ON BL. MARGARET FONTANA, VIRGIN OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. DOMINIC,
AT MODENA IN ITALY.
In the year 1113 [ ]
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The memory of Margaret among various writers with the title of Blessed, which seems lawful: the public cultus of her relics: her Life written in Italian, and to be published in Latin.
Margaret Fontana, virgin of the Third Order of St. Dominic, at Modena in Italy (Bl.)
BY J. S.
Although I have somewhat doubted whether we ought to treat of Margaret Fontana as of a Blessed, Margaret honored by various writers with the title of Blessed, yet, various writers being surveyed and their words diligently considered, I have judged that the title of Blessed should be attributed to Margaret. This title Arthur du Moustier long ago ascribed to her in the Gynaecium sacrum at the 13th of September, writing thus: At Modena in Aemilia, of blessed Margaret Fontana, a Dominican tertiary, shining with innocence of life and works of penance; whose sepulcher the demons still dread. Nevertheless that authority does not suffice for us. Margaret was called Blessed long before by Serafino Razzi of the Order of Preachers in his work On the Saints and Blessed of the same Order, which he first published in the year 1577, on Échard's testimony in the Library of the Preachers in the eulogy of Serafino Razzi. The same title the writer of the Life to be published, a contemporary of Razzi, attributes to Margaret, as we shall see. To these are added various Dominican writers who have treated of Bl. Margaret. But not even so great a consent of writers in this title would suffice, unless there were also more certain indications of some sort of public cultus, and unless the Blessed had been dead so long that that cultus could easily have been continued a hundred years before the decree of Urban VIII, by which it is forbidden that anyone should by private authority attribute to any person the title of Saint or Blessed, unless it had been continued to him for a hundred years.
[2] Lodovico Vedriani in his Italian work On the Saints and Blessed of Modena, p. 17, professes that he will give the title of Blessed to none to whom it is not lawful to give it according to Urban's decree. and that title seems ancient enough: the public cultus I do not inquire whether he never strayed from that purpose. But at least he set that law before himself; nor can I find that he departed from it when he inserted Margaret Fontana with the title of Blessed into his work, p. 133. For from the Life at no. 14 we have it that the fame of her sanctity was so great when she died in the year 1513, that we can scarcely doubt that the title of Blessed was given her straightway or not long after — especially since her image was hung in the church, as is said at no. 15. Besides, Vedriani on p. 139 makes mention of a solemn translation, when she (the Blessed) was placed in a more becoming place. The same a little after subjoins these things: At this time she rests in the chapel of the most holy Rosary, in a marble urn with an effigy set toward the side where the Gospel is read, and with this inscription: "The bones of Bl. Margaret Fontana of the Order of Preachers are laid here." And there she is venerated. On that cultus Marchese in the Dominican Diary and Charles of St. Vincent in the Dominican Year agree, both at the 13th of September.
[3] I am compelled, however, to confess that that cultus is very slight, it was formerly greater than it is at this time; and that at this time there do not survive all those indications of public cultus which existed before the decree of Urban VIII already mentioned. For formerly the image of the Blessed was placed above the sepulcher; but it is not seen there today. Formerly some votive offerings were hung in the old church, and votive tablets at the sepulcher of the Blessed, as the Life has at no. 19. But none were hung in the new church, nor are any now hung from time to time. Nevertheless the sepulcher of Bl. Margaret is raised above the ground to a height of about thirty feet. Besides, there still is the title of Blessed on the stones above and beneath the sepulcher, engraved in these words. On the stone above the sepulcher: The bones of Bl. Margaret Fontana of the Order of Preachers lie here. On the stone beneath the sepulcher: To Blessed Margaret Fontana, virgin, nursling of the Dominican Order, famous for roses and wine and other miracles, this monument to his kinswoman
monument of his devotion Hercules Fontana, knight of SS. Mauritius and Lazarus, offers, dedicates, and consecrates. In the year of the Lord 1620.
[4] The things which I here record concerning some indications of cultus now omitted, and concerning the present state of the sepulcher, yet she seems to be honored with the title of Blessed: were communicated at my request by the Reverend Father Prior of the convent of Preachers of Modena to the Reverend Father Stanislas Bardatto of the Society of Jesus, confessor of the Most Serene Duke of Modena, and lately sent hither. It is added in that answer to my questions that the Blessed is not venerated with an ecclesiastical Office, nor with any feast, nor with an exposition of her relics. These things indeed prove that Vedriani, Marchese, and Charles of St. Vincent spoke too liberally of the cultus of Bl. Margaret. These same things also made me doubtful whether she should be inserted into our work with the title of Blessed. Nevertheless, all things being diligently weighed, I have judged that the title of Blessed, with which Margaret seems to have been honored a hundred years before the decree of Urban VIII, should not be taken from her — especially since this title has always been left to her. And so I have determined to treat of Bl. Margaret as of the other Blessed.
[5] I have already said at no. 2 that Vedriani makes mention of a solemn translation of the body. the body translated to a new sepulcher about the year 1585: But he does not express at what time it was made. Serafino Razzi, who after the first edition of his work On the Lives of the Saints of the Order of Preachers, into which he had inserted a eulogy of Bl. Margaret, put together a second eulogy of her in another edition, there makes mention of the sepulcher renewed about the year 1585, and reports that the old sepulcher was then opened by the Reverend Father Desiderio Paloni of the Order of Preachers, and that the bones of the Blessed were then placed in a case and carried to the sacristy until the new sepulcher and chapel should be completed. He adds that at that time certain bones were given to Father Innocenzo Fontana of the Society of Jesus, a kinsman of blessed Margaret. But he does not touch on the bringing back of the sacred bones to the new sepulcher, because it was not completed while he was writing. Yet that bringing back of the sacred bones to the new sepulcher doubtless followed; and that is probably the translation asserted by Vedriani.
[6] The Life written in Italian by Desiderio Paloni The Acts of Bl. Margaret were written in Italian by Desiderio Paloni, the priest of the Order of Preachers just praised, as can be clearly enough gathered from the Acts themselves compared with Razzi's account. For the author at no. 1 calls himself Desiderio, and attributes the same name to himself at no. 11, where he joins himself with Tommaso Cencio, lector of the same convent of St. Dominic of Modena, whom he praises again at no. 12. But Razzi, where in the later edition he treats again of Bl. Margaret, on p. 693 of the Palermo edition of the year 1605, affirms that his later information was communicated by the Fathers Desiderio Paloni and Tommaso Cencio, Preachers of the convent of Modena, to Father Innocenzo Fontana of the Society of Jesus, and that from him he received it. Hence therefore we gather that that Desiderio who wrote the Life is Desiderio Paloni. But, as the Life was never published, so far as I know, so I have not been able to find the name of Desiderio Paloni in the Library of Dominican Writers in Échard.
[7] about the year 1585. The time when the Life was written presents no difficulty. For it is clear enough that it was written after the year 1581, and about the year 1585, in which the changing of the sepulcher and the making of the translation began to be treated. And so the Life was drawn up nearly seventy years after the death of the Blessed; and since the biographer seems to have proceeded in good faith, there is no reason why we should doubt what is reported by him; for these things do not exceed belief. The praised Life was long ago sent to our predecessors from Rome by Father Matteo Girardelli; and at its end it is noted that it was extracted, and is so had, in an authentic copy among the Reverend Fathers Dominicans. I shall give a Latin translation as faithful as I can, and shall rather neglect elegance of style than simplicity of translating. Finally I shall add in the notes what I shall have learned from elsewhere about things passed over in the Acts.
THE LIFE.
By Desiderio Paloni of the Order of Preachers.
Rendered into Latin from the Italian manuscript, J. S. translating.
Margaret Fontana, virgin of the Third Order of St. Dominic, at Modena in Italy (Bl.)
By Desiderio Paloni.
CHAPTER I.
The writer's preface: the Blessed's native land, parents: the virtues of her childhood, youth, and the rest of her life.
[ ] The author humbly sets forth his reasons I do not undertake this work because there is in me anything of such power that I could make illustrious and famous heroic, lofty, and sublime souls; nor because from my humble and unspiritual mind, or from my stammering tongue that knows not how to speak, there could well up a thought or discourse worthy to praise virtue infused from heaven and divine sanctity granted to a human creature; for murky darkness, such as mine is, cannot give light to the essential Light, nor will blind ignorance ever be fit to teach Minerva, nor to open its mouth before the divine wisdom. But lest I leave gold hidden and treasure covered, lest I lose gems that have been found, nor suffer so precious a pearl to perish — since to me, Desiderio a, the least of all, the lot and the office has fallen of collecting the chief memorials of a soul adorned with such great virtue and holiness, and of gathering together the things above the rest notable and worthy which can conduce to increasing the cultus and veneration of this virgin among us mortals, and to bringing it about that she be celebrated with greater honor in the Church by the pious — I have judged it my office not only not to allow precious stones found with labor to perish, but to set them, together with her life, upon paper, that they may be a mirror and a mark by which we may direct our mind to imitating her holy virtues on earth, that with her we may then be able to be partakers of glory in heaven.
[2] Of this heavenly Margaret (Pearl) and precious gem such great eulogies and praises can be given to the glory of the Sanctifier, for writing this Life. since it thus becomes known how wonderful God is in his saints, and also how much, for our own profit, we are bound to render thanks to the immortal Creator, because he has given to our house a woman so famous, that she may be for us a pillar of fire and a light kindled by divine grace, and of holy example to this our weak nature, subject to sins, in the desert of this vicious world, unto eternal life; that she may be a city of refuge which can receive and embrace us in the adversities of this calamitous life.
[3] But to begin to speak of her origin, of her infancy, The Blessed's native land and noble parents: of her native land, house, and family, of her name and surname — already the divine grace begins to shine forth in her. For God willed that she should be born, not in a rustic, unworthy, and mean place, land, or house, but in a renowned city such as Modena is; of the noble stock, devoted to virtue, of the Fontana, through her father the lord Alessandro Fontana, and of the stock of the Morani through her mother the lady Francesca, whose house and family is perhaps of no lesser condition than the first. He added the name Margaret as a manifest indication and sign of a divine thing b, as though it were said that she was born in the world a citizen and noble, that in heaven she might be a noble citizen by God's gift, just as she is a noble citizen on earth from her house of Fontana, which flourishes with Christian and religious virtues, as that family always professes on account of the precious pearl equal in value to paradise.
[4] Bl. Margaret Fontana was born in the year 1440, on the 3rd day of May c, the year and day of her birth: her pious childhood: when the earth and the plants begin to bud, when the new spring rejoices in pleasant beauty, when the gardens are clothed and covered with white lilies, sweet-smelling roses, and flowers of every kind. All these things conduce to the greatness of the matter set before us. For from her tender age she lived as a new plant and a fertile land of the Lord in the spiritual spring, that she might bud for heaven, that she might make her heart a garden of delights for the Holy Spirit on earth, and her whole life a sacrifice and perpetual holocaust to the eternal Father, the world being already despised in her girlish age.
[5] Since she utterly hated the world, that she might show herself chosen for eternal life, she resolved to consecrate her virginity to God and to serve the Most High, [she consecrates her virginity to God, taking the habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic:] wishing to have no other spouse than Jesus Christ, her eternal salvation; and this she showed in fact. For when she had come to the years of youth, when the malignant wickedness of the world is wont to deceive unstable and headlong youth with the false garments of its vain and wanton delights, despising all worldly company, she gave herself wholly to a chaste, religious, and holy life; and leaving altogether worldly, pompous, and wanton garments, she took the habit of the Third Order of St. Dominic. For she reckoned it an unworthy thing if she should serve the Lord only in part, and be content with the lowest rule of life; and she believed it a singular favor that she should be held and known among the last of the Sisters of the holy Order of Penance, as though she would have lost the integrity of her innocence in the common way of life of vain women.
[6] The Blessed's notable virtues, frequent prayer, With how great comeliness of honor and holiness of life she wore the habit of St. Dominic, and in her religious state preserved the comeliness of her life and perpetually the good odor of her reputation, the church of the faithful makes manifest. She always lived without any just complaint; she always led a blameless life, pleasing to all, praised by all, acknowledged and honored by all as a saint; humble and gentle as a lamb, full of charity and piety, upright in intention, simple and pure as a dove, sparing of words in speaking, wise and honorable in answering, lovable in conversation, and venerable in every action. With so great a fervor of spirit did she serve God and observe her profession, that not only did she rise by night at the prescribed hour to recite the accustomed Office and other prayers to be performed out of particular devotion, but frequently she would not lie down the whole night save on the bare pavement, or on straw, or upon two boards; and she spent the greater part of the night in prayers, lamentations, and pious sighs.
[7] the austerity of her life, especially in lying down, If ever, lest she should sadden her pious mother, with whom she lay and slept, she placed herself in the evening on the bed, then at that hour at which sleep had seized her mother, and when the whole house was in silence, the pious young maiden silently raised herself from the soft feathers and placed herself sometimes upon the ground, sometimes upon the bare straw, sometimes upon two planks — not without discomfort of body, but with quiet mind, knowing by the divine Spirit that a servant of God ought not to be delicate, but crucified and mortified for Jesus Christ. "A servant of God d ought not to be delicate, but crucified and mortified for Christ with its vices and concupiscences." But of this austere life and
of her holy vigils the most faithful testimony is given by the reverend father Fr. Tommaso Cencio e \*, well-deserving lector of my convent of St. Dominic of Modena, from the account of the lady Sigismunda, who was the wife of the lord Giacomo Fontana and a contemporary of Bl. Margaret, and who, being ninety years old, was in excellent possession of her wits at the time of her death.
[8] Temptations of the demon overcome. If this virgin, while she lived, was called a saint and was held by all for a saint, that indeed is not to be wondered at, since also through many private persons who dealt with her about secret matters and knew her familiarly it becomes known — and the same became more known afterward — that she suffered many vexations and persecutions of demons. For sometimes he appeared to her in a horrid form to strike terror into her; sometimes he tore her garments on every side; sometimes he cast her down from the stairs, that he might bring her to impatience and despair. But the handmaid of the Lord confounded the enemy tempter with the sign of the holy Cross; just as by the same sign, and by faith and spirit, she obtained many graces from God, and caused many miracles at home and abroad to go forth from her hands, as divine testimonies not only of her living faith but also of her true sanctity, since they were done out of charity and with humility; because God does not hear sinners, save in favor of the faith and for the grace of holy Church. For the working of miracles, according to the common course, is a grace freely given, exercised even by the hands of unworthy faithful for the salvation of others. So when those damned on the day of judgment shall boast that they wrought many signs and stupendous miracles in the Church, all will be turned to their ruin, nor will it profit them to say: Have we not, Lord, in thy name done many signs and many mighty works? But it shall be answered them: Amen I say to you, I know you not. But to his spouse holy Margaret the Lord will say: Come, my chosen one, into my throne etc.
NOTES.
\ elsewhere, Lencius*
CHAPTER II.
Her marvelous deeds and miracles: her death and burial.
[ ] Bread destined for the poor turned into roses: The miracle of the fragments of bread which she carried secretly to the poor, turned into as many fresh and fragrant roses in mid-winter, has now, as is established, become publicly known, because the Reverend Father Fr. Serafino Razzi a of Florence, of the Order of St. Dominic, inserted that great prodigy at length into the Life of this blessed soul in this manner: In a certain year in which there was great scarcity, when she was giving much in alms, she was reproved by a certain brother of hers, to whom she seemed to give with too liberal a hand. Hence, when on one occasion about the feast of the Lord's Nativity, when the cold of the year was greatest, she was going down the stairs and had her apron full of bread to be distributed to the poor, the aforesaid brother met her. And when he asked what she was carrying in her apron, "They will be roses," the Blessed answered. "Such are the roses, O sister Margaret," the brother replied, "that you give away everything that comes into your hands, and regard neither our slender means nor the heavy household of the house"; and being troubled, he ordered her to open her apron, and saw it full of fresh and most sweet roses. Then the brother, astounded at the miracle, fell at his sister's feet, perceiving in her countenance something as it were divine, asked her to forgive him, and granted her leave that thenceforth she might give in alms, dispense, and bestow as much as she wished — trusting that she who could at that moment turn bread into roses by her prayers could also, in the need of the house, to the glory of the Lord, produce bread by the grace and favor of her heavenly Spouse.
[10] an empty cask divinely filled with wine: Of the wine in her house, which never seemed able to be exhausted because of her abundant piety, the matter is openly known through the neighborhood; and, as those of the household also report today — and by name the noble and venerable lady Alchimena Calori — it happened thus. When a cask of good wine had been kept for the childbirth of her brother's wife, Bl. Margaret had already dispensed it, and had distributed all that wine to the poor, the sick, and the needy b. But when the time of the birth had come, and of tarring that cask, they set their hand to the empty cask and find that the wine was consumed, with many outcries against sister Margaret as squandering everything and bringing ruin upon the house. All run, and desire to know whether the wine is really not in the cask. Once and again they go thither and return: always the cask is plainly seen to be empty. But since the patient and humble handmaid of the Lord was unwilling to reveal the secret of the alms she had given, but trusted that God would provide for this mischance and the need of her brother's wife, she strove to appease her brother with words and to give him courage, and admonished him to look carefully whether he had not made a mistake about the cask, and taken the empty one for the full — that the demon leads into error, so as to stir up discords and quarrels in a house. At last she said and did so much that they went back to look. And returning, they found the cask, which had really been empty, full of the best wine, divinely produced; as those things are better and more perfect which are produced by God's own hand than those produced by the ordinary course of nature. Hence it is manifestly gathered that God, by the merits and patronage of his true handmaid, favors the house of Fontana, not only in giving it bread, as he gave it to the crowd, and wine, as at the marriage of Cana in Galilee, but also in increasing the house — as for a single gift of charity he faithfully promised: "You shall receive a hundredfold and shall possess eternal life."
[11] an injured eye suddenly healed: Not yet have two years passed since there lived in our city a noble and aged matron, eighty-four years old, called the lady Elisabetta Mariscotti, who — in the presence of the Reverend Father Rector of the Society of Jesus and his companion, of the above-said Father my Lector of the convent of Modena of St. Dominic, Father Fr. Tommaso Cencio, and of me, Father Fr. Desiderio — lying in bed from an ailment of an injured leg, in the month of November of the year 1581, publicly narrated this fact, which she testified had happened to herself. When I was a girl of eight or ten years, associating familiarly with the daughters of the house of Fontana — because our houses were neighboring and in the same quarter — we were frequently together to eat and to take recreation together. And when I was spending some day there, and many girls and boys were occupied in the square before the house of Fontana with the game which in our parts is called Giare c (this game is played with a slip of wood, or a piece of ash sharpened to a point, which is struck up into the air by blows of a stick, and thrown as far off as it can be); and when I was in the midst of many girls who were occupied in hurling that sharp slip of wood — behold, it is carried straight into my face and strikes my right eye with a blow so violent, and with so great pain, that it made me almost blind and deprived of the eye. I wept and lamented with a loud voice, imploring help, my pupil as it were lost; and at this cry and this noise the square is roused, the houses are stirred, men run up to see and to bring help; but no remedy for the evil was found. Sister Margaret, being told of this mishap, and perhaps also asked by other women, comes to me, weeping and grieving much, and begins to console me with words, saying: "Trust, my little daughter, and be of good heart; no further evil shall arise from it"; and she makes the sign of the holy Cross over the injured eye. Straightway I was free from the ailment; I opened the eye without any injury, and full of comfort. This I can say, because I have myself experienced it in me.
[12] From a venerable, pious, and aged citizen, the lady Francesca Cervanla, she is believed by her presence to have helped a woman in labor. a person of the best reputation, I have frequently heard what I undertake to narrate; and especially when, on a certain day of the month of October of the year 1581, I was with the Father Lector named above in the house of this honored matron, where there was discussion of the things which day by day were said and disclosed about that spouse of Christ, the aforesaid lady Francesca narrated as true this fact, which she had frequently heard from her mother-in-law, her husband's mother. When once the sister-in-law of the religious sister Margaret was tormented in childbirth with violent pains and could not bring forth, as soon as blessed Margaret was called and entered the chamber of the afflicted woman in labor, she brought forth quickly and easily, and without any danger to mother or child. So St. Peter healed the sick with the shadow of his body.
[13] In our times demons are much inflamed and flee at the intervening of the holy name of Bl. Margaret Fontana. The Blessed after her death terrible to demons: This has been perceived on various occasions, in which malignant spirits besieging human bodies cannot endure the sepulcher or coffer in which that holy body lies; for she who in her life carried off the victory over the devil deserves with God to be his conqueror, putting him to flight in death, and showing that she fights with him in the fatherland after death. But if the faith alone of the faithful terrifies and confounds him — In my name they shall cast out demons — much more does their being united with Christ, as were St. Anthony, St. Catherine of Siena, Bl. Margaret of Modena, make them victorious over the dark spirits of hell. This truth the very reverend Fathers of the convent of St. Dominic can excellently attest, having seen many examples which happened from the year 1581 to 1582; the same can be attested by many who have been present with possessed persons, and the possessed themselves can publicly narrate it. the time of her blessed death: the esteem of all for her sanctity.
[14] That blessed soul lived seventy-three years and four months in human flesh without stain of the flesh. This space of time being passed,
of years and months, she left the mortal life and entered upon the possession of eternal life in the year 1513, on the 13th day of September. Of her happy passing, glorious death, and burial we have the testimonies of the Reverend Father Giacomo Fontana, a religious of great authority and capacity, who, approaching the age of eighty years, is still alive; of the aforesaid lady Elisabetta Mariscotti; of the said lady Alchimena Calori; of the said lady Francesca Cervanla; and of many others who have spoken with those who were present at the obsequies of this blessed Margaret. These affirm as a certain thing that she was found at the time of her death clothed in a hair shirt and girded with an iron chain. Both men and women counted themselves blessed who could have even the smallest particle of her garments; and, had the body not been defended by the Friars, it would scarcely have remained sufficiently covered on the bier — so great was the throng of pious persons drawing the garments from it.
NOTES.
CHAPTER III.
Such veneration as there is, and miracles after her death.
[ ] The Blessed's image: the terror of one wishing to open the sepulcher: Then after her death her image was set up, where it has remained to this day, at the column between the altar of St. Anthony and that of St. Amonesius a. She holds a crucifix in her hand and has blooming roses in her apron, in memory of the miracle of the bread turned into fresh and most sweet roses. Concerning her sepulcher, by the account of the excellent physician the lord Niccolò Fontana and of others, this fact becomes known and is known. When some of her kinsmen of the house of Fontana wished to lay there the little body of a certain dead child, the workman, while he was trying to open the place of her burial, at the first blow which he gave to raise the first stone was so terrified and seized with so great a fear that his courage failed him for going further, and he left the fracture b a long time in that state. This we saw, and took care to have it repaired. It is a manifest sign that a divine thing is enclosed in that place, which does not suffer the company of another thing merely human.
[16] Likewise it is established by public report that from the same sepulcher on another occasion there burst forth so great a fragrance of sweet and pleasing odor a sweet odor from the sepulcher: as though a storehouse full of spices had been uncovered there. But no one ought to wonder at this, since St. Paul says of himself and of other saints and just men that by their life and sanctity they are the good odor of Christ in the life of charity: We are the good odor of Christ etc. Not yet have two years passed since one of our Fathers, a religious priest very pleasing to God, related to me as a most true thing that many times, while he was visiting the sepulcher of this blessed soul, he perceived while praying a most sweet odor of roses, with which the whole chapel where the holy body lies was filled. Doubtless he who serves Jesus in life with the good odor of virginity in human flesh deserves to receive from Jesus the good odor of wonder, of miracles, and of sanctity in death; and those who have restrained themselves from lustful corruption and have bridled the flesh, lest the soul be stained and lest they displease their Lord, have deserved not only that in death the soul should be glorified by the Holy Spirit, but also that the body should be preserved from corruption, the stench of the sepulcher being turned into the heavenly favors of roses, violets, lilies, and the most sweet odors of paradise, according to most faithful testimonies. Thus, as the soul is in glory with the angels in heaven, so the body, as a vessel full of the Holy Spirit, deserves to be honored by mortals on earth, as is perceived in Bl. Margaret. So may our Lord, by the patronage of that glorious and holy soul, grant to us also the grace that at the end of our life we may deserve to obtain grace and mercy for the gaining of everlasting glory. Amen.
[17] A prayer to Bl. Margaret, our advocate.
O flower of purity! a prayer to the Blessed, O vessel of heavenly piety and of profound humility! O fire of divine love and of brotherly charity! O light of religion, and spirit without flesh, blessed Margaret, who dwellest in the high heaven, and in the mirror of the divine essence beholdest the abyss of the vast perils and miseries to which we are exposed on earth: pray for the Church militant, that she may persevere Catholic, purged of scandals, pure from vices, reformed in morals, and wholly adorned with virtues and holy, that she may be able to become heavenly and triumphant. Pray for your city, that the Lord may guard and defend it from adverse and harmful incursions of waters, of blood, of plague, of storms; that it may always be zealous to rule and administer itself by wise counsel — not of this world, but of the Angel of counsel — to the glory of the Lord, the peace of its citizens, and the common salvation of all its peoples.
[18] O holy Margaret! O spouse of Jesus, who standest before thy eternal Spouse, composed for her kinsfolk: pray for the house of Fontana, that it may persevere in grace; that the Creator may not suffer it to fall into his indignation; that it may always live in his holy fear and love; that it may always go from virtue to virtue, from goodness to goodness; and that after temporal prosperity he may at length deign to call it to eternal happiness. Never cease, O our flesh, O our blood, O exceedingly happy and glorious Lady of paradise — cease not, I say, to press with prayers in season and out of season for thy devout friends, thy kinsfolk, the authors and devisers of this holy translation c of thee and of thy religious piety, of this thy glory and honor on earth — that by the favor of thy intercession we may be able to come to contemplate, to enjoy, and eternally to praise and bless the ineffable Majesty of the divine essence, and the glorious presence of Jesus Christ our Redeemer, unto the ages of ages.
[19] Votive offerings made to her. It must not be passed over that at the sepulcher of this blessed Margaret there were seen, over a long interval of time, painted tablets, waxen images, and other votive offerings, as the wooden covering still shows: this is a sign that many were heard d and obtained graces by the favor and intercession of this blessed soul with the eternal Spouse.