

[166] by her patronage, In the year 1455, Felix Ciofi, of the district of St. Faustinus of Viterbo, wife of Nicholas, was for several months burdened with a terrible fever, so that her life was much in doubt: a vow being made by her, she was healed by the merits and prayers of Bl. Rose.

[167] are cured. In the year 1443, Bartholomew, a certain boy, son ⁱ of Viterbo, was for several months burdened with a most grievous fever: a vow being made by his mother to Bl. Rose, he is made sound.

[168] Fevers, by the use of the little cord A certain Erasmus, son of Bernard, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Sixtus, in 1443 was sick with a pestilential disease. Whom Petrutia Fasano , his mother, beholding, said: My son, commend thyself to God and to Bl. Rose. Upon him she girded her girdle with devotion, and gave him to drink the water with which her hands had been washed; in that hour and in that instant he was miraculously freed* ^k.

[169] and of the water, are driven away. In the year 1451, in the month of June, Angela, daughter of Menicus, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Leonard, was afflicted with a grave fever for three months, and so was already swollen. For whom Menica, her sister by blood, humbly interceded with Bl. Rose, and devoutly girded her girdle upon her, and drank the aforesaid washing water. Which being done, she was healed and ^l straightway sick.

[170] Likewise very many others In the same year, in the month of October, on the twenty-seventh day, Philippa, wife of Ludovic, of Viterbo, of the district of St. John in coccula , being burdened with a continual fever, vowing to wear the little cord of Bl. Rose for a year, is immediately freed.*

[171] grievously In the year 1435, a certain Peter, being feverish, when he was vowed by his mother to Bl. Rose about bringing a certain torch every year; the vow being made, he was healed of continual fevers.

[172] Moreover in the year of the Lord 1450, Melchior, son of Ambrose, of Viterbo, afflicted with continual of the district of St. John, being shaken with continual fevers, vowed himself to God and to Bl. Rose, to visit her body for one year. Which vow being made, he straightway remained cleansed and free from the fevers.

[173] In the year 1449, Anthony, son of Peter della Chiesa, of Viterbo, fevers, of the district of St. Quiricus, suffered a quartan fever for several months with a flux of blood: whence he had already been brought to the last of his life. Yet a vow being made by Paulina his wife to Bl. Rose, he came off sound.

[174] Moreover in the aforesaid year, a certain Joanna, daughter of Angelus Tutius, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Quiricus, the Saint's help being implored, when she was vexed with continual fevers with distress of body and breast, a vow being made about wearing the little cord of Bl. Rose, health is restored.

[175] Moreover in the current year of the Lord 1405 ^m, and to her in the month of July, a certain woman named Mary, from the parts of Liège, while she was on pilgrimage in the parts of Italy, in the city of Ferrara ⁿ, it befell her that she was held for several days by a very great burning of fever. From which, when she desired to be freed, that she might carry out her pilgrimage, she most devoutly commended herself to almighty God and to Bl. Rose of Viterbo, vowing that she would visit the lights of her sacred body, if it should come about that by her prayers and merits she was freed from so great a distress of fevers. Which vow being thus uttered, she straightway slept a little: from which sleep being afterwards awakened, she felt herself so clean and free from the said fevers as if she had never had any fevers, by the prayers and merits of the aforesaid Bl. Rose the virgin. And this Mary, when she had come to Viterbo for the sake of discharging her vow on the thirteenth day of the month of October, 1456, reported and attested that the said miracle had befallen her as is described above, in the presence of Anthony de Renutius, James, son of Giles Nocentius, Andrew Capati, and Peter Dominic, citizens and dwellers of Viterbo: and she greatly contended that it should be put into writing.*

[176] Moreover in the year of the Lord 1455, Marcus, son of Marcus de Bustis, by various vows when he was shaken with the hugest fevers, and looked for aid from nowhere else, since all things severally had already been tried, the venerable woman the lady Angela, his maternal grandmother, commended him to Bl. Rose the virgin. Which vow being uttered, immediately the fever departed from the said Marcus and helped ^o; health followed for him. This the lady Angela his grandmother attests, and the same Marcus.

[177] The reverend father, the lord Amicus of Aquila [p], devoutly pronounced, while he was governor of the Patrimony, was made sick with a grave and burning fever in 1442, and when he had lain in bed feverish for a month and more, he most devoutly commended himself to almighty God and to the aforesaid Rose the virgin, offering her a certain votive gift if health should be restored to him. Which prayers and vow being uttered, straightway without delay he rose from his bed sound, in the presence of Petrutius Bussis [q] asserting the same, and of John of Calabria and nearly his whole household.

[178] About the year of the Lord 1440, when a certain Joanna, health wife of Anthony Allexius, of the district of St. Sixtus, had been vexed for five months with an almost continual fever, nor could in any other way by human aid of the physicians renounce it or drive it from her; though she had many times made trial of driving it out: a vow being made to the glorious virgin Rose, in that instant she was restored to health and made whole. The same the said Joanna testifies.

[179] their former About the year of the Lord 1456 and in the month of September, when a certain Peter Dominic, son of Ceccus the mason, of the district of St. Mary in Podio of Viterbo, was held by a long fever, being five years of age, he so failed and was so wasted [s] that he could in no way in the world sustain himself any longer. Yet a vow being made to Bl. Rose, and the water of the washing of that Virgin's hands being given to that boy, thus sick, to drink, in the same hour the boy was and is healed. The same the lady Maci his mother testifies, and Sabecta, daughter of Nardus, and Antonia, daughter of Nardus Contescus Johannis.

[180] miraculously John, son of Nardus, son of Anthony Nardus, of the district of St. John of Viterbo, when he was sixteen years old and had been most grievously feverish for a month, with the greatest devotion and reverence vowed himself to the aforesaid virgin Rose, and the water of the washing of her hands being brought to him and drunk, he was miraculously healed at that same point. And so then, in the twinkling of an eye, after the manner of a crossbow shooting forth [t],

so the fever wholly departed from him. This Sabecta his mother testified, and Maji, wife of Ceccus the mason.

[181] and suddenly Moreover in the year of the Lord 1443, Ludovic, son of John Pastoratius, three years of age, being most grievously feverish for two whole months, was so weakened that he could scarcely sustain himself any longer in any way; and thus he seemed destitute of everyone's help. Yet a vow being made by Bartholomea his mother to Bl. Rose, and a small quantity of the water of the said washing being drunk, when it was scarcely swallowed, straightway the boy was healed. This Bartholomea his mother testified, and Petrutia Cartulere, of the district of St. John.

[182] obtained it. The lady Petrutia Cartulere, of the district of St. John, about 1447 being held by an intolerable fever for a month, came into such weakness and distress that neither foot nor hand nor any other of her limbs could sufficiently perform its office. Yet a vow being made to Bl. Rose, not without an abundance of tears and with the greatest devotion, she was restored to her former health. The same Petrutia herself affirms, and Bartholomea Pastoratii.*

[183] Freed from long-lasting fevers by a vow uttered about wearing the little cord, A certain Julian, son of Mutius of Toscanella [u], commonly called Delloriolo, of the district of St. Simeon of Viterbo, when about 1437 he had been feverish for thirteen months or thereabouts, and after he saw that mortal attempts could do nothing, nothing the arts of healers, seeking heavenly help, with devotion and reverence, vowing, he commended himself to the aforesaid virgin Rose, that, if he were freed from so great a distress of fever, he would gird himself with the girdle or cord with which her sacred body had been touched. Which vow being made, and he being made free, for the sake of discharging his vow he wore the said girdle for three months. When these three months had elapsed, he said to his wife: I will wear the said girdle no longer, since I have now been made free; as it were in disparagement and contempt of the said Bl. Rose. Which words being thus said and the girdle removed from him, straightway the fever attacked him most tightly. [violating his vow once and again, he falls back into fever; observing it, he is again healed:]

[184] Afterwards, when day was already growing bright, Julian, in distress with a grave pain of the head and a fever, again devoutly girded himself with the said girdle: which being done, straightway the fever departed and he returned to his former health. And when he had worn that girdle for four other months without fever, on one of the days, angry with himself and unmindful of the health lately restored to him, setting aside the honor of the said Virgin, the aforesaid girdle being renounced by him, again the fever made an assault upon him and pressed him yet more tightly. Coming to himself again, the aforesaid Julian, ill content with his past error, again girded himself with the aforesaid girdle: on account of which he again straightway deserved to be freed.

[185] And when he had carried that girdle continually with him for five other months, violating it a third time, a third time he is more sharply feverish; and perceiving that he had come into more vigorous health, thinking that he had no further need of the help of the said Bl. Rose the virgin, he cast away the said girdle, not without anger, saying contumeliously and angrily: Neither the virgin Mary nor Bl. Rose shall be able to bring it about that I should have any further need of the said girdle; nor will I carry it with me any longer. Which words being scarcely uttered by him, the fever invaded him more terribly and more grievously, so far that he could in no way endure its most burning heats and the pain of his head.

[186] At last coming to himself, and ill content with the errors which he had committed, at last repenting of the deed he is again restored to health. and intending to do penance, kneeling with the utmost humility, he commended himself again and a third time to the aforesaid glorious virgin Rose. And that glorious Virgin, since she closes the bosom of salvation and of mercy to none who devoutly beseech her, and according to the Gospel to whosoever sins and repents a hundred times the penalty is remitted, again finding grace for him, brought him back to his first health; and thus he deserved to be heard as often as he devoutly commended himself to her. This the same Julian testified, Rose his wife, the lady Margaret, wife of John son of William, and the wife of Braca [w].

ANNOTATA.

p. Amicus Agnifilus in the year 1431 was declared bishop of Aquila by Eugenius IV: and in the year 1440 was set as rector over the Patrimony, and afterwards was chosen by Paul II among the purpled Fathers.

q. Among other things he testified thus: Some fifteen years ago or thereabouts, when the reverend father, the bishop of Aquila, then governor of the Patrimony, was laboring under a grave fever for a month or thereabouts, a vow being made to Bl. Rose, in that same instant he recovered.

r. The faulty expression I explain thus: Nor could she in any way shake off the fever by remedies sought from human aid, etc.

s. That is, he had come into such feebleness that the medicines with which he had sustained life thus far availed nothing further.

t. This comparison is plainly obscure. It will be clearer if we say that vitam is here set for vittam (as Du Cange testifies in his Glossary that he found), and that vitta is taken for a bowstring. And then the sense will be that, as the string of a crossbow, being stretched and drawn back, is released most swiftly, so the fever suddenly forsook the fever-stricken man.

u. Tuscania, of old a large and rich city, but often laid waste, is now a small town of Italy in the dominion of the Church and the province of the Patrimony, on the river Marta, fifteen miles distant from Viterbo to the southwest.

w. Very ample testimonies concerning this fourfold benefit, and the threefold penalty of the violated vow, exist in the Process, confirmed on oath by the persons cited.

sibi* is superfluous

read accessit*

elsewhere Justini*

read ciocola*

read limina*

read infirmatus*

supply cum*

supply cum*

perhaps misericorditer*

perhaps cuicumque*

CHAPTER XI.

She succors other fever-stricken persons, heals pains of the head and other ills, and wards off sorceries.

[ ] The fever-stricken Paulina, daughter of Matthew Lucas, of the district of St. Matthew, of Viterbo, when she had been grievously feverish for a month, a vow being made to Bl. Rose, in that same moment was healed. So the said lady Paulina testified, and Ludovica, daughter of Michael Palotius ^a.

[188] imploring the Saint's help The lady Magdalen, daughter of Master Nicholas the physician, of Montefiascone ^b, in 1450 being grievously feverish, so far that she had fallen into consumption ^c, as soon as she vowed herself to the aforesaid Bl. Rose, was healed of the said fever. This the said lady Magdalen testifies, and the lady Angela her mother, and the lady Jacoba her sister.

[189] by vows The lady Catherine, wife of George the trumpeter, when in 1450 or thereabouts she was distressed with continual fevers for two whole months, devoutly commending herself and vowing to the aforesaid Bl. Rose the virgin, immediately without any delay recovered and was restored to her former health. This the said lady Catherine testifies.

[190] The lady Ceccha, daughter of Vannus, of the parish of St. Justinus, laboring under a grave fever for four whole months, together with a certain son of hers two years old, whom the physicians asserted to have fallen into consumption, a vow being made about wearing the girdle of the said Bl. Rose, and it being girded upon each of them, miraculously without any interval of time the former health is restored both to the mother and to the son, thus sick; for in that same instant, as soon as the boy drank the water of the washing of the said aforesaid blessed Virgin, the boy's fever ceased. This the said lady Ceccha his mother testifies.

[191] The lady Jacoba, wife of Cagnonus, when she saw her son gasping toward death with a grave fever, wonderfully vowed him to Bl. Rose the virgin. The vow being thus made, the fever straightway ceased, and the boy was healed. This the said lady Jacoba his mother testified.

[192] A certain boy, son of Bartholomew Rossolinus ^d, she succors of the district of St. Simeon, laboring under a most grievous fever, being carried by his mother to the body of Bl. Rose the virgin, and the girdle of the same Blessed one being girded upon him by a certain lady Magdalen, a nun of that monastery, was in the same hour and moment restored to health from so great a fever. The same the aforesaid Bartholomew testifies, and his wife.

[193] When a certain woman named Philippa, daughter of Ludovic, and suddenly of the district of St. John, was gasping for very many days with a most grievous fever and a puncture ^e, as soon as she devoutly vowed and commended herself to Bl. Rose the virgin, she recovered at once and was healed. The same the said lady Philippa testified, and Peregrina Sanctori, of the district of St. Blaise.

[194] Moreover a certain woman named Catherine Pelofatti, heals them. when she had a certain son eight years old, sick and gasping for a month with a grave and burning fever, in that same instant a vow being made to Bl. Rose for his health, by night, as she vowed, her son was healed of the said fever; for he was straightway healed, as the said Catherine testified.*

[195] Item, in the current year of the Lord 1448, a certain Angelus, son of John, of Amelia ^f, Of the head was afflicted with a burning pain of the head, so that his life was already despaired of, since no remedy or medicine of the physicians could avail him; most devoutly lifting his mind to almighty God and to Bl. Rose, he invoked her patronage for his deliverance, vowing that he would visit her venerable body with a certain head of wax. Which vow being thus made, of the same glorious blessed Rose

by the merits he was and is free and restored to his former health.

[196] In the year 1451 a certain Anthony, otherwise called Cento in mezzo, of Viterbo, of the district of St. Luke, pains, was most grievously afflicted with pain of the head: and when he had turned his mind to Bl. Rose, that she would deign to intercede for his health with almighty God, vowing that he would carry to her church a certain head of wax, straightway, the vow being made, he was freed.

[197] A certain infant of six years, named Angilellus Gidolfus, son of Augustus, son of Angelus Samnutius Sacchus, of the castle of Fabrica ^g, and other torments, about 1455 was so afflicted with pains for four days that he wept continually and could neither drink milk nor suck the breasts. Whom, after Jacoba his mother vowed to Bl. Rose to bring him to her church and with him to visit her blessed body, he was suddenly made free.

[198] In the year 1453 a certain Agnes, daughter of Herrigus, of Upper Germany ^h, of the sides being terribly oppressed with pains of the flanks ⁱ, and she was at Viterbo, nor did she dare confer about her said infirmity with anyone, since she was a stranger ^k, devoutly had recourse to Bl. Rose, saying: If the things which are related of thee are true, show thy power in me, a most poor foreigner; and if thou wilt free me from this infirmity, I will visit thy sacred body and will offer thee a waxen image. Which vow being thus made, in that same instant she rose up sound.

[199] and ills of the feet, A certain Frenchwoman in 1449, when she was going to Rome for the sake of the indulgence ^l and of devotion, was so shaken and wearied in her feet because of the roughness of the long journey that, her feet refusing to do their office, she was led by the arms with the help of two men to the church of Bl. Rose; to whom, as soon as she vowed herself, she was healed and walked free.

[200] cease by her intercession. A certain venerable man, Gabriel Rampa, bachelor, of the diocese of Gorindicum ^m, since from his youth he suffered a pain of the head twice in the week; when he was going to Rome in the year of Jubilee 1450, visiting the body of Bl. Rose at Viterbo, and hearing her miracles, vowed that he would offer to the said Bl. Rose a head of wax with a Mass, if he were freed from an infirmity and pain of this kind. Which vow being thus made, he was never thereafter burdened with the said pain, as the same Gabriel attests by his writing with several witnesses, namely Ludovic John, canon and provost of Valencia, Bartholomew Thogorethus, of the diocese of Carthage, Peter, a priest of Germany, of the diocese of Salvieric, and the lord Anthony de Belangiis, rector of the church of St. Andrew, of the diocese of Parma.

[201] She succors a woman with child in peril from a cask rolled upon her body. When a certain woman named Constantia, wife of Mascinus, of the district of St. Marcus of Viterbo, in 1455 and in the month of May, in her own house on one of the days set herself against a certain cask ⁿ full of wine and heavy, lest it should fall — fearing lest her husband should rage against her if it fell — she brought it back to its former place, though with the greatest anxiety and distress of body, since the whole cask was already upon her. Whence it came about that for five whole days she endured the most burning pains, so far that her bringing forth an abortive birth, and her life, were much in doubt. Yet the help of Bl. Rose being implored, who closes her bosom to none, she was straightway restored to her former health. This John, son of Peter of Parma, testifies, and Petrutius, son of Dominic, and Peter, son of Anthony John, of the district of St. Marcus.*

[202] A certain Rubeus Bonus of Viterbo, when he was oppressed beyond measure with pains of the flanks, She checks torments of the sides; nor could the physicians help him in any way or by the aid of medicine, the girdle of Bl. Rose being girded on, given to him by Rose the wife of the same sick Rubeus, he was freed after a little space, and the pain wholly departed . So the aforesaid Rubeus testified, and the above-said lady Rose.

[203] she puts sorceries to flight. When a certain woman Constantia Mascini of Viterbo, of the district of St. Marcus, being roused from sleep by night, perceived a certain phantom over the boy whom she was keeping lying with her in the bed, and out of fear of the phantom, which was in the manner of a cat ^o, could not speak, since it seemed to be gripping the boy most tightly in the throat, the help and protection of the glorious virgin Rose being invoked, the phantom fled away and appeared no more, and the boy remained without harm and danger, though he revived only a little. The same the said mother of his testifies.

ANNOTATA.

read pro*

* that is, fearing

* that is, small

read excessit*

APPENDIX

Certain other miracles appended to the second Life.

Rose, virgin of the Third Order of St. Francis, at Viterbo in Italy. (S.)

BHL Number: 7345 ^a

From the Process.

A certain clerk from beyond the mountains ^b was elected archbishop: One elected archbishop, being unable to obtain confirmation, who, having received the decree of his election and having accepted the election, hastened to the Roman court for the confirmation of his prelacy. Him rivals forthwith withstood, wrangling against him about his election, bringing forward articles, and offering for their reasons very many pleadings and their exceptions. Whence the cause was prolonged for several years: because of which delay it was necessary for the said clerk to stay in the court; and none the less to consume in expenses whatever money he had brought with him; wherefore he was made poor: and so he departed from Rome and the Roman court as one in despair. But coming to Viterbo, he lodged there: and when he was resting on his bed by night, wearied with very many thoughts, he began to drowse a little. And in that very sleep it was revealed to him that he should commend his cause to God and to the sacred virgin Rose, and should utter a vow about some honor to be paid for God's sake, if he should obtain the confirmation of his election.

[2] And rising from sleep and being admonished by such a matter, straightway, when morning came, he went to the church of St. Rose, and suppliantly asked that the body of the same sacred Virgin be shown him by the nuns dwelling in the monastery of the above-said church. [warned in sleep, pronounces a vow to the Saint, and returning to Rome obtains his wishes.] Which being seen and humbly venerated, he related to the nuns who were there the whole sequence of the aforesaid vision. And immediately after the narration of the aforesaid vision, before those nuns standing by, the said elect uttered a vow that, if by the merits of Bl. Rose he should carry off his purpose in his cause, he would perpetually appoint a golden rose to that monastery: and the vow being uttered, he returned to his lodging. A wondrous thing! Straightway after his departure from the monastery a messenger coming from the court met him, bringing letters that he ought to return to the City for his cause. And he, giving thanks to God and to the sacred virgin Rose, having taken refreshment, went back by the road by which he had come. And being set before the supreme Pontiff, he humbly set forth his cause; and when it was unfolded , he was at once confirmed as archbishop. And he, coming to Viterbo, brought back with him two roses, one of pure gold, the other of silver: which both, with much devotion and giving of thanks, he offered to the virgin Rose, and promised to send the golden rose perpetually; which also he did while he lived ^c: his life afterwards ceasing, the tribute rested.*

[3] [A nun simoniacally sells a nail plucked from the sacred body: repenting of the deed] But a certain German man, devout to the virgin Rose, out of devotion visited her body. Which being visited and duly venerated, he addressed that nun to whom the charge of guarding the sacred body had been committed; and said to her: If thou wilt give me one of the nails of the fingers of this Virgin's hand, I will give thee so much money: and she, allured by the gift of money, violently plucked out one of the nails of the fingers of the Virgin's hand ^d and gave it to that German. And he, the money agreed upon being handed over, received the nail with great devotion, and, laying it up in a most clean place, carried it into Germany ^e. But the aforesaid nun, seeing that the sacrilege which she had committed could not well be covered, because from the unnailed finger a certain deformity ^f plainly resulted, began to be tormented again with various thoughts.*

[4] [and imploring the Saint's help, she finds the nail prodigiously restored to the finger.] She considered that the misdeed [g] was against the rule, and that from the misdeed loss shortly threatened her. What to do she knows not, ever running through byways, straying, and by straying feeding the wound of her grief. But seeing that all human aid failed her, she had recourse to the patronage of her whom she had injured, namely to the virgin Rose; at whose feet she prostrated herself of her own accord, with tears humbly acknowledging her fault, promising none the less that she would never thereafter attempt such things or the like. And rising from her imploring of help, she looked with bitter mind and shamefaced countenance upon the hand which her avarice had disfigured: and she saw the nail renewed on its own finger, the other nails indeed tending to blackness, that one alone shining with whiteness [h]. At which miracle that nun, being at once astounded and terrified, laying aside her shame, faithfully revealed to the abbess and the other nuns the deed as it had been done ⁱ. These things I, who ^k wrote the above, recall that I saw with the credit of an eyewitness.

[5] St. Rose warns the nuns of the impending fall of the tower. At another time also, while the abbess was with a certain noble lady of Viterbo named Mary, the summit of the bell-tower of the church of St. Rose, because of the coming apart of the

stones set one above another, threatened ruin. And so great was the gaping of those stones that, if the bells had been rung in the accustomed manner, without doubt they would have caused a disaster. But Rose the most holy virgin, seeing that loss threatened from the fall of the stones, appeared to a certain honorable lady named Clara, a nun: to whom, with her arm stretched out on high, she showed the summit of the bell-tower, saying: Dost thou not see those stones about to fall shortly? Take heed, take heed, and look clearly, for they would soon fall. And the aforesaid nun, rising from sleep, went aside to a place from which the said bell-tower could be seen: and looking, she saw those stones removed from the joining of the wall, as the vision had shown her; and calling the abbess and certain other Sisters, she related to them the aforesaid vision, and together with them went to the place, and together they alike saw the stones separated from one another and ready to fall. And the abbess at once caused a remedy to be applied by workmen; and thus by the merits of the virgin Rose they escaped danger to persons and loss of goods.*

[6] Now at a certain time, when a certain German, very famous and rich in his own parts, [A blind man, after a vow made about building a chapel to the Saint, receives his sight:] was staying at Venice, by chance befalling he lost the sight of both his eyes. And when he had consumed a great substance upon physicians and could not obtain what he anxiously sought, namely to be freed from his blindness, whereat he was made very sad; suddenly it came into his mind how Bl. Rose is honored by the Germans and held in great reverence, because it is said by those who report it that in those parts she works many miracles. To which Virgin, when he commended himself with all the devotion he could, promising her that he would build a chapel in his own land in her honor if she would free him from blindness; straightway, these things being done, he who was blind received light, and broke out into praise of almighty God and of Bl. Rose the virgin ^l.

[7] At another time, indeed, a certain noble of Narni ^m, a captive, his help being implored, is miraculously freed. named Juvenalis, son of Anthony, while he was held imprisoned in the tower of the said city, and with him two others, namely Reveratius and Peregrinus; that Juvenalis, who for several years had been an official of Viterbo and knew the power of St. Rose the virgin, commended himself to her with much confidence in that same custody. To whom the Handmaid of God appearing, loosed that Juvenalis; and that the miracle might shine forth more openly, the bars not being opened ⁿ, she set him loosed in a safe place.

[8] At the castle of Vitorchiano ^o, a certain girl, having been joined in matrimony against her will, [A possessed woman, being led to her tomb, on making confession of her sins, is freed.] and being by no means willing to be with her husband, her people threatening death unless she should submit herself willingly to her husband, gave herself to the demons; who, receiving power over her, entered into her body, and for many days and nights, leading her wandering, allowed her to rest nowhere. At last, though her people urged that she should confess, she by no means acquiesced, but rather, making a laugh, spat upon them. Meanwhile she is led to Viterbo and to the body of St. Rose the virgin: where, while she stayed a little, the captive woman asked that drink be given her: and one of those Sisters who guarded the sacred body, as if taught by St. Rose, taking water, washed the hands of the aforesaid St. Rose, and gave that washing to the thirsty woman; and when she had swallowed it: I wish, she said, to confess. Lead me, she said, to the Friars of the Order from which this Saint came. And leading her to the Friars Minor, to one of them, namely the Chaplain of the nuns, she disclosed her sins in confession, and straightway the ancient serpent, which had deluded her, forthwith forsook her, and from that time she clove in all things to her husband. And the mind of the faithful does not doubt that this was done by the merits of Bl. Rose the virgin, since at her invocation the demon is expelled and the sick woman is restored to her former health [p].

[9] At another time also a certain boy named Menicus, playing with his young companions, had so shaken his head and all his limbs [A boy, his limbs crushed by a fall, an apparition going before, is restored to health by the Saint.] that he was believed scarcely likely to survive to the morrow. And his parents, bearing his destruction ill, because he was their only son, commended him with many prayers and tears to Bl. Rose the virgin: and lo, on the following night Bl. Rose appeared to the boy's parents, saying: Because of your faith and the devotion which you have had toward me, behold it is granted you what you asked, for your son is made whole. And waking in the morning, they found the son, whom they believed they would hand over to burial, so sound as if he had felt no ill at all before.

[10] Demons expelled from two possessed persons. It is likewise attested, speaking in the vulgar tongue of the true report concerning the miracles of St. Rose, that when two demons had entered separately into the bodies of two men, they shook them with a contumelious sickness without any rest. And their parents, mindful of the sanctity of the virgin Rose, caused them, raving and out of their minds , bound with chains, to be brought unwilling to the shrine of the miraculous body of St. Rose; and to that same body, the aforesaid parents devoutly with supplications , with prayers and vows for a deliverance of this kind, by the power of almighty God and the merits of the glorious virgin Rose, they straightway cast forth the said demons like black beetles [q] through their mouths, and being wholly freed devoutly gave praise to God and to the Virgin.

[11] A boy in peril of life from a fall suddenly recovers: A certain boy scarcely past infancy [r], wandering through places, leapt down untimely from a height to the ground: by which cause his members, leaving their own place, went down, so far that he was as it were compelled to relinquish his lot of life [s]. But his parents, loving their sons exceedingly more than themselves, anxious, with the above-said help of medicines [t], had recourse to spiritual things, vowing themselves for the boy's deliverance to the holy deeds of the sacred Rose: for the vows being performed, by the merits of the virgin Rose the boy straightway returned to his former health.

[12] An infirmity of the eyes taken away from a nun. Nor let it pass by you, readers, that a certain nun of the Order of St. Clare, burdened with an all but perpetual infirmity of the eyes, when afterwards, being abandoned by the physicians, she had invoked for her soundness the help of the merits of St. Rose's body, presently deserved, the vow being discharged, the pure former vision of her eyes.

[13] Health restored to a dying woman: Moreover I also adjure you who read through the devout deeds of the virgin Rose, that the things which I have thought should be reported be not left out; most of all indeed, that a certain noble lady of Viterbo, so shaken with diseases that, being summoned away from almost all sensible power, with the physicians as witnesses, she gave signs that death rather than health was to be hoped [u]. For her pulse and breathing were feeble, the pupil of her eyes was hidden, and over her body there flowed a scant and cold sweat, and at last she, turned about in her last moments, with her heart entreating the aids of health, most devoutly implored especially the help of the merits of Rose the virgin, and being heard in her prayer, by the grace of God and the merits of the sacred Rose the sensible powers, as it were torn away, returned, and afterwards from her deadly languor: these things I, who wrote them, testify that I saw her freed in every way.*

[14] a woman in childbed relieved of a difficult birth. A woman in peril of life in childbirth, when she had vowed herself to Rose the virgin, that she would favor her birth and her life, having received the girdle with which the body of Rose had been girded, trusting in her with hope, girded herself with it: which things being performed, she gave an end to her labor and received life and undoubted soundness *.

[15] A noble knight of Germany, bereft of children, eagerly desiring offspring, that a son might be given him from a barren wife, offered vows with sufficient devotion to the sanctity of Rose the virgin. Offspring obtained from a barren wife: And when after these things he had clung to his wife in matrimony, her womb confessed the heavy burden of conception. Afterwards, the due time of the enclosed birth being fulfilled, by the favor of holy Rose his wife brought forth into this world a most beautiful son. And ever for this miracle, out of his vow, he granted to her body a yearly gold tribute for the boy's life, to the praise of blessed Rose* [w].

[16] A woman with the passage of her hearing shut up, so that she was deaf, a deaf woman, being very devout by reason of the reported powers of St. Rose, commended herself with faith to the body of the said Virgin for the recovering of her hearing; wherefore she obtained entirely her former hearing unimpaired.

[17] A certain woman, holding a soul that struggled against her, having come by the shaking of diseases to the hour of death, and another dying woman healed. poured forth manifold prayers to the sacred Rose for the keeping of life and the putting to flight of death: because, being constant in the hope of obtaining the life which she desired to have taken up again, she was found to have obtained, to her joy [x], her first health.

[18] Finally, setting an end to the miracles, of which there is no end, A conflagration extinguished: I report that the house of a certain lady of Viterbo was so kindled with fire that it could in no way be delivered from ruin; and that, that lady interceding with the holy deeds of the sacred Rose for help — of which the ringing of the bells of her church bade her be mindful [y] — it was in every way preserved from the aforesaid ruin: and the fire being extinguished, seeing so great a wonder, she praised God in the prayers of St. Rose.

[19] Item, in the year of the Lord 1406, in the time of the Lord, the Lord Innocent, by divine providence Pope VII, in the month of February, the most blessed Rose healed a certain man of the city of Saxony of an infirmity which was in the likeness of leprosy, a grave ill taken away. which infirmity he suffered in the flesh of his teeth: and by the grace of God and of Bl. Rose he was freed. Thanks be to God. Amen.

ANNOTATA.

g. That is, a crime.

p. I have not found these things confirmed by witnesses.

q. A barbarous word from the Italian scardafone, which signifies a beetle. And a beetle is a foul kind of insect which continually dwells and feeds upon dung and refuse: hence he calls the demons, which are assuredly unclean spirits, beetles by a metaphor: unless perhaps they appeared under the form of beetles when they were being expelled; which is more conformable to the text.

r. That is, next to infancy.

s. By this faulty sentence nothing else is signified than that the boy, rashly leaping down from a rather high place, was by the fall put in peril of his life: and that the other boys, who perhaps were present, having seen him falling, came down from that same place.

t. The obscure and faulty sentence I explain thus: parents … anxious about medicines (that is, about medicines to be applied) for the help of the above-said (that is, of the said boy), had recourse to spiritual things, etc.

u. The inept manner of speaking denotes that from the indications of all the senses one had rather to despair than to hope of her health.

w. It is a wonder that no mention of this matter is made by the nuns in the Process.

x. It is an obscure expression: perhaps gratulatum is set for gratulabunda (rejoicing).

y. Coretinus in book 4, chapter 5, reporting this miracle, says that the bells were rung of their own accord with no one striking them; but whence he received this I do not know. Certainly it cannot be drawn out of the words of the Process as given. Giannellus, however, after his manner adheres to Coretinus, but not Rinaldus, who keeps deep silence about the bells.

read strato*

read fuit illi*

supply est*

read unum*

read cuidam*

read ducentes*

perhaps scilicet*

lymphantes* (raving)

read supplicantibus*

* that is, repeated

read Physicis*

add de*

supply existimans*

read indubitata incolumitas*

perhaps super*, that is, on account of

The names of the witnesses who respectively confirmed on oath the miracles set down above.

I subjoin the names of those who in the aforesaid Process, before the lords commissaries and subdelegates, confirmed the miracles reported, an oath being interposed: not that all testified to all, but some to some things and others to others: so that among them there is scarcely any, or none, which is not asserted and confirmed by the juridical testimony of one or of several. Their interrogations and answers I omit, that I may not breed disgust, as I warned in the preliminary Commentary at number 6.

On the ninth day of April, which was a Saturday, there appeared the witnesses written below, sworn, reported, brought in, produced, as above, before the above-said lords commissaries and subdelegates, sitting in tribunal in the above-said and appointed place, having been admonished for this hour and day. And first.*

Petrutius, son of Nicholas de Bussis, of Viterbo.

The priest Contutius, canon of the church of St. Angelo de Spata of Viterbo, and formerly Rector of the church of St. Mary in Podio.

Nardus Mazzatoste of Viterbo.

Nicholas Ciaccie of Viterbo.

Ricciardus, son of Thomas, son of master Jerome, of Viterbo.

Christopher Panalfus of Viterbo.

The priest Anthony, canon of the churches of Saints Luke and Faustinus.

The lord Michael de Alexiis, doctor of laws.

Dominic, son of Ser Angelus, of Viterbo.

James, son of master Odo, of Viterbo.

Artimannus, son of Ser Baptist, of Viterbo.

Laurence, son of Judex, of Viterbo.

Pacificus Bonelli of Viterbo.

Anthony Gattus of Viterbo.

Master John, son of Marianus de Alma Diani, doctor of arts and of medicine, of Viterbo.

Master Peter, son of Dominic, doctor of arts and of medicine, of Viterbo.

Nicholas, son of Anthony Ciulpe, of Viterbo.

Peter Paul Cucumelle of Viterbo.

Ser Francis, son of Ser Nicholas, of Viterbo.

Tutius Lorenzetti of Viterbo.

Nicola Tuccie of Viterbo.

John, son of Luke, of Viterbo.

The lord Angelus, Prior of the church of St. Bartholomew of Viterbo.

John, son of Peter of Parma, of Viterbo.

Bartholomew Rosolini of Viterbo.

The lady Sabecta, wife of Bartholomew Rossolini, of Viterbo.

Thomas, son of John the Huntsman, of Viterbo, one of the lords Priors of the said city.

The lady Frances, daughter of Thomas, of Viterbo.

Nicholas, son of the said Thomas the Huntsman, of Viterbo.

The lady Cecilia Ferabuschi of Viterbo.

The lady Gianna, daughter of Nina, of Viterbo.

The lady Felix, wife of Anthony Rubeus, of Viterbo.

The lady Angela, wife of Luke de Bussis, of Viterbo.

The lady Perna, wife of Peter the Spaniard, of Viterbo.

Peter the Spaniard of Viterbo.

The lord Anthony Blondus, rector of the church of St. Peter de Ulmo of Viterbo.

The lady Ludovica, wife of Tutius Lorenzetti, of Viterbo.

Petrutia, daughter of Bartholomew, son of Anthony.

Julian, son of Mutius, called delloriolo*, a citizen of Viterbo.

Rose, wife of Julian, son of Mutius, called delloriolo, of Viterbo.

The lady Margaret, wife of John, son of William, of Viterbo.

James called della Golpe, of Viterbo, rector of the hospital of the Disciplinati and of the charities of Viterbo.

George Trombetta, dwelling at Viterbo.

Master Gentilis of Viterbo.

Veronica, wife of James della Golpe.

John Cifarelle of Viterbo.

Master Angilellus, son of master Angelus, a citizen of Viterbo.

The lady Petrutia, wife of the above-said master Angilellus.

Philippa Jacoba, daughter of master Angilellus.

The lady Bartholomea, daughter of Angelus del Messere, of Viterbo.

Gianna Col. [ ] [ ]issore of Viterbo.

The lady Paulina, daughter of Matthew Lucas, of Viterbo.

The lady Ludovica, daughter of Michael Palotius, of Viterbo.

Antonia, wife of Franciosus.

Catherine, wife of Pelofactus, of Viterbo.

Gianna, of the third Order of St. Dominic.

The lady Leonarda Boccacerase.

The lady Laurentia Boccacerase.

The lady Catherine, wife of Peter Jennis, of Viterbo.

John, son of Jutius, of Viterbo.

The lady Paulina, wife of Bartholomew della Bruzza, of the district of St. Matthias of Viterbo.

The lady Tomassa Antonia Marrochi.

John, son of master Anselm, of Viterbo.

Peter Angelus, son of Nicholas, of Viterbo.

The lady Angilella, daughter of Giles Marcus Gualdi.

The lady Joanna, daughter of Giles Marcus Gualdi Transmundus.

Catherine, daughter of James Geminus, of Viterbo.

The lady Sueva, wife of Nicholas de Bussis.

Frances, daughter of Marcus Barberius, of Viterbo.

Frances Angela, wife of Dominic de Jovi.

Joanna, daughter of Peter the Mason, of Viterbo.

Angela, wife of John Forlanus, of Viterbo.

Catherine, daughter of James Ceccus Bianchi.

Margaret, daughter of Cecchinus, of Viterbo.

Friar James Maltempi, of the Order of Servants, of Viterbo.

Friar James, son of Philip, of the Order of Servants, of Viterbo.

James, son of Stephen Angelus.

Anthony, son of Jutius, butcher, of Viterbo.

Master Anthony the pack-saddle maker, of Viterbo.

Constantia Mascini, of the district of St. Marcus of Viterbo.

The lady …, mother of the said Constantia.

Petrutius Butii.

Peter, son of Dominic, of Viterbo.

Angela, wife of Nardus Palotius, of Viterbo.

The lady Tomassa, mother of Angela, wife of Nardus.

Philomena, daughter of Benedicta, wife of Justus, of Viterbo.

The lady Benedicta, wife of Justus, mother of the said Philomena.

Palotia Riccii, of the district of St. Leonard of Viterbo.

John, son of Jutius Fanciulli, of Viterbo.

Peter, son of Dominic Sciarguatelli.

Thomas Capati of Viterbo.

Adornina, daughter of Peter, of Corsica, dwelling at Viterbo.

Friar Andrew the Slav, of the Order of Minors.

The lord Christopher de Malvicis * of Viterbo, doctor of laws and Count palatine.

Ser James, son of Tutius, of Viterbo.

Friar Dominic of Gallese, of the Order of Minors.

Friar Anthony of Sezze.

Friar Bernardine of Viterbo, of the Order of Servants.

Andrew Capati of Viterbo.

John, son of Andrew, of Viterbo.

Friar Ludovic of Gallese, of the Order of Minors.

Friar Simon of Viterbo.

Friar Gabriel, of the third Rule of St. Francis.

The lady Margaret, wife of Nicholas Nannis, of Viterbo.

Nicholas Nannis of Viterbo.

The lady Lucretia, daughter of Nicholas Nannis, of Viterbo.

The lady Egidia, wife of Tutius della Teja, of Viterbo.

Tutius, son of Angelus della Teja, of Viterbo.

The lady Petrutia, wife of Anthony of the castle of Valentano.

Nardus Paulotii of Viterbo.

Angela, daughter of Benedict Zellus, of Viterbo, and her mother.

Margaret, daughter of Anthony Bonanni, of Bagnaia.

Catherine, wife of Paul Vannellus, of Viterbo.

The lady Andreotia, wife of Ser John, son of Ser Thomas, of Viterbo.

Ser John, son of Thomas, son of master Jerome, … of Viterbo.

The lady Angela, daughter of the said Ser John.

Antonia, wife of Peter Angelus, of Viterbo.

Frances, wife of John Spolglia, of Viterbo.

Jerome, a woman of the castle of Chia.

Gianna of Monteleone, dwelling at Viterbo.

The lady Simonetta, daughter of Jutius, of Viterbo.

The lady Galiana, daughter of Peter of Orvieto.

The lady Antonia, wife of Dominic Farus, of Viterbo.

The lady Angela, wife of Dominic Nardus, of Viterbo.

The lady Ludovica, wife of Tutius Lorenzetti, of Viterbo.

The lady Petrutia, daughter of Bartholomew, son of Anthony, of Viterbo.

Charles Grugnus of Viterbo.

Peter, son of Angelus Tria, of Viterbo.

The lady Paulina, wife of master Angelus the saddler, of Viterbo.

Master Angelus the saddler, of Perugia, dwelling at Viterbo.

The lady Frances, wife of Benedict Zellus, of Viterbo.

The lady Frances, daughter of Nardus Maltempi.

Christopher, otherwise Boccafrolla, of Viterbo, husband of the above-said lady Frances.

Vitorbese of Viterbo.

Antonia Franciosi of Viterbo.

Bartholomea, daughter of Baptist Nerius, … of Viterbo.

Angelus, son of Pasquina, wife of the mason, of Viterbo.

The lady Angela, wife of the mason, mother of the said Angelus.

The lady Joanna Col. [ ] de Capranica, dwelling at Viterbo.

The lady Perna Col. [ ] de Capranica, dwelling at Viterbo.

The lady Catherine, daughter of Augustine Longus, of Viterbo.

The lady Narda, daughter of Nicholas Thomas.

The lady Catherine, daughter of Baptist, of Viterbo.

The lady Antonia della Caldussa of Viterbo.

The lady Joanna, daughter of Francis, of Viterbo.

The lady Antonia, wife of George Trombetta, of Viterbo.

The lady Laurentia Gemini of Viterbo.

The lady Titia, daughter of James of Foligno, of the third Order of St. Francis.

The lady Julia, likewise of the third Order.

The lady Constantia of Todi.

The lady Angela, wife of Peter of Capranica.

The lady Rita of Scansano, dwelling at Viterbo.

The lady Cecilia, wife of the lord Augustine, of Viterbo.

The lady Laura of the third Order of St. Francis, staying in the city of Viterbo.

The lady Gregoria Simi of Viterbo.

The lady Catherine, daughter of Philip Bartholomew.

The lady Angela, daughter of Thomas, mother of the said Catherine.

John Piccininus of Florence, dwelling at Viterbo.

The lady Mary, wife of John Piccininus, dwelling at Viterbo.

The lady Jacoba, wife of Geminus della Torre, of Viterbo.

Anthony, son of Geminus della Torre, of Viterbo.

Francis, son of Geminus, of Viterbo.

Baptist, son of Geminus, of Viterbo.

Giles … of Viterbo.

James, son of Stephen Vitus, of Viterbo.

Anthony Vitis of Viterbo.

The lady Angilella, wife of the above-said Giles, of Viterbo.

Dominic, son of Augustine the smith, of Viterbo.

Antonia, wife of Augustine the smith, of Viterbo.

The lady Donata, daughter of Nicholas Ciaccia, wife of Nicholas Vicarius, of Viterbo.

Luke Caprinus of Viterbo.

The priest Nardus, Rector of the Holy Cross of Viterbo.

John, son of Nicholas Ciaccie, of Viterbo.

Mariottus, son of Nicholas Ciaccie, … of Viterbo.

The lady Nicola, wife of Silvester Bocca in fure, of Viterbo.

Mariottus, son of Silvester Boccafusa, of Viterbo.

The lady Antonia, wife of Augustine of Arezzo, dwelling at Viterbo.

Augustine, son of Baptist, of Arezzo, dwelling at Viterbo.

The lady Catherine, mother of the said Antonia, wife of Augustine, of Viterbo.

The lady Ludovica, wife of Angelus Longus.

Angelus Longus of Viterbo.

The lady Jacoba Nannis of Viterbo.

The lady Antonia, wife of Sanctes the cobbler, of Viterbo.

Angelina Magnardi of Viterbo.

The lady Petrutia, wife of Nicholas Magdalenus, of Viterbo.

Bartholomew the Lombard, dwelling at Viterbo.

The lady, daughter of Ser Valentinus, wife of Ser Scolarius, of Viterbo.

The lady Petrutia, daughter of Ser Valentinus, wife of Ser Fredus, of Viterbo.

Gemina, daughter of Dominic, of Monteleone, dwelling at Viterbo.

The lady Petrutia, wife of Anthony Nannis, of Acquapendente.

Catherine, daughter of Anthony, of Viterbo.

The lady Angilella Maccaroni of Ronciglione.

The lady Menica, daughter of Matthew Transmundus, of Viterbo.

Anthony, son of Dominic, otherwise Cortopasso, of Viterbo.

The lady Frances, daughter of Herculanus, of Viterbo.

John, son of Herculanus, of Viterbo.

The lady Laurentia, daughter of John de Vacodura, of Viterbo.

The lady Margaret, wife of John Viltris, of Viterbo.

The lady Lucia, mother of the said lady Margaret.

The lady Matthea, daughter of John of Siena, dwelling at Viterbo.

The lady Bartholomea … of Viterbo.

John, son of Menicus del Pelofatto, of Viterbo.

The lady Catherine, wife of John, son of Menicus del Pelofatto, of Viterbo.

Antonia, wife of Peter of Acquapendente.

The lady Antonia Capati of Viterbo.

Matthew Lucas, of the district of St. Matthias of Viterbo.

The lady …, wife of the said Matthew, of Viterbo.

The lady Felix, daughter of Lazarus, of Pisa, dwelling at Viterbo.

Peter, son of Jennis, son of Dominic Tondus, of Viterbo.

Angilella, mother of the above-said Peter Jennis, of Viterbo.

Simon, son of Baptist, locksmith, of Viterbo.

Bartholomew, son of Francis the Coppersmith, of Viterbo.

The lady Vannotia, mother of the above-said Bartholomew, of Viterbo.

The lady Palotia, wife of Ciccus, of Viterbo.

Joanna, daughter of Palotia.

The lady Catherine, daughter of Baptist, of Arezzo, dwelling at Viterbo.

The lady Frances Bacchini of Viterbo.

Friar Mariottus of Viterbo.

The lady Lucia, sister of the above-said friar Mariottus, of Viterbo.

Tutius, son of Angelus della Teia, of Viterbo.

Francis, son of Mariottus Nardus, of Viterbo.

The lady …, mother of the above-said Francis, of Viterbo.

Cecilia, daughter of Butius, of Viterbo.

Paul … Feiscerna, of the district of St. Faustinus of Viterbo.

The lady …, mother of the above-said Paul.

Menica of Amelia, dwelling at Viterbo.

Peregrina, daughter of the above-said Menica.

Erasmus, son of Bernard, of Viterbo.

Petrutia Fustini of Viterbo.

Angela, daughter of Menicus, and Menica her sister, of Viterbo.

Philippa Ludovica of Viterbo.

Melchior, son of Ambrose, of Viterbo.

Anthony, son of Peter della Chiesa.

The lady Paulina his wife … of Viterbo.

The lady Joanna, daughter of Angelus Tutius, of Viterbo.

The lady Joanna, wife of Anthony Alexius, of Viterbo.

The lady Bartholomea Pastorati of Viterbo.

The lady Petrutia Cartulere of Viterbo.

The lady Magdalen, wife of master Nicholas of Montefiascone.

The lady Angela, mother of the above-said lady Magdalen.

The lady Jacoba her sister, of Viterbo.

The lady Catherine, wife of George.

The lady Cecca, daughter of Vannus, of Viterbo.

The lady Jacoba, wife of Cagnorus, of Viterbo.

The lady Peregrina Sanctori of Viterbo.

Anthony, otherwise Cento mezzo, of Viterbo.

The lady Jacoba, wife of Angilellus Gidolfus, of Fabrica, dwelling at Viterbo.

Angilellus Gidolfus of Fabrica, dwelling at Viterbo.

Rubeus Bonus of Viterbo.

The lady Victoria, wife of Jannis Butius, of Viterbo.

The lady Laura, wife of Peter Paul Egidius, of Viterbo.

The lady Catherine, daughter of Luke, … of Viterbo.

John, son of Peter Scolarius, of Viterbo.

The venerable woman the lady Margaret Petrutii of Viterbo, at present the well-deserving abbess of the monastery of Bl. Rose.

The lady Frances Benedicti, a nun, … of Viterbo.

The lady Magdalen, daughter of John, of Viterbo, a nun.

The lady Angela Petrutii of Viterbo, a nun of the said monastery.

The lady Margaret Stefani of Viterbo, a nun.

The lady Ludovica Lentii of Viterbo, a nun.

The lady Joanna, daughter of Angelus, of Viterbo, a nun.

Sister Jerome, daughter of Anthony, of Città Castellana, a nun.

Sister Laura, daughter of the late Laurence de Monte Alto, a nun of the said monastery.

Sister Philippa Jacoba of Sutri, a nun of the said monastery.

that is, appointed beforehand, from the Italian confinare*, that is, to fix boundaries

* that is, called

read Malvicinis*