Limbania

ON BL. LIMBANIA, VIRGIN AND NUN,

AT GENOA IN ITALY

Long before the year MCCXCIV.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Limbania, virgin and nun at Genoa in Italy (B.)

BY J. L.

§ I. The Life and miracles to be published; the century of her death uncertain; her deeds before her religious state in the monastery of S. Thomas suspect.

[ ] Since Bl. Limbania the virgin, a nursling of the community of S. Thomas at Genoa, which nuns of the Order of S. Benedict first inhabited, [The silence of the old writers and of Grimaldi about the Blessed one: the little work of Vannini published,] and then from the year 1509 sacred virgins professing the rule of the great father S. Augustine, has been renowned for public veneration

and for frequent miracles already from the XIII century, as will be seen below, I had conceived a great hope that I should be able to illustrate her memory from the writers of Genoese affairs older than this and the preceding century. But as I ran through the Works of all of them which are extant printed in our museum, nothing handed down by them to memory about Bl. Limbania occurred to me. But at no one's silence about the Blessed one do I more wonder than at that of Mariano Grimaldi in the Sanctuary of Genoa. That Work comprises not a few Lives of the Saints of this city; in whose preface the author celebrated certain others, whose Acts he lacked, as Heaven-dwellers of his fatherland, no trace of our blessed Virgin being anywhere left; although in the year 1613, in which the said Work was published, she was honored with an ecclesiastical Office, to say nothing of the rest of her cult, by the nuns of S. Thomas. In the same year in which Grimaldi published his Sanctuary, Philip Ferrarius published the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy; in which at the XVI of August Bl. Limbania is adorned with a eulogy, taken from her Lessons lately approved at Rome in the year of the Lord MDCIX, about which the discourse will return below. About the same time there came to light from the Genoese press a little book about the Blessed one's cult, life and miracles, composed at Rome in the Italian tongue by Artemio Vannini of Siena, priest of S. Jerome of Charity. And these two, namely Ferrarius and Vannini, were the first among the authors known to me by Works published in print who mentioned the Blessed one.

[2] There is also another author, of a name unknown to me, who committed to writing the things done by Bl. Limbania in her life and after her death, and some notices about her cult. [and another older manuscript about her cult, life and miracles, whose author, however, being anonymous,] This unpublished little work was given to our museum by lord Giovanni Bernardo Veneroso, author of the Ligurian Genius Revived printed in the year 1650; as our Papebroch noted both on the front of the little work itself and in the manuscript Journal in which he recorded his own and his companion Henschen's Roman journey. We had gone, he says at the XIII of March of the year 1662, in which both, returning into Belgium, were staying at Genoa, to the most illustrious lord Veneroso, governor for the republic of the town of Chiavari to the West, who .. besides the Work composed by him, which he entitled the Ligurian Revived, brought to us on the next day a manuscript Life of S. Limbania with very many miracles. These things added to the Life are completed in 44 little chapters. After chapter 34, that is the miracle which will be reported below among us at number 21, there follows an Appendix of other graces rendered by Bl. Limbania to various persons, of whom some are still living in the present monastery of S. Thomas. The ten last little chapters constitute this Appendix, containing benefits, the greatest part of which is later than the year 1509, in which the community of S. Thomas was transferred from the Benedictine nuns to the Augustinian. The same I suspect about the remaining benefits occurring in the same Appendix, in the relating of which nothing is expressed whence the time at which they happened can be gathered.

[3] Since the Life and the earlier miracles, and the rest which the Appendix comprises, [wrote not before the end of the XVI century: our Predecessors sought other documents in vain] are related in an unbroken series of little chapters, and the Italian speech in which they were written is everywhere most like itself as to style, I attribute all to one and the same author: from whom neither does he seem to me different who collected the notices added about the Blessed one's cult, torn from the same codex as those, and written in the same character. In these no mention is made of the Office of Bl. Limbania approved by Paul V, Pope, in the year 1609, of which Vannini treats in the proem of his little book: whence it is drawn that our anonymous writer is older than Vannini. Yet he could not have written earlier than at the close of the XVI century; since he reports benefits then divinely conferred through the Blessed one. Papebroch in the said Journal writes that he with his companion approached the nuns of S. Thomas on the XVI of March of the year 1662, expecting that they would produce monuments about the blessed Virgin older than the anonymous manuscript little work which he had received a few days before from lord Veneroso. On the same day (the XVI of March), he says, we treated with the nuns of S. Thomas of the Order of S. Augustine, among whom S. Limbania is venerated, for obtaining older writings about her: but they denied that anything could be had besides those things which had been carried to Rome with a view to obtaining her canonization; that the Benedictine nuns, who had been there before, when they gave up the place, had either obscured or scattered all the writings. Meanwhile several were relating graces obtained by the merits of this Saint, especially the deliverance of the monastery from the pestilence with which the whole city, and that part especially, had lately been infected.

[4] [both authors, if thou regard the substance, narrate the same things from the nuns of S. Thomas: the more recent miracles] By the canonization of which the nuns spoke to our Predecessors, I understand the approval of the Office of Bl. Limbania to be recited, which Vannini expressly testifies was sought from the Apostolic See and also obtained in the year 1609. The words will be given below at number 20. But the writings which the nuns said had been carried to Rome for obtaining that approval are doubtless those very ones about which Vannini in his dedicatory epistle, given at Rome on the XXXI day of January in the year 1612 to Giovanna Girolama Vivaldi, prioress, as they call her, and to the Genoese nuns of S. Thomas, writes thus: At the prayers of the most illustrious count Carlo Gabrielli of Gubbio, a noble Roman citizen, from the old and authentic writings which had been transmitted by you, I have gathered the life and miracles of blessed Limbania, etc. Vannini brings forward in his little book nothing gathered from these which, if thou regard the substance, our anonymous writer had not brought forward before him: from whom I should believe he drew everything, did he not call the writings which he used old and authentic. Yet those could not have been old from which he transcribed miracles wrought in the XVI century; among which some are said to have happened in the year 1595 and in the years immediately preceding. Either I am greatly mistaken, or he took those from the said Appendix of our anonymous writer; which, rendered into Latin, will make up chapter 2 of the miracles of Bl. Limbania to be published after the Life. Chapter 1 will comprise the older miracles. These Vannini received doubtless from the same monuments as the anonymous writer. Of what sort these are, thou wilt understand from what is presently to be said.

[5] [as also the older ones, nearly all of which were approved in the year 1344, to be published from the anonymous writer,] The anonymous writer, having related the miracles which happened in the year 1344 and before, thus continues: All the miracles hitherto narrated were examined and corrected by lord Frederick di Molognio, canon and vicar of the archbishop, at the instance of Giovanni Casasco the presbyter, who was then syndic of the said monastery of S. Thomas; and a public instrument about them was drawn up in the year MCCCXLIV, on the XIX day of November, by the hand of Antonio Piloso of Santa Vittoria, public notary. To the same miracles, arranged in another order, Vannini subjoins at the end of chapter 39: Thus far the miracles, examined and approved by the archbishop's vicar in the year MCCCXLIV, as was said at the beginning; namely in the proem, page 3, where I read this: Thence it came about that, since the piety of the faithful toward the blessed Virgin was increasing day by day, and many miracles were being divinely wrought through her, a juridical inquiry about these was instituted in the year MCCCXLIV and a public process drawn up by Frederick di Molongo, at that time canon and vicar of the archbishop of Genoa, at the instance of Giovanni di Casasco, who was syndic of the aforesaid monastery. To the miracles discussed, approved and committed to writing by a public notary in the year 1344, our anonymous writer and Vannini subjoin another, which he to whom it had happened is narrated to have affirmed before a notary and witnesses in the year 1359. This miracle was probably added by a more recent hand to the instrument which was drawn up about the earlier ones in the year 1344. Thou hast, studious reader, the very source from which flowed the older miracles of Bl. Limbania which are read in the Italian little works of both writers, and which will be given after the Life in chapter 1, turned into the Latin tongue from the briefer account of the older anonymous writer.

[6] The Life of Bl. Limbania, prefixed to the miracles, the anonymous writer, [who with Vannini used a Life not sufficiently ancient: in what century the Blessed one flourished is unknown.] and Vannini, who is younger than he, received likewise from the same source; which I easily perceived from the narrative of each compared with the other. But in what century the Life which they had in hand was first written, is hidden from me. If thou believest Vannini, it had a most ancient author: for in the proem, page 5, he makes mention of a most ancient codex containing the Blessed one's life, which he indicates that he used. But above at number 4 he says that he gathered the life and miracles of blessed Limbania from old and authentic writings. Attribute to the biographer what antiquity thou pleasest, provided thou confess that he wrote so long a time after the Blessed one's death that he can be called an author neither contemporary nor nearly so. And indeed that he was rather remote from the Blessed one's date is drawn even from this, that in his whole conventional narrative in the anonymous writer nothing is adduced whence even the century in which she lived can be hammered out. Hence Vannini in the proem, page 6, blames the wars and tumults of the Genoese, because in them there perished of old the documents from which a fuller knowledge of the things done by Bl. Limbania could have been acquired: then he asks that he be pardoned if in the Life which he gives the times and other circumstances which one might deservedly desire are not expressed. Yet Vannini added some things which I do not find in the anonymous writer, as will presently be seen.

[7] Since it is certain, as will appear from what is to be said afterward, that the head of Bl. Limbania, [She died long before the year 1294: Vannini's conjecture about the time of her birth less probable.] separated from the remaining members, was publicly honored in the church of the nuns of S. Thomas in the year 1294, it must be admitted that a translation, or at least some recognition, of the body dissolved into bones and ashes preceded, in which the sacred head was separated from the other bones, and consequently that the Blessed one died long before the year MCCXCIV, as I have noted here and above at number 1 in the margin. But how long a time before the said year her death happened I cannot define; since I do not even know the century in which Bl. Limbania led the religious life in the monastery of S. Thomas, whose antiquity is also unknown to me. Vannini in chapter 1 of the Life says that he gathered from monuments, I know not which, that the Blessed one came forth into the light about the year 1200. But assent must not be given to a modern writer assigning that time from conjecture, which he himself afterward makes less probable, when in chapter 17 he writes that Bl. Limbania, full of merits and heavy with years, was called to the heavenly rewards on the XV of August: for if before the year 1294, in which her head, separated from the other members in a preceding translation or recognition of the body, to public veneration

is established to have been exposed after the custom, she died in a good old age; who would not thence infer that she was more probably born before about the year 1200? For the rest, the anonymous writer does not mention even by a word the time of the Blessed one's birth, her advanced age, or her day of death. [The things which are handed down about Bl. Limbania, before her religious state in the community of S. Thomas]

[8] Exceedingly wonderful are the things which the anonymous writer and Vannini hand down about Bl. Limbania before she had professed the institute of monastic life in the community of S. Thomas. That the reader may himself be able to judge whether, and with what credit, they are worthy, it has seemed good to bring forward here the chief heads of the matter gathered from both writers, together with those circumstances which deserve to be weighed particularly. Bl. Limbania, born of noble and wealthy parents in the island of Cyprus, consecrated her virginity to God in her childhood years. When she was twelve years old, her parents thought of settling her in marriage with a noble and rich youth. When she learned this, God being consulted through prayer, she determined, without her parents' knowledge, to commit herself to the sea and to flee from the island into foreign lands, that she might serve her heavenly Spouse more freely and ardently, being far removed from every peril of violating the faith given him. The Blessed one discloses her mind to her pious and faithful nurse. She reports what has been communicated to her to her husband. Both, God directing their minds, not only approve the Girl's unusual counsel at so tender an age, but also determine that they will accompany her in her flight. Then they betake themselves to the harbor; where they find a ship-master shortly to sail back to Genoa: to whom the nurse makes plain the reasons why the twelve-year-old girl Limbania wishes to desert her fatherland and parents, and asks that she, together with her and her husband, be admitted into the ship and conveyed to Genoa. God so disposed the ship-master's will that, without any hesitation, he promised he would do it; nay, that he showed them a place in a neighboring wood in which they might safely lie hidden until they should be called by him to go aboard the ship. These things being understood from the nurse, Bl. Limbania secretly goes out from her father's house, and with her and her husband hides herself in the wood; where she awaits the ship-master's coming. But he, being intent on his own business, forgets the promise he had made, and, the ship being loosed, makes sail for Genoa, the blessed Virgin with her companions being left in the wood. And when he had pursued his voyage all day, toward evening the ship in mid-course, with the sails stretched by a favorable wind, suddenly stands motionless.

[9] before she had yet embraced it, are more wonderful While the sailors, astounded, were investigating the cause of so great a prodigy, the ship-master, being made mindful of the promise he had not kept, determined to return to the harbor: to which when he had come with wonderful swiftness, although the wind was against him, he leaps down to land, goes to the place known to him in the wood where Bl. Limbania was staying with her companions: at whose feet he beholds with wonder various wild beasts of the forest prostrate, which were licking the borders of her garments. He recognizes from so great a miracle the Virgin's sanctity, reveres her, and gladly leads her with her companions to the ship; which within a few days is carried by a most happy course to Genoa. But in the very harbor of the city, when the sailors had already lowered the sails, and wished to make it fast with an anchor in the accustomed place, it is suddenly snatched away by a rush, and is dashed upon the rocks near the monastery of S. Thomas. For fear of shipwreck cries are uttered; of which the blessed Virgin, about to inquire the cause, rising from prayer climbs up on the ship: who, when she had heard that it was sticking on the rocks of the monastery of S. Thomas, openly declares that she has landed at the place divinely destined for her, in which she should pass the remaining time of her life; and, the sailors being bidden to be of good courage, she goes down with her companions and the ship-master onto the rocks. Which being done, the ship sticking on them is forthwith driven off by divine force and is carried safe to its accustomed station. Meanwhile the ship-master runs ahead to the community of S. Thomas, to relate what he had seen and heard to the abbess and the nuns, in whose minds he kindles a huge desire of seeing Limbania. Then he returns to the Virgin, whom with her companions he leads to the abbess: at whose feet she, falling down, discloses that she had vowed her virginity to God, and that for the sake of keeping it she had, leaving her fatherland and parents, fled to Genoa, and earnestly asks for the monastic habit; to which she is straightway admitted: for the abbess and the nuns knew that her secret flight had been approved by God from the prodigies learned from the ship-master, and from the recent miracle which had happened in the harbor of Genoa they had learned that it was the divine will that they should receive her into their monastery.

[10] The things which, contracted into a synopsis from the anonymous writer and Vannini, I have transferred hither [and less credible than the rest: the Life to be given from the Office approved by Paul V, Pope.] are so wonderful that they ought not to be believed without weighty authority. I could wish that I were able to procure so great authority for the biographer whom the said writers followed, that it might be permitted to no one to suspect that the name of Bl. Limbania furnished the occasion for inventing forest animals licking the borders (limbos) of her garments, and that nearly all the rest too is invented. The things which pertain to the Blessed one's religious life in the monastery of S. Thomas are much more probable, whether thou consider the substance or the circumstances or the manner in which they are narrated by the anonymous writer and Vannini. Among these there are two which I believe with a firmer credit than the rest; because I have learned that they are more certain from documents distinct from the Life, which will afterward be adduced in fitting places. The first is that the blessed Nun obtained that, being enclosed in a cave which was beneath the pavement of the church, she should pass the remainder of her life in meditations on heavenly things and in other exercises of pious works: the other is that she raged against her own flesh with an iron comb, with which flax is carded, that she might perfectly subject it to the spirit. The Italian Life of the blessed Virgin from the anonymous writer or from Vannini I shall not translate into Latin; for its marrow is contained in the Office, approved by Paul V, Pope, on the VI day of March in the year 1609, in the lengthy proper Lessons of the second Nocturn; which accordingly it will suffice to have published, with the likewise proper Responsories, after this Commentary. Whether Bl. Limbania was a nun of the Order of S. Benedict, or rather of the Hermits of S. Augustine, a fitting occasion of speaking will return in §3.

§ II. Arguments of the cult shown to the Blessed one from the XIII century to the XVI.

[ ] [On the occasion of a miracle wrought in the year 1294 the cult of Bl. Limbania was greatly increased:] In the year 1294 on the Tuesday of Pentecost, that is the VIII of June (for on this day it fell), God confirmed by a notable prodigy the sanctity of Bl. Limbania and the public honors which were already then rendered to her. Take her history in summary. In the said year and on the said day Oberto de Noli, a priest, doubting of the Blessed one's sanctity and lawful cult, took into his hands with scant reverence her head, exposed in the church of the nuns of S. Thomas, that he might offer it after the custom to the faithful to be kissed. And when he had already advanced to the middle of the church, the sacred head, all the people looking on and being astounded, flew away from his hands to the greater altar from which it had been taken; and there it stopped. The prodigy the anonymous author narrates more fully below among us in chapter 1, number 5, and Vannini in chapter 23; who subjoins the following in Italian about the Blessed one's cult increased on that occasion: The miracle was presently so spread abroad through the city, and so great a concourse was made, that within a very short space of time the church was filled with every kind of men, who, joyfully acclaiming and applauding the Virgin, thereafter held that day (the Tuesday of Pentecost) in such veneration that, in perpetual memory of the said miracle (affirmed on oath interposed in the archiepiscopal court by Sister Franceschetta Imperiale, then prioress of the community of S. Thomas, who together with the nuns had been present at it), a most solemn supplication was decreed, to be celebrated every year on that same day, as even today it is celebrated. Similar things our anonymous writer has at the place indicated; but in him there is not read what Vannini adds to what precedes. And under the Blessed one's name there was established a numerous confraternity of men and women, who, besides that they attend the said supplication, perform many other exercises of piety; and from our most holy Lord Paul V, Pope, in the first year of his Pontificate, they obtained the greater indulgences, such as are wont to be granted to confraternities of this kind by the Apostolic See, to be gained perpetually on the Tuesday of Pentecost and on other festal days through the year.

[12] [an altar formerly erected to her and her head separated from the body, that it might be publicly honored apart:] As from the notable miracle which I mentioned in the preceding number the Blessed one's cult, so also the confidence of the faithful in her patronage greatly increased. How many afterward experienced it in their necessities, the miracles and benefits testify which were approved in the year 1344, as was said at number 5, by the authority of the archbishop of Genoa. In the relation of them, to be published from the anonymous writer after the Life in chapter 1, the reader will find that Bl. Limbania before the year 1344 had an altar consecrated to her in the church of the nuns of S. Thomas, and that her body rested there in a marble chest: and this Vannini in chapter 22 says was formerly placed beneath the church of S. Thomas at the right hand of the greater altar, in that very place where the cave was which was her (the blessed Virgin's) dwelling. To these he adds that above the Blessed one's marble tomb an altar was afterward erected: but is he not mistaken when he refers its building to times before the year 1294? The same Vannini writes that Bl. Limbania's body, when it received its first burial, was laid in the said marble chest and cave: but neither is this so far certain, as will appear from the annotations which will be given after chapter 1 under the letters c and d. But whether it was first buried outside or within the said chest and cave, it is not to be doubted that it rested in both before the year 1344: for this can easily be established from the older miracles. Nor can it be called into doubt that the miracle which God wrought in the year 1294 through the Blessed one's head separated from the other members was preceded by a translation of the body or some recognition of it, in which the separation of the head from the rest of the body was made. According to the opinion of the cited Vannini, the event of that miracle was preceded only by a recognition of the body; but he asserts that the sacred head, after it had been separated from the other bones in it, was covered with a beautiful silver ornament, and was kept apart in the community of S. Thomas with the superior of the nuns down to his own times, that it might be exposed in the church above the greater altar on festal days.

[13] [the pit in which the Blessed one lived turned into a chapel; was another erected to her in Portugal?] The anonymous writer subjoins these things to the miracle which among us in chapter 1, number 21, he narrates to have happened after the middle of the XIV century in the kingdom of Portugal: But lord Lanzalotto (or rather, as Vannini writes, Lancellotto) Pesagno, prefect of the royal fleet, took care that a chapel be built to the name of Bl. Limbania. But where? In Portugal?

Or at Genoa in the monastery of S. Thomas? That a chapel dedicated to the blessed Virgin existed here in the year 1522 the anonymous writer testifies in the benefit which will occur below in chapter 2, number 23. But in his Notices about the Blessed one's cult he does not distinguish that chapel, beneath whose altar he says her body rests in a marble sepulcher, from the pit or cave in which the Blessed one, removed from the intercourse of men, lived most holily for God alone. But since an altar had been erected to Bl. Limbania in that cave before the year 1344, as is clear from what was said at number 12, it is not permitted to doubt that that same cave was turned into a chapel before that year. Hence my suspicion increases that somewhere in Portugal a chapel was erected to the Blessed one by the named prefect of the royal fleet after the middle of the XIV century. If, however, he took care that a chapel be built to the name of Bl. Limbania nowhere else than at Genoa in the monastery of S. Thomas, I so understand these words, that by his care and at his expense the Blessed one's ancient chapel, or the said pit, was renewed and adorned, which before had been changed into a chapel and consecrated to her cult. I here add an epigram, rendered into Latin from the rhythmic Italian speech, which Vannini prefixes to the proem of his little book under this title, Above the pit, burial-place and altar of the said Blessed one. This very pit, in which the bones of Bl. Limbania are now kept, was to her while living the place of her dwelling. It can be said: Here she led her life as though buried, here with the sharp points of an iron comb she pierced her flesh, here with bitter tears, vigils and fastings she afflicted her body; where now an altar is raised in her honor: whence it is deservedly inscribed: Here she lived, here she died, here being dead she lives.

[14] On the XVII day of May in the year 1472, to all the faithful of Christ Indulgences of a hundred days, who should visit the altar of Bl. Limbania in the church of S. Thomas and should offer there some pious gift for the repair and preservation of the sacred building and its ornaments, eight Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church granted indulgences of a hundred days, to be gained at those times which are indicated in their letters, given at Rome on the said day and year. An authentic transcript of them our anonymous writer transcribed into his little book about the Blessed one's cult, Life and miracles, under this title: A copy of the Bull drawn word for word from the original itself; from which I carry it over into this Commentary. William of Ostia, Philip bishop of Porto; James of the title of saint Chrysogonus [], Oliver of the title of saint Eusebius, presbyters; Francis of saint Eustace, Francis of saint Mary the New, Baptist of saint Mary in Portico, and John of saint Lucy, deacons, Cardinals of the most holy Roman Church, to each and all the faithful of Christ who shall inspect these present letters, and shall alike see and hear them, everlasting salvation in the Lord. Every age slips easily into sinning, and imitating vice from the traces of first nature; because it would be not of men, but rather divine, if a man formed from corrupt matter should not sin. Further, that they may be able to rise again from the sins into which they have lapsed, many works of piety are set before them; and among these to visit the churches of the Saints with reverence is believed to be the more health-bringing, the more acceptable the same is reckoned to be to the worshipers of Christ. The beginning of the letters is disfigured in the anonymous writer with many faults. The plain and slight ones I have corrected, leaving the rest, which greatly deform the discourse. If for imitantes, humanarum, possit elapsis, and in eaque thou shouldst read imitatur, humanum, possint lapsi, and inter quæ*, the arrangement of the parts of speech will be regular, and perhaps also conformable to the autograph copy of the letters; which entire I go on to transfer hither from the anonymous writer.

[15] which in the year 1472 Since therefore, as we have received, our beloved religious Sister in Christ Juliana Grilla, abbess of the monastery of Saint Thomas of Genoa, bears a special devotion and affection toward the altar of saint Limbania, situated in the said church; she has humbly supplicated us that, for her devotion, and also for increasing the spiritual gifts of the other faithful of Christ, we would for the rest vouchsafe to bestow a treasure of indulgences upon the said altar. We therefore, being inclined to supplications of this kind, we [] being also favorably assenting, and desiring that the aforesaid altar be frequented with fitting honors, and that the faithful of Christ themselves flow together to it for devotion's sake the more willingly, the more abundantly they shall know themselves to be refreshed thereby with the gift of heavenly grace; trusting in the mercy of almighty God and in the authority of his [] blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, to each and all the faithful of Christ of both sexes truly penitent and confessed, who shall devoutly visit the said altar yearly on the festivals and solemnities of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, on the Tuesday after Pentecost, of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, of saint Thomas the Apostle, and of the dedication of that same altar, and shall stretch forth helping hands in alms toward the repair and preservation of the buildings, chalices, books, lights, and other ornaments necessary there for divine worship; we the aforesaid Cardinals and each of us, for each of the days of the said festivals, mercifully relax in the Lord a hundred days of indulgences from the penances enjoined upon them, and each of us relaxes them, these presents being to endure in their force for perpetual times to come.

[16] [eight Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church gave to be gained on certain feast-days,] In faith and testimony of all and each of the premises we have ordered and caused these our present letters to be made, and to be fortified by the appending of our Cardinalitial seals. Given at Rome in our houses in the year of the Lord one thousand four hundred and seventy-two, in the fifth Indiction, but on the seventeenth day of the month of May, in the first year of the Pontificate of the most holy Father in Christ and our Lord, lord Xystus or Sixtus, by divine providence the fourth Pope. There is subjoined: Copy on the back. Then there follows: Of Ostia, of Bologna, of Pavia, of Naples, of Soria (it must be read of Siena, as will presently be seen), of Mantua, of saint Mary in Portico, of saint Lucy, with eight seals appended and fortified. That the reader may clearly know that the eight Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church of whom mention is here made are the same as those who are mentioned at the beginning of the letters, it has seemed good to add the names and surnames of each with the bishoprics and titles which they bore in the year 1472. Guillaume d'Estouteville, archbishop of Rouen, Cardinal bishop of Ostia and Velletri; Filippo Calandrini, bishop of Bologna, Cardinal bishop of Porto; Jacopo Ammanati, called of Pavia from the bishopric of Pavia or Ticinum which he administered, Cardinal presbyter of the title of S. Eusebius; Francesco Piccolomini, archbishop of Siena, Cardinal deacon of the title of S. Eustace; Francesco Gonzaga, bishop of Mantua, Cardinal deacon of the title of S. Mary the New; Battista Zeno, Cardinal deacon of the title of S. Mary in Portico; Giovanni Michiel, Cardinal deacon of the title of S. Lucy. Since in the letters of those Cardinals, given on the XVII of May in the year 1472, the same sacred dignities and titles are read with which I have learned from other sources that they were distinguished at that time, and since the other chronological notes which are expressed in those letters agree with the said day and year, I judge that these are by no means to be reckoned among the supposititious, although the said Cardinals by those same letters bestowed indulgences of a hundred days to be obtained in the Genoese monastery of S. Thomas, not subject to their ordinary jurisdiction: for to this it must be said that they in granting the said indulgences used the jurisdiction of the supreme Pontiff, either specially committed to them, or generally by a custom at least tacitly approved by the Apostolic See.

[17] Among the festivals expressed in the said letters, on which indulgences of 100 days are set forth to be gained by those [among which was the Tuesday after Pentecost and perhaps another day sacred to the Blessed one, they were revoked in the year 1567:] who should visit the altar of Bl. Limbania, etc., there occurs the Tuesday after Pentecost; on what occasion that day began to be sacred to our blessed Virgin was said at number XI. There are also designated the festivals of saint Thomas the Apostle and of the dedication of that same altar. But of whose altar is there treatment here? Of S. Thomas', or rather of Bl. Limbania's? Vannini in the proem, page 3, expressly writes that indulgences were obtained in the year 1472 for the feast of the dedication of the Blessed one's altar. If he is not in error, on what day was the festival of that dedication kept? On the XVI of August? That day certainly Vannini in the same place from page 4 affirms was dedicated to the Blessed one's cult from time immemorial before the year 1609, in which the nuns of S. Thomas obtained from Paul V, Pope, an Office of Bl. Limbania for that same XVI day of August. See below at number 20. S. Pius V, Pope, by a bull given on the VIII of February in the year 1567, abrogated all indulgences for the obtaining of which, as the holy Pontiff speaks, helping hands are to be stretched forth, and which in any manner contain a faculty of collecting money. Hence it is evident that the indulgences granted by the eight Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church in the year 1472 were abolished long ago; because they appointed for the faithful among others this condition: If they shall stretch forth helping hands in alms toward the repair and preservation of the buildings, chalices, books, etc.

[18] The anonymous author transcribed the often-praised letters from an authentic transcript, the letters by which they had been granted, transcribed from an authentic copy. as I said above at number 14; for the following attestations, which are subjoined to them, prove it. ✠ MDXCVI, on the XV day of July, the above-written copy was drawn from another [] written on parchment, presented to me by the Reverend lord Matteo Astio of Genoa, doctor of theology and curate of the church of saint Thomas, and existing under the keeping of the Reverend lady abbess (nay rather prioress, for in the year 1596 the community of S. Thomas had ceased to be an abbey, as will be said at the end of the Commentary) and of the nuns of the said church and monastery of saint Thomas. Let it be lawful, etc., saving, etc. Giovanni Antonio Roccataliata, public notary and chancellor of the archiepiscopal court of Genoa.*

Florestano Pepe, doctor of both laws, vicar general of the archbishop of Genoa, to each and all we make faith and attest that the above-written master Giovanni Antonio Roccataliata, who on the above-written year and day drew it out, and with his own [] hand subscribed the above-written writing, of which above, at the above-written time and before, after, and at present was and is a public, authentic and faithful notary of the college and roll of the master notaries of Genoa, and that to his instruments and writings full faith has been and is given in court and out of it; and also [] chancellor of our aforesaid archiepiscopal court of Genoa. In faith whereof, etc. Given at Genoa in the archiepiscopal palace, MDXCVI, on the XV day of July. Place of the Seal. Orazio Fazio, notary and chancellor of the archiepiscopal court of Genoa.

* Chrysogonus

perhaps we are*

this word is superfluous, or must be placed after Apostles*

add copy*

* and his own

add to be*

§ III. Other indications of veneration down to the year MDCIX, in which she began to be honored by the nuns of S. Thomas with a proper Office: to

the diocese of Genoa and the Order of the Hermits of S. Augustine the Blessed one's cult was extended; who nevertheless must be adjudged to the Benedictine Order.

The bell consecrated to Bl. Limbania; her chapel restored; Vannini in the proem, page 4, writes that a bell which had been found near the monastery of S. Thomas on the seashore was recast and consecrated to Bl. Limbania, with whose image and name it had come forth from the casting. To these he adds that it is wont to be rung when the sea is more than usually stormy, or a ship in danger of sinking is seen from the harbor, and that sailors in peril have often been snatched from shipwreck at its sound. The anonymous author in his Notices about the Blessed one's cult brings forward three inscriptions expressed on that bell; of which the first is this: MCCLVIII. Restored in the time of Sister Biona in the year MDCLXII, on the XX day of February; the second: Hail Mary, S. Limbania; the third: This work Vincenzo Somaripa of S. Paul remade. In the year MCCLVIII, with which the first inscription begins, I suspect that that bell was first cast. The said anonymous writer, who wrote toward the end of the XVI century or the beginning of the following, says that he restored to a better state the chapel or cave of Bl. Limbania, venerable for her body and altar, in which, living, she once hid herself, that she might give herself to divine things alone. First he mentions the floor laid with a new pavement, then the vault adorned with the blue color of lapis lazuli and with golden stars shining between, and a Cherub in each of its corners, but in the middle the Holy Spirit set under the form of a dove lit up with rays; besides, garlands [*] of flowers adorning each side of the chapel, and, hanging from these by a neat tie, the iron comb with which the blessed Virgin tore her flesh; finally, to say nothing of the rest of the ornament, a marble bearing the figure of an egg placed on the front of the chapel or sacred cave, on which these verses are read carved:

If this was Limbania's pit, where the chaste limbs Of the Virgin long bore austere labors; Since now her bones are laid in a marble sepulcher, She has Christ forever above the high stars.

[20] Now take again the words of the cited Vannini, which from the Italian I have turned into Latin: Since the reverend Mothers of the monastery of S. Thomas kept the festival of blessed Limbania in their church, where her sacred deposit is religiously preserved, A proper Office granted by Paul V, Pope, to the nuns of S. Thomas by an ancient and immemorial custom every year on the XVI day of August; in order that thereafter with greater solemnity, with a proper Office and by the authority of the Apostolic See, they might be able to continue the celebration of that feast-day, they had recourse by a petition to our most holy Lord Paul V, Pope: by whose command, when the Congregation of sacred rites had maturely examined the matter, and when through the most eminent Cardinals Pinelli of happy memory and Bellarmine it had been reported to the Pontiff what she had judged, they obtained from him the faculty, as is clear from a Brief issued on the VI of March of the year MDCIX, of reciting on the above-said XVI day of August an Office of the Blessed one, which according to the Roman Breviary is said on the feasts of Virgins, with proper Lessons of the second Nocturn approved by our most holy Lord; in which the Blessed one's life is summarily contained.

[21] Ferrarius in the general Catalogue of the Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology, for the 16th day of August; the Blessed one's feast afterward celebrated at the XVI of August has: At Genoa, of saint Limbania, virgin and nun: in the other Catalogue of the Saints of Italy at the same day he adorns her with a eulogy extracted from the said Lessons. In our Work, volume III of August, page 261, she is reckoned among the Saints referred by him to other days, and that in these words, committed to paper and press too hastily: S. Limbania the virgin … is marked on this day (the XVI of August) by Ferrarius in both Catalogues, not rightly, since it is established from elsewhere that her yearly festival is kept on the VI of September. Ferrarius should have been spared and believed, who in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, after the blessed Virgin's eulogy, expressly testifies that he had seen at Rome the diploma of Paul V, Pontiff, given in the year 1609, by which the nuns of S. Thomas obtained an Office of the Blessed one for the XVI day of August. Not only in the year 1613, in which that Catalogue saw the light, but also in the year 1625, in which Ferrarius published in print his other general Catalogue, Bl. Limbania, unless I am greatly mistaken, was venerated at Genoa in the church of S. Thomas on that same day. Yet it was no longer sacred to her in the year 1657, when Arthur published the Gynæceum, or most ample Martyrology of holy and blessed Women, in which at the often-mentioned day she is thus praised: At Genoa in the monastery of S. Thomas, of saint Limbania the virgin, notable in life and in virtues: for then her cult had been extended from the community of S. Thomas to the whole diocese of Genoa, and had been transferred from the XVI of August to the XVIII of that same month, but not to the VI of September; on which day she began to be venerated only in the year 1676 by the Order of the Hermits of S. Augustine. That each of the things which I have just asserted is certain will appear from what follows.

[22] To the proper Offices of the church of Genoa, revised by order of Stefano Durazzo, archbishop and Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, and printed in the year 1640, on the 18th day of that same month through the whole diocese of Genoa, there is prefixed a Kalendar of the feasts of that same church of Genoa; in which at the XVI of August it is read: Of Roch the confessor, double; then at the XVIII of the same: Of Limbania the virgin, double. Hence it is drawn that the blessed Virgin's feast was fixed to the latter day because the former was hindered by the double Office of S. Roch. In the proper Offices themselves there is had in its place: The XVIII day of August. On the feast of saint Limbania the virgin, double. All from the common of Virgins. The prayer Exaudi. The Lessons of the 1st Nocturn from the occurring Scripture. After the Lessons and Responsories of the second Nocturn, to be published after this Commentary, there follows: In the III Nocturn a Homily on the Gospel: The kingdom of heaven is [] like to ten virgins, as in the common of Virgins. To the proper Offices are subjoined the announcements of the Saints who are venerated in the diocese of Genoa, to be added to the Roman Martyrology and read in the first place; among which I find this: On the XVIII day of August. At Genoa, of S. Limbania the virgin, glorious in monastic observance and in the grace of miracles; whose sacred body, laid away in the monastery of S. Thomas, is venerated with the highest devotion. There is added also a Kalendar of the Saints who obtained cult at Genoa in particular churches: again at the XVIII of August there occurs here the feast of Limbania the virgin, with an Octave, in the church of S. Thomas.* The memory of Bl. Limbania in the diocese of Genoa is even now, as I think, kept on that same XVIII day of August. But because in our Work the Blessed one was given neither on that day, nor even on the XVI of August, on which she first began to be honored by the nuns of S. Thomas with an ecclesiastical Office, a place is here granted her among the heaven-dwellers of the day VI of September, on which the whole Order of the Hermits of S. Augustine now celebrates with a double rite her festival transferred from the day XVI of August.

[23] [and on the 6th of September through the whole Order of the Hermits of S. Augustine;] The cult of Bl. Limbania, propagated to the said Order of S. Augustine, and, on account of the feast of S. Alypius the bishop falling on the day XVI of August, deferred to the VI of September, was so on the XI of January in the year 1676 by the following decree of the sacred Congregation of rites, which the Reverend Father Subprior in the Antwerp convent of that same Order kindly took care to have communicated to me. The sacred Congregation of rites, at the prayers of Brother Giuseppe Eufanio of Aquila, bishop of Porphyreon, prefect of the Apostolic sacristy and confessor of his Holiness, his Holiness himself (Clement X, Pope) assenting, kindly grants and extends to all and each of the religious of both sexes of his Order of the Hermits of S. Augustine, both Brethren and nuns, existing in whatsoever parts of the world, the Office (and respectively the Mass) of blessed Limbania the virgin of that same Order of S. Augustine, from the common of one virgin, with the above-written Lessons and Responsories of the second Nocturn, which will be given after this paragraph, just as formerly Paul V, Pope, of happy memory, granted and indulged by his letters in the form of a Brief in the See of the Prince of the Apostles, under the day VI of March MDCIX, to the nuns of S. Thomas of Genoa of the aforesaid Order (where the body of blessed Limbania is preserved): and, as those same prayers contained, since the feast of the said blessed Limbania is celebrated under a double rite on the XVI day of August, being hindered by another double Office of S. Alypius, it granted that the aforesaid Office and Mass could in the said whole Order of S. Augustine be transferred to the first unhindered day, namely to the sixth day of September, and be set down and printed in the Kalendar of the Breviary and Missal of the aforesaid Order in the manner, rite and form aforesaid, on the XI day of January MDCLXXVI. V. Cardinal Carpineo. In the place ✠ of the seal. Bernardino Casali, secretary of the sacred Congregation of rites. At Rome, from the press of the reverend Apostolic chamber, MDCLXXVI.

[24] although Limbania, whom I call only Blessed, In the Augustinian Martyrology, which in the year 1716 Francesco Maria de Aste, archbishop of Otranto, published at the end of the Roman one illustrated by him with notes, from page 582, the blessed Virgin is read inscribed at the VI of September in these words: At Genoa in the monastery of S. Thomas, of blessed Limbania the virgin of our Order, notable for admirable penance and most lofty contemplation; whose soul flew away to heaven on the nineteenth of the Kalends of September. About the day of death here determined there will be treatment in the last annotation to the Life. Limbania, as may be seen at number 22, was venerated in the past century in the church of Genoa as a saint. The same appellation is attributed to her at numbers 14 and 19 in the monuments of the year 1472 and 1562. Saint too the anonymous author called her, and Ferrarius, and, besides others whom I have hitherto cited, Castellan in the Universal Martyrology at the XVI of August. Vannini and the Augustinian Martyrology endow her with the title of Blessed alone. This I have chosen, following the decree of the sacred Congregation of rites adduced in the preceding number, in which Limbania is everywhere called blessed, and the present custom of the Church, which Prospero Lambertini, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, now the supreme Pontiff Benedict XIV, teaches in his distinguished Work On the beatification of the Servants of God and the canonization of the Blessed, book 1, chapter 39 and following. I was astounded at those words of the said decree and of the Augustinian Martyrology, by which Bl. Limbania is asserted to have been of the Order of S. Augustine. Agostino Torelli, a famous writer of that same Order, in volume 7 of the Augustinian Century, page 612, mentions the blessed Virgin and her cult propagated to his own religious family by the said decree in such a way as at the same time not obscurely to suggest that she was not an Augustinian nun; since in the same place he narrates that the religious Benedictine virgins of the community of S. Thomas, in which Bl. Limbania led the monastic life, took up the rule and habit of S. Augustine in the year 1509.

[25] The said Torelli cites another learned writer of his Order, Tomás de Herrera,

in the Alphabetum Augustinianum, volume 1, from page 324; professed the rule where I read this: The Genoese monastery of S. Thomas, under the care and governance of the archbishop of Genoa, formerly served under the rule of S. Benedict, and at that time brought forth Limbania, a most holy virgin: now it observes the Eremitic institute of St. Augustine. This change, as we have heard from the nuns themselves, happened in the year MDIX. Tomás de Herrera here confesses that not only the community of S. Thomas before the year 1509, but also Bl. Limbania, was of the Order of S. Benedict; which that sincere writer in volume 2 of the Alphabetum, page 6, also openly declares. S. Limbania, virgin and nun, in life and in death made the city of Genoa more illustrious. In what year she died, or at what season she flourished, I have not been able to investigate. This one thing I found in the new Catalogue of the Saints of F. Philip Ferrarius under the day XVI of August: "At Genoa, of S. Limbania, virgin and nun," and in the notes to those words: "From the tablets and monuments of the community of S. Thomas, where she lived and was laid: whose Lessons approved at Rome by the sacred Congregation of rites we have read under Paul V, supreme Pontiff." An ecclesiastical Office is made of her, and in her honor a solemn procession is held at Genoa on the feasts of Pentecost.

[26] Some have believed that she was an Augustinian, because her remains are laid in the monastery of S. Thomas, of S. Benedict in the monastery of S. Thomas, which was formerly an abbey. of which she was once a nursling; and that is of the Order of the Hermits of S. Augustine. But, having more carefully searched out the truth, I find that Limbania was a Benedictine, before the community of S. Thomas passed over from the institutes of St. Benedict to the rule and Order of S. Augustine. This I wished to be noted, lest anyone be deceived by the empty rumor of some, and foist another's offspring upon that most fruitful mother. To these I add that Pietro Margiano of Savona, as the anonymous author below among us in chapter 1 of the miracles, number 21, narrates, affirmed before the notary Raffaele Vacca and witnesses in the year 1359 to Margarita da Mare, abbess of the monastery of S. Thomas, that to him, when he was grievously sick but yet in possession of his mind, Bl. Limbania appeared in the habit of the Order of S. Benedict and restored him to his former health. As Margarita da Mare, so also the other superiors of the community of S. Thomas the anonymous writer everywhere calls abbesses in the Blessed one's Life and older miracles. In the Lessons relating the deeds of Bl. Limbania, which will presently be given and are now recited by the Augustinian religious of both sexes, the superior of that same community, under whom the blessed Virgin began the religious life and ended it with a holy death, is also called abbess. Besides, in the letters of the year 1472, which I reported in the preceding §, Juliana Grilla is mentioned as abbess of the monastery of S. Thomas. Hence it is further known that that same monastery was an abbey while it was inhabited by Benedictine nuns before the year 1509, in which it began to be a convent of Augustinian virgins under the governance of a prioress.

in Italian festoni*

* SHALL BE

LIFE

From the Office which Paul V, Pope, approved on the 6th of March in the year 1609.

Limbania, virgin and nun at Genoa in Italy (B.) ^a

By an Anonymous author.

[That she may keep her vowed virginity she deserts her parents, and from Cyprus, God approving the deed by three] Lesson IV. Limbania, a virgin nun, born in the island of Cyprus of noble and wealthy parents, when she flourished with an equal beauty of body and of mind, lest by domestic enticements and her parents' blandishments she should be lured to contracting marriage, and should violate the faith of keeping her virginity given to Christ; being moved by the words of the Psalmist: "Hearken, O daughter, and see, and incline thy ear, and forget thy people and thy father's house, and the King shall greatly desire thy beauty," being inspired by the divine Spirit, when only twelve years old, having deserted her fatherland, she resolves to follow wherever the Holy Spirit should lead her. And so, having found a Genoese ship setting sail from Cyprus, with her nurse and her nurse's husband alone as those who knew and accompanied her, she prepares secretly to go aboard it and to be carried to Genoa. Which counsel, unusual and perhaps unheard of in an honorable girl, God approved by a threefold miracle: for when the ship-master, contrary to the faith given, had set sail with a favorable wind, leaving the Virgin and her companions on the island, at sunset in mid-course, with the sails spread, the ship suddenly stood so firm that it could neither pursue its way nor be moved from the place, as if it had been fixed with the deepest roots. When the sailors, marveling, sought among themselves the causes of this unusual event, at length the steersman of the ship, remembering the promise to Limbania which he had not kept, came to this thought, that God was unwilling that he should desert Limbania mourning on the island. Wherefore, having returned into the harbor, leaping down to land, he goes to the Virgin, hiding with her nurse in a neighboring wood very well known to him; at whose feet he beholds very many wild beasts of the forest prostrate, and licking the border of her garment: from the sight of which novelty gathering the Virgin's sanctity, he asks pardon, and with a most glad countenance leads her with her companions to the ship, more delighted with these Passengers than with his merchandise.

℞. Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain. * A virgin fearing God, she shall be praised. ℣. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates. A virgin.

[2] Lesson V. Setting sail forthwith from the harbor, the steersman within a short interval of days, [miracles, she flees to Genoa: where in the monastery of S. Thomas a most religious] with a clear sky, a favorable wind, a calm sea, and a most happy course is carried to Genoa; and the sailors, entering into the harbor, lower the sails, cast anchor ^b, and strive to turn it with the helm to its station; but in vain: for it is driven with a swift course upon the rocks opposite. Which being perceived, when all were crying out and wretchedly bewailing themselves as lost in the harbor, Limbania, roused by the shouts, asks the sailors in what place they are: from whom, when she learns that the ship is sticking in the harbor and on the rocks of the monastery of S. Thomas, she says: Be of good courage, here is the end of my journey. Let me go down to land: hand me over to the nuns; in whose care I shall pass the remaining time of my life. Which when it was done, without delay, without anyone's exertion, by divine force the prow is turned to the contrary side, and it is carried to the accustomed station of the ships ^c. Limbania, after thanks were rendered to God because she had come unharmed to the place she desired, being led into the sight of the abbess, earnestly asked that it might be permitted her to live with her; since from infancy she had vowed her virginity to God, and with that purpose, her fatherland and parents being deserted, had traveled over so many seas to Genoa. But she, having admired the Girl's beauty and prudence, and having learned also from the ship-master what had befallen her as she set sail from Cyprus, and having seen the recent miracle displayed before the eyes of all, God's goodness being praised because he had heaped her monastery with so great a treasure, embracing Limbania, receives her with the incredible consent of all the nuns, and not long after adorns her with the monastic habit; and, the time of probation being completed, according to the canonical sanctions admits her to profession: and she so advanced in virtue that shortly she became to all the rest a rule of living religiously.

℞. Limbania had chosen for herself a pit ^d beneath the church, in which day and night she ceased not * From divine converse and contemplation. ℣. With her eyes and hands always stretched to heaven she did not relax her unconquered spirit from prayer. From converse.

[3] Lesson VI. Meanwhile Limbania noticed that beneath the pavement of the church there lay hidden a pit, [with singular austerity she leads her life, in which, bathed in heavenly light, she dies.] very convenient for a stricter life and for the contemplation of heavenly things; and she straightway obtains it from the superior of the nuns: where, eating only once in the day, she abstained wholly from the eating of flesh and the drinking of wine, and passed a great part of the day and the whole night sleepless, in the reading of sacred books and in the handling of divine things, and by tearing her limbs with an iron comb ^e she subjected her flesh to the spirit. At length by a plainly divine privilege she was brought to this, that she fed on no human food, but only on the heavenly nourishment which she took from the sacred Communion and from assiduous prayer. When Limbania had spent very many years of the monastic life in these religious exercises, she desired most ardently to be dissolved from the bonds of her bodily mass and to be with Christ: and she had contracted so great a leanness and pallor that she seemed to live by spirit alone. Wherefore, foreseeing that the day she desired was at hand, on which she was to be called to immortal life, she gave herself with greater striving to the affliction of the body and to prayer. Whence it came about that the abbess, being led by a divine impulse, when on a certain day she had come to visit her, found the place surrounded on every side with the greatest light; which both blunted the keenness of her eyes and kept her body from entering the cell. The other Sisters running up, after a long hour, when that unwonted splendor departed, all entering the cell together, they found the Virgin's body in the posture of one praying, with knees bent, neck upright, hands stretched on high; lifeless indeed, but still warm, so that it could be understood that her soul had a little before, adorned with that divine splendor, flown away to heavenly beatitude. The most holy body of the dead Virgin they wrap in linens, they chant hymns and psalms according to Christian tradition, they place it on a bier for all to behold and to kiss (for it sent forth a fragrance of most sweet odor, and drew all by its most delightful aspect), ^f to be buried with religious pomp on the following day, which was the seventeenth day of August.

℞. Afflicting her body with fasting, in subjecting the flesh to the spirit, fixed in the meditation of heavenly things * she asked God that he would free her from that mortal body. ℣. Tearing her breast with an iron comb, groaning she asked God. Glory be to the Father. She asked God.

ANNOTATIONS.

tortured her body was a comb, furnished with long and sharp points of iron standing out in a dense row, with which flax is carded; for in Italian it is called pettine di lino in the manuscript Life, chapter 12, in whose title the anonymous author of it uses these words: Why the Blessed one, as has always been done since her death, so also now is wont to be painted, holding in her hand the iron comb with which flax is separated. Hence it becomes known that Bl. Limbania was wont to be so represented by painters because while living she raged against her virginal limbs with the said instrument.

MIRACLES

Collected by an anonymous author at the end of the XVI century or the beginning of the following,

And rendered into Latin from the Italian manuscript, John Limpen being the translator.

Limbania, virgin and nun at Genoa in Italy (B.) ^a

By an Anonymous author.

CHAPTER I.

Miracles and benefits wrought down to the year 1359.

[ ] [She reveals to the abbess a marble chest in which she wishes her body to be laid.] If the supreme and living God should wish here below on earth to honor his Saints, whose death, as David says, is so precious and dear to him, it is no wonder that he should also provide for their burial: since we read of S. Catherine the virgin that she was carried by angels ^b to Mount Sinai and there buried. The blessed virgin Limbania therefore after her glorious passing appeared in sleep to the abbess, saying: This morning rise betimes, and go to the seashore; for there thou shalt find a marble monument ^c. Thou shalt see to it that it be taken up and that I be buried in it. Roused by these words, the abbess called together all the Sisters, and, the vision being narrated, betook herself with them to the shore; and very soon they found a beautiful marble monument: and, receiving it with joy, they went to the church, and arranged the Blessed one's burial.

[2] After the abbess and the nuns, according to the vision they had had, Those are divinely punished who despise the Blessed one with spiritual gladness had found that blessed sepulcher and had carried it to the church, in order that afterward with more solemn and more elaborate pomp and with greater reverence and honor they might lay within it the body of the dear and beloved virgin Limbania; while the place of burial was being fitted and prepared, one of the workmen who were digging the earth despised the Blessed one with mockery, as he is wont to do who has little fear of God, and cares little for him and for the Saints. And behold, his mouth is twisted as far as his ears in the sight of the bystanders: at which the workman, astounded, began to perceive his sin, and, having confessed it before all, approached the Virgin's pit ^d, and, prostrate on the ground with groaning and tears, sought pardon from God, and implored the help of Bl. Limbania; and suddenly his mouth returned to its proper place.

[3] [and those irreverent in a sacred place; but, the punishment being inflicted, they are freed by her help,] The fame of the miracle wrought being presently spread abroad through the city, all the people ran together thither, men and women, old and young, great and small, rich and poor, in a word, every kind of men. But whoever is unwilling to understand how great is God's zeal for the church, which is called a house of prayer, let him attentively weigh each of the things which are now narrated. It happened therefore that a certain youth too came to the church of S. Thomas not out of devotion, but only for the sake of looking at beautiful women. Meanwhile, while he stood there with his eyes fixed upon them, behold, his body began to swell to so great a thickness that all together with him were astounded: and when he wished to go out of the church, he could by no means do so. Nor did the help which was brought him by many effect anything, except that by the thickness of his body he was driven back the more, the greater the effort with which the exit was attempted. And so the youth, returning to himself and acknowledging his offense, asked for a confessor priest, to whom with contrition of heart he disclosed all his sins; and after the confession he bowed himself with great reverence and tears before the Virgin's bier: and when he had asked pardon from God and help from her, he was straightway freed from the swelling of his body. Would that something similar might sometimes happen in our times, that so many crimes and shameless actions might cease which without any fear of God are very often seen to be committed in churches. Since another's punishment ought to be for us a warning and a medicine, let everyone who reads and hears this take heed what he does, lest, abandoning the discipline of good morals, he incur a disgrace forever to be blushed at.

[4] which a woman too experiences, whose breast a cancer had invaded. A certain noble woman's breast a cancer had invaded, which was afflicting her with grievous pains: whence, when she had perceived from the physicians that the healing of the breast was despaired of unless the whole of it were cut off, she was struck with great horror. Wherefore with great confidence she fled to Bl. Limbania, praying that by her merits she might be freed from such straits. A wonderful thing! all that night she felt no pain. Marveling, she waited until it should grow light: and, taking off in the morning the bandages with which the affected breast was wrapped, she found it sound, as though it had never had any evil; and, acknowledging the benefit received, she gave thanks to God, and visited the glorious Saint by whose merits she had been healed.

[5] [Her sanctity is proved by a notable miracle, whose memory is kept on the day on which it happened.] In the year MCCXCIV a certain priest, whose name was Oberto de Noli [*], chaplain of the church of S. Thomas, when at some time, certain honorable women and others being gathered for devotion's sake in that same church where the body of Bl. Limbania rests, he had to show her sacred head and to offer it to be kissed; and when he judged this unlawful, because he did not know that she had ever been canonized; he took the said head into his hands with exceedingly scant reverence (for he doubted of the sanctity of Bl. Limbania), and, carrying it from the greater altar as far as the middle of the church, both that he might give it to the people to behold and also out of devotion to kiss, God demonstrated the Virgin's sanctity by a very notable miracle worthy to be known: for that sacred head flew away out of that priest's hands, and went on to the greater altar from which it had been taken, and there stopped: at which miracle all the bystanders stood astounded. Nor long after the church was filled with people, testifying by such acclamations the gladness, admiration, and veneration with which it followed the blessed Virgin, that at length it was necessary to appoint that in memory of this miracle the Blessed one's festival should be celebrated with a solemn supplication ^e on the day on which it had happened. This fell on the Tuesday of Pentecost, on which every year now the same festival is kept. That miracle the prioress of the monastery of S. Thomas, who together with the nuns and the people was present at it, and was called lady Franceschetta Imperiale, testified in the archiepiscopal court. Further, the priest with contrite mind publicly confessed his doubt and his irreverence, and from that time was always most devout toward the holy Virgin.

[6] There was living at Genoa a physician of great name, called master Nicholas, [A boy recovers health by drinking wine with which the Blessed one's head had been washed;] who had a little son oppressed by a grievous disease. But when he despaired of health being restored to him, he indicated this to his wife: and both, as they were devout toward Bl. Limbania, devoutly commended him to her, earnestly asking their little son's recovery. The blessed Virgin therefore by night showed herself to be seen by the sleeping mother, saying: Know that I am the virgin Limbania, who pity thy little son. But do thou rise at earliest morning, and go to the monastery of S. Thomas, and ask that my head be washed with wine, which thou shalt then give thy little son to drink. And thus three times Bl. Limbania appeared to the mother repeating the same words; who, knowing that she was not deceived by an illusion, judged that there should be no further delay: and when she had risen, she hastened to the monastery, and, as had been enjoined on her in her sleep by the blessed Virgin, brought it about that the sacred head was washed with wine, and gave it thence to her little son to drink. Who, as soon as he tasted it, was found sound not without a miracle, and came with his father and mother to the monastery, giving thanks to God, and relating what had befallen him through the merits of the holy Virgin ^f.

[7] When a certain man, named Martino de Recco [*], who succors a shipwrecked man, the ship in which he with many others was being carried having sunk, perceived the manifest peril of life in which he was, and remembered Bl. Limbania, to whom he was devout, and implored her help, behold, she was seen near by, seizing him in his peril by the hair and gently drawing him to the shore.

[8] To a certain John, captured by the Moors and cast into prison, and restores freedom to one captured by the Moors. Bl. Limbania returned to memory, and he devoutly commended himself to her patronage; to whom she, suddenly appearing, said: Fear not; and, loosing him from his bonds, set him down through a window, and dismissed him unharmed and safe. He afterward, mindful of the benefit, came to the church of S. Thomas to give thanks to God, who through the intervening merits of the holy Virgin had restored freedom to him.

[9] A certain prioress of the said monastery, although she was devout toward Bl. Limbania, doubted nevertheless of her virginity, saying: From a vision her virginity, of which there was doubt, becomes known. How do we know that she is a virgin? On a certain occasion, as she slept, there seemed to come forth from her breast a little sheet on which these words were read: Saint Limbania, virgin and martyr ^g. Being awakened, she made known her doubt and the vision she had had in sleep, and always remained devout to the Blessed one.

[10] A most noble matron from France a paralysis had long afflicted; and when, by reason of the troubles of the disease and the pain which in no way abated, She helps a paralytic woman, she knew not what counsel to take, Bl. Limbania offered herself to be seen by her in sleep, saying: Wilt thou be healed? Most willingly, she answered. Come then, replied the blessed Virgin, set out for Genoa, and there thou wilt find the monastery of S. Thomas the Apostle, in which my body rests in a marble monument.

Prostrate thyself upon this, and thou shalt be healed. She came; she did as had been enjoined; and presently she recovered, and gave thanks to the Lord, who had vouchsafed to visit her with so great a benefit through the merits of his Saint.

[11] to those in peril In the year MCCCXXXIX ^h, on the XXII day of April, a certain man whose name was Ugo de Monico [*], standing at Savona ⁱ on the seashore, beheld from afar a little boat in great peril of sinking: whence, being moved with compassion, he made ready a skiff and hastened to bring it help, and saved three men from destruction. But so great a storm and tempest then arose that it was not far off but that all should perish. And when they cried out for help, and none was brought, saint Limbania came into the mind of the said Ugo: who, while with a loud voice he invokes her to his aid, behold, a level way is spread in the sea, by which the skiff could pass most safely, even though the rest of the sea was driven by continual tempest. And thus in a short time by that way they came to harbor, and, about to give thanks to God, went to the blessed Virgin's sepulcher.

[12] at sea In the year MCCCXXXIX, on the VIII day of December, the ship of Nicolò Camogli [], in which Massimo ^k di Bonagiunta [] of Genoa was being carried, contrary winds drove upon rocky shallows above the promontory Charidemum ^l, two miles from the shore: and when it was utterly shattered and broken up, the shipwrecked men, driven by necessity, cast themselves into the sea. But the said Massimo, who had seen several perishing, and had stood last on the fragment of the ship, at length, being compelled also by the force of the adverse tempest, threw himself into the sea: but seeing that by swimming he would not escape death, being made mindful of the blessed virgin Limbania, he earnestly begged her prayers with God for his safety. A wonderful thing! suddenly in the darkness (for night had already come on) there met his eyes a little wooden house ^m with a light; to which he, clinging, was little by little cast out sound and unharmed upon the shore, and afterward came to visit the body of the blessed Virgin.

[13] [and to a woman whom a thorn fixed in the sinew of her foot was grievously torturing:] In the same year at Acqui ⁿ a certain woman, wife of Ottone Stanga, when she was spinning threads, set her foot upon a most sharp thorn, which, being fixed in the sinew of her foot, afflicted her with such torments that, neither physicians nor medicines bringing her any comfort, by the violence of the pains and the convulsions of the sinews which came on she was as it were dying. Then a certain neighbor, acquainted with Genoese affairs, exhorted her to commend herself to the Saint. Which being done, before all she straightway fell into sleep: then a little after, awaking, she found herself wholly free from her pains and sound.

[14] [She rouses to hope a despairing merchant, and procures for him the money he desired:] A merchant, weighed down with the burden of maintaining his family, determined to sell his house publicly to the highest bidder, that with the money received thence he might trade and support his family. He who bought the house put up for auction promised that he would pay its price on an appointed day. When the Merchant, who had consented to this, was eagerly awaiting the time appointed for making payment, a kinsman of his wife, for whose dowry he himself feared danger, persuaded the buyer not to hand over the money on the day fixed. Hence the buyer, refusing to pay it, when he was reminded, gave fair words, nor could the creditor, urging that he would succor him in his necessity, obtain anything. Wherefore, after he had risen from his bed on a certain night, he was walking through the house, saying: Devil, be thou my help, since God is unwilling to help me. Amid these things a Woman, clothed in the monastic habit and bearing a cross in her hand, met him on the stairs; who, having strongly seized his hand, said: Son, fear not, nor suffer thyself to be carried away into so great despair. Place thy confidence in God and in his Mother, and thou shalt be helped. The Merchant, struck at once with amazement and terror, asked who she was. She answered: I am saint Limbania the virgin. The other subjoined: Where is your church and altar? And when he had learned that it was in the monastery of S. Thomas, and that he ought all the time of his life to have his soul commended to God, he returned to his bed and slept most peacefully. On the next morning someone appeared, who he was never became known, and said to the crier who had sold the house by auction: Behold, I at this very moment pay in ready money the promised price of the house. When he meanwhile stood uncertain in mind what to do, because the house had been knocked down at auction to another bidder, lo, its buyer himself came up, who, seeing that the price of that same house was offered by another, being covered with shame straightway counted out the money owed to the merchant. And he, being greatly relieved of his distress of mind, betook himself to the church, and, showing the coins, publicly related to everyone what had befallen him.

[15] Odo di Parma [*], a schoolmaster, had a son who for a certain cause fled from Genoa toward Celle ^o; [She frees from the peril of perversion and restores to his parents a runaway son.] and with an old man [p] found on the way, who tried in every manner to lead him away from the path of the virtues, he pursued his journey. The father, grieving at his son's departure, his mother exhorted to commend himself to God and to the blessed virgin Limbania. When he, pursuing his son, had arrived weary at Voltri, he turned aside into an inn: where two young men, having learned the cause of his journey, freely offered that they would go before him to overtake the boy and the old man who was plotting to ruin him: who, when they had come upon the boy, the old man in a moment vanished from their eyes. To the father, meanwhile following the young men who had gone before, there came two men equipped with arms; who said that he should lay aside all fear, because they had seen his son with two young men sound and safe. The father, hastening his journey, found his son with them; and all afterward came to the monastery of S. Thomas to give thanks to God.

[16] The hand of the brother of lady Araona Perona was so grievously hurt [A sister implores and obtains her help for her brother, whose hand was almost cut off,] that it clung to the arm by the skin alone. The physicians asserting that that wound was deadly, and the hand without doubt lost, she devoutly fled to the patronage of Bl. Limbania for obtaining her brother's safety: and when on a certain night she was sitting by him, being awake she beheld a Woman of remarkable beauty in the monastic habit, who said: He shall be healed here; and forthwith went out of the chamber. Which she perceiving roused her maidservant from sleep, and together with her began to search the whole house, whether she might see a nun anywhere. When she found none, she cried out that she whom she had seen was certainly S. Limbania. And three days thereafter having elapsed, her brother escaped the peril of death, and within a month and a half his hand was entirely healed.

[17] A certain woman, Joanna by name, had two daughters, one of whom pierced the face of the other, with whom she was quarreling, from the mouth as far as the eye with so great a wound that the surgeons affirmed that the injured girl was in danger of losing the eye. [and a mother her daughter, grievously wounded and twice brought into the crisis of losing an eye.] The mother committed her daughter to the patronage of Bl. Limbania with God, vowing some pious work, and within the space of three days she recovered health. But when she did not discharge the vow pronounced, the eye again so swelled that the surgeons asserted that the daughter was a second time in danger of losing the eye; whom accordingly the mother, remembering the vow not fulfilled, again commended to Bl. Limbania, with the mind of holily performing what she had vowed: whence both she was heard and the other within three days was a second time healed. The mother, being freed from her vow and having publicly confessed her sin, gave thanks to God; and was thereafter always devout to the Saint.

[18] She takes away an evil with which a woman had her eyelid affected, A certain lady, whose name was Catharina, affirmed the following on oath before the vicar. The eyelid of one of her eyes was affected with some evil; fearing lest the whole eye should be covered by it, she had recourse to the help of Bl. Limbania, from whom she believed that many benefits had been conferred on her, and went to her altar, which she found full of roses; and, having taken one of those which had fallen from the altar, she applied it with confidence to her eye. When for three days she had touched and rubbed it with that rose, she found in her hand a pustule, like a grain of scarlet, fallen from the eye: which, after it had also shed some tears, was restored to entire health, which it also kept.

[19] she snatches from the enemy's hands the ship of one invoking her, Before the vicar also Paolo de Fronti, an oath being interposed, affirmed these things. The ship of Mauro Grillo, in which he and others were being carried, another ship of the Catalans [q] had attacked, to which it, being inferior in strength, could not resist. Paolo, having received a wound and seeing the danger lest he should be captured by the Catalans, fled to Bl. Limbania: and when she was invoked, courage returned to his companions, and they snatched themselves from the enemy's hands: and although the ship was driven upon the shore, yet all escaped safe; and he recovered from his wound.

[20] [and she appears to a dying man, who is suddenly healed: her miracles are approved in the year 1344.] A certain man named Raffaele Lunone, being seized with a most grievous disease and abandoned by the physicians, for fifteen days could take neither food nor any drink: to whom, when he had been brought to extremity, yet was not deprived of his senses, there appeared a nun, who touched his whole body, and thus addressed him: Come, son, make a vow to Bl. Limbania, and proclaim to all that she has freed thee from thy disease. Raffaele did these things; the vow being pronounced, he recovered his former health; he rose from his bed and walked through the house. His brother, who had left the sick man lying with a cross at his head, and had gone out to procure a black cloth with which his body might be covered after death according to the custom of the place, returning and finding him out of bed, stood amazed with wonder: and when he had asked his brother how he had risen, he was informed by him of the whole matter. Then both, the miracle being known, gave thanks to God. These things the said Raffaele in the year MCCCXLIV, in the month of July, testified in the archiepiscopal court by the vicar's command.

All the miracles hitherto narrated were examined and corrected by lord Frederick di Molognio, canon and vicar of the archbishop, at the instance of Giovanni Casasco, who was then syndic of the said monastery; and a public instrument about them was drawn up in the year MCCCXLIV, on the XIX day of November, by the hand of Antonio Piloso of Santa Vittoria, public notary [r].

[21] In the year MCCCLIX there came to the said monastery, and before a notary and witnesses affirmed to the abbess [Bl. Limbania refreshes with a wonderful vision a man dangerously sick, to whose name a chapel is built:] (this was Margarita da Mare, and the notary Raffaele Vacca), Pietro Margiano [*] of Savona, that to him, when he was grievously sick and despaired of by the physicians in a place of Portugal called Altavilla, but yet in possession of his mind, there had appeared a nun in the habit of the Order of S. Benedict [s], and had said to him: Fear not, for thou shalt not die of this disease; but promise me that, when thy health is recovered, thou wilt with bare feet and clothed in a linen cloth reverently go to my church and light lamps at my altar. Then he seemed to himself to be seized by the hand and led over a plain

pleasant with greenness, in which he heard most sweet songs, and while going forward he said: Lady, no one will believe me when I report these things. Then she gave him a sign, laying on his breast the palm of her hand, whose form she left impressed on him. Besides, she handed him a comb with a white cord, and kept another comb for herself. Which vision when he had related to Brother Peter of the Order of S. Francis, he understood from him that S. Limbania had appeared to him. This miracle Brother Peter afterward spread abroad everywhere: whence many approached the aforesaid Pietro Margiano, to see the sign of the hand impressed on his breast. But lord Lanzalotto [*] Pesagno, prefect of the royal fleet, took care that a chapel be built to the name of Bl. Limbania [t].

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Vannini believed him to be a devil, counterfeiting the form of an old man, and that doubtless for this reason, because he is afterward narrated to have suddenly vanished from their eyes.

q. Between the Catalans and the Genoese war was fiercely waged at sea in the year 1331 and the four following, as may be seen in Uberto Foglietta in the History

of the Genoese. The benefit which is here ascribed to Bl. Limbania could have happened then.

r. The archbishop of Genoa by whose authority these things were done in the year 1344 was Jacopo of Santa Vittoria of the Order of S. Augustine. His vicar is here surnamed di Molognio, and the syndic of the monastery of S. Thomas Casasco: but Vannini in the proem, page 3, wrote di Molongo and di Casasco.

s. The Benedictine habit, in which Bl. Limbania is here narrated to have appeared, Vannini passes over in silence; and Margarita da Mare, of whom mention is made at the beginning of this number, as also the other superiors of the monastery of S. Thomas, who in the Life and in the two first miracles are called abbesses, he calls only prioresses. But at the end of the preliminary Commentary it was sufficiently proved that that monastery before the year 1509 was an abbey, and that in it Bl. Limbania led the monastic life under the rule of S. Benedict: whence it follows that those who above in the miracles related at numbers 3 and 6 are called prioresses did not hold its supreme office.

t. See again the Commentary at number 13.

Vannini, da Noli*

The same, da Recho*

The same, da Monaco*

The same, de Camogli*

the same, Bonagiunta*

The same, da Parma*

The same, Marciani*

the same, Lancellotto*

CHAPTER II.

More recent miracles and benefits.

[ ] She prevents a woman devoted to her from being slain. A certain man had married a wife so devout to Bl. Limbania that she went every day to the church of S. Thomas, in which her body lies, and poured out prayers at her sepulcher. Her husband, whether because he was jealous on account of his young wife's beautiful form, or also because he had little religion, had very often forbidden her this; but in vain. She could by no means be moved from her pious practice, placing all her effort and care in this, that she might visit the sepulcher of her whom she venerated with so great piety; and if on account of her husband's presence she sometimes did not go to it, having found an occasion of his absence from home, she fulfilled her just and honorable desire. When her husband learned this, he threatened his wife with death if she should go on to do the same: yet she did not on that account intermit her accustomed pious work. So great was her confidence in God that she hoped to be freed from every danger through the merits of the glorious Saint. It chanced that her husband went out from home for the sake of business; but, returning quickly and not finding his wife, he suspected what was the case, namely that she had gone out to the church of S. Thomas: wherefore, being urged on by the demon, he took a dagger, ran swiftly to the church, and, having found his wife at the Saint's sepulcher in prayer, seized her by the hair; and when he wished to stab her, and was already lifting his arm to strike, he felt the dagger held by divine power. Whence, being pricked with grief of mind, he sought pardon from God and help from Bl. Limbania; toward whom, being reconciled to his wife, he was thereafter always piously disposed.

[23] In the year MDXXII, on the last day of May, sacred to S. Petronilla, [With apparitions going before, she preserves the community of S. Thomas from the insolence of soldiers plundering the city,] at Genoa all things were resounding with the tumult of war, with terror and with mourning, the Spaniards plundering the captured city; who did not spare even the monasteries either of religious men or of sacred virgins. On that same day Father Br. Urbano da Luzara, of the Order of the Hermits of S. Augustine, a man of good and holy life and confessor of the nuns of S. Thomas, was giving himself to prayer in the chapel of Bl. Limbania, to whom he was most devout; in which he earnestly commended the Religious committed to his care to her patronage, beseeching that she would entreat from the Lord their preservation in so manifest a peril. While praying, Father Urbano saw the holy virgin of God Limbania, surrounded with a most splendid light. With what words the Saint addressed him is unknown. Yet she revealed to him what was to be; namely that the monastery of S. Thomas was to be visited with no trouble: the truth of which the outcome evidently confirmed. The said Father, refreshed by that vision, came to the reverend Sister Justina Doria, then prioress of that monastery, informed her of the apparition made to him, bade her be of good courage, and brought it about that no more of the nuns fled to another community of the same Order of S. Augustine, called that of the poor Nuns of S. Silvester; whither some had already migrated from thence. Then a hostile troop of soldiers, arriving, extorted nothing by force, only asking that some food and drink be given them out of charity for refreshing their bodies. And when wine, cheese and bread had been given them liberally, they departed content from the monastery of S. Thomas, which suffered no other loss nor any injury. But the nuns who had passed thence to the community of S. Silvester, although their chastity was not attempted (for by God's grace this happened to no religious virgins), were nevertheless spectators of other injuries which could not be beheld without a most bitter sense of grief. Afterward, having returned to their own monastery, where nothing insolent had been committed by the soldiers, they gave thanks to God with the other Sisters who had remained there for the benefit conferred through the merits of the glorious Saint.

[24] The reverend Sister Justina Doria, prioress of the monastery of S. Thomas ^b, and to its prioress grievously sick with dropsy, had long labored under dropsy, and by the force of the worsening disease had been brought into peril of life: wherefore one of the Sisters kept vigils with her, who never departed from her. That office of charity others also rendered by turns: for all believed that she would die. After the sick woman had invoked with most ardent prayers S. Limbania, whom she venerated with the highest piety, and from whom she had received very many benefits, behold, at night-time, when the said Sister was alone with her, she saw the glorious saint of God Limbania coming to her in a most bright cloud: at the sight of which, covering the whole sick woman, the Sister who was keeping watch fell upon her knees, thinking that she was departing from life. But the contrary happened: for the sick woman in the morning found herself unburdened of a great abundance of water, free from all disease, and in right health; and afterward she prolonged her life for many years.

[25] and to another dying man she restores entire health. Lord Giovanni Battista Saoli [*], a Genoese nobleman, was lying at Carignano ^c in his house, so grievously sick with a pestilent fever that he had been given up by the physicians and had been fortified with extreme unction after the receiving of the other Sacraments, and had lost all speech. Attending the dying man was the reverend Father Br. Sebastian, of the convent of S. James at Carignano, of the Order of the Brethren Hermits of S. Augustine: who, when by night he was alone with the sick man, there appeared to him in the monastic habit the glorious saint of God Limbania, saying: How art thou, Giovanni Battista? Who answered: O beloved Mother! I am tortured with the greatest pains. Then she: Doubt not, thou shalt be ill no longer; and, covering the sick man with her cloak, she vanished. The confessor, although he had not observed the vision, yet because he had heard him speaking, called lady Aloysia his wife. To whom, entering the chamber, her husband said: O Aloysia! I have been made whole: for our Mother Sister Justina of the monastery of S. Thomas has visited me, and asserted that I shall be ill no longer; and in truth I feel that I am now well. But afterward, understanding that S. Limbania had appeared to him, and that through her merits he had been restored to his former health, he came to give thanks to God to the monastery of S. Thomas together with his wife, who in memory of the benefit received offered there a silken garment dyed with scarlet: and both were always devout to the Saint.

[26] [When oil consumed in her honor was spent, she substitutes other, with which the empty vessel is filled.] A certain woman pursued the glorious S. Limbania with the highest veneration. Among other works of piety she assiduously brought oil to the lamp which was at the Saint's sepulcher, so that it was never without a light. It happened that her husband bought a quarter-measure of oil, and within a short time found it spent: for his wife had not ceased to make from it a pious donation. When her husband learned this from the report of ill-wishers, he went to inspect the vessel; but, not finding it in the accustomed place, he was thinking of assailing his wife with a severe rebuke. Then she herself went to look, and found the vessel full of oil: whence her husband was appeased, and with the same devotion as his wife supplied oil to the lamp as long as he lived.

[27] She appears to a nun lying ill of a dangerous disease, which is driven off, Sister Maria Magdalena Giovo, a professed nun of the monastery of S. Thomas, in the month of January of the year MDXCII, was so weakened by ill health that she was in the utmost peril of life. Late in the evening, that she might enjoy some rest, she had been left alone with a companion; who, while, wearied with the long labor of serving her, she was resting somewhat on a bed nearby, to the said sick woman, being awake, there appeared a huge splendor, which, increasing, came nearer to her. In the midst of that most bright light was the holy virgin of God Limbania, to whom she had commended herself with fervid prayers. When the sick woman beheld her, suddenly raising herself upon the bed she said, not without many tears: Whence to me so great a grace, that thou, glorious Saint, shouldst come to visit me? Then S. Limbania, touching her, thus answered: Fear nothing; and gradually withdrew from her eyes. After this apparition the sick woman broke out in a sweat, and was so relieved of the gravity of her disease that on the next morning the physician, coming, judged her out of danger: and within a very short time she was restored to entire health. All these things, as they have just been related, the said Sister Maria Magdalena Giovo narrated before the reverend Mother Sister Maria Felice Doria, then prioress of the community of S. Thomas, and before the Reverend Father Matteo Aste, curate of that same community, and before other nuns.

[28] A boy who from a certain evil of the eyes had contracted blindness, and to a blind boy, to whom sight is restored. hearing of the benefits rendered by God to those imploring the help of S. Limbania the virgin, who shows himself wonderful and glorious in his Saints, determined to come hither to Genoa: where every day, however blind he was, in the best manner he could, he visited the sepulcher of S. Limbania in the monastery of S. Thomas, being wont to say in his prayer with simplicity: Saint Limbania, give me back my eyes. As the boy persevered in that pious approach to the Blessed one's sepulcher and in prayer, when on a certain morning he was alone in the church, S. Limbania offered herself to be beheld, who, touching his eyes, said: Praise God, because thou hast received sight. Then he presently began to cry out: I see; for S. Limbania has given me back my sight: the fame of which miracle was spread abroad through the whole city of Genoa ^d.

[29] Bianca Torre, wife of Giovanni della Torre, on the XXVI of April of the year MDLIII confirmed on oath the following benefit received from blessed Limbania. She frees a woman from an evil which had invaded her breast, After Bianca had borne a daughter, on whom the name Felice was imposed, in the said month and year, her left breast was afflicted with so grievous an evil that it was necessary to cut it off: already

for an ulcer was arising in it. Being set in these straits, she fled to the virgin of God Limbania and to Bl. Ugo, invoking them thus with fervid prayer: O Saint of God, as thou didst restore sight to a blind man, so restore health also to my breast. And do thou, S. Ugo, cause milk to flow thence, as water flows from thy fountain ^e. On that same night she felt herself touched, and heard it said to her that she should lay aside all fear. Then the light, which seemed to be going out, blazed up more brightly: and straightway the breast, the evil being driven off, began to pour forth milk. In the morning the woman, being healed, came to the Saint's sepulcher and paid thanksgiving to God. There was at that time parish priest of the monastery of S. Thomas the Reverend Father master Vincenzo Montemerlo of Tortona, and prioress the reverend Mother Sister Limbania Spinola.

[30] Felice Ponti, wife of Giovanni Battista Ponti, [and another, to whom she had shown herself to be seen, from a most grievous disease,] in the year MDXCIV, on the IX day of September, lying at Genoa in her husband's house with a most dangerous disease, vowed to S. Limbania that, if she should recover, she would visit her sepulcher in the church of S. Thomas. On that same night the Saint appeared to her in a vision, shining with a huge splendor, and addressed her in these words: When thou art well, thou shalt go to the monastery of S. Thomas, and shalt bring it about that my head be carried to the gate, which thou shalt devoutly embrace, because thou hast received the benefit thou didst ask. To this the sick woman answered: O blessed Saint of God, the nuns will be unwilling to render me that favor, because, since I am a laywoman, I do not deserve that grace. Then the Saint replied: Go and call Mother Sister Maria Felice, who is prioress, and tell her in my name that she should grant thee that grace; and she will do it. Besides, admonish her that she bear patiently the troubles with which she is afflicted, and that the nuns take greater care of me, and be more circumspect in giving out my relics; for they do this with too much confidence: whence they come into danger of losing them. These things being said, the vision ceased, and the sick woman was so restored from her disease that the physician judged that there was no longer anything to be feared for her life. Her firm health being recovered in a very short time, she came to the monastery of S. Thomas, that she might fulfill her vow and what the Saint had enjoined upon her. And when she had narrated what she had seen and heard, and had obtained what she had desired, she gave thanks to God for the health obtained through the Saint.

[31] and finally a nun from most violent pains of the arm. Sister Paola Felice di Negro, daughter of Nicolò di Negro, a professed nun in the monastery of S. Thomas, in the year MDXCV, in the month of July, on a certain Saturday evening was giving herself to prayer in the choir, as in religious families it is piously wont to be done before they go to bed. While praying, a most violent pain invaded her right arm. Returning to her chamber, she betook herself to bed, ordering much covering to be spread over her, because she thought she had contracted that evil from cold. But by the warmth the pain was made no less remiss, nay was more intensified, so far that she feared convulsions of her limbs for herself. When midnight had come, she called Sister Angela Maria, resting in the other bed of that same chamber, and indicated to her the most grievous pain with which she was tortured. She rose, and, her knees being bent, prayed to God; then she gave this counsel: It will help to have applied to the affected arm a little cotton which has touched the relics of S. Limbania. After some of that cotton and of the blessed bread of S. Nicholas ^f had been laid with confidence upon the arm in the form of a cross, and the sick woman had made a vow in her mind that, if she should be healed, she would offer a silver arm, and would see to it that one Mass be celebrated at the Saint's altar, she straightway fell into sleep, and in the morning, being wholly healed, performed what she had vowed. These things the said Sister Paola Felice, being asked, narrated to the Reverend Father master Matteo Aste, curate of the church of S. Thomas, and to the other Sisters.

ANNOTATIONS.

Vannini, Sauli*