Joseph of Cupertino

ON BL. JOSEPH OF CUPERTINO, PRESBYTER OF THE ORDER OF MINORS CONVENTUAL OF ST. FRANCIS,

AT OSIMO IN THE MARCH OF ANCONA,

In the year 1663.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Joseph of Cupertino, presbyter of the Order of Minors Conventual of St. Francis, at Osimo in the March of Ancona (B.) SI19001

BY C. S.

§ I. The Lives of him written in Italian, of which one is to be published and the others will be of use: his humble birth, and the chronological order of his life up to his reception of the priesthood.

[ ] The century last past, in the year 1603, Nutius wrote his Life in Italian, on the seventeenth day of the month of June, gave to the world, and in the year 1663, on the eighteenth day of September, sent forth to heaven, Bl. Joseph Desa, called from the place of his birth, a town of the kingdom of Naples, "of Cupertino," a professed presbyter of the Friars Minor Conventual of the Order of St. Francis and an illustrious ornament of it. Benedict XIV, the Roman Pontiff happily reigning, enrolled the same — famous by the report of sanctity and by miracles both in his life and after his death — in the calendar of the Blessed, by a Brief signed in the year 1753, on the twentieth day of February. His Life was published in Italian at Palermo in the year 1678, that is, in the fifteenth year after his death, by Fr. Robertus Nutius, as I have learned from a letter of Fr. Benignus Fremaut, of the Order of the Recollects of St. Francis, who used the same in the general Legend of the Saints of his Order published in Flemish. The said little work of Nutius is indeed not extant in our Museum; but that lack is sufficiently made good by the Lives presently to be praised, put together from authentic monuments.

[2] Berninus, Agellus and Pastrovichius, The first of these was written in the Italian tongue, and, dedicated to Innocent XIII, the supreme Pontiff, was published in the year 1722 with Roman types by that most distinguished man and count Dominicus Berninus, who in his Warning to the reader premises that he gathered it partly from the Apostolic processes of Nardò, of Assisi and of Osimo, drawn up for the beatification of the same Joseph, which he continually cites in the margin, and partly from authentic manuscripts, which he affirms to have been held trustworthy in the aforesaid processes. The celebrated work of Berninus was compressed into a compendium of due bulk, and, inscribed to the most serene archduke of Austria Joseph, was likewise published in Italian in the year 1753 at Livorno by Paulus Antonius Agellus, of the Order of Minors Conventual of St. Francis and inquisitor of the holy faith; and he added in the last chapter twenty-two miracles or benefits, all of which, one excepted, had happened after the publication of Berninus' book, and had been recorded in authentic instruments. Yet another Life, in compendious form, in the Italian speech, was published at Rome in the same year 1753 by the father master Angelus Pastrovicchi, perpetual definitor of the same Order and qualificator of the holy Office; copies of which were distributed at the solemnity of his beatification in the Vatican basilica of St. Peter, and were given also to us, who were then present there.

[3] Prefixed to the little book is a preface of the most reverend father Carolus Antonius Calvus, and the last of these from the processes alone, Minister general of the said Order, to the supreme Pontiff Benedict

XIV, to whom that Life is dedicated, in which he speaks thus of the method and the fidelity used in the writing: The excellent deeds of this famous Hero of the holy Church have been compressed into a few leaves in a plain and simple style and without any ornament which by its excessive pomp might adulterate the truth. But lest the extraordinary greatness of the things, though briefly narrated, should exceed human belief, the several relations of the facts have been authentically confirmed by the testimonies of those who asserted them upon oath in the ordinary and Apostolic processes, the places of those same testimonies being accurately noted in the margin. Thus your Beatitude, out of your exceeding penetration, deigned wisely to suggest to me that it should be done, and thus it has been religiously carried into execution. Thus far the most reverend father Calvi. And indeed that caution was prudently employed; for since that prophetic word of psalm 67, God is wonderful in his Saints, agrees in a certain singular manner with our Bl. Joseph, it was fitting that his so extraordinary deeds should be confirmed by those testimonies lawfully taken which no one may easily or rightly refuse to credit; and that other things should rather be omitted than, without sufficiently solid proofs of the truth, be exposed to the cavils of the more rigid.

[4] Hence I too shall gladly follow the admonitions of that most wise Pontiff, which we shall give, meaning to recount some things also from others. and therefore, passing over the count Berninus' work, however excellent, and its Compendium, I shall publish in Latin that Roman Compendium of Pastrovicchi, and shall recount among the Annotations the places of the processes cited in the margin, so that each relation may keep its own credit and authority. This too I shall religiously see to in the Latin version, that I keep closely to the Italian exemplar; and the fair reader will, I hope, pardon me that I therefore use a humbler style and now and again words less Latin, being more anxious about the truth than about the speech. Yet Berninus' labour will not be useless to me, since out of it I shall illustrate in the Commentary certain things which in the Life to be published are less clear from the study of brevity. Some miracles too obtained after the Blessed one's death and confirmed by trustworthy witnesses, which for the sake of avoiding prolixity were passed over in the said Life, I shall subjoin after the same. From Agellus' little work also I shall append to the rest the other more recent miracles or benefits which I mentioned at num. 2. Further, besides the writers already praised, some others — and among these several even contemporary with the Blessed one, and especially Laurence Cardinal de Laurea — have made honourable mention of him; whom Berninus recounts in chapter 32, and whom we shall cite several times.

[5] Although the Life to be published is written too accurately to need a prolix Commentary, it will nevertheless be of use to have run briefly through the whole order of the Blessed one's life — namely, his native soil and time, his parents, his various ages, his dwellings and the rest of this kind, in chronological order — passing over particular deeds, born of poor parents at Cupertino in the year 1603 except where these have either been treated too obscurely by Pastrovicchi, or have been passed over from the study of brevity. Joseph had for his fatherland Cupertinum, called by the natives Copertino, a town of the kingdom of Naples in the province of Otranto and the diocese of Nardò, commonly di Nardo; it is marked in the Maps of Frederick de Wit as situated between that city and Aletium, called by the inhabitants Leccie. Berninus adds that Cupertino is a marquisate of the illustrious Pinelli family. In this place the blessed Boy first saw the light in the year 1603, on the seventeenth day of June, as all three Italian Lives have it. The same agree concerning his parents, whom they affirm to have been poor but honest, and the father indeed to have been called Felix Desa, and the mother Francisca Panara.

[6] Concerning the father, moreover, Berninus relates born in a stable that he was a carpenter, but of manners so composed and courteous that he stood in the favour of all, and especially of the marquis his lord, from whom, since he had received the charge of the castle which he had in that place, he was commonly called Castellanus. Further, all the biographers alike agree that our Joseph was born in a stable; the cause whereof Fremaut and Berninus report to have been the mother's fear of the public officers, who, on account of debts contracted by her husband in pledging his credit for others, were breaking into her house, so that she fled into the stable, where, overtaken by the pangs of childbirth, she happily brought him forth. On the testimony of the same Berninus, the blessed Infant was baptized at Cupertino in the church which has the name of St. Mary of the Snow, and was afterwards initiated with the Sacrament of Confirmation. Fremaut affirms that besides the name of Joseph, that of Mary also, according to a custom sufficiently usual among the Italians, was given him in baptism.

[7] and severely brought up by his mother, As concerns his upbringing, it was pious but severe, under the rigid discipline of his mother. For she, as Berninus has it, citing the Summary of the processes fol. 23, num. 9, C., §6, 8 and the following, was of altogether other manners than her husband — namely of sparing speech and grave censure, and a very religious woman, so that she was held to be harsh rather than exact even in things rightly done. Hence she let no faults in her Son go unpunished, though these were rather of his age than of his mind, and she stirred up in him so great a fear of herself that he was afterwards wont to say that he had had no need of a novitiate in the Religious Order, because he had already gone through more than enough of one under his mother's rod. Fremaut writes that Joseph, while he was a boy, was of a bold and wrathful disposition, and out of it once struck a certain person a blow, and would have set upon another with a knife had not the bystanders hindered him. He adds that he was on this account received by his mother with a cudgel and driven out of the house, and passed the night in a certain porch of a church, nor was he admitted again into favour save at the entreaties of friends. But I do not know whence he himself learned these things, since the other biographers praise Joseph as holily brought up from his earliest boyhood; and among these Berninus, citing in the margin fol. 25 of the Summary, num. 10, §7, says: The processes testify that even in the childish age of five years he gave such surpassing signs of sanctity that nothing was wanting to him but age, to keep him from being honoured as a perfect man in all his works.

[8] rejected by the Minors Conventual, he is admitted by the Capuchins among the lay So long as his age and health permitted, he plied the shoemaker's trade for the sake of getting a living, says Berninus, citing the Summary fol. 26, num. 10, § XI. In the seventeenth year of his life the blessed Youth, desirous of perfection, begged to be admitted into the Order of the Friars Minor Conventual of St. Francis; and he hoped to obtain this the more easily because he had in that Order his uncle on the father's side, Francischinus Desa, and his uncle on the mother's side, Joannes Donatus, both priests, and the latter also notable for his mastership and learning. To the former of these he set forth his design and his desire; but he — and perhaps both of them, as Berninus has it — because he knew that Joseph was in no way imbued with letters and was therefore unfit ever to receive the priesthood, rejected his prayers and cut off all hope of gaining his wish. Afflicted by the refusal, the Youth turned his mind to the Capuchins, and obtained from their Provincial, whom Berninus calls Antonius Francavilla, that he should be received among the lay brethren of their Order.

[9] Accordingly he was clothed with the sacred habit in the year 1620 (Berninus adds the month of August) in the town of Martina, to the novitiate, and afterwards sent home again. of the diocese of Taranto in the province of Otranto, where it borders on the territory of Bari, among the Capuchin fathers, and was enrolled among the lay novices, being called brother Stephen. Having been exercised in this novitiate for eight months, as Pastrovicchi shows from the processes, he was thence dismissed. The cause of the dismissal was certain failings in the household services, on account of which he was judged unfit for the accustomed duties of his condition; which failings some ascribed to a natural defect of the eyes, others to a mind perpetually fixed upon God. Berninus, besides those things which are alleged in the Life to be published, writes that on one of his knees, from the frequent rubbing of them upon the ground, a swelling grew, which he himself — whether from little concern for the ill or from confidence about the future — cut off with a knife, committing the rest of the cure to God; and that God indeed brought him a sudden healing, but that Joseph nevertheless, both on account of the cut swelling and his emaciated face, and on account of his perpetually contemplative life, seemed less and less fit for the exercises of that Order, and therefore, God so disposing, was sent back to his home.

[10] That this dismissal happened about the end of March or the beginning of April of the year 1621 is gathered from this, A shoemaker, he is received among the Oblate Tertiaries of the Minors Conventual that the Blessed one, not daring to return to his mother, betook himself to Vetrara, to his uncle, a Minor Conventual, who was preaching there through that Lent, and who received him severely, but afterwards, moved with compassion, kept him for some time with himself, and after Easter — which in that year was celebrated on the eleventh day of April — brought him back secretly to Cupertino, where he had to hear nothing gentler from his rigid mother (for his father had already gone the way of all flesh). I have not found how long he then remained in his mother's house; but she by prayers and tears so far prevailed with her brother Donatus and the other Conventual fathers, that he was at length enrolled in their convent of St. Mary of the Little Grotto, or della Grottella, among the laymen whom they call Oblate Tertiaries.

[11] This convent, a mile and a half distant from the town of Cupertino, in the convent of the Grottella; was so called from an ancient image of the great Mother of God Mary, found in a certain underground cave in the year 1540; which cave, or crypt, the clergy of Cupertino turned into a certain pious chapel, and Cæsar Bovius, bishop of Nardò, in the year 1557 into a church, which Hieronymus de Franchis, bishop of the same see, granted in the year 1618 to the fathers Minor Conventual, who added to it a monastery of their Order. So, but at somewhat greater length, Berninus, on whose credit we have recounted these things. In Ughelli, vol. 1 of Italia sacra enlarged, Col. [ ], concerning Cæsar Bovius one reads among other things: The church of St. Mary, which has its name from the Little Grotto, set outside the walls of Cupertino, together with the buildings adjoining it, he raised most magnificently. These things about that place I have thought fit to relate, because it was, as will appear from the Life, especially dear to our Bl. Joseph on account of that famous image of the most holy Mother of God. In this convent, then, the Blessed one, in the habit of an Oblate Tertiary, was assigned to the uses of the stable, had the care of the house mule, and was for some time given as companion to his uncle, father Joannes Donatus.

[12] then among the clerical novices, he makes his profession, is initiated But in so lowly a condition and ministry he shone with such great virtues that the Religious themselves in their provincial chapter at Alti-Murum — which is a small city of the territory of Bari, called by the natives Alta-Mura — pressed for and obtained that on the nineteenth day of June of the year 1625, which was a few days after the beginning of the twenty-third year of his age, he should be clothed with the habit of the clerics of their Order and enrolled among the novices of the convent of the Grottella, retaining the name of Joseph. During the time of the novitiate, which with them is of a year, besides the accustomed Religious exercises, the study of letters, by which he might render himself fit for the priesthood, by his superiors'

command he had at heart; but in this he made very little progress. Nevertheless the splendour of his virtues brought it about that in the following year, which was that of Christ 1626, he was admitted to Religious profession. In the year of Christ 1627, on the thirtieth day of January, without any previous examination, he was initiated into the minor Orders by Hieronymus de Franchis, bishop of Nardò, and on the twenty-seventh day of February of the same year into the subdiaconate.

[13] into the sacred Orders and the priesthood. The diaconate likewise he received in the same year, on the twentieth day of March, an examination having indeed gone before, but with an altogether happy issue. For when he had learned by long study that one Gospel alone, Blessed is the womb that bore thee, etc., the bishop of Nardò, the divine providence so disposing, gave him that very passage to expound. Lastly he was initiated into the priesthood by Joannes Baptista Deti, bishop of Castro, whose see is Castro, a city suffragan to the archbishop of Otranto, in the year 1628, on the twenty-eighth day of March, again without any examination, as we shall see in its place in the Life. But why he received this last sacred Order at Castro rather than at Nardò, in whose diocese the convent of the Grottella is situated, I have not ascertained. The year and the day I have taken from Pastrovicchi; for Berninus, and after him Agellus, agree indeed as to the year, but mark the fourth day of March. Now in that year Easter was celebrated on the twenty-third day of April, and thus neither of the assigned days falls in the Ember days. Yet, since I cannot reach the truth from any other source, I prefer to hold to the Life which is to be published.

[14] A monument of the Orders received by him at Nardò. Further, Berninus asserts that there is extant in the chapel of the bishop of Nardò a monument of the Orders received there by Bl. Joseph and by that notable man Joannes Felix Marzanus, and he recites it in this manner: The ancient chapel of the episcopal palace, dedicated to God in honour of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where the twin lights of the diocese of Nardò and citizens of Cupertino, famous for the notable holiness of their life and for divine gifts — Joannes Felix Marzanus, who, having entered the Order of Preachers, took the name of Thomas Maria, was marked by Cæsar Bovius the bishop with the first tonsure; and Brother Joseph Desa, of the Order of Minors Conventual, by Hieronymus de Franchis the bishop with the first tonsure, the minor Orders, the subdiaconate and the diaconate — Antonius Sanfelicius the bishop adorned more becomingly, and, that it might be the more venerable to posterity, set up this monument.

§ II. He is exercised for two years with great straits of soul, and is wonderfully delivered: he is summoned to Naples by the sacred inquisition: he is sent free to Rome: his deeds there.

[ ] Having entered upon a stricter kind of life, Having returned, now a priest, to his convent of the Grottella, he offered to God his first-fruits of the altar, and from that divine ministry conceived a certain sacred awe and a vehement desire of a more perfect life, upon which he presently entered, as one reads in Pastrovicchi. But a grave tempest of soul followed these pious endeavours, and upon that a glad calm. I judge it will not be beside the purpose if, passing over the rest, which are sufficiently set forth in the Life to be published, I here recount the testimony of Bl. Joseph himself upon this matter, as it was reported by Hyacinthus Libellus, archbishop of Avignon, and inserted, on Berninus' witness, in the Summary of the processes fol. 263, num. 15, F. §25. The said Libellus, then, brings in the Blessed one speaking with him thus in Italian upon this subject: I had been brought to such a pass (by the voluntary renunciation of all things, even of those which with my superiors' leave I might have used like the other Religious) that I now had nothing in this world but the tunic with which I was clothed; and so, prostrate at the feet of the Crucified, I said: Behold me, Lord, such as thou wouldst have me, naked and stripped of all things and utterly poor: only be thou my one good, and I count every other good as a danger, a loss, and a shipwreck of the soul.

[16] And when I now seemed to myself to have vanquished the devil, wretch that I was, I did not yet know he is tried by a grievous melancholy, how much of the battle remained to me; nor did I perceive that the merit of poverty lies not in the lack of all outward things, but in the extinction of all inward affections towards them. And yet my most profane heart swarmed with earthly and worldly affections, and it needed a longer battle to be purged. And indeed not long after it appeared what it was; for when I repented of what I had begun, and could not, as at other times I had done, repair the loss, I fell into so grave an affliction of heart that, unless God by his incomparable charity had upheld me, I doubt whether I could have borne it. My melancholy grew as my want grew, and this was straitened day by day, because the tunic with which I was clothed was wearing away, nor did I know whither to turn to get me another which might relieve my necessity — not that the Religious did not provide me with fitting food and clothing, but either because God permitted it so for the sake of purging me, or because they, thinking me to be of a disordered mind, judged that by this affliction I must be restored to myself.

[17] Remaining long in this state, although I knew that God abode in the centre of my heart, which, greatly increased through two years, whence at times he exhorted me to patience, yet I frequently complained to him as though he had forsaken me, and that, whereas I had left all things for his sake, he permitted my soul, which ought to have been sprinkled with spiritual consolations, to be overwhelmed by a deadly struggle. This struggle between the divine goodness and my own malice lasted a whole two years. O God, how the remembrance of it unmans me! There were tempests; my depraved affections were the winds, and my soul the tossed little boat, which if it suffered no shipwreck, this was not of the industry of reason but of God, who willed to bring it through the tempests to the harbour. At the end of the two years, when my wounds seemed to me desperate and their remedy further off than ever, I was seized by a melancholy heavier than all the rest. I seemed to myself to be dying; and as one past consoling I withdrew into my cell, and having shut the door and then the window also, I lay down upon the poor little bed which I had, and after long complaints to God and about God, repeating over and over: Lord, why hast thou forsaken me? and after calling upon him with fervour and with sighs more ardent than usual, from the consideration of my miseries I broke out into a most bitter weeping, which I continued long amid violent sobs.

[18] he is at length delivered in a wonderful manner, At my sobs some Religious — I know not who — knocked at my door, and, when I did not answer, since after the manner of Religious it was not locked with a key, he opened it, and coming in approached my bed and said: Brother Joseph, what ails thee? Speak; for I am here to help thee. I, though I did not recognize him, but took him for one of the Religious, begged him to depart and to leave me plunged in my miseries. No, no, that Religious replied; I will have thee lay aside thy weeping and take heart again; and because I believe thou hast need of a tunic, I bring thee this; and he laid it upon the bed and went away. Then I rose in wonder, opened the window, and looked at the tunic, and presently put off the old worn one and put on the new. Father, I tell thee a prodigy of the divine mercy. When I had put on this tunic, sent me, I believe, from heaven, all my melancholy vanished, and my heart was filled with a most sweet gladness, and I detested and execrated all the distrust and despair which I had felt until then.

[19] as he himself related. And thenceforward I have served God with so great tranquillity, and with so great an esteem of the divine service, that the least service which I can render him I value incomparably more than the empire of a hundred thousand worlds. Who that brother was I could never learn, nor ever find out who gave me that tunic for an alms; this is certain, that if he was not an angel sent me from heaven, he, whoever he was, discharged excellently the office of a consoling angel. And so the holy Man ended his discourse. After these things Berninus adds: Thus far the writing of Libellus, archbishop of Avignon. Now this Hyacinthus Libellus was of the Order of Preachers, master of the sacred palace, and was raised by Clement X to the see of Avignon, which he is said, in vol. 1 of the Gallia Christiana reprinted, col. 838, to have entered in the year 1673. The said conversation, therefore, which he had with Bl. Joseph, was before his episcopate. I pass over other things which are abundantly narrated in the Life to be published, and proceed to the second affliction and to the chronology.

[20] Summoned by the sacred inquisition, he goes to Naples, Joseph had already grown famous by many miracles, both at Cupertino, near which town he had his fixed dwelling in the convent of the Grottella, and in the province of Bari, which he had gone through with his father Provincial, when he was accused as an impostor before the tribunal of the sacred inquisition at Naples by the vicar of a certain bishop, whose name is passed over in silence, and was thither summoned. The sum of the accusation was this: that a man of thirty-three years was running about through those provinces, and that this second Messiah was drawing whole villages after him with prodigies at every step, celebrated by the common people, who believe everything. According to these words, taken strictly, the year of Christ 1636 was then running, since the Blessed one was born in the year 1603; but from the rest of the chronology of events that matter happened about two years later, and Fremaut also and Berninus have attached his departure from the Grottella for Naples to the twenty-first day of October of the year 1638, when he was in the thirty-fifth year of his life. Hence it must be said that the vicar noted his age, as is commonly done, only approximately.

[21] From these reckonings it follows that Bl. Joseph, from the first day of his admission among the clerical novices up to his departure for Naples, dwelt thirteen complete years and four months in the convent of the Grottella, which was dear to him, where, while he was being examined, something memorable counting in that time which he meanwhile spent in traversing the province of Bari with his superior, and perhaps also in other excursions. At Naples he was detained a week or two by the sacred Office of the inquisition, and in that space of time was, as is said in the Lives, thrice examined. What, however, was done in those examinations has not been published, save one thing sufficiently memorable, which Fremaut, Berninus and Agellus inserted into their Life of him, and which, since it is not read in the Life to be published, I here subjoin in Berninus' words turned into Latin. The examinations, he says, were kept in silence; but to the inquiry into his learning brother Joseph answered by a miracle, that is, by a prophecy, whose truth could not be proved but by the lapse of time, and it is the following.

[22] There was offered him by the sacred minister a Breviary, which, when it was opened, he was bidden to read and explain. concerning the family of St. Catherine of Siena By a certain chance, if you regard human things, but if divine, not without a mystery, it happened that the Lessons of St. Catherine of Siena, brother Joseph's patroness, presented themselves to his eyes, in which there was then read: Catherine, virgin of Siena, born of the Benincasa, of pious parents. Brother Joseph read: Catherine, virgin of Siena, born of pious parents, leaving out the words of the Benincasa. Being admonished by the minister to repeat the reading, brother Joseph promptly read the same words which we have said,

read them over again, with no word taken away or added. Bidden a third time, he read in the same way as the first and the second time. But then, being warned by the minister to attend to the lesson, in which he had neither read nor uttered these words, of the Benincasa, brother Joseph affirmed for certain that he saw no other words than those which he had just uttered. Praise be to God, that it pleased him that it should be foretold through father Joseph that those words, of the Benincasa, were to be removed from the Roman Breviary, as not long afterwards they were removed for just causes by the sacred Congregation of Rites. Thus far Berninus.

[23] It must be observed, however, that not the whole sentence of the Breviary is related to have befallen him. but only its sense was reported by him; for in the Roman Breviary published at Antwerp with the Plantin types in the year 1647 it is thus read: Catherine, virgin of Siena, born of the Benincasa family — together with the Borghese family, springing from the same stock — of pious parents, etc. In this same way Fremaut read it, agreeing with Berninus in the rest. As concerns the truth of the prophecy, Baillet in his Life of the same St. Catherine observes that the most illustrious family of the Borghesi obtained from the supreme Pontiff, who was then Urban VIII, in the year 1641, on the twenty-eighth day of September, that these words should be deleted; but that in not all the Breviaries which afterwards came to light was the Pontiff's command straightway obeyed — of which the Plantin copy just cited is a proof. In the later Plantin editions, however, which we have seen and which we now use, the words which were formerly read about the Benincasa and the Borghese families having been erased, it is only said: Catherine, virgin of Siena, born of pious parents, etc. For the rest, I do not know on whose testimony this deed of Bl. Joseph is asserted; for neither in the Life to be published is mention made of it, nor does Berninus here cite the processes in the margin.

[24] Sent to Rome, he is placed in a remote cell; Further, Bl. Joseph, his innocence and sanctity being now approved before the tribunal of the sacred Office at Naples, remained for some time freely at Naples in a convent of his Order. But since he was frequently visited there by nobles as well as by common folk, and greatly esteemed, he was, for the sake of avoiding honour, sent by the ministers of the sacred Office further off, to Rome, to his father General. Yet it seemed expedient to them that he should be placed in some remote and solitary convent, and this they signified to the General by a letter carried by the man himself. There then presided over the Order of Minors Conventual, on Berninus' witness, the father master Joannes Baptista Berardicellus, and he resided as usual in the Roman convent of the Twelve Apostles; who, since he had never before seen Joseph, and now saw him sent to him by the sacred inquisition with a letter of this kind, received him with a grave frown, and bade him remain, until he should determine otherwise, in a certain remote cell of that convent.

[25] before the Pontiff he suffers an ecstasy. But the more obscure the place in which Joseph lay hid, the more illustriously did the fame of his sanctity grow at Rome, so that now he was looked up to not by his Religious brethren alone, but also by the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and by the supreme Pontiff Urban VIII himself, as the biographers relate from the processes. Hence Berninus refers to this time what is read in the Lives concerning the Blessed one's coming before the said Pontiff. They say, namely, that Joseph, when he had been brought by his father General to kiss his feet, and was bending down to do it, was so struck by the sacred majesty of the Pontiff, in whom he contemplated Christ the Lord, whose vicar he is, that he remained in ecstasy and lifted from the ground, until by the General's command he was bidden otherwise; the Pontiff being amazed and saying that, if Joseph should die during his own Pontificate, he would bear witness of that matter. Berninus adds that he then commanded that he should be placed in some convent of the observance, that is, in one in which the observance of the Rule was in force.

[26] Certain other things which he is said to have done then at Rome. To the same time likewise he refers what he asserts is read in the Summary of the processes fol. 70, num. 12, B. §102: namely, that outside Rome there was a report that brother Joseph was working many miracles at Rome, on account of which he was held by all for a Saint. But although he confesses that it is not sufficiently ascertained by him what miracles are there meant, yet from fol. 593 of the Summary, num. 41, A. §44, he affirms that Baltazar Mozicchi, when the physicians despaired of his life, then suddenly recovered from a deadly disease through Joseph's prayers, which the kinsmen of the man in peril had begged for. He thinks that then too happened what is related from the processes in the Life to be published at num. 87 — namely, that at the same time in which he was living in the City he stood present in the last struggle to Octavius Piccinnus, who was giving up the ghost at Cupertino, as he had before promised him. Lastly, he judges that he foretold at that time the cardinalate to Nicolaus Albergati, who was afterwards named Ludovisi; but we shall show in the following § that this last happened during his second stay at Rome; whereas of the former things, as far as concerns the time, we can determine nothing.

§ III. Sent to Assisi, he suffers great straits of soul there: he is called back to Rome: he returns to Assisi: certain things done there.

[ ] He is assigned to the convent of Assisi, After a stay of a length unknown to me in the City of Rome, he is sent by his father General to Assisi — which is an episcopal city of the Pontifical dominion in Umbria — to dwell in the sacred convent of St. Francis. The time of his coming to this place Berninus marks as the thirtieth day of April of the year 1639, and this is sufficiently conformable to the chronology hitherto given. But that same date suffers a difficulty from the Life to be published, in which the Blessed one is said to have dwelt thirteen years in the convent of Assisi. Now it is established from what is to be said, that in the year 1653, on the twenty-third day of July, he was removed from this convent, never to return to it; and thus, if he came to Assisi on the year and day assigned by Berninus, he must have spent fourteen complete years there. These things cannot be reconciled, unless one will have it that the Blessed one, while he had his fixed dwelling in the convent of Assisi, spent several months from time to time elsewhere (for he was meanwhile called to Rome), and that Pastrovicchi, these being cut off, counted only the complete years in which he lived present at Assisi. Unless this be so, for 13 years 14 must be substituted, or it must be said that the Blessed one came hither later than the thirtieth day of April of the year 1639, and therefore also that he was called to Naples later than the end of October of the year 1638, as we said at num. 20 from Berninus; for neither the Neapolitan nor the Roman stay seems to have been so long that a year's space can be added to it.

[28] Bl. Joseph rejoiced indeed that that dwelling had fallen to him where he is harshly used by his superior; and, tormented by dryness of mind in which the body of his most holy patriarch Francis was kept; but not long after a new affliction came upon him again, the more bitter as the hands from which it was sent were the friendlier. For a little time after, the father master Antonius a S. Mauro was set over that convent as Custos. He was the very man who, while he presided over the whole Province, had led Joseph about through the territory of Bari out of veneration and love; but on account of the suit written against him by the inquisition of Naples he was so changed in mind towards him that he ceased not to assail with bitter taunts and threats the man whom he had before loved. And he indeed bore these things patiently and humbly, and made religious amends by greater services; but the Custos was thereby rendered no gentler. To this trouble there was added another and graver: for the divine providence, which willed its Servant to be tried like gold in the furnace, gradually withdrew from him utterly all its consolations and the heavenly delights of the soul, and left him as it were deaf to divine things and destitute of all sense of piety.

[29] Besides these things it permitted the demon at the same time to infest him for two years with foul thoughts and phantasms, and grievously tortured by foul temptations, by which that most chaste soul, though well aware of its own innocence, was wondrously tormented. These straits of soul were increased by the remembrance of the past time, in which in his beloved convent of the Grottella he abounded in divine gifts with the utmost tranquillity of mind. Hence he fell into a grave melancholy, which, showing it forth with his whole body also, he could scarcely lift the eyelids of his eyes. Moreover, so great was the Custos' unseasonable severity towards the afflicted Joseph that, if we believe Berninus, it drove two Religious of that convent — namely the father master Gabriel of Caravaggio and Euthymius De Campo-Vetere, master of the novices — to complain on Joseph's behalf to the father General; and he, having long since known his sanctity, and therefore assenting to their petitions, willed that he should be withdrawn from the Custos' commands and be henceforward subject to the one father Bonaventura of Cupertino, who at that time was superior in the convent of Assisi. Whence, however, Berninus learned these things he does not declare: more certain is what both he himself and Pastrovicchi have handed down from the processes concerning the Blessed one's being on that account called to Rome.

[30] he is called to Rome by the General, For the father General, being informed of the Blessed one's pitiable state, summoned him to Rome, that for the sake of refreshing his mind he might pass the Lent of that year at Rome with him. Berninus rightly attached this to the year 1644. Further, God at Rome utterly drove away that black tempest of the soul, and again filled his Servant with his former delights. What he chiefly did at Rome Pastrovicchi does not set forth; but Berninus recounts the rest, which we subjoin here. First of all he says that he visited the sacred places and basilicas of the fostering City with the utmost sense of piety and sweetness of mind. To this effect he recites from the Summary of the processes fol. 267, num. 15, C. §8 the testimony of Bonaventura Claverius, who from the Order of the Conventuals of St. Francis was raised to the bishopric of Potenza in the year 1646, on the witness of Ughelli, vol. 7 of Italia sacra enlarged, col. 144. This testimony, because it is that of an eye-witness, I judge worthy to be set before the reader, turned into the Latin speech as it is recounted in Italian in Berninus.

[31] and there piously visits the sacred basilicas. When I was at Rome (says the said bishop of Potenza) there came from Assisi father brother Joseph, summoned for consolation's sake by the father General of Larino (this is the same Joannes Baptista Berardicellus, so called from his fatherland Larino, a city of the kingdom of Naples in the province of the Capitanata), and he was lodged in a certain cell above the chamber of the father General, and I had charge of him. I took him with me to visit the nine basilicas in the father General's carriage, because we could not otherwise have gone the round of all the said churches. A wonderful thing! As often as he mounted into the carriage he was rapt into ecstasy, and to make him get out of the carriage and enter the church it was necessary that I should bid him in the name of holy obedience to become master of himself. Having entered the basilica of St. Peter, the first of all, he so cast down his eyes that he scarcely saw the pavement on which he was walking. Hence I said to him: Brother Joseph, lift up your eyes and see the altars, the chapels and the painted panels, and other things as pious as they are elegant. But he never lifted his eyes, and answered me: I believe, I believe;

nor do I wish for anything but the holy faith.

[32] To Nicolaus Albergati To the same stay in the City, or at any rate to the same year, belongs the prophecy by which the Blessed one foretold the Cardinalate to the most illustrious Nicolaus Albergati, afterwards called Ludovisi — which prophecy Berninus, as I warned above, related too early. The matter, as it happened, Nicolaus himself, now a Cardinal, set forth in words which Berninus recounted in Italian from the Summary fol. 4, num. 3, A. § [ ], and which we have rendered from him into Latin. Father Joseph of Cupertino, a Minor Conventual, I first came to know at Rome. He had been summoned thither by his superiors, and was lodged in the convent of the Holy Apostles of his Order; but I was then living in the palace which the French prince last left to Cardinal Chigi, but which at that time the prince of Venosa possessed. Having heard of the Father's arrival, and moved by the fame which was spread abroad of his holiness, I was fired with a singular desire of seeing him. With this mind, therefore, going out of my house one morning, I entered the convent, where, finding no one to lead me to his cell — which I had only understood to be near the tower — I went up several stairs, and opportunely met the good Father not far from it; who, though he had never before seen me, nor knew in any way who I was, at once accosted me first in precisely these words: Why does a Cardinal visit a poor little man?

[33] From the humility of the speech I understood that he was the very man whom I sought, as indeed he was. I told him therefore that I was not a Cardinal. He answered, smiling: Well, well, well. After I had conversed with him for the space of no more than half an hour, I withdrew with a great sense of piety. The same day, when after dinner I was at home, there came to me a certain Conventual, who, premising that he was father Joseph's companion, said that he had said that a certain prelate, who that same morning had been alone with him, had laughed because he had said to him I know not what about his Cardinalate; but that within a few months he would see whether he had been mistaken or not. That father was dismissed by me in such a manner as any prudent man may judge. But nevertheless the truth of the matter appeared: for that conversation happened in the month of May of the year 1644, and in the month of March of the year 1645 I was by the divine clemency promoted, etc. Thus far Nicolaus Albergati, or Ludovisi, who was created by Innocent X on the sixth day of March in the year aforesaid a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church of the title of St. Augustine, as Ciacconius has it, vol. 4 of the Lives of the Pontiffs, col. 670, where more concerning him is to be read.

[34] Perhaps in the same year 1644 there likewise happened the things which Bonaventura Claverius, before other Cardinals he suffers wonderful ecstasies bishop of Potenza, cited above at num. 30 and 31, further asserted in the Summary of the processes §14, fol. 268, as reported in Berninus, being likewise an eye-witness. One morning, says Claverius in Italian, I took with me father Joseph, who was staying at Rome, to visit Cardinal Lanti, protector of the Order, Cardinal Montalto, and, if I remember rightly, Cardinal Borghese also. With each of these, all of whom we visited in the same morning hour, as soon as we had sat down with the said lord Cardinals, scarcely had I brought in some pious discourse about one or another mystery of Christ's passion, but father brother Joseph was rapt into ecstasy, and in a moment of time falling from the seat which he occupied upon his knees, with his arms spread out in the manner of a cross and his eyes open towards heaven, after a great wailing and a groaning of the heart, was seen motionless and destitute of all sense; nor did the ecstasies leave off save when I had so commanded by holy obedience. Hence the said Cardinals derived much consolation and piety from the company of father brother Joseph, and always commended themselves to him, nor did they speak of it with me.

[35] Now it has seemed good to refer these things to the aforesaid year, he undergoes: sent back to Assisi, he is presented with the citizenship, because Cardinal Montalto, otherwise called Franciscus Perettus, was first created Cardinal in the month of December of the year 1641, on Ciacconius' witness, vol. 4, col. 610; and thus later than the time when the Blessed one first came to Rome, as was said above. And Cardinal Petrus Maria Borghese had indeed already died in the year 1642, as the said Ciacconius has it, col. 539; but since Claverius mentions this last man doubtfully, it is more likely that he failed in memory about him rather than about Montalto; unless perhaps, using a prolepsis, he called Montalto Cardinal before he was one. Concerning Marcellus Lanti or Lantes all is right. Things succeeding so prosperously at Rome, he is sent back to Assisi, where in the same year 1644 he was certainly already staying. Now he was received there with the vast applause of all, and some time after, on account of his notable benefits, was for honour's sake presented with the citizenship by the citizens, and enrolled by the Religious Conventuals, the alumni of his convent (they call them sons); both of which he himself accepted, and for joy was rapt into ecstasy and lifted into the air, because, as he said, he had been made a fellow-townsman of St. Francis.

[36] by a public instrument, Agellus in the Life of our Bl. Joseph, chapter 9, recounts in Latin the instrument of the citizenship, which is of this kind: The Gonfalonier and Priors of the most illustrious and Seraphic city of Assisi, to the very reverend Father Joseph of Cupertino, of the Order of Minors Conventual of St. Francis, of the household of the sacred convent of Assisi, greeting and prosperous approaches to pious works. The notable love which thou hast shown towards this city — which by a singular benefit of the divine compassion we, though unworthy, have obtained as a fatherland shared with the glorious patriarch of the poor, the Lord Francis — and the prayers which for the salvation of souls, and for the spiritual and temporal goods of public and private affairs, thou hast always deigned and dost deign healthfully to pour out in the Lord to the Lord with effect, especially while by restoring true charity thou strivest to reconcile the divided minds of the citizens, dost console also the sick and afflicted, and art wont, in fine, to help all with good counsels — and signally the help which in these past months thou hast shown us most present, in word and in deed, amid the sacrilegious invasions of the enemy through the wars of the neighbouring regions — these things have brought us to this, that thou hast carried away the hearts of the citizens of Assisi, and hast rendered all the men of Assisi most closely bound to thee by a bond of undying obligation.

[37] which we recite from Agellus. And since we are in no wise able to repay like with like, in order to escape the vice of ingratitude, as a token of a grateful mind we have, in the public general councils, by the living voice of all, enrolled thee, the aforesaid very reverend Father Joseph of Cupertino, a citizen among us, and do enrol thee by these presents, with all the prerogatives and privileges belonging and to belong to the citizens of Assisi born in that city of Assisi itself. In faith and testimony whereof we have ordered these letters to be made and fortified with the impression of our seal, and to be subscribed by our chancellor. Given at Assisi from our Prioral palace on this fourth day of the month of August of the year 1644.

In the place ✠ of the seal

Grandilius Lucidus

chancellor, by command, etc.

Concerning the gift of the citizenship Berninus and Pastrovicchi also agree, and the former mentions the instrument also; yet neither of them recites it, nor does Agellus indicate whence he received it. But from the day set down we conjecture that it was not drawn up immediately upon his return to Assisi, since from what is to be said he seems then to have been living for some time already in the convent of Assisi. But of what war mention is made in it we shall see in the following §.

[38] By illustrious men and princes Nor was Bl. Joseph's famous renown contained within Assisi only and the neighbouring places, but had extended itself also to foreign regions and kingdoms, from which various persons of great name are said to have come to him, whom the Life to be published mentions briefly and Berninus more fully. But for me it will be enough to have subjoined in Latin three testimonies on this subject, gathered by the same Berninus from the processes, the rest being passed over, lest I be longer than is right. The processes, says Berninus, citing fol. 85, num. 13, A. §98, say this: The fame of the sanctity of the aforesaid servant of God, brother Joseph, being spread abroad not only through Italy but also through Germany, France, Poland and other regions, many illustrious men and great princes hastened to visit him in this sacred convent of St. Francis. And again at fol. 103, num. 13, A. §229, on the same witness, it is said: The fame of the sanctity of this Servant of God and his name had been published abroad through a great part of Europe; and therefore many, moved by love and piety, hastened and came to visit him. And it was a wonderful thing: whoever had spoken with him was most excellently disposed towards him and loved him most tenderly; nor, after long acquaintance and familiarity with him, was any one found who had dealt with the said Father and had not loved him with a singular affection. And the persons by whom he was loved were of so great a number that it would be long to recount them.

[39] The third testimony brought forward by Berninus from fol. 117 of the Summary, he is honoured and visited. num. 13, A. §319, is that of father Octavius Lellius, of the third Order of St. Francis, who asserted what follows. Brother Joseph was held in honour and great esteem not only by the fathers of our Religion and the inhabitants of Assisi, but also by princes and illustrious men, and by name by the Most Eminent lord Cardinals Facchinetti, Ludovisi, Caraffa, Rapaccioli, Donghi, by Casimir king of Poland, by the infanta Maria of Savoy and others; as also by the Polish prince Zamoyski, and particularly by prince Alexander Lubomirski and his wife, who, having set out for Italy in the holy year, visited father Joseph and commended themselves to his prayers, that he might pray to God for the obtaining of offspring, since they had for a full twelve years begotten none. And the said father Joseph bade them place their hope in God and in holy Francis, and that a child should be born to them; as one was born to them when they had returned to their fatherland. And all these things the said prince and princess told me at Warsaw (which is the seat of the kings of Poland); and I saw the little prince, the said lord and lady saying: This son we obtained through father Joseph's prayers. So he.

[40] Yet far happier than all the rest was the coming to Bl. Joseph of the most serene Joannes Fredericus, He brings the Prince of Brunswick to the faith. prince of Brunswick and duke of Hanover; who indeed was by his miracles, prayers and admonitions so far brought that, having abjured the Lutheran heresy, he embraced the Catholic religion, which he also professed to the end of his life. He was the son of George, duke of Brunswick and Hanover, and the father of Wilhelmina Amalia, the most august consort of Joseph, emperor of the Romans. Father Antonius Cito, a presbyter of the Society of Jesus, in the Italian Life of that most august lady, to whom he was confessor, fixes the said prince's abjuration in the year 1651, whereas Pastrovicchi and Berninus have attached his Italian journey to the year 1649, but the abjuration to the following year. Perhaps the aforesaid prince began his Italian journey indeed in the year 1649, but in the year

1650 first came to Joseph, and thus abjured the heresy in the year 1651. Unless this be so, I prefer in this part to believe the most august lady's confessor, especially since Agellus too, in the Italian Life of Bl. Joseph dedicated to the most serene archduke Joseph, referred his coming to Bl. Joseph to the year 1650, and the abjuration to the year following. The matter, as it was done, Pastrovicchi sufficiently sets forth. I add nevertheless the testimony of the most serene widow of the same prince, Benedicta Henrietta, daughter of the count Palatine of the Rhine, concerning his grateful mind towards Bl. Joseph, which Berninus testifies came to him authentically, she being then still among the living; and it is of this kind: There was continual talk (in the court of the same duke) of the servant of God, father brother Joseph of Cupertino, towards whom he (the duke) cherished a most tender devotion, and whose likeness he had; and when he wished to have some Religious in his dominions, out of regard for him he chose the Capuchins before others, as being Franciscans, with one of whom he was wont to expiate the offences of his soul, and whom, so long as he lived, he protected.

§ IV. Some miracles wrought by him at Assisi, and passed over in the Life to be published, or less fully set forth.

[ ] Many healed of divers diseases by his touch, Of the miracles which the Blessed one wrought at Assisi, Berninus recounts some, partly passed over by Pastrovicchi, partly mentioned too briefly, to which therefore I shall give room in this §. And I shall use Berninus' own words turned into Latin, and shall note as usual the places of the processes whence they were drawn. He used to visit (he himself says, citing the Summary fol. 43, num. 12, A. §121) the sick, and by an embrace alone he suddenly healed them. Among these happy sick men was one brother Ludovicus Branconus, his companion, to whom brother Joseph running up said: Do not forsake me, dear companion; and when he embraced him, the malignant fever, from which he had been brought to his last agony, left him in a moment of time. There follows in the same place another healing, from the Summary fol. 492, num. 38, C. §38. Brother Joannes Baptista Crucianus, of the third Order of St. Francis, had struggled for three years with so sharp a pain of the head and at the same time so grave a hypochondria that he presented the appearance of a corpse rather than of a man. Upon him the Servant of God, to whom he had had recourse, laid his hand on the head, and, having recited the blessing of the holy father Francis, suddenly healed him; and he went away with a sound head and a cheerful mind, with no less amazement than was the miracle by which, so to speak, he had raised to a new life one three years dead.

[42] or of the things which he himself The same grace (Berninus goes on, citing the Summary fol. 592, num. 41, A. §32) against a like ill of the head Alcides de Fabianis obtained; and at his prodigious touch alone (here is cited fol, 491, num. 41, A. §26) Octavius Aromatarius recovered from a singular torment of the leg, and doctor Paulus Santinellus (in the same place §19) from most bitter convulsions of the body. Nor were miracles wrought only at his touch alone, but also at the application of the things which he himself had used — such as rarely occur in Histories. Olympia Benigni (ibid. 22), only by the Servant of God's girdle being applied to her, and Portia Pontani (fol. 592, ibid. 34), after his little cap had been laid upon her body, escaped miraculously from a most perilous childbirth; and the son of a certain countryman (fol. 491, ibid. 23), merely by the Blessing of St. Francis, written by brother Joseph, being shown to his eyes, recovered the power of swallowing, and thus received life. Clara Leonelli (in the Summary, ibid. 30) by the touch of a napkin steeped in his blood recovered from a gangrene which had eaten away almost her whole face. Appollonius Bianchus (ibid. 31), the same (napkin) being applied to him, was left by the malignant fever in which, burning, he had in despair thrown himself out of a window into the fountain below.

[43] Very many also in the most desperate ills healthfully used the water had used. Others he heals by his prayers, and composes quarrels. in which brother Joseph's tunic had been washed, which, being fragrant with a most sweet odour, was on that account kept as the one remedy against all diseases. For these things Berninus cites fol. 592, num. 41, A. §35, C., and fol. 107, num. 13, A. §256. Nor his presence alone (he goes on in the same place, noting fol. 591, ibid. §27), nor the touch of his things alone, but even his prayer alone, though he were far absent, availed with God for anything however great. The above-mentioned Octavius Aromatarius and Hieronymus Ferrus, when the physicians had despaired of their health because of the malignity of the fever, were healed in a moment at that very point of time in which brother Joseph was praying for them at Mass. And a dreadful brawl having arisen (as he asserts is read ibid. §27) between the armed men of Assisi and those of Bastia (now Bastia is a village not far distant from Assisi), that bloody strife, with no one intervening, unexpectedly ceased for this cause alone, that brother Joseph, as soon as he had heard of it, had prayed God for the composing of peace between those hostile factions.

[44] At his mere sight (Berninus proceeds, from the Summary fol. 272, he corrects a man living in concubinage, delivers Assisi num. 17, C. §3) and I know not what mutual greeting, a certain gardener dismissed his concubine, and began a life which was an example to the whole city, which ascribed so wonderful a change to brother Joseph alone. But by his secret prayers he brought back his fellow-townsmen from a dreadful war to a most placid peace in the following case. A war was blazing (here is noted fol. 292, num. 17, §3) between the Pontiff Urban VIII and the Florentines, who, in league with other princes of Italy, were maintaining their pretended rights by terror rather than for the gaining of dominions. On that night on which the memory of the sacred stigmata of St. Francis is kept (that is, on the seventeenth day of September) the enemy came down into the plain of Assisi, and amid the darkness thick fires were seen round about on this side and on that, which the Florentines had kindled either for their own convenience or for the terror of our men. The war, the night, the fires, and, worse than these ills, the imagined face of yet graver ills hovering before their minds, threw all the men of Assisi into a sudden consternation, not without that confusion of affairs which is wont to attend counsels taken in hard and doubtful matters.

[45] Those who were not fit to bear arms all fled to the churches of the Franciscans from the threatening enemy. as to a safe asylum. But the bishop N. Baglionus and the governor N. Valeottus, as the chief persons and prelates, judging that force was to be warded off rather than offered, went straight to brother Joseph's cell; who amid tumults so perilous was enjoying the utmost peace amid his accustomed prayers. When the Servant of God had beheld these men, and had the more noted their vehement disturbance, in no wise changed, nor moved by another's fear, at once reproving and encouraging them, he said: O souls of little faith! Go and trust in God; for I promise you that the holy father Francis, your fellow-townsman, will never permit harm to be brought upon this city. Scarcely had he uttered these words when the aforesaid fires vanished from the fields, and the enemy — it is not known for what cause — withdrew, and all fear ceased. On the morrow morning too it was not only found that no harm had been brought upon this territory, but it also remained thenceforward free of all military injury, although the surrounding places, Perugia, Todi and Città di Castello, suffered most grievous losses therefrom. Of these things the men of Assisi doubtless speak in the instrument by which they presented the citizenship to the Blessed one, and which we recounted at num. 36 and the following. But concerning that same war Ludovicus Muratorius may be consulted, vol. XI of the Annals of Italy, at the year of Christ 1643 and the following, in which peace was ratified.

[46] He provides by his prayers for the Convent, labouring under a want of corn, I return to Berninus. Fourteen miracles, he says, wrought by brother Joseph at Assisi are read in a single leaf of the processes (namely, as he notes in the margin, 591, num. 41, §22), which if we wished to relate them all, out of a single Life there would be made a long History. Then, being about to narrate some of them, he thus begins: His prayers, so effectual in the favour of others, were prodigious even for his own household. Father Saurinus of Mondovì, then custos of the sacred convent (he notes the year 1648, and the Summary fol. 293, num. 17, C. §5), from the want of corn, which in this year was everywhere dear, had been reduced to such straits in procuring the accustomed food for his Religious that, stirred by grief, he had recourse to the Servant of God, resolved to give up his office and depart thence, lest he should behold his subjects perishing of hunger — since, all means for obtaining corn having now been tried in vain, bread would on the morrow be altogether lacking in the refectory. To this brother Joseph, nothing disturbed in mind, said: Trust in God that he himself will provide: Cast thy thought upon the Lord, and he will nourish thee; and together with the Custos, falling upon his knees, he recited the litanies of the Mother of God.

[47] he provides by his prayers; What brother Joseph then said to that same Mother of God, the event shortly taught. For they had not finished the litanies before the brethren, running in crowds to his cell, where the Custos also was present, announced that a quantity of corn (in Italian it is quattro rubbia, which with the Italians are a kind of measure) was at that very time being unloaded in the cloister of the convent, sent by way of alms by Cardinal Rapaccioli from a certain abbey of his situated near Città di Castello. Which being heard, both together, the Custos and brother Joseph, burst for joy and tenderness of soul into abundant tears; and brother Joseph, turning to the Custos, said: Did I not tell thee that God would provide? O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? Knowest thou not that the holy father Francis said that if there were a single loaf in the world, half of it would come to his Order? Now then, if he provides for all his brethren in every place, on what ground should he not do it in this place, which has been destined by God for the rest of his body until the end of the world? O how good is this God! Let us so serve him as he succours us in our necessities. Then all the brethren, on bended knees in that same cell, sang together the Te Deum; but father Joseph (these are the very words of the process) at the third or fourth versicle was rapt into ecstasy.

[48] and procures alms. Setting out for Cascia, he does wonders, To this he subjoins another like it from the Summary fol. 294, num. 17, C. §6, which he writes happened in the same place in the year 1652 in this manner: Another Custos, the father master Robertus Nutius, from a failure and unwonted scarcity of alms at the time of the Indulgences granted at Assisi, had recourse as one despairing to the Servant of God and said: Two days of the Indulgences have now gone by, and in the boxes there are either few alms or none, out of which the debts contracted by the convent might be wiped out. Brother Joseph with a certain force struck his head

with his hands, saying: Bah, do not doubt: why fearest thou? It is more at heart to St. Francis than to thee to provide for this convent. So he said, and so it fell out. They recited the litanies of the most blessed Virgin, and on the days following (the words are those of the process) greater alms were given than in the three or four preceding years. After these things Berninus subjoins the Blessed one's journey from Assisi to Cascia, which is a town of Umbria, to which he was sent by his superior on account of a certain woman possessed. On this journey, he says, happened that wonderful ecstasy in which, raised from the ground, he was rapt towards the most holy Sacrament hidden in the altar, as is read in the Life to be published at num. 36, to which therefore I refer the reader.

[49] He adds, from the Summary fol. 50, num. 12, A. §158, and, having fallen into a river, he is not wetted by the waters. that while he was pursuing his way a certain man, who, armed with a fowling-piece, was at that very moment plotting the death of his enemy, upon seeing the Blessed one presently repented of his purpose and forgave his enemy his anger. Concerning the same journey he then relates the following. While on the way they were crossing a river, the horse with brother Joseph was suddenly swept away by the waters. Then his companion, brother Ludovicus, leapt down into the river to reach him by swimming, and, plunged in the waters up to his breast, seized him with his arms and drew him out upon the bank. But so to have drawn him out was to have seen a miracle: for he appeared so dry in body and in clothes as though he had come out of a meadow and not out of a river, only a little water being sprinkled on his shoes, and the lowest hem of his tunic somewhat wetted, whence it might be plain that he had emerged not from a meadow but from a river. This event he himself afterwards, relating it to a certain intimate (here is noted the Summary fol. 296, num. 17, D. §9), affirmed that the demon had suggested despair to him when he had fallen into the river in so present a danger, and that he had heard someone as it were saying to him: Die here, hypocrite, forsaken and abandoned by God; but that he had answered: I will always hope in God; God always helps; nor is there any reason why I should distrust his mercy. When he had come to the possessed woman, the demon, catching sight of him, said to him through the possessed woman's mouth: Did I not deal ill with thee on the way? But brother Joseph, simple and humble, answered: Nothing ill befell me, because I was obeying my superior.

§ V. The Blessed one's knowledge received from God, his frequent ecstasies and lofty raptures, and his most sweet odour, are confirmed by testimonies.

[ ] Some testimonies are recited concerning the Blessed one's unlearned Although the whole life of Bl. Joseph is filled with continual wonders, yet there are three things which shone forth in him in a certain singular manner, and which therefore it has seemed good to confirm in this § by some testimonies drawn from the processes by Berninus. The first is his wisdom received from God, by which, although he himself, as we said above, was in no way imbued with letters and was of a slower wit, he was a marvel to men eminent in learning. Concerning his slowness of wit and his ignorance of the sciences the said Berninus brings forward the following from the Summary fol. 105, num. 13, A. §441. Father Antonius Martinellus of Carpi (Carpi is a small city in the dominion of the duke of Modena), a Conventual priest, testified these things upon oath: "I know of certain knowledge that brother Joseph was most simple, and could scarcely read; and as to reading, I have often had experience of it. He was no theologian, nor had he learned any science." … Father Michaël of Monte-Albotto, a Capuchin priest (in the Summary fol. 270, num. 15, C. §259), adds: "Father Joseph was by natural wit of small capacity, nor had he studied theological or scholastic arguments."

[51] and slow wit, and his singular He subjoins Bonaventura Claverius, of the Order of Minors Conventual, bishop of Potenza in the kingdom of Naples, who in the Summary fol. 270, num. 15, C. §27 says: "Brother Joseph was unlettered, nor had he studied." He adds also father Joannes Baptista Crucianus, priest of the third Order of St. Francis, who in the Summary fol. 492 num. 38, C. §41 affirmed upon oath: "Brother Joseph was a person who scarcely knew how to read and write." He adds lastly Cardinal de Laurea, folio 12, num. 3, 4, 5, §17, testifying in Italian: "Brother Joseph was unskilled, had never studied, and knew no Latin but the common tongue." These same things (Berninus goes on) are asserted in almost all the leaves of the processes, up to his coming to Assisi, or at least to some years after his receiving the priesthood. But now the face of things is changed, and it will appear what sublime knowledge he acquired, and how notable a theologian, how learned a man he became; and at the same time readers will recognize how truly God said by the mouth of Isaiah to chosen souls and to his surpassing servants: I am the Lord thy God, that teach thee; … because he alone it is who teaches man knowledge.

[52] knowledge, received from God, Cardinal de Laurea (in the Summary fol. 12, num. 3, 4, 5, §17) testifies in Italian: "Brother Joseph, being questioned by some of us who have studied letters about some mystery hard to grasp, answered undaunted with sublime doctrine, and clearly resolved the difficulties." Thus he, who in another place (namely in his own Work, as he notes in the margin, in the third Font., vol. 4 On Grace freely given, disp. 19, art. 3, num. 58) speaks thus: "Father Joseph of Cupertino, altogether ignorant, knowing only how to read, in the fervour of the spirit very often poured forth wonderful things about the loftiest matters and about things to be done, in my presence." The testimony of Antonius Martinellus about the Blessed one's ignorance we gave above at num. 50; now let us hear the same man about his learning. The above-mentioned Martinellus, says Berninus, subjoins: "Brother Joseph spoke with the utmost ease about divine things and about the sacred Scripture, so as to be a marvel; and this I know, because I frequently had experience of it in the conversations which I had with him. To the most illustrious Claverius, bishop of Potenza, formerly a Religious of our Order, he once explained the mystery of grace, so difficult in sacred Theology; and the said most illustrious man, a most learned man, could not leave off praising him.

[53] by which he resolved difficult theological questions The father master Petrus a Correto, then Regent of the college of St. Bonaventure at Rome, a man of the greatest erudition, often testified to me that when he was Regent in this sacred convent of St. Francis he heard father Joseph discoursing so sublimely of theology as not even the foremost theologians of this world were able to do." In like manner the above-praised father Michaël of Monte-Albotto, a Capuchin, who gave testimony about his wit unfit for the sciences, also testified (in the Summary fol. 162, num. 14, C. §259): "Brother Joseph was endowed with a light which exceeded the natural knowledge acquired in the schools: for to certain theological doubts about which I consulted him he answered exactly, but in the vernacular speech, and bringing in also some homely example; so that I was vehemently amazed, and the wonder of that thing has always clung to me. The subjects were about predestination, about the most holy Trinity, about the efficacy of grace, about free will and the like." Thus he.

[54] The same bishop of Potenza also, mentioned above, and expounded mysteries, says in the same place: "Every night he went to the church, that he might recite the Office with an inexplicable attention; and he told me that if it had perchance happened that he had read even a single verse of the psalms without the desired attention, he at once repeated it. He told me that he understood all the meanings of the psalms; which could not come about without a supernatural light, since in other respects he was unlettered. And he affirmed to me that no better spiritual book had been found by him than the divine Oficium, and that from it he drew all things profitable." Thus he. Crucianus, who above had called him unlearned, testified again (in the Summary fol. 492, num. 38, C. §41): "The most illustrious Claverius, now bishop of Potenza, a man of notable learning, when, coming to Assisi, he stayed here a month before going to his bishopric, told me one day that in that space of time he had learned more by discoursing with father Joseph about moral theology than in the whole course of his studies from speculative books."

[55] I pass over many other things which Berninus heaps up from the processes, and was a marvel to the greatest men. and add one testimony of Cardinal Cæsar Facchinetti on the same matter in a letter which he wrote after he had learned of Bl. Joseph's death, and which Berninus exhibits from the Summary fol. 5, num. 3, B. §1, where among his other praises he says this: "In conversations about God he added erudition to familiar speech, so that by his simplicity he begat love of himself, and by his learning gave satisfaction; and yet he had studied no other book than the Crucified. On grace and nature I heard him discourse wonderfully, when in unspeakable words he exalted the power of the first and demonstrated the liberty of the second." More testimonies of this kind are briefly touched upon in the Life to be published; meanwhile I have thought these should be recounted here more fully, that some light might be added to those things which in the said Life are, from the study of brevity, more compendiously mentioned.

[56] The second thing which occurs as singular in Bl. Joseph were his raptures and ecstasies, The ecstasies of his mind, so frequent that out of countless Saints you will find few his equals in this respect. When he fell into these he was wont to utter a vast wailing, after which, being carried away to the contemplation of heavenly things, he beheld divine things with the eye of the mind, so utterly destitute of the senses of the body that by no force, by no art, not even by the application of a cautery, but only by the command of his superiors, could he be called back to the use of them. To the ecstasies of the mind there were often added raptures of the whole body, by which he was sometimes lifted a little, sometimes even higher, aloft from the earth, and hung suspended in the air; sometimes he was borne along like one flying, and now and then carried some others also with him. From the eighth year of his age he had suffered ecstasies of this kind, and on that account had been called by his companions in jest "Open Mouth." These afterwards increased both in frequency and in length, and were made yet more wonderful by frequent raptures of the body on high.

[57] His Lives and the processes are full of such ecstasies and raptures, in the Summary of which, at fol. 541 throughout and elsewhere, Berninus asserts that more than seventy of his raptures through the air are reckoned which happened in the churches and places of the territory of Cupertino alone. and the lofty raptures of his body But how easily the Blessed one was affected by them is proved by what is read in Italian in Berninus, from the Summary fol. 579, num. 40, §2, in these words: It is true that the servant of God, brother Joseph of Cupertino, was endowed by God with ecstasies and raptures, in the choir while he prayed, and outside it, when there was discourse about any mystery of our suffering Lord Jesus Christ, about the purity and sanctity of the Virgin Mary, or about the virtues of the Saints, or when he himself

was celebrating Mass; and that indeed so frequently that whoever wished to deal with him, in order to enjoy his conversation, had to abstain from engaging in such discourse. Those ecstasies and raptures chiefly befell in Holy Week, on the fifth day at the Lord's Supper, and on the sixth on Good Friday, which days the said father Joseph passed without any food, wholly absorbed in contemplating the mysteries of Jesus Christ suffering, and remaining six or seven hours in ecstasies, so that it could not be discerned whether he were alive or dead; as happened here at Osimo for several years, and especially in the year 1658, which was the first of his coming to this city.

[58] he suffers most frequently; Especially too at Mass he suffered much longer raptures, and more frequent than usual, on the greater solemnities, that is, at the Lord's birth, at Easter, at Pentecost, and on the feasts of the most blessed Virgin; which raptures, when they ceased at the divine good pleasure and his senses were restored to their bodily uses, he too was restored to his former state. To this Berninus adds another passage, which we shall relate more fittingly at num. 88. This one thing I add here from the Summary p. 10, §12, cited in the Life to be published: that these ecstasies and raptures were so frequent that for more than thirty-five years he was not admitted by his superiors with the rest of the brethren into the choir, into the processions, and into the refectory, because ecstasies came upon him and disturbed the offices. Nay, it is likely too that the presidents of the sacred Roman inquisition were led by the same cause to wish him removed from the company and sight of men — namely because those singular wailings and lofty raptures of the body befell him so frequently.

[59] concerning which some things are observed from Cardinal de Laurea. But before I proceed to other matters, it will be of use to hear in a few words the Most Eminent Cardinal de Laurea, once an intimate of the Blessed one and a Religious of the same Order. He first of all, in vol. 4 On Grace freely given, disp. 20, art. 23 on ecstasy and rapture, num. 934, on Berninus' witness, after teaching that ecstasies and raptures are the same thing, and admit of various degrees, and are had now with sense, now without any, subjoins: All the accidents of the first kind I have seen with my own eyes and many times in father Joseph of Cupertino, a priest of my Order, who died in the year 1663, on the eighteenth day of September, and they are proved in the processes already made. The same Cardinal in the said Work, art. 25, num. 998, teaches that the wailings which ecstatics — and among them, as we have said, Bl. Joseph — were wont to utter arise from a vehement divine love, which, like a shut-in fire, bursts out from the breast, and he confirms this from Joseph's own words. Thus, he says, I myself heard this wailing explained by the servant of God, brother Joseph, and he said thus: As when in a fowling-piece the gunpowder is kindled, it sends forth that roar and crash abroad, so does the heart of an ecstatic, kindled with the love of God.

[60] Some things are observed. Lastly, of the manner in which amid his ecstasies he contemplated divine things, he writes this in the same place, art. 23 On Miracles, num. 980: My brother Joseph of Cupertino, explaining the case of ecstatics by this likeness of many pictures in a gallery, added one thing: If in a gallery there were some great mirror, and all the pictures sent their images into it, then one looking at the mirror would behold at a single glance all the paintings that are in the gallery: so, he said, is it with ecstatics, when God shows them the divine secrets. Thus far the Most Eminent de Laurea, who in the same place, art. 25, num. 997, sets forth in what way he learned all these things from the Blessed one; I, he says, when I questioned father Joseph rather curiously about such matters, never heard him speak with wonder about his own person, but always about others who suffered ecstasies. For the rest, the reader will find various ecstasies and raptures in the Life to be published.

[61] Lastly, the third and continual miracle in Bl. Joseph was a certain heavenly odour The Blessed one's wonderful odour is proved from the testimonies which he breathed forth from his virginal body, and with which he wonderfully sprinkled the things which he used. This miracle, the less usual it is, the more testimonies, brought forward by Berninus from the Summary of the processes, I have thought must be used to establish it. In the Summary, then, fol. 425, num. 32, A. §17, father Franciscus Maria de Angelis, a Minor Conventual, on his witness, speaks thus in Italian words: Father Joseph of Cupertino breathed forth from his body and his clothes a most sweet odour, which I for my part could compare to no created odour, natural or artificial, save that which I heard is given off from the chest in which the body of St. Anthony of Padua is kept, to which I went together with father Andreas Binius of Spello; who, while we both remained on bended knees before that same chest, asked me whether I smelled that odour, and of what sort it seemed to me. I answered: It seems to me the same kind of odour with which father Joseph of Cupertino was fragrant; and the said father Binius subjoined: It is so; to me it appears altogether the same.

[62] Now the aforesaid odour was imparted by him to his whole chamber, of Franciscus de Angelis, a Minor Conventual, its furniture and his clothes, and was poured out even outside the chamber, which by that odour could be recognized and found. And wherever he passed it was perceived, and he left his odour behind him, which I experienced through all that time in which I lived with him in this sacred convent; and I have heard it publicly asserted that it clung to him until his death in testimony of his purity and chastity. There follows in the same place, from the Summary fol. 487 num. 38, C. §19, the testimony of father Petrus Franciscus of Levanto, of the Order of Minors Observant, superior of the convent of the New church at Assisi, which runs thus: I know that the cell which father Joseph inhabited in this sacred convent, and likewise the said Father's clothes, breathed a heavenly odour and fragrance; which could not be natural, nor could the quality of the odour be discerned, but that odour and fragrance was like that which is given off by the Breviary which St. Clare of Assisi used, and which is kept in the reliquary in the church of St. Damian: and this I know because I have so heard, and have experienced it by smelling the said Breviary.

[63] And when I had gone to father Joseph's cell, and had thence returned to my convent, of Petrus of Levanto, a Minor Observant, of Hieronymus Angeluccius the fathers asked me what I had about me, that I was fragrant with such an odour. But I answered, as the fact was, that I carried no perfumes with me, but had been a little before in father Joseph's cell, who had made me a partaker of the said odour; which odour sometimes clung to me for fifteen days afterwards, although I washed my hands daily; and this befell me even though I had touched none of his things, but only had sat in his cell and had conversed with him. So he. With him agrees Hieronymus Angeluccius, parish priest at St. Stephen's in Assisi, who, as Berninus recounts, fol. 426 of the Summary, num. 32, B. §27, thus testified: For the confirming of his chastity God endowed him with a vast and most sweet odour, which was fragrant from his body and his garments, and from all the things which he had touched; and I remember that when the said Sir Bernardinus had given the said father Joseph's soiled cowl to my mother to be washed, this, though washed once and again with hot water and soap, was nevertheless fragrant with the same odour.

[64] parish priest at Assisi, Anyone could easily find his cell, because the odour broke forth even outside it; and this I know, because I smelt it through all that time in which I cultivated friendship with the same father in the said sacred convent. I also heard others commonly heard to say that it could not be told to what natural odour that odour was to be compared; but I and others judged it to be a gift of God. There follows in Berninus the testimony of doctor Baltazar Mazzichi, from fol. 427 of the Summary, num. 32, B. §31, where one reads: Not only the said father Joseph's body, but also his clothes and his very cell breathed a most sweet and supernatural odour, so that that same odour attached itself to those who touched them; and I experienced that, when I had touched his hand, it clung to my hand and continued for some space of time; and the same befell my uncles on the father's side (or on the mother's, for in Italian the word is Zii, which signifies either) and others.

[65] in St. Stephen's, Moreover I can assert that, when in the year 1650 I was living at Rome in the house of the lord Ludovicus Marinellus, who was general minister of petitions to the most excellent Paulus Jordanus, duke of Bracciano, and when I had commended to him the said Father's sanctity, he showed himself most desirous of obtaining some thing of the said Father's; and thereupon Joannes Baptista Mazzichius, my uncle, sent to him a garment of the said father Joseph, which he addressed to me, and I handed it over to the said lord Ludovicus. Now this garment breathed the same odour and fragrance of which I had heard, and which I had perceived to be given off from the said Father's body and clothes when I was at Assisi. Besides, I can affirm that the said lord Marinellus, when he was suffering from gout in the feet and in the hands, often ordered the said habit to be laid on his bed and on the afflicted limb, and presently took great relief from it, as he himself asserted to me; for, as I have said, I was living in his house. For which reason the said lord Marinellus was borne towards the said Father with great devotion, and religiously preserved the said garment.

[66] and of others. Father Regent Bernabei, from the Summary fol. 429, §8, relates in the same place about a certain man who, since out of curiosity and devotion he desired to find the cell in which father Joseph dwelt, after he had explored many cells — that is, the doors of many — by smell, at last coming to the cell of the said father brother Joseph, recognized it by the odour and said that father brother Joseph dwelt there; and this happened in my presence. In the same place, from the same Summary fol. 468, num. 38, A. §8, others testify this: When we had spoken with brother Joseph in his cell, and had then gone out into the city, afterwards returning we did not know brother Joseph's cell; and since we did not wish to trouble the brethren, we went along exploring the cells from without, and perceived a vast odour given off from one of them, and going up to it we knocked at the door; and that very cell was brother Joseph's, exceedingly odorous, so that we recognized it by the odour. To these is added Franciscus Pierpaoli, a surgeon, whose testimony Berninus brings forward from the Summary fol. 433, D. §27, and which I subjoin on his credit.

[67] It is most true, he says, that in token of his most shining purity and chastity he was adorned by the Lord God with a most sweet odour, The same was testified by a surgeon of Osimo, by the Gonfalonier, which he always breathed from his body; which I know, because through all that time in which I frequented him, as I said above, often handling and moving him even with my hands in his last sickness,

I always perceived the said odour to be given off from him, which it was plain was supernatural, because it had nothing like it in any natural odour. Moreover I experienced, while I handled his corpse after his death, that the same odour was exhaled even when the body was opened to be disembowelled. There follows in Berninus the testimony of Gratianus Benignus, standard-bearer (they call him Gonfalonier) of Assisi, which at fol. 78, num. 13 A. §4 runs thus: The cell in which brother Joseph dwelt breathed the fragrance and odour of paradise, and the same happened with the rest of his clothes, which nevertheless had been steeped in no odorous thing; for the odour which was perceived was supernatural. For the rest, I do not believe (nay, I hold the opposite for certain) that he carried anything odorous about him, since what was perceived from his things was supernatural, and in no way like aromatic things.

[68] The cell too itself retained almost the same odour, or standard-bearer of Assisi, although the said father Joseph had by then been absent from it twelve or thirteen years. Nor has a whole year passed since there came into my hands a pair of linen drawers which the said father Joseph wore while he lived, and which I, out of my singular devotion and on account of a certain infirmity, had asked of a certain woman called Joanna di Orazio, who asserted that they had been given her by the woman who washed the said father Joseph's clothes, and who had exchanged them for a new pair which out of devotion she had had made and had brought to the said father Joseph. And on that occasion I perceived that those drawers were even then fragrant with the odour. Notable also is the testimony of father Joannes Maria of Fossombrone, a Capuchin, who in Berninus, from folio 172 of the Summary, num. 14, C. §328, affirmed the following concerning Bl. Joseph, for so long as he stayed among the Capuchins by the prescript of the sacred inquisition, as we shall say below.

[69] It is true that in all that time in which I dwelt with the said father Joseph of Cupertino, Joannes Maria, a Capuchin of Fossombrone, I found him to be of a most pure heart, and observed nothing in him which did not show forth the unspeakable purity of his soul: but especially (I experienced) an odour emanating from his body, and that copious and pleasing, so as to refresh all who entered his cell; which, though it was most narrow, and though he kept the window-curtain and the window itself almost always shut, nevertheless was always utterly redolent of a most sweet odour, which broke forth even outside, so that one who did not know which cell father Joseph inhabited would recognize it by the sweetness of the odour. This odour was diffused through all the cells in which he had stayed even for a short time, and through the clothes which he had worn, which, though at my bidding they had often been washed with lye and soap, nevertheless did not lose their sweetness and odour. The same happened with the priestly vestments which he used, which indeed not only kept the odour in themselves but also imparted it to the press, and to the rest of the sacred furniture which was laid up in it.

[70] The same, moreover, befell in the other things touched by him, which by the touch drank in the same odour. who had dwelt with him, In proof of which the lady Julia Tenagli Bentivogli, to whose boy the said father Joseph at my bidding had given his Rosary, affirmed to me that the said Rosary had kept the same odour for very many years, and would even to this day be keeping it, had it not in some part of itself been worn away by the continual handling of hands. Nor can that odour be ascribed to the tobacco which the said father Joseph used; both because that odour was in no way that of tobacco, and because tobacco does not always give off the same odour, but a different one according to the different mixture; nor can tobacco so universally diffuse an odour in all places and through all things, as the said father Joseph did. I add that, while the said father Joseph dwelt at Fossombrone, I kept his tobacco for the greater part of the time in my cell, and gave it to him sparingly out of it; and often the tobacco was not odorous, nay rather it stank; yet the said father Joseph and his cell were nevertheless fragrant with the same odour; and after his departure from our convent of Fossombrone, all the things which he had touched, and the cells which he had inhabited, kept the same odour for a long time. And this is so, and there is a public voice and report of it.

[71] the Cardinals Spinola and de Laurea, To all these Berninus adds two Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, Julius Spinola and Laurentius de Laurea, of whom the first, in the Summary fol. 7, num. 3, E. §4, speaks thus: When I entered that narrow cell, I felt myself also refreshed by a most sweet fragrance of a most delightful odour, which I knew not to what to compare among all those which nature or art knows how to raise; but this is certain, that whereas all other scented things are ordinarily loathsome to me, the odour which his cell exhaled pleased me vehemently, so that it seemed to me to confer health even upon the body. Thus he. Notable likewise, and in accord with the rest, is the testimony of Cardinal de Laurea — who likewise lived with the Blessed one and was his intimate — concerning the same prodigious odour, in the Summary, and thence related in the Life to be published, in our num. 62, to which therefore I refer the reader, lest I be forced to repeat the same things.

[72] and Joannes Baptista Penna, bishop of Vieste. To these lastly I add Joannes Baptista Penna, bishop of Vieste in the province of Bari, who in Berninus, from folio 273 of the Summary, num. 15, H. §1, in a letter which he wrote a little [ ] Bl. Joseph's death to Bonaventura Claverius, bishop of Potenza, already cited elsewhere, has this on this subject: I perceived a fragrance of a most sweet odour, intense and not natural, which clung to my hands, and which I felt penetrate into my inward parts; and it lasted for some little time. It has seemed good to me to heap up so many things here, that the reader might discern by how unquestionable testimonies — such as no prudent man would hold suspect — so singular and so surpassing a gift of our Bl. Joseph is asserted. Now let us return to the chronology, which we have for a while left.

§ VI. By command of the sacred Roman inquisition he is taken away from the convent of his Order at Assisi to that of the Capuchins at Pietrarubbia.

[ ] By the sacred Roman inquisition, it is uncertain for what cause, While Bl. Joseph was happily shining forth at Assisi by the wonderful sanctity of his life, by miracles, prophecies and heavenly wisdom, as we saw in §§3 and 4, and was therefore in the mouth and veneration of all, a new and most bitter affliction came upon him. For the Roman tribunal of the sacred inquisition, by the command of the supreme Pontiff Innocent X, tore him not only from the convent dear to him, in which he enjoyed so many pious delights of a most chaste soul, but also from the fellowship of the brethren of his Order, and removed him to the convent of the Capuchins of Pietrarubbia. This place is in the duchy of Urbino, in the diocese of Montefeltro, situated on the Carpegna mountains. But of the cause of so unexpected a command it is not sufficiently clear: for not all, I suppose, will be satisfied with that which Berninus, citing the Summary fol. 134, num. 14, B. §3; fol. 187, num. 14, D. §35, and elsewhere, alleges from the processes — namely, that it seemed expedient and necessary that so great a treasure, being removed from the public, should be kept untouched for God alone, until he should make known that it should be done otherwise.

[74] Pastrovicchi in the Life to be published mentions, besides the guarding of so surpassing a sanctity, he is taken from Assisi to the Capuchins at Pietrarubbia: caution also, but both as doubtful, as the cause of that counsel. And this last reason certainly appears to me the more likely. For since, on account of his frequent ecstasies and lofty raptures of the body through the air like one flying, he had for many years, as we saw at num. 58, been forbidden by the superiors of his own Order to be present with the rest of the brethren in the choir, in the processions and in the refectory, lest he should disturb anything, it is not unlikely that it seemed expedient to the Roman inquisitors, with the approval of the Pontiff Innocent, that so wonderful a Man should for some time be committed to the care of other Religious, so that his virtue and miracles, if perhaps they had been too lightly examined by his own brethren, might be more diligently examined by these through daily acquaintance. However it be (for we can declare nothing certain), it is established that the Blessed one, on the twenty-third day of July of the year 1653, at the command of the said Pontiff and by letters given by the sacred Roman inquisition, was removed from Assisi to the convent of the Capuchins of Pietrarubbia. The matter as it was done the father master Robertus Nutius, at that time Custos of the convent of Assisi, set forth in the Summary fol. 102, num. 13, A. §226, on Berninus' witness, whence receive what follows.

[75] Father Joseph (the words are those of the said father Custos) was taken away from the sacred convent of St. Francis of this city (Assisi) in the year 1653, and how this was carried into execution, in which year I presided as Custos over the said sacred convent, by the command of Innocent X of holy memory, through letters of the sacred Congregation of the holy Office sent to the father master Vincentius Maria Pellegrinus, then inquisitor general of Perugia; in which letters it was commanded to me and to all the superiors of the Order that the aforesaid father Joseph should, according to the express command of the Pontiff, be handed over to the aforesaid father inquisitor. Which letters, and the precept contained in them, were read out to me and to father Joseph in the corner of the gate of the said sacred convent. The said father inquisitor came to the sacred convent very early in the morning of the twenty-third day of July of the said year, at which time father Joseph was celebrating Mass; and since this lasted about two hours, the said father inquisitor had to wait, since I was unwilling to interrupt the delight which he was enjoying in that holy Sacrifice. Mass being ended, I went to him in his oratory and said that the father inquisitor of Perugia wished to speak with him. He at once said to me joyfully: Let him come, he is welcome; and when I answered that he was waiting for him in the church, he rose from the place in which he was sitting, saying, Let us go, and followed me most readily.

[76] Custos of the convent of Assisi, Having gone out of the old chapter-house, we met in the cloister the lord Alphonsus Confidatus, at that time vicar of the holy Office in this city, who told me that the father inquisitor was no longer waiting in the church, but at the door of the convent. Which being heard, father Joseph was troubled and grew pale, and turning to me said: Father Custos, does he perhaps mean to lead me away a prisoner? I answered that I did not know whether he meant to lead him away a prisoner, but that, since he himself had commended obedience to others, it behoved him first to practise it. To this the said father Joseph answered nothing, but began to quicken his step towards the aforesaid gate, where the said father inquisitor was; and when we had come thither, we found the said father inquisitor with his vicar and four attendants; and the letters having been read there, as I said above, father Joseph bowed himself to the ground to kiss the feet of the said father inquisitor, which he with great

modesty withdrew. And when I had noticed that the said father Joseph was troubled in the same way as above, I said to him: Come, father Joseph, now is the time for embracing the cross and practising obedience. To which he answered this one thing: O holy obedience; and straightway from the threshold of the aforesaid gate he leapt into the carriage which stood there for that purpose, and into which the father inquisitor had first entered.

[77] an eye-witness, sets forth, But when I saw him in the carriage, he was all serene and eager and with a smiling face. Into the same carriage entered the aforesaid father vicar and the attendant Cæsarettus: which father Joseph, seeing, grew pale again. In this manner he was conducted to the convent of the Capuchins of Pietrarubbia. Thus far the said father Robertus Nutius, Custos of that convent and an eye-witness of the deed; and therefore, as it is right to believe, and as the narrative itself shows, a sincere reporter. There is extant also another account of the same matter by Hyacinthus Libellus, archbishop of Avignon, cited above, among his Considerations, the thirty-fifth of which, sent to Cardinal de Laurea, is recounted in the Summary fol. 161, num. 15, F. §7, on Berninus' witness in the Life. In this the said archbishop differs somewhat, as to the manner in which the Blessed one was taken away from Assisi, from the witness cited above and in no way suspect, the Custos of the place; yet since he mentions in it certain circumstances of the journey as far as Città di Castello, which is a city of Umbria, called by the natives Citta di Castello, and especially those things which he himself, being then present at Città di Castello, saw, I here set it forth in Latin also, as it is recounted in Italian from the process in Berninus.

[78] Another account of the same matter In our age, says the said archbishop, there lived father brother Joseph of Cupertino, of the Order of Minors Conventual, for whom those sacred honours which are wont to be granted to Saints are now being made ready by the holy See. He, having at one time been removed from the convent of St. Francis at Assisi, in which he dwelt, was by the command of the Roman superiors taken away by the father inquisitor of Perugia to a certain convent in the duchy of Urbino. Those who have written that he was made a captive and led away with some disgrace, such as the guilty are wont to suffer, knew not what they said, and wished to fill their histories with fictions which in no way suit the persons whom they were recording. The inquisitor, borne in a carriage, came to Assisi, and courteously invited him to mount into it with him. To the inviter the Saint assented, nor did he resist in the least, but rather with an indifferent mind and a smiling face entered it. Presently, in the first conversation which the father inquisitor had with him, he exhorted him in a friendly way, and in an altogether gentle manner, to be of good cheer, and protested that he was in no way being led away a captive, as from his own and his vicar's presence he might perhaps have fallen to suspecting. And that he might give credit to his words, he assigned him the second place in the carriage, leaving the third to his vicar.

[79] Before he set out, he also admonished him by Libellus, archbishop of Avignon, that, if he wished anything, he should freely ask it; for that he and his vicar would most readily serve him. These same things he repeated often on the way. Here he makes no mention of the four attendants, nor of one of them sitting in the carriage, and sets forth everything somewhat more gently than it is established to have been done, from the testimony of father Nutius just recited, to whom, as a beholder of the deed, the greater credit is to be given. These things being observed by the way, let us go on with the rest, which the most illustrious man could better have known. With these, he says, offices of courtesy and goodwill he brought him to Città di Castello, my dearest fatherland, where I was then staying on account of domestic business, he being about to go forward on the next morning to the place appointed for him. I saw to it that he was lodged in the convent of St. Dominic, and that he had in it the best chamber of all. He came thither in the morning, and stayed there that whole day, during which time the inquisitor, anxious that nothing should be wanting to him, visited him often, and once said to him in my presence: Father, remember what I have so often told thee, that thou art not a captive, but art honoured by me, and that I desire, when I have brought thee to the place appointed by the superiors, to leave thee content with my service.

[80] The Religious themselves provided kindly not only for his food but also for all the other necessaries. who at Città di Castello, where the Blessed one was lodged, After dinner I visited him and shut myself with him in his chamber; and when I asked him whether he were content, he answered that he lived content in every place, because he knew that God was present everywhere, and much more in that place in which he was experiencing the charity with which he was treated by those good fathers. After this he began a discourse about spiritual things, and, taking his subject from the ungrateful mind of men, he said that he wondered that there was no man who was not confounded with shame at the sight of the Crucified, remembering how much Jesus Christ had suffered, and how ungrateful each one shows himself to him. Considering these things, he began to enumerate the several torments of the Lord — the agony, and the scourges, and the thorns and the nails. And while he was saying these things, his mouth seemed to me to grow sour, and to be twisted in the way in which those are wont to be whose mouths are wet with sharp vinegar. At the same time I saw him suddenly fall from a certain chest on which he had been sitting upon his knees to the ground; and he had made so great a noise with his knees that I believed him to be grievously hurt.

[81] He was seen with his eyes distorted, I know not in what fashion, saw him suffering a notable ecstasy, that is, with the pupil hiding under the upper eyelids, and with his arms spread out in a cross, in the manner in which St. Francis is wont to be painted when he received the sacred stigmata. At so evident a sign of sanctity I was astounded in mind, and, judging myself unworthy to behold such sacred prodigies, at the same time fell likewise upon my knees and gave thanks to God. Then I sat down again, and with attentive eyes considered the posture of his body, which was plainly such as I have just said. But I wished to try whether I could move his arm, which I was able to do with difficulty. Yet, being moved, it fell as though hanging from the shoulder, and I pushed it into those oscillations which we see daily made by things suspended in the air: so far did that arm appear removed from its natural state. When a good quarter of an hour had passed, being restored to himself, he said in the Neapolitan speech: Forgive me that I am overcome with sleep; and he sat down again upon his chest. And when I, feigning myself diligent and skilled in spiritual things, reproved him, and, charging those motions with being a disturbance, exhorted him to abstain from them thenceforward, he answered me that he could be helped by my prayers to obtain this grace from God, which he had often asked in vain, or at least to be free from those motions, which he had not in his own power, in the presence of others.

[82] and conversed with him. Then I asked what in such excesses of mind, which appeared so singular, was peculiarly shown him by God. He answered that sometimes he saw many things about God at once, without distinction of forms, in the way in which one who has entered a chamber well furnished with tapestries, paintings, mirrors, couches of Phrygian work, and other things of this kind, sees indeed that there are beautiful things there, but all under one view and without distinction of parts; and sometimes that some single mystery was shown him at the divine pleasure. But, hinting that it was irksome to him to answer me further on this subject, like one nauseated he begged that I would ask nothing more, because he was ignorant and knew not how to discourse. Thus far the said archbishop Libellus. Further, the Blessed one accomplished the rest of the journey, which on the next day he pursued with the father inquisitor, not without other prodigies, which, because they are sufficiently set forth in the Life to be published, I here knowingly pass over.

[83] In the convent of Pietrarubbia, by the command of the sacred inquisition But when he had come to the convent of Pietrarubbia, he was kindly received by father Joannes Baptista of Monte Grimano, at that time Guardian of that place, as Berninus asserts from the processes — whom the Blessed one knew although he had never seen him before — and by the rest of the Capuchin Religious of that convent. What, moreover, were the commands of the sacred inquisition concerning him, and with how even a mind he bore them, is plain from the testimony of the reverend father Joannes Maria of Fossombrone, who then presided over the Capuchins throughout that province; which, being related in Italian in Berninus from the Summary fol. 170, num. 14, C. §316, I have rendered into Latin. He, then, speaks thus upon this matter: Yet God made this fortitude to reside peculiarly in brother Joseph in his last affliction, when, removed from the sacred convent of Assisi, he was conducted with the utmost rigour by attendants to our monastery of Pietrarubbia. Since I was then provincial, I came thither on the day after the said Father's arrival, and found affixed to the door of the refectory a writing which contained the most severe commands of the most reverend father inquisitor concerning the said father Joseph, to be rigidly observed by our fathers: that he should speak with no one, whether secular, or Regular, or ecclesiastic, of whatever degree and condition.

[84] he lives cut off from all intercourse with those outside. Another copy of the same command I found affixed to the door of the cell of the said father Joseph, which cell had been assigned to him by the said father inquisitor, and was the darkest and worst of that convent. Entering this cell for the sake of visiting the said father Joseph, I found him cheerful and content and as it were enjoying the delight of paradise. For five days I held conversations with him, and always found him equally cheerful; nor did he ever ask whether I knew the cause for which he had been taken away from the sacred convent of Assisi and placed with so great rigour in this our convent of Pietrarubbia, or what was required of him. Thus he; to which Berninus and Pastrovicchi in their Lives add, from other places of the processes, that not only all conversation with others save the Capuchins, but also all correspondence by letter, was utterly forbidden him by the sacred tribunal of the inquisition; both of which he observed most religiously, as is to be seen in the Life to be published.

§ VII. Shining forth by miracles in the convent of Pietrarubbia, on account of the excessive concourse of the people he is removed to the convent of Fossombrone; thence to Monte-vecchio, from which he returns to Fossombrone.

[ ] He heals a woman's scirrhus, restores sight to a boy, Thrust down into this convent of the Capuchins of Pietrarubbia among the rough mountains, and removed from all intercourse with those outside, his virtue and miracles made him even more famous. Berninus recounts a few of these, which Pastrovicchi, from the study of brevity, mentions only very slightly. Justina de Antimis, says Berninus, citing the Summary fol. 594, num. 41, A., §49, and fol. 201, num. 15, A., §102, having been tormented seven years by a troublesome scirrhus, since she could not use her own feet, was brought by the hands of others from her fatherland Macerata, which is a city of the duchy of Urbino, not far distant from Pietrarubbia, to Pietrarubbia with that

one end alone, that she might be present at brother Joseph's Mass. With the same faith by which the Gospel woman with the issue of blood was healed by the power which went forth from the body of Jesus Christ, this pious woman of Macerata also suddenly recovered by the power which Jesus Christ sent forth from brother Joseph's body; and of these the first was made whole at the touch of his garments, the second by her presence at the Sacrifice. At Urbino his little cap was laid upon the eyes of Petrus Santi, who from an obstinate rheum had utterly lost his sight, and at the touch of the cap the rheum vanished and his sight was restored; and when Santi cried out, Mother, I see, mother, I see! the whole house was carried away into amazement and wonder at the lofty merits of this Servant of God.

[86] Brother Joannes Baptista of Monte Grimano (in the Summary fol. 302, he supplies wax for the Mass. num. 17, D., §30, and fol. 517, num. 38, D., §22, on Berninus' witness), guardian of the convent. of Pietrarubbia, one evening complained to brother Joseph that there was not so much wax left him as was necessary for him on the morrow to draw out his Mass as long as was his custom: for he was wont to spend two hours upon it. To him the Servant of God calmly answered: Trust, my son, be not troubled; the Old Man will provide — designating by the Old Man Bl. Felix the Capuchin, who, now enrolled by the Pontiff Clement XI in the catalogue of the Saints, is honoured on the altars with the title of Saint. On the next morning, when the church door had first been opened, a certain unknown person brought a bundle of thick wax candles and laid it on the altar, which both proved the prophecy and sufficed for brother Joseph for the celebrating of his long Masses so long as he thereafter stayed in that convent. Nay more, while he dwelt at Pietrarubbia, it was not necessary to seek alms abroad for the convent, God supplying what was needful on account of the prayers of his Servant; as Berninus asserts is read in the cited place of the Summary, §32. I pass over a few other things of less moment, which Berninus has in the same place, passing over, as he says, many others which it would be long to relate.

[87] A vast crowd of people flows together to the convent, Although Bl. Joseph lived cut off from all intercourse with those outside, as we said above, yet it was permitted him to celebrate Mass publicly in the church. Hence a very great crowd of people, to whom his fame, most widely spread, had come, flocked together from the neighbouring places round about to that church, to see him sacrificing. How great this concourse was, trustworthy witnesses in the processes show, whose words, related by Berninus, I shall recount in Latin. Father Joannes Baptista of Monte Grimano in the Summary fol. 179, num. 14, C., §376 says this: When father brother Joseph first began to dwell in our convent, so great a multitude of people ran together from near and distant places to hear his Mass, that some even climbed upon the roofs; and on that occasion the said father Joseph was seen by seculars to be rapt into ecstasies. With these agrees the testimony of father Joannes Maria of Fossombrone, Provincial of the Capuchins, as was said above, which in the Summary fol. 168, num. 14, C., §302, on Berninus' witness, has the following.

[88] that they might see him celebrating Mass Many ecclesiastical persons, secular and Regular, even from distant regions, ran together to our convent of Pietrarubbia, that they might be present at his Mass, which he celebrated publicly in this our church, and might see and wonder at his ecstasies and raptures, and be helped by his prayers in their straits and infirmities. And so great was the crowd of those who ran together that around our convent booths and huts were set up for the convenience of the comers. And when the church, while the said Father was celebrating Mass, could not hold the multitude, they climbed upon its roof and removed the tiles, and pierced the very walls of the church. There agrees also the father master Jacobus Roncaglia, a Minor Conventual, who in Berninus, from the Summary fol. 579, num. 40, E., §5, speaks thus: Very many persons, both Regulars and ecclesiastics and seculars, very often saw the aforesaid servant of God brother Joseph fixed in ecstasies in every place where he dwelt; but most of all at Pietrarubbia, when for the sake of examining his sanctity he had been brought by the Roman superiors from the sacred convent of Assisi to the said monastery of the Capuchins of Pietrarubbia.

[89] and rapt into ecstasies; These admitting to his Mass the faithful of both sexes and of every condition, the neighbouring people flowed together thither in great numbers, led not so much by curiosity to behold his supernatural motions as by a pious desire of carrying away thence some spiritual gain. Others too (while he was not sacrificing), desiring to explore the truth of the matter, tried in one way or another, pressing his hands or some other limb of his body, and sometimes even gripping him strongly with their arms. But by these and like experiments he was in no way restored to himself, but remained motionless until it had pleased God to call back his senses to their former offices. Very like things concerning the frequent concourse of the people, the removal of the tiles of the roof, and the ecstasies openly seen, were testified by father Joannes Felix Bernabeus, Regent and master of the same Order of Conventuals, in the Summary fol. 584, num. 40, F., §29, whose words, because they teach nothing beyond what has been said, I pass over.

[90] After these things Berninus subjoins, from the Summary fol. 329, wherefore he is forbidden to celebrate Mass publicly in the church num. 18, F., §55, 76, that on the feast of St. Augustine, or the twenty-eighth day of August, so great was the concourse of people to that church that, lest anything untoward should happen, the superior judged that the blessed Father should be forbidden to celebrate on that day. He adds that the demon wished to use this command to disturb the Blessed one, but with a vain attempt. But before, he says, that command was signified to him, the demon wished to forestall the unwelcome messenger of that matter; and therefore, having put on the appearance of a comely youth, and having flung open the door of his cell in disorder, threatening him with his finger, said to him: Thou shalt not say, thou shalt not say Mass this morning. But brother Joseph, in no way disturbed, said: I will do what God wills; and unmoved went on to prepare himself (for the celebrating of Mass), not deigning to give the infernal messenger so much as the lightest glance. But when the guardian's command came, the Servant of God readily obeyed, and of his Sacrifice made a sacrifice to God.

[91] The same reason afterwards compelled the superiors utterly to keep the Blessed one thenceforward from the public gaze in the church, and by the command of the sacred inquisition and to forbid him to say Mass in it. So testifies father Joannes Baptista of St. Agatha, vicar of the Capuchins in that same convent, whose words Berninus recites in Italian from the Summary fol. 147, num. 13, C., §124, and which I subjoin in Latin. When I first came to the convent of Pietrarubbia to discharge the office of vicar, thousands of men ran together, and by reason of the excessive crowd of people even the roof of the church was in part opened, which I saw not yet wholly repaired. And I, coming thither, by the prescript of the superiors forbade that father brother Joseph should thenceforth be seen by any but our Religious. Not a little also did that concourse of people and those crowds displease the presidents of the sacred Roman inquisition; and to avoid them, and at the same time, as is credible, to free the Capuchins of Pietrarubbia from the trouble of those coming and desiring to see the Blessed one, they decreed to remove him from thence also, and to hide him as secretly as they could in some other convent, where he might lead a solitary life, unknown to all save the Religious of that place.

[92] For this purpose the convent of the Capuchins of Fossombrone seemed to them the fitter, to the convent of Fossombrone, whose situation Berninus thus indicates: Fossombrone is situated in the duchy of Urbino, ten miles from that city from which the duchy has its name, surrounded by several mountains, on the summit of one of which the convent of the Capuchins is seated. The said presidents, therefore, by letters given to Ascanius Maffeus, archbishop of Urbino, commanded that he should see to it that father Joseph be secretly removed from the convent of Pietrarubbia to the aforesaid convent of Fossombrone, and there be kept withdrawn from the intercourse and eyes of all men save the Capuchins. These commands, and the rest looking to the same end, the said archbishop executed with all the diligence he could, by Marius Vivianus, canon and archpriest of his church. Berninus notes a pious saying of the blessed Man on that occasion. For when he had asked of the archpriest the place to which he must remove, and the latter had denied that it could be told him, being unconcerned whither at last he was being taken, he pleasantly pressed the question whether God were present in the place appointed for him; and when the other assuredly affirmed it, Let us go then, he said, cheerfully; the Crucified will help.

[93] and thence he is sent to Monte-vecchio; As concerns the time, this journey must have fallen at the end of October or the beginning of November of the year 1653. For from what has been said above, on the twenty-third day of July of that year he was conducted from the convent of Assisi to Pietrarubbia; and it is expressly said in the Life to be published that he stayed at Pietrarubbia only three months (whether these were complete or begun). Further, although in removing the Blessed one to the convent of Fossombrone the utmost care was taken that his new dwelling should become known to no one, yet it got abroad among the neighbours, to whose importunate entreaties the Capuchins of Fossombrone only with the greatest difficulty, but nevertheless constantly, as they had been bidden, refused to grant the opportunity of seeing him. While he thus lay hid here, another cause again arose for changing his dwelling for a little while. The provincial chapter was to be celebrated in the said convent of the Capuchins, during the time of which it seemed to the often-praised Roman inquisitors that Joseph should by no means be left there.

[94] from which he returned to Fossombrone. By their command, therefore, he was for the time sent over to the nearest convent of the Capuchins of Monte-vecchio, commonly di Monte vecchio, which was situated not far from that of Fossombrone towards the East. Berninus, citing the Summary fol. 170, num. 14, C., §323, writes that a horse was sent to Bl. Joseph for the accomplishing of this journey by the vicar of the bishop of Fossombrone; but that when the guardian had noticed that he was in no way skilled in the art of riding, and would therefore be exposed to manifest peril of his life along those rough ways if he went on, he was called back from it, and, being clothed in the habit of the Capuchins, lest he should be recognized, and accompanied by two Capuchins, accomplished the journey on foot. His deeds at Monte-vecchio you have in the Life to be published; but how long he remained there is uncertain. For the rest, after the aforesaid chapter had been held, he was brought back to the convent of Fossombrone.

§ VIII. By the command of Pope Alexander VII, being restored to his own, he passes the remainder of his life at Osimo: a short chronology of his life.

[ ] At the entreaty of the Minors Conventual, The fourth year was now almost completed since Bl. Joseph, removed from the fellowship of the Religious of his own Order, had been living among the Capuchin fathers, when at length he was restored to his brethren, to their very great joy. The matter, as it was done, Berninus explains somewhat more fully than Pastrovicchi, and therefore it will be of use to have set it forth briefly from him. The fathers Minor Conventual grieved indeed that so illustrious an ornament of their Order as Joseph was should be entrusted not to them but to the Capuchins;

but since the commands of the sacred inquisition, and of the supreme Pontiff Innocent X himself, so ran, they grieved rather than complained; nor did they dare to intercede for his recovery; or, if they attempted it, they certainly were not heard. Their wishes were indeed favoured by Cardinal Fabius Chigi, who afterwards became supreme Pontiff and was called Alexander VII, and who had sounded Innocent's mind upon that matter; but when he had found him fixed in his own opinion, he too judged that he must keep silence.

[96] Pope Alexander VII commands that Bl. Joseph Innocent X having meanwhile departed this life, and the same Cardinal Fabius Chigi having been chosen in his place for the Pontificate on the seventh day of April of the year 1655, a great hope shone upon the Conventual fathers of at length recovering Joseph. They were opportunely celebrating at Rome, in the month of May of the same year, the chapter of their Order, and on that occasion eight superiors of provinces were delegated by them to the feet of the new Pontiff, whose mind they knew from his former good offices, to beg with suppliant prayers, in the name of the whole Order, that their brother Joseph of Cupertino should be restored to them. The Pontiff, moved by the just petition, asked to what convent, then, they would assign him. And when they answered with one voice, To that of Assisi, he replied: By no means: in that sanctuary St. Francis alone suffices; nor can good Religious be wanting there, where there has always been a school of true observance. And this indeed then; but a few days later he bade it be signified to them that he willed that he should be assigned to the convent of St. Francis at Osimo.

[97] Of Osimo Berninus notes the following: The city of Osimo (called by the inhabitants Osimo) is situated in the province of the March of Ancona, be restored to them, not in the year 1655, six miles from the holy House of Loreto, fifty distant from Fossombrone, abounding in merchandise, of a healthy air and a fertile soil; and the convent of St. Francis of the Conventuals, situated in the city itself, is sufficiently well-endowed. Yet he believes that Alexander was led to command that father Joseph should be sent thither not so much by these reasons as because over the church of Osimo there then presided as bishop the son of his uterine sister, Antonius Bichius, afterwards Cardinal, by whom he confidently trusted that Joseph would both be treated liberally and at the same time be kept in a solitary life removed from all intercourse with men outside; both of which the Pontiff vehemently desired. So he indeed; but by this consideration Alexander could indeed have been confirmed in his opinion, but not induced to take it up in the first place, if, as Berninus will have it, envoys from the chapter held at Rome in the month of May of the year 1655 approached him for Joseph's return, and he a few days later ordered that he be removed to the convent of Osimo.

[98] The reason is that in Ughelli, vol. 1 of Italia sacra enlarged, but in 1656, and be sent to Osimo, col. 513, Ludovicus Bettus, bishop of Osimo, is said to have died on the twenty-seventh day of October of the year 1655, and the said Bichius to have succeeded him in the bishopric in the month of October of the following year, or, as is noted in the margin, in the month of March. Pastrovicchi in the Life to be published agrees that Bichius presided as bishop over the church of Osimo when the supreme Pontiff gave that command, a few days after he had rejected the proposal of sending the Blessed one to Assisi; but he fixes the command itself in the year 1656, which Berninus afterwards also did, as I shall presently observe. Wherefore it must be said either that that chapter was first celebrated in the year 1656, or at least that those eight envoys, if they were really sent from the chapter, first approached the Pontiff in this year. Yet not before the year 1657 was the aforesaid precept of Alexander carried into execution, on account of the pestilence which in the preceding year grievously afflicted some parts of Italy, and among these the city of Rome and the Ecclesiastical state.

[99] Concerning this delay, and the cause of the delay, Berninus and Pastrovicchi agree, which was carried into execution in the year 1657, of whom the former, since he expressly places one year between the command and its execution, manifestly indicates that that same command was issued not in the year 1655 but in 1656. On the same witness, letters upon this matter were despatched from the tribunal of the holy Office to Gibertus Borromæus, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, protector of the Conventuals; who, after he had conferred with Capradossus, General of the Order, laid it upon the secretary of that Order as his charge to conduct father Joseph as secretly as he could from the convent of the Capuchins at Fossombrone to that of the Conventuals at Osimo. The secretary, obeying his orders, came to the convent of Fossombrone on the sixth day of July, at the second hour of the night, in the aforesaid year 1657, and, the letters of the holy Office having been shown to the guardian, took Bl. Joseph — who had been forewarned from God of his approaching departure — away thence that same night, and on the fourth day after, that is on the tenth of the same month of July, late in the evening, brought him safe and sound into the convent of Osimo, amid the congratulations of his own.

[100] when he had lived nearly four years among the Capuchins. For four years, then, save some days, Bl. Joseph lived among the Capuchin fathers, having been taken from Assisi on the twenty-third day of July in the year 1653, and having returned to his own from the convent of Fossombrone on the sixth day of July in the year 1657. And of those four years he passed three months in the convent of Pietrarubbia, the rest of the time at Fossombrone, excepting however that space of days or weeks in which, on account of the provincial chapter celebrated in the latter place, he was bidden meanwhile to stay in the convent of Monte-vecchio. His deeds on his last journey towards Osimo, and the rest done by him in this convent up to his death, the reader will find in the Life to be published, so that it is not necessary to set them forth here at greater length. Nevertheless I have thought it would not be unwelcome if I set down, as it were under one view, the rule of life which he kept for the remaining time of his life, in the same words in which, on Berninus' witness, it is read set forth in Italian in the Summary fol. 205, num. 15, A., §130, in the manner in which I subjoin it.

[101] His daily exercises At sunrise he rose from his bed, and betook himself straight to his oratory, to recite the first canonical Hour and the other Offices, as will be said, until his spiritual father was brought into the oratory to hear him confessing his sins. Confession being ended, he prepared himself for the celebrating of the holy sacrifice of the Mass. Then he went down to the chapel appointed for him, where he might say Mass in private; and when he had come thither, being clothed in the priestly habit and prostrate on his knees before the altar, he devoutly recited the litanies of the most blessed Virgin. These being ended, he began the Mass, which he celebrated with great devotion, and it lasted, without ecstasies, about one hour, but with ecstasies sometimes longer, sometimes less. Something seems here to be wanting; for both the thing itself requires that ecstasies should draw the Mass out longer, and I have found from elsewhere that the Blessed one was wont to spend about two hours upon that most holy Sacrifice when he was rapt into ecstasies. It seems, therefore, that the author of the relation wished to indicate that as much time, more or less, was spent by him in ecstasies as was spent upon the Mass. These things being observed, let us go on with the relation.

[102] for as long as he afterwards among his own Religious After the Mass was ended he stayed a little while in the chapel; then he returned to the oratory, to complete the canonical Hours and the other divine Offices which he was wont to say — namely the Office of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Office of the dead, the Office of the holy Cross and of the Holy Spirit, the seven penitential psalms with the prayers; and, if time remained, he spent it upon the Crown. With these exercises, then, he was occupied until the hour of dinner, which was brought to him after the other Religious had dined. Dinner being taken, which he despatched in a short time, he returned to the oratory to give thanks to God; and if any of the Religious wished to speak with him, he listened willingly, until he withdrew to his cell, in which he shut himself up, to rest for the space of about an hour or an hour and a half. Waking, he returned to the oratory, to continue his prayers there until the Ave Maria (that is, until the signal should be given as usual for reciting the angelic salutation), unless he were detained by some Religious brought to him for the sake of seeking spiritual help.

[103] At the Ave Maria his companion lit his lamp; lived in the convent of Osimo, for he was wont to read spiritual books almost until the third hour of the night, and then he ordinarily read the Mass to be said on the morrow, the Life of some Saint of that day, or some book of Sermons or of the sacred Scripture. Towards the third hour of the night his supper was brought him by his companion, after the fathers had supped. After this he sought the oratory again, sometimes accompanied by other Religious who visited him, that they might discourse of ascetic matters or sing songs in praise of God. And all this he sometimes drew out for an hour and a half; and though the others withdrew, he remained in the oratory until midnight, when the Office of Matins was to be recited. Matins being said, he gave himself to rest until sunrise. And these were his exercises by day and by night, which he always observed from his entrance into our convent up to his last illness, save when he was hindered by ill health or by some infirmity.

[104] The manner also of his natural life was that which I subjoin. he survived up to his death, Throughout the whole year he ate no other food than fasting fare: in food and drink he was sober, and seemed to eat unwillingly, so alienated from his senses that he did not notice what he ate or drank. As concerns his clothing, instead of a linen undergarment he wore a woollen one, and, without any linen cloth, a pair of drawers; his bare feet were shod with sandals. His outer garment, after the manner of the other Religious, was a tunic and a woollen cowl, woven at Assisi; in winter time he added a cloak or mantle. Clothed always in these same garments he slept, partly sitting, partly stretched upon three boards, having at his head a bolster covered with linen cloth, and for a coverlet a bearskin. His dwelling consisted of two chambers, of which one was the oratory, the other appointed for rest; in which he always, and through the whole time of his life up to his death, lived solitary. Thus far the said relation in the Summary, whose it is Berninus did not indicate.

[105] The austere kind of life which he had led in a continual maceration of the body, in which place he died. especially when younger, had vehemently worn away his strength, and above all the scantiness and quality of his food had not a little weakened his stomach. For he had passed ten years, as Berninus asserts from the Summary fol. 91, num. 13, A. §69, without wine, seven without bread, and a whole Lent content with a few nuts. His poor little body, then, emaciated in so many ways, which the age of sixty years besides weighed down, was seized on the tenth day of August in the year 1663 by a fever, which by gnawing away his surviving strength at last took him from human affairs. On the seventeenth day of September of the same year he was fortified with the sacred Viaticum, and on the same or at least on the following day with Extreme Unction; but on the eighteenth day at its close, or at the beginning of the nineteenth, breaking out into a most placid smile, and his face shining with an unlooked-for light, he sent forth his most holy soul to heaven, being sixty years, three months and a day

old. Concerning the year and the month all agree. Berninus and Pastrovicchi besides assign the time more precisely, namely about a quarter before the sixth Italian hour of the night which followed the eighteenth day; which time seems to have fallen at the beginning of the nineteenth day, since both in the Brief by which two of his miracles are approved by Benedict XIV, the Pontiff happily reigning, below at num. 121, and in the Brief of beatification below at num. 128, he is said to have died on the nineteenth day of September. And he died in the convent of Osimo, when he had dwelt there six years, two months and eight days.

[106] The chronology of his life From what has been said thus far the chronology of his whole life is put together in this manner. He was born at Cupertino, a town of the kingdom of Naples, of the diocese of Nardò, on the seventeenth day of June in the year 1603. In the world he learned for some time the shoemaker's art. In the year 1620 (Berninus adds the month of August), and thus in the eighteenth year of his age, being admitted by the Capuchin fathers among the laymen of their Order, he began his novitiate in the convent of Martina, being called brother Stephen. In the following year, that is of Christ 1621, before Easter, which was then celebrated on the eleventh day of April, he was sent home from that novitiate. After these things — at what time is uncertain — by the efforts of his mother and his uncle, a priest of the Order of Minors Conventual, he obtained to be received among the lay Tertiaries of that Order, whom they call Oblates, in the convent named St. Mary of the Grottella, or della Grottella, near Cupertino, where he had the care of the stable and of the house mule, and for some time also was joined as companion to his uncle.

[107] thus far brought down In the year 1625, the twenty-third of his age having begun, on the nineteenth day of June he was admitted to the clerical habit of that Order, and enrolled among the clerical novices, and began his novitiate in the said convent of the Grottella, and there in the following year made his solemn profession. In the year 1627, on the thirtieth day of January, he was initiated by the bishop of Nardò into the minor Orders; on the twenty-seventh day of February into the subdiaconate; and into the diaconate on the twentieth day of March of the same year, and by the same bishop, at Nardò. Lastly he received the priesthood in the year 1628, on the twenty-eighth, or perhaps the fourth, of March, from the bishop of Castro. In the year 1638, on the twenty-first day of October (on Berninus' witness), he set out from his beloved convent of the Grottella for Naples, being summoned by the tribunal of the sacred inquisition, before which he had been undeservedly accused as an impostor. After his innocence had been proved at Naples and his holiness recognized, he was sent with letters received from that tribunal to Rome, to the father General of his Order, and by him, after some stay in the City, was sent over to the convent of St. Francis at Assisi in Umbria.

[108] is briefly recounted. While in this convent he abounded in heavenly delights, and, famous for miracles, was held in veneration by all, by letters from the Roman tribunal of the sacred inquisition, by the command of Innocent X the supreme Pontiff, he was removed thence on the twenty-third day of July of the year 1653 to the convent of the Capuchins of Pietrarubbia, and from thence after three months to that of Fossombrone, which likewise is of the Capuchins, on account of the crowd of people running together to him, and was forbidden the company of men from outside. In this latter place he spent about three years, living meanwhile for a short time at Monte-vecchio, but likewise among the Capuchins, while the provincial chapter of that Order was being celebrated at Fossombrone. At length, in the year 1657, on the sixth day of July, by the command of Alexander VII, who had succeeded Innocent X in the Pontificate, he was conducted from the convent of Fossombrone to that of the Minors Conventual at Osimo, and arriving there on the tenth day of the same month, was restored, with vast joy on both sides, to the brethren of his Order, from whom he had been an exile for nearly four years. From this place at last, after six years, two months and eight days, leaving there the spoils of his mortality, he passed to the heavens, illustrious in holiness and most famous, alive as well as dead, for the frequency of his miracles.

§ IX. The Blessed one's burial, and some short elogia by contemporary writers.

[ ] His venerable body, enclosed contrary to custom in a coffin When the most present peril of life in which Bl. Joseph was at Osimo was learned at Rome, the Pontiff Alexander VII made plain how greatly he esteemed his sanctity. For by his command, on Berninus' witness from the Summary fol. 1, num. 1 A., §1, Cardinal Flavius Chigi gave the following letter to Antiochus Honofrius, vicar of the bishop of Osimo, which from Italian I here set forth in Latin. Most illustrious and most reverend lord vicar general. The no common grief which I had conceived from the grave infirmity of father brother Joseph of Cupertino, learned through various letters of your lordship, has now been increased by those given to me on the seventeenth of this month, in which you signify that he is in his last agony. If he be called by the Lord God to the other life, your lordship will see to it that his body be laid in a coffin (although this be unusual), and will see to it that he be buried in such a sepulchre as, in your prudence, you shall judge more suitable to the purpose. It must be warned, however, that all be done without unusual and extraordinary display, etc. Rome, the twenty-second of September 1663. Most devoted to your lordship, F. Card. Chigi.

[110] But Cardinal Antonius Bichius himself, and embalmed with balsam, is buried. legate of Urbino and bishop of Osimo, had already anticipated these letters, as Berninus shows from folio 237 of the Summary, num. 15, D. §7 and the following. For he had deputed his said vicar general Honofrius, the archdeacon Fiorenzius and the canon Pinius, to see to the blessed Man's funeral. And they, the venerable body having been formally identified by a public instrument, ordered it to be opened and embalmed with balsam and fragrant herbs, and, being laid in a cypress coffin which they enclosed in another of oak, to be buried before the altar of the Virgin conceived without stain, in a sepulchre newly hollowed out. Then they ordered that another instrument also should be made by Joannes Hilarius, notary and chancellor of the bishop of Osimo, by which the body, the coffin and the burial might be attested; and that a stone a foot and a half long and one foot broad, in which a cross with three mountains was cut, should be laid upon the sepulchre, which Berninus says was there in his own time also. Yet not without a miracle was the very inspection and anointing of the sacred body performed; nor without a vast concourse of the people, to whose piety it had been publicly exposed on the nineteenth and twentieth days, was it entombed after famous obsequies; but since these things are sufficiently set forth in the Life to be published, I here forbear them.

[111] Yet I have judged it not beside the purpose if I should here subjoin two letters concerning Bl. Joseph's most happy death, A letter of Cardinal Facchinetti which Berninus recites from the Summary, that from these also it might be plain what were then the judgments of men of the highest rank about his eminent sanctity. The first, for which Berninus cites fol. 5, num. 3, B. §1, is a letter of Cardinal Cæsar Facchinetti, bishop of Spoleto, in which he answered in Italian, in this manner, a friend of his by whom he had been informed by letter of Joseph's death: The most kindly letter which your most reverend paternity gave me would have been a great consolation to me, had it not stricken me with the news of the death of our father Joseph of Cupertino, who was dead before I had heard of his illness. For pious men their reward is in death. Hence I must rejoice at so great a loss, since this is the cause of a sure hope and of an everlasting reward for so religious a soul. Yet notwithstanding these things, funerals of this kind are bitter to our human nature, because we see ourselves destitute of the company of men of upright life, when we no longer have such helpers at hand; and it is fitting that we should be saddened at the parting, not from any lack of joy at their felicity, but on account of their intercession for ours.

[112] concerning Bl. Joseph So great a loss, then, I lament with your paternity. You had in father Joseph of Cupertino a great contemplative, a most perfect poor man, a humble man confirmed by most effectual and strong trials, and a subject so obedient that never, so far as I know, did he give any sign of a will of his own. For twenty-six years I enjoyed his friendship, nor could I ever find him other on one day than on another, but always conformed to the divine will, always desirous of the greater glory of the Most High, and eager for the blessedness of men, in whose service he would have spent his life a thousand times. That he might withdraw any froward man from danger and correct him and bring him to God, he melted into tears, and by harsh afflictings of himself strove to call him back to good living. In conversations about God he mingled erudition with familiar speech, so that by his simplicity he begat love of himself and by his learning gave satisfaction: and yet he had studied no other book than the Crucified.

[113] written a little after his death: On grace and nature I heard him discourse wonderfully, when in unspeakable words he exalted the power of the first and demonstrated the liberty of the second. His ecstasies were known to all. I saw him lifted four fingers from the ground, and many of my household saw it with me. His countenance was an image of religious gravity and a likeness of a most devout pleasantness. The conversion of the duke of Brunswick was granted by God to the prayers of brother Joseph, and in the duke's conversation with the Father the duke owned himself vanquished by father Joseph's arguments, who triumphed over that soul because God had put strength and wisdom into him, etc. Spoleto, the 2nd day of October 1663. Of your most reverend paternity, etc. Cæsar Cardinal Facchinetti. Thus he. The second letter, which Berninus asserts is read in the Summary fol. 273, num. 15, H., §1, and which he likewise sets forth in Italian, was written by Joannes Baptista Penna, bishop of Vieste in the province of Bari, to Bonaventura Claverius, bishop of Potenza, already cited elsewhere.

[114] likewise another of Joannes Baptista Penna, I have received, he says, your most illustrious lordship's letter, in which you make known to me the death of the holy father brother Joseph of Cupertino. I grieve for the loss which the Christian commonwealth has suffered; though I rejoice because I am sure that he is even now enjoying in heaven that reward which God has promised to them that love him. Truly, most illustrious Lord, I speak from the feeling of my heart, I say, Of that loss, because I always held him for a Saint, after I knew him and had conversed with him. I will report to your most illustrious lordship, as to a most worthy prelate of the Seraphic Religion, some things which I have learned by experience. First I perceived a fragrance of a most sweet odour, intense and not natural, which clung to my hands, and which I felt penetrate into my inward parts; and it lasted for some little time. The esteem which I had conceived of his sanctity I confirmed to myself from this, that, although he was unlettered, nevertheless I felt my mind made calm about those things concerning which I discoursed with him, no otherwise than if he had been a most excellent theologian. From his cheerfulness too and his speech I found that his virtue was in no way vain or feigned.

[115] Besides this, when the last time I spoke with him about the convent of Tivoli, bishop of Vieste. suppressed by the Most Eminent Cardinal Roma of good memory, and in that matter, both on account of the services rendered to the Cardinal,

and from the effect upon my Religion (the Augustinian), I was somewhat moved while I was relating those things; he, though his face was cheerful, suddenly put on a severe one, and, somewhat angered, striking the Breviary with his hand, said this: This is nothing to that which is to come: they know, they are moved by the Holy Spirit. I pray God for the lord Cardinal Roma, because I have heard good things related of him. By which words, as it seems to me, he foretold the suppression of other convents, which afterwards followed; because the Bull had not then yet been issued. The 1st day of November 1663. Your most devoted and most bounden servant, Joannes Baptista, bishop of Vieste. The Bull of which he here treats was doubtless that which Innocent X, the supreme Pontiff, issued for the extinction in Italy of the small convents of Regulars for which a suitable number of persons was not available; which Bull you have in the Roman Bullarium, vol. 5, p. 523 and the following, where its date is marked as the Ides of October of the year 1652.

[116] To these two letters of sacred prelates I add one or two testimonies of writers A short elogium of the same Blessed one whom Berninus in the last chapter of the Life affirms to have been his contemporaries. The first of these, on Berninus' witness in the same place, in a manuscript compendium of the Life of the venerable servant of God Silvester Calia, a layman of the Order of Minors Reformed of St. Francis, at folio 7 has this to our purpose: He (brother Silvester) cultivated an intimate friendship and brotherly acquaintance with father brother Joseph of the Grottella, a Minor Conventual, and likewise a man of Cupertino, who gave himself wholly to God and to the contemplation of divine things, being specially imbued with holy precepts and admonitions by brother Silvester; he made great progress in perfection, and three years ago died at Osimo in the March of Ancona with a great fame of sanctity, being held by all as another holy father Francis of our times. That brother Joseph of the Grottella, then a young man and a novice in the path of perfection, greatly esteemed and always venerated brother Silvester as a Saint; and when he spoke of him he said great things. In like manner brother Silvester not only greatly esteemed brother Joseph, but also prophesied that he would turn out a notable Saint, and such as should be a marvel to many, as befell; although that brother Joseph was at that time a layman in the convent of the Grottella, nor had he then been received among the clerical novices, and the issue of such things was far from human knowledge without a special divine light.

[117] Thus far the anonymous writer; after which Berninus observes by two contemporary writers. that the said venerable brother Silvester died on the fourteenth day of July in the year 1621; and if this be so, he certainly cannot have known Bl. Joseph enrolled among the laymen in the convent of the Grottella save for a very short time, as is plain from what was said above in §1. He observes secondly that mention is made of that holy friendship of the two men in the process of Nardò fol. 606 and the following, and in the published Summary fol. 209, num. 17, On sublime and heroic hope, §1. The second testimony, related by the same Berninus, is that of Dominicus Sapanus of Cupertino, likewise a contemporary of the Blessed one, who in his manuscript Ephemerides of the affairs of his own time, fol. 21, says this in Italian: On the eighteenth day of September of the same year 1663, in the city of Osimo in the March of Ancona, father brother Joseph Desa died with the universal opinion and fame of heroic sanctity. His death the whole province lamented, where his virtues are known, seeing that he lived on earth like a Seraph in the flesh, always burning and ecstatic through divine love. From these things it is plain what was the common estimation of Joseph's sanctity at the time of his death — which will also appear the more from the Life to be published — and which the supreme Pontiffs, and most lately Benedict XIV, happily presiding over the whole Church of Christ on earth, have approved with their vote, as the following § will show.

§ X. The cause of his beatification introduced, and happily completed by Pope Benedict XIV.

[ ] Innocent XI signs the commission for the introduction of the cause: Two years after the blessed death of Joseph the processes concerning his Life and miracles were drawn up by ordinary authority in the cities of Nardò, Assisi and Osimo; which being sent to Rome and duly examined by the sacred Congregation of Rites, the venerable servant of God Innocent XI, the supreme Pontiff, on the thirty-first day of August 1686 signed the commission for the introduction of his cause, on Pastrovicchi's witness in the Life to be published, num. 126. Following upon this, new processes were, as is usual, instituted and made by Apostolic authority in the same places, and a diligent labour was begun for the promoting of Joseph's beatification and canonization. But that a doubt concerning his theological and cardinal Virtues should be lawfully discussed even then was hindered by the decree of Urban VIII, by which he forbade that this should be done before fifty years had elapsed from the death; to the completing of which time some years were lacking, since Joseph had died in the year 1663.

[119] Clement XI dispenses in the years from his death, This difficulty, at the entreaty, in the name of his whole Religion, of the father master Joannes Damascenus, of the Order of Minors Conventual, and consultor of the holy Roman and universal Inquisition and of the Congregation of sacred rites, Pope Clement XI removed, who in a Decree given on the tenth day of July in the year 1711 granted that the cause of the beatification and canonization of the said servant of God, brother Joseph of Cupertino, might be prosecuted, treated and discussed concerning his merits up to the total determination, notwithstanding that from the day of his death, which followed on the eighteenth day of September 1643, or etc., fifty years have not yet elapsed, according to the form of the decrees of Urban the eighth of holy memory, from which he expressly derogated in this cause, and so he commanded it to be observed, prosecuted, treated, discussed and terminated, the said decrees, other Apostolic constitutions, and all other things to the contrary notwithstanding. This Decree is extant in vol. 2 of the Continuation of the Great Roman Bullarium, part 2, p. 435 and the following, whence we have related these things.

[120] Clement XII approves the virtues, Benedict XIV two miracles, After the diligent examination customary in such cases, the Roman Pontiff Clement XII at length, in the year 1735, on the fifteenth day of August, approved his virtues in an heroic degree by his decree, as will appear from what is presently to be recounted. Thence proceeding was made to the discussion of the miracles, of which Benedict XIV, happily reigning, on the fourth day of October 1752 approved two, by the decree which I here subjoin. Decree of the supreme Pontiff Pope Benedict XIV in the cause of Nardò for the beatification and canonization of the Ven. servant of God, Joseph of Cupertino, priest of the Order of Minors Conventual of St. Francis. After Clement XII of happy memory, our predecessor, having premised the diligent examination which was fitting, decreed that it was duly established concerning the virtues, as well theological as cardinal, and their respective annexes, in an heroic degree, of the venerable servant of God Joseph of Cupertino, a professed priest of the Order of Minors Conventual, as is plain from the decree issued by the same predecessor on the fifteenth day of August 1735, a second judgment was instituted according to custom upon the miracles drawn out by the postulators of the cause from the processes of Osimo, Assisi and Nardò, made not only by ordinary but also by Apostolic authority, whose validity had once and again been approved.

[121] These same miracles, therefore, having been weighed, as is usual, in the antepreparatory congregation held on the 2nd of March, and in the preparatory held on the sixteenth of November of last year 1751, the decree of which latter, it came about by the disposition of the counsel from on high that at length there was appointed for the general congregation to be assembled before Us the nineteenth day (see what was said at num. 105) of the September just past, on which the Servant of God, leaving in our city of Osimo in the year 1663 the spoils of his mortality, met a death precious in the sight of the Lord. Lest in a matter altogether grave any part of Our Apostolic solicitude and vigilance could be found wanting. Before We took part in the said general congregation, We searched into the proofs of the miracles, culled from the same Apostolic and ordinary processes; We unrolled the allegations of the postulators, and the opinions of the physicians drawn up in writing for the truth; and We heard the same postulators pleading their cause by word of mouth: then We weighed the votes of the consultors, and laid them open before the whole assembly; and lastly We received the sentences of the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church expressly delivered before Us.

[122] But although it was very well ascertained by Us issued on the fourth day of October of the year 1752, is recounted: that two of the miracles proposed, namely the second and the third in order, were approved by the almost common vote of the consultors and by the wholly unanimous suffrage of the Cardinals, We nevertheless put off Our deliberation to another time, in which We might more advisedly despatch the matter, not only by the addition of Our stricter study, but by imploring heavenly aid from on high from him who enlightens the minds of men with the light of his brightness. On this day, therefore, sacred to the divine patriarch Francis, after We had, prostrate at his altar in the basilica of the holy Twelve Apostles, offered to Almighty God the unbloody Sacrifice and Victim of propitiation, We have judged that the two aforesaid miracles are to be approved; and We have chosen this day for that end, that it may lie open by new proofs day by day that sanctity, brought into the Franciscan family by its surpassing founder, grows up in its alumni to the most abundant joy of the Church.

[123] The first miracle, otherwise the second in order, a boy's eye, cut open, is restored whole; happened to Stephanus de Matthæis, a boy of twelve years, the pupil of whose right eye was wounded by a boy of the same age with the blow of a scaly and sharp stone, and cut across, with blood and other humours flowing so widely that the orbit of the whole eye, or the ball, was seen to dry up, contract and be pressed inward, the power of seeing being taken from that Stephanus. The physician and the surgeon, who had pronounced that it was all over with the sight, applied for a few days some remedies suitable only for the healing of the wound; but the sick boy, raising his mind in that very blindness — in the judgment of men not to be removed — to the venerable Joseph, first at home implores his help, then together with his mother goes to his sepulchre, redoubles his prayers more fervently upon his knees, applies his eye to the sepulchral stone, and in an instant recovers his former power of seeing, and shows the eye to the beholders, restored to its roundness and to the original fitness of its parts.

[124] a knee affected with a dangerous swelling is suddenly healed. The second miracle, otherwise the third in order, befell Victorius de Matthæis. In his right knee a cystic or follicular tumour struck deep roots, which, in the space of about six years, from the long heaping up of humours, hardened into an enormous and hard mass, and suffered the sick man neither to walk nor to bend the knee, and vexed him with continual pains, raging more bitterly in the last month before the healing. To this huge tumour, now grown old, no remedies were ever applied, nor did the hand of a surgeon come near, well aware that it could not be touched without peril of life. The sick man, cast down from all hope of recovering health by human aid, on the day on which the corpse of the Servant of God, lately deceased, was exposed in the church of his Order to the people flowing together, went first to that same church, then to the chapel in which the venerable Servant of God had been wont to celebrate Mass privately. His right knee and the tumour

swelling out upon it he applied to the footstool of the altar, on which, from his long use of praying there, the traces of the Servant of God's knees appeared imprinted. From that touch in a moment of time the tumour vanished, with no sign of the cyst, none of the enveloped follicle, surviving in the knee, which was made level and altogether free for motion.

[125] The same Pontiff, dispensing from a further congregation to be held, These two miracles, therefore, as of the third kind, We approve; and this present decree of Our approbation, subscribed with Our hand, We will and command to be entered among the acts of the Congregation. Given at Rome at St. Mary Major on the fourth day of October 1752, in the thirteenth year of Our Pontificate.

D. F. Card. Tamburinus, Pref.

Place ✠ of the Seal.

M. Marefuscus, secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

The two aforesaid miracles being approved, the same supreme Pontiff Benedict XIV, at the entreaty of the most reverend father master Carolus Antonius Calvi, Minister General of the same Order, and having seen the favourable report and the written vote of the most illustrious Ludovicus Valenti, promoter of the Faith, kindly dispensed from a further general congregation to be held, and granted that proceeding might be made to the formal beatification of the venerable Servant of God, by a rescript given on the twelfth day of December of the year 1752. And not long after, namely on the twentieth day of February of the year next following, he signed the Brief of his Beatification, which I subjoin from a copy printed at Rome.

[126] by a Brief given on the 20th day of February in the year 1753 Brief of the beatification of the ven. servant of God Joseph of Cupertino, a professed priest of the Order of the friars Minor Conventual of St. Francis.

POPE BENEDICT XIV.

To the perpetual memory of the matter.

The eternal Son of God, although before the beginning of the world, coequal with the Father, he ever equally reigned, yet in the fulness of times appeared made manifest in the flesh for this end, that, according to the prophecies of the prophets, by rebuilding what had fallen and restoring what had been overthrown, he might raise up and establish his kingdom even to the uttermost ends of the earth against the tyranny of the ancient enemy. Whoever, therefore, strive to be enrolled as citizens in this kingdom, which was to be gathered out of all tongues and peoples, must storm and win it by violence; since Christ the Lord willed this to be a perpetual edict, and promulgated to them for their whole life, that he came to send fire upon the earth, and that he sought nothing else but that it should be kindled and burn. By this heavenly fire the minds of men are everywhere restored, when, breathed upon and set aflame by the ardour of the Holy Spirit, their earthly desires being crushed and overcome, they are carried away into the love of God and are conformed to his likeness and image.

[127] Of this divine power we have a most abundant witness in the venerable servant of God Joseph of Cupertino, him with a notable elogium of the Order of the Friars Minor of St. Francis, called Conventual, a professed priest, who, when in this kingdom he had devoted himself to his service, put off the old man and put on the new, and strove to imitate his leader and standard-bearer Francis by the deepest poverty, by an entire denial of himself, by instancy in prayer, by meditation on the cross, by strict silences and by long fastings. But since he thoroughly understood that even if he had delivered his body to be burned, it would profit him nothing unless he had charity, hence it came about that upon this first and greatest commandment of loving God he earnestly bent all his thoughts and all his powers. From this inward union with God his heart was so seized with the fire of divine charity, and burned all over with an incredible love of inward sweetness, that he sometimes broke forth into ecstasies and raptures; and while he was held a dweller upon earth, by his most vehement desire of God he was reckoned as one of the household in heaven.

[128] Wherefore his name began to be celebrated in the speech of all, in the catalogue of the Blessed because neither the inaccessible places nor the more secret chambers in which he at times passed his time in obedience could contain it; until, having left at Osimo in Picenum, on the nineteenth day of September in the year 1663, the spoils of his mortality among his brethren, being called to the eternal rewards he passed over to the heavenly fatherland. The most famous fame of his holiness, therefore, growing day by day, the cause was brought before the Congregation of Our venerable Brethren the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church set over the sacred rites; where, when according to the canonical sanctions the question was, as is usual, held concerning the estimating of his virtues, Clement XII of happy memory, Our predecessor, on the eighteenth of the Kalends of September of the year 1735, pronounced that they were established in an heroic degree. Further, when before Us, called by the divine mercy to the government of the universal Church, the miracles were debated, We judge that it came about not without the supreme counsel that on that very day, namely on the nineteenth of the past September, the general congregation upon this matter was assembled before Us, on which the venerable Servant of God, being more than sixty years old and heaped with merits, completed his mortality upon earth and began his immortality in heaven.

[129] Two of the miracles which were proposed to be discussed We judged were to be approved, the votes of the consultors and the sentences of Our venerable Brethren the Cardinals of the aforesaid Holy Roman Church agreeing, he enrols, and, the eighteenth day of September being appointed, and We willed to bring forth and promulgate Our decree upon the same on the day sacred to St. Francis of Assisi, after We had, prostrate at his altar in the basilica of the holy Twelve Apostles of the City, offered to almighty God the Victim of propitiation; which day We chose to this end, that it might be established by new and marvellous proofs that sanctity, brought into this Franciscan family by its Seraphic Parent, grows up day by day in its alumni with the most abundant increase of the Church. Wherefore, at length assenting with paternal clemency to the prayers of kings, bishops and other princes, and also of Our beloved sons the Friars Minor Conventual, by the counsel and assent of the same Congregation of Cardinals, by Apostolic authority, by the tenor of these presents We grant that the same Servant of God Joseph of Cupertino be henceforth called by the name of Blessed; that his body and Relics be exposed to the veneration of the faithful (not however to be carried about in processions); that his images also be adorned with rays or splendours; and that of him every year on the eighteenth day of September, which day We prescribe for the celebrating of his feast, the Office and Mass of the Common of a confessor not a pontiff be recited under the lesser double rite, with the Collect approved by Us, according to the Rubrics of the Roman Breviary and Missal.

[130] to be honoured with a Mass and Office in certain places and by certain persons, And the recitation of the Office and the celebration of the Mass of this kind We grant to be made both in the proper Order of the Minors of St. Francis Conventual, in which, having made solemn profession, he remained until his death, and in the Order of the Friars Minor of the same St. Francis called Capuchins (among whom he stayed for some years) and of the Observance, of the Reformed, of the Recollects, and of the Discalced, and of those called of the Third Order; and in the town of Cupertino, in which the Man of God came forth into the light, and in the whole diocese of Nardò; also in Our cities of Assisi and its diocese, the Land of Pietrarubbia of the diocese of Montefeltro, Fossombrone and its diocese, which places he made illustrious by his dwelling and by his virtues; and lastly in the whole diocese and city of Osimo, in which he fell asleep in the Lord; and also among the archconfraternity under the invocation of St. Anthony of Padua in the same basilica of the holy Twelve Apostles of the City, and the confraternity of St. Stephen in the city of Assisi, canonically erected, into which he was received — by all Christ's faithful, as well Regular as Secular, who are bound to the canonical Hours; and, as concerns the Masses, also by all priests flocking to the churches in which the feast shall be kept.

[131] and permits the solemnities of the beatification to be celebrated. Moreover, in the first year only from the giving of these letters, in the churches of the Friars Minor Conventual and of the other Franciscan families, of the cities, lands, towns and dioceses, of the archconfraternity and the confraternity aforesaid, We give power of celebrating the solemnities of the beatification of that Servant of God with an Office under the greater double rite and a Mass, on the day respectively appointed by the ordinaries, after the solemnities shall have been performed in Our basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican, namely on the twenty-fourth day of the current month. Notwithstanding the Apostolic Constitutions and Ordinances, and the Decrees issued concerning non-cultus, etc., and all other things to the contrary whatsoever. And We will that to transcripts or copies, even printed, of these same present letters, subscribed by the hand of the secretary of the said Congregation of Cardinals and fortified with the seal of the prefect of the same Congregation, altogether the same credit be given by all and in all places, as well in judgment as outside it, as would be given to these presents themselves if they were exhibited or shown.

Given at Rome at St. Mary Major under the ring of the Fisherman on the 20th day of February 1753, in the thirteenth year of Our Pontificate.

D. Card. Passioneus.

For the rest, the same solemnities of the beatification were celebrated on the day cited above at Rome in the Vatican basilica of St. Peter, prince of the Apostles, with the accustomed pomp, and I, being present, beheld them with great consolation of soul. Now receive the Life.

LIFE

Published in Italian from the Processes.

By A. Pastrovicchi.

CHAPTER I.

The Blessed one's birth and pious boyhood, his novitiate among the Capuchins; dismissed from thence, he becomes a Tertiary among the Conventual Friars of St. Francis, then a clerical novice; having made profession, he is initiated into the priesthood.

[ ] Born at Cupertino in a stable, as a boy he shines forth with virtues. The blessed Joseph, called ^a "of Cupertino" from a town of the kingdom of Naples in the diocese of Nardò ^b, where on the seventeenth day of June of the year 1603 he obtained his humble birth from poor but honest and pious parents, Felix Desa ^c and Francisca Panara, and after the example of the seraphic Father came forth into the light in a stable, where his mother was overtaken by the pangs of childbirth ^d. Brought up by her in a Christian way and with a holy severity ^e, and prevented by the sweetness of divine gifts, from his very earliest boyhood he gave many signs of his future sanctity, so that, while he was in the eighth year of his age, being intent upon frequent prayer and other pious works, he would remain as it were in ecstasy, with his body motionless and his eyes fixed on heaven and his lips a little open, and therefore was called by the other boys, for the sake of mockery, as that age is wont, or, to speak more truly, with a presage of his continual ecstasies and wonderful raptures, "Open Mouth" ^f.

[2] Not long after, God began to exercise his virtue with most acute abscesses and ulcers, he is afflicted with abscesses, which being healed from God, which the good little Boy bore for the space of four years with singular patience; during which time he was refreshed by no other solace than being present at the divine Sacrifice, and he begged his mother with tears that he might attend it daily, and she, moved with compassion, took him up in her arms and carried him to the neighbouring church ^g. A certain experienced hermit tried to heal him at Cupertino, using iron and fire; but when afterwards through neglect he had become as it were incurable, the divine hand was at length at hand for his healing, when, being anointed with a little oil by the same hermit, who dwelt in the church of St. Mary of the graces of Galatone (a place nine miles distant from Cupertino, whither his mother had carried him with her, set upon a horse in the fashion of a sack as conveniently as she could), he suddenly felt all his ill

relieved, and on the next day was able to return on foot to Cupertino with no other help than a staff ^h.

[3] It would be long to relate here how much more grateful the little boy Joseph showed himself for the divine benefits, [he lives yet more holily: in vain he asks for the habit of the Conventuals of St. Francis.] and with how much greater fervour he prepared himself for loving God and serving him more faithfully. To frequent the churches, to be present at the sacrifices of the Mass, to gird his sides with a most sharp hair-shirt, to abstain from the eating of flesh, and to eat nothing but pulse and herbs seasoned with the most bitter powder of wormwood (and that indeed with so severe a fast that he sometimes passed two or three days without food) — such at that age was the tenor of his life, so mortified in body, but at the same time with so great an elevation of mind to God that, being sometimes asked why he did not eat, he kindly answered: I did not remember ⁱ. In the seventeenth year of his age, his desire of forsaking the deceitful world burning more vehemently, that in that part of the world which is holy he might join himself most closely to God in some sacred monastery, he first of all cast the eyes of his mind upon the Franciscan Order of the Minors Conventual; and that he might be admitted into it he set forth his wishes to father Franceschinus Desa, his uncle, a Religious of that Order. But he, for no other cause than that he judged his Nephew, being imbued with no letters, unfit for the priesthood, would in no way consent to his requests ^k.

[4] [Admitted by the Capuchins among the lay brethren, and sent away from the novitiate,] Afflicted by this refusal, but nevertheless resolved in any way whatsoever to serve under the banner of the holy patriarch Francis, whom he felt himself admonished by unceasing voices from God to follow, Joseph humbly besought the father Provincial of the Minor Capuchins ^l that he might be admitted among the lay brethren of that most religious Order; and being most kindly heard, and having received the name of Stephen, he was clothed with the sacred habit in the year 1620 in the convent of Martina ^m. But whether because his eyes then really failed, as some believed, or rather because, together with the habit, the training and the examples of those most excellent Religious, the fire of heavenly love being more vehemently kindled in his heart, he was always more joined to God and ecstatic, and the more perfectly he wrought in spirit, the less exactly he discharged the offices of the body, it came about that, since he did not distinguish white bread from black, and often broke vessels and earthenware that slipped from his hands, and, while he was laying wood upon the fire, overturned the pots and committed other faults of this kind, on account of which he showed himself unfit for the duties of his state, after a long exercise of eight months in the novitiate (God, who is wonderful in his ways, so permitting) he was dismissed, and stripped of that sacred habit, with such grief that, as he himself said when now older, he seemed to himself to feel his skin drawn off with that tunic, and his flesh torn from his bones ⁿ.

[5] [after the perils of the journey he goes to his uncle, by whom he is brought back to his mother] Having now lost the cap, the hose and the shoes which he had brought before he was clothed in the said convent, he put on the rest of his worldly garments, and thus half-naked, that he might undergo the less sadness and confusion, he resolved not to return to Cupertino but to Vetrara ^o, where his aforesaid Religious uncle was at that time preaching. On this journey, as he went along towards evening, he fell into graver perils: first from fierce mastiffs, which rushed upon him to tear him in pieces; then from raging shepherds, who indeed freed him from the dogs, but, thinking him a spy sent by robbers, were at that very moment plotting to kill him; but being recognized by one of them, he was let go, and moreover refreshed with a morsel of bread [p]. Lastly he ran into peril from the demon, who, uttering a horrible voice: Stand, spy, showed himself to be seen by him in the shape of a man sitting upon a horse, of a grim countenance and with his hand armed with a threatening sword, likewise reproaching him that he came as a spy of the royal government. But the Blessed one had scarcely gone a few paces when, fearing nothing and turning his eyes in every direction over that vast plain, he found that he had vanished from his sight: whence he said to himself: "That was Malatasca" (so he was wont, with St. Catherine of Siena, to call the devil [q]), who wished to terrify me and to bring me into despair.

[6] Having in this manner overcome the aforesaid perils, he came to Vetrara, whose efforts among the Conventuals where, falling upon his knees at his uncle's feet, he patiently heard him reproaching him that he was unfit, that he was a vagabond; and being asked by him what this meant, he answered with the most humble simplicity: "The Capuchin fathers stripped me of the habit, because I am fit for nothing." Hence his uncle, moved with compassion, kept him with himself until Easter [r], and then brought him back secretly to Cupertino. But there again he bore with unconquered patience his mother's hard taunts, who always showed severity outwardly, but pursued her Son with an inward love. Indeed, that she might free him from the prison into which, on account of his dead father's debts, he must certainly have been cast, she prevailed so much by prayers and tears for his being admitted into the convent of the Minors Conventual of the Grottella [s], a mile and a half distant from Cupertino, that the Religious of that place and the rest of that convent at length assented, and clothed him with the habit of an Oblate Tertiary.

[7] Truly [t] then the heart of Bl. Joseph breathed again, although he was there assigned to driving the mule and to other mean duties of the monastery; he is admitted among the Oblate Tertiaries, and he rejoiced the more when he was given as companion to the father master Joannes Donatus, his uncle, a Religious of great piety and learning. This solace, moreover, added new spurs to him for increasing the fervour of a spirit already inflamed with divine love. For when he was collecting alms for the things necessary to the convent, by his poor garment, by the modesty of his gait, by the sweetness and simplicity of his words, which breathed nothing but charity, he obtained from the people, more abundantly than bread itself, a horror of vices, an esteem of virtues, and acts of love towards God. While he stayed in the convent, he was unwearied, and with the utmost humility occupied in the meanest and most laborious services, most ready to obey, not only at the voices but even at the nods of the Religious. Lastly, in what regarded himself, he chastised his body so far as to add to his accustomed hair-shirt an iron chain, which bound his loins most tightly. His fasts were continual and most severe; and, that he might be free for prayer the longer, his sleep was very brief, in a little bed made of three boards, and spread with a worn bearskin and a rough sack stuffed with straw.

[8] God, who had destined him to undertake his priesthood in the Order of the Minors Conventual, then among the clerical novices, among whom opened the eyes of these Religious by so great a splendour of virtues; and indeed they took care and obtained that in the provincial chapter, celebrated on the nineteenth day of June in the year 1625 at Altamura [u], he should be admitted among the clerics of their Order [x]. Being clothed, therefore, with the Religious habit, under the filiation of the same convent of the Grottella, he began his novitiate with the utmost consolation in that same convent, retaining his own name of brother Joseph. But then he seriously set his mind upon two heads: namely, that he might live wholly to God, and that he might be sufficiently imbued with the letters necessary for the priesthood. And the first indeed he perfectly attained by withdrawal from human company, by continual converse with God in contemplation, by humility in accounting himself as the most wicked and most infamous sinner of the whole world, and by often repeating that the Religious habit had been granted him out of charity; by patience, in listening to the sharpest reproofs for faults, even for those not his own; by obedience, in carrying out commands not only hard but also unusual, which were laid upon him by his superiors for the sake of trying his virtue; by a mortification of his own flesh ever more and more severe; by every kind of virtue, in fine, on account of which that pattern of sanctity was a marvel to all [y].

[9] he makes profession, and is initiated into the sacred Orders. But as concerns letters, in these he made little progress; wherefore, when he was often reproved by his master, being humbled he answered: "Have patience, that so you may merit the more." Notwithstanding these things, on account of the good odour of his virtues he was admitted to the solemn vows and to the Regular profession, which he pronounced with the most tender weeping. After these things [z], trusting wholly in God and in the Virgin Mother, whose powerful patronage he had already earnestly sought, he was initiated without previous examination into the minor Orders on the thirtieth day of January in the year 1627, then into the subdiaconate on the twenty-seventh day of February of the same year, and lastly on the twentieth day of March into the diaconate [aa], after an examination as it were prodigious. For being bidden by the bishop of Nardò to expound the Gospel, that one conveniently came up in whose opening are the words: Blessed is the womb that bore thee; and this he happily expounded, since it was the one thing which he had learned with long study. Lastly the most illustrious lord Joannes Baptista Deti, bishop of Castro [bb], though severe and full of zeal, when the other younger Religious, already examined upon doctrine, had satisfied him, and thence he judged of the knowledge of the rest, among whom Bl. Joseph was one, conferred the priesthood upon him without any other examination on the twenty-eighth day of March in the following year 1628.

ANNOTATIONS.

h. Ibid. p. 26.

and in the Summary num. XI from p. 27 and following.

p. From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, fol. 58 and elsewhere.

q. The said holy virgin, in her Life in our volume III of April, p. 885, num. 128, speaking of the devil, says thus: Do not fear, for it is mala-tascha. On which her biographer Raymund notes in the same place: For so he called the devil, because he is an evil bag of souls: for in that region (Italy) TASCHA is commonly the name for a little bag. By the same word Bl. Veronica of Binasco, vol. 1 of January, p. 896, num. 12, and St. Mary Magdalen de' Pazzi, vol. IV of May, p. 129, were wont to call the devil.

r. It was celebrated in that year on the eleventh day of April.

s. In Italian it is called the convent della Grottella, concerning which consult the Commentary at num. XI.

t. From the ordinary process of Nardò, compulsory, fol. 651 verso to 653, and the Apostolic process of Assisi, fol. 319. The cited Apostolic process of Assisi, fol. 319 and elsewhere.

u. Altus-murus, by the natives Alta-mura, is a small city of the kingdom of Naples in the province of Bari, distinguished with the title of a principality.

x. From the ordinary process of Nardò, compulsory, fol. 651 to 653, and 728 verso, and the Apostolic process of Assisi, fol. 319 and elsewhere.

y. From the ordinary process of Nardò, compulsory, fol. 651 and 653.

z. From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, fol. 957 and 958, and elsewhere.

aa. In the preliminary Commentary at num. 14 we recounted the monument of these ordinations, from which we learn that our Blessed one was initiated into the aforesaid Orders by Hieronymus de Franchis.

bb. Castrum, of which he here speaks, commonly Castro, is a small city of the kingdom of Naples in the province of Otranto, episcopal under the archbishop of Otranto. The said Joannes Baptista Detus is said in Ughelli, vol. 8 of Italia sacra enlarged, col. 96 and the following, to have presided over the said bishopric from the year 1627 until 1630, in which he was translated to Anglona.

CHAPTER II.

Having entered upon a stricter kind of life, he is pressed by great straits of soul, and is delivered: being accused before the sacred inquisitors, he clears himself at Naples: he is sent to Rome, and thence to Assisi.

[ ] Having begun a more austere life Having been consecrated a priest, he returned to his convent of the Grottella, and, having given most humble thanks to the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is honoured there, for the priesthood he had received, he celebrated his first-fruits with such fervour, such faith and such heavenly light that at the touch of the most sacred Body of Jesus Christ he was struck with a sacred awe, and, judging himself unworthy of so sublime a ministry, desired to have not only purity of heart but also other and pure fingers, which he might use in the dread Sacrifice alone. Then too, being more vehemently kindled with the fire of charity, and resolved to die utterly to the world and to himself, he set about leading a life better than human and heavenly ^a. And so, since it seemed to him that he had done little if, wholly removed from human company, he lived in a narrow and dark cell, unless he also withdrew from the Religious brethren themselves, he frequently betook himself to a certain recess above the vault of the church, or into a small chapel dedicated to St. Barbara in the olive-grove adjoining the convent.

[11] and stripped of all things of his own accord, In that place he clung to continual prayers and the deepest contemplations, out of which there came forth in him those most sweet ecstasies and stupendous raptures which by the common judgment made him admirable and singular. But because these were so frequent, not only in the space of sixteen years in which he dwelt in the convent of the Grottella, but through the whole time in which he lived (the processes attesting that "for more than thirty-five years he was not admitted by his superiors with the rest of the brethren into the choir, the processions and the refectory, because ecstasies befell him and disturbed the offices" ^b), lest they should again and again break the thread of the history, and that I may pursue the brevity I have set before me, I shall treat of them particularly in another place. Let it now suffice to have related some things out of his pious life, which at that time was, more than ever before, estranged from all affection towards worldly things, and mortified by the harshest chastisements. Being therefore victor over the natural struggle of the heart by an heroic fortitude, he renounced that scanty furniture and those aids which are wont to be granted to the use of each Religious at the nod of the superiors.

[12] [he suffers great straits of soul for two years, from which being wonderfully delivered,] After these things he stripped himself of his inner garments, even of his undershirts, and, these being restored to his mother, he spoke thus at the feet of the Crucified: "Behold me, Lord, bereft of everything; and provided thou be my good, I count every other good a danger, a loss and a shipwreck of my soul ^c." While he thus remained clothed in his tunic alone, he was afflicted with a vast sorrow of heart, to which, when there was added the privation of the spirit's heavenly consolations, he was brought as it were to a mortal agony, and was continually tormented by it for two whole years ^d. At length, when it now pleased God to console his Servant, faithful even in so grave an affliction, while he thought his remedy far off, and on a certain day, the door and window of his chamber being shut, lay prostrate on his bed and cried out with sighs and tears: "Lord, why hast thou forsaken me?" he offered him the remedy most present, a new tunic being brought to him by an unknown Religious, who was believed to be an angel under that habit. Indeed Bl. Joseph had scarcely put on that tunic when all darkness vanished from his mind, and an exultation of spirit again took possession of his heart ^e.

[13] he emaciates his body with much fasting, But the greater was his inward joy from his communication with God, the harder he treated his body, that he might keep it subject to the spirit. To this end, after he had obtained the priesthood, for five years he never used bread, nor for ten years drank wine, being content with herbs alone or dried fruits, or beans seasoned with a powder of intolerable bitterness, as certain Religious experienced who had believed it to be pepper ^f. And the herb on which he was wont to feed on Fridays was so tasteless and nauseous that when a certain Religious had tasted it with the tip of his tongue, he felt his whole stomach disturbed, nor could he for three days eat any food without nausea. Given to continual fasts, after the example of the holy patriarch Francis he observed seven Lents ^g with so great rigour that, except on Thursdays and Sundays, he often passed them without food; being nourished meanwhile with the Eucharistic food, with which he refreshed himself day by day; and therefore before he had taken it he appeared pale and most weak, but when he had taken it, ruddy and strong.

[14] Hence it came about that his failing stomach could no longer bear flesh, which nevertheless at the command of his superior he once ate, but presently threw up again. Hence too, his throat being at times narrowly constricted, with scourges, hair-shirts and iron chains. he could scarcely get any food whatever down. To such unwonted effects there concurred besides his very brief sleep (which he took in a bed which might be called not one of rest but of pain) and the harsh butchery which he practised upon his body with scourges woven with needles, pins and little steel stars, with so copious a shedding of blood that the walls in his cell and in the other aforesaid places to which he was wont to withdraw appeared stained, nay even crusted with it, some years afterwards. To these scourgings ^h, and to the chain and hair-shirt with which he had long been tormented, he added a great plate of iron, which, since it bound the hair-shirt and the chain more and more tightly, penetrated into his flesh in so horrible a manner that when he was once bidden by his superior to strip himself, nothing appeared but one wound. Wherefore his superior, seeing him brought to such a pass that little life was left in him, bade him remove those dreadful instruments of penance from his body.

[15] Through a life of this kind, for which all his other virtues wove a comely crown, [Famous for miracles, he is accused before the tribunal of the sacred inquisition,] he deserved to be endowed by God not only with the greatest abundance of ecstasies and raptures, which I have mentioned above, but also with a frequency of miracles and the other heavenly gifts, of which, as also of his chief virtues, I shall treat distinctly elsewhere, lest confusion arise. Meanwhile the fame of so great and so illustrious a sanctity grew on every side; especially after Bl. Joseph, being joined out of obedience as companion to his father Provincial, traversed the whole province of Bari. The peoples near and far off vied with one another in running together to see him, and to receive his holy admonitions, and to implore the support of his prayers; commonly calling him the Apostle of the kingdom, and approving him as such from the effects of his prodigious beneficence ⁱ. But the vicar of a certain bishop, who had not ascertained the Blessed one's sincere sanctity, seized hence an occasion of accusing him before the holy Office at Naples, writing that "a man of thirty-three years was running about through those provinces, and that this second Messiah was drawing whole villages after him with prodigies at every step, celebrated by the common people, who always believe everything; and that therefore he was reporting this to his superiors, either that the coming evil might be guarded against by a remedy, or lest the coming evil should grow insolent and become incurable."

[16] Having received an accusation of this kind, the sacred tribunal presently gave orders to the father guardian of the convent of the Grottella by which he is summoned to Naples: that he should send Bl. Joseph to Naples. The Blessed one himself had foretold this three years before, when, being asked by some Religious whether he desired to see the city of Naples, he answered "that in his own time he would go thither, but by the command of the holy Office." Moreover, not long before he was called thither, Jesus himself had not obscurely presaged to him the coming affliction, both by appearing to him, while he was free for contemplation, as a naked little boy bearing a cross on his shoulders, and also, after he had seen to the setting up of certain pious crosses on the road which leads from the Grottella to Cupertino, by putting these words into his ears: "Send away the dead crosses and take up the living ones ^k." Wherefore, as soon as he had received the letters of the sacred tribunal, he reverently kissed them and set out for Naples. All the people of Cupertino wept, crying out, O how much we lose, O how much we lose!

[17] But ^l Bl. Joseph departed with a tranquil mind and a serene countenance; and, no less afflicted with his accustomed ecstasies than with the discomforts of the journey, he came to Naples to the convent of St. Lawrence; where, after his innocence had been proved where he found those Religious, to whom the cause of his coming was known, sorrowful, and was on that account unwillingly received by them. Wherefore Joseph too was saddened, because he saw his Religious brethren troubled on his account, though he was innocent. But while, thus afflicted, he was going with his usual companion, brother Ludovicus, to the house of the sacred inquisition, a present consolation was brought him by a certain young Religious, comely and placid of face, who accompanied him and consoled him with such sweet words that he thence sweetly

remained affected. But because Bl. Joseph, entering the palace of the holy Office, saw him no more, and brother Ludovicus asserted that he had never been seen by him, he was piously believed to have been St. Anthony of Padua, who had come to him for the sake of bringing consolation.

[18] he is honoured by the highest and the lowest. Blessed Joseph, then, presented himself before the sacred tribunal, glad in mind and in countenance; where, when he had been detained about a week or two and thrice examined, not only was no shadow of fault found in him, but his manner of life was even pronounced most worthy of praise and admirable. Hence the aforesaid Religious, being informed that he must be sent back to them as soon as possible and with honour, greatly rejoiced that their Brother's sanctity, now proved, was not feigned nor affected, but solid and sincere. Then too, this same shining out and being praised the more, the common people as well as the nobles of Naples ran together to him for the sake of knowing Joseph. He alone, most humble, did not applaud his own applause, calling himself a sinner unworthy to live among Religious, and worthy to dwell with beasts of burden — as others declared, together with the nuns of St. Ligorius at Naples ^m, when after a Mass celebrated in their church of St. Gregory the Armenian, by the command of the judge of the holy Office, he was lifted up in flight above the altar in a most stupendous rapture; which thing so increased the esteem conceived of his sanctity that, the fame of it being carried to the royal palace, the viceroy himself with his wife and the estates of the kingdom desired to be present at his Mass in the royal chapel; which, however, an impediment arising, was not done.

[19] Sent to Rome, he is severely received by his General; then he grows famous This same thing was a spur to Joseph to depart the sooner from Naples for Rome, by the prescript of the said sacred tribunal, by which he was sent back with letters to the father General of his Order. This journey he accomplished more with his mind in the heavens than with his feet on earth. Yet above all ⁿ, contemplating in his mind the City, the metropolis of the Catholic religion, he willed to enter it most poor, as the holy patriarch Francis had once entered it. Indeed, near its walls he bade his companion brother Ludovicus lay down upon a certain stone the small silver coin which had been given for the sparing purchase of necessaries for him, to fall to any one of the passers-by. When he had come to the father General in the convent of the holy Twelve Apostles, he, who had never known him, and now saw him sent by the holy Office of Naples with a warning that he should be assigned to some solitary convent, lest in a matter so grave any caution should be omitted, received him at first somewhat harshly and with a grave frown, and placed him in a chamber somewhat remote from the convent, and ordered that he should be kept there until he should command otherwise.

[20] and is sent to Assisi. Meanwhile ^o, while he was weighing to which of the solitary convents it were expedient to send him, God, that he might reward his Servant's most humble conformity of will in the midst of so many and so grave afflictions, willed that his sanctity should be made manifest at Rome also, where he was a marvel not only to Religious but also to Cardinals, and at last to the Pontiff himself. And when he had commanded the father General to send him to some convent of entire observance, he assigned him the sacred convent of Assisi; which fell out most welcome to the Blessed one, because he had long ardently desired to dwell near his holy father. Wherefore, setting out on the way with his usual companion brother Ludovicus, he came to Assisi with the greatest joy. But that consolation was not lasting, God willing to try him again and to perfect him further by the fire of desolations, persecutions, temptation and dryness, far sharper and more vehement than that which he had borne in the convent of the Grottella.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

He is exercised at Assisi with various afflictions: he is called to Rome; he returns to Assisi: some wonderful raptures of his in various places.

[ ] Harshly used by his superior, afflicted with dryness of mind, Not ^a long had Bl. Joseph dwelt in the sanctuary of Assisi, when the father master brother Antonius of St. Maurus was made Custos of that place. He, who had at first tenderly loved him and had taken him with him as companion while he was Provincial of the province of Bari, no one knows for what cause, but certainly by the divine providence, having changed his former manner of dealing, then began to receive him with a severe frown, then with contempt, and at last to harass him continually with threats and troublesome mortifications, now calling him a hypocrite, now reproving him even publicly as negligent of the Rules ^b. But the Blessed one, always of good courage, gained thence matter of greater merit for himself, not only by listening in silence to the taunts as though he had been guilty, but also by showing himself the more humble and the more obedient to that same superior. But when the Custos afterwards persevered in so goading him, God too began gradually and utterly to withdraw from him the consolations with which he was wont to comfort him: now no ecstasies befell him, no raptures, no heavenly sweetness; but dryness in psalmody, dryness in sacrificing, dryness in reading, dryness in fine in every divine thing: whence he remained as it were deaf to God's voices, hard to tears, unmoved after frequent prayers.

[22] and vexed by the demon, he falls into melancholy, But then poor Joseph felt himself as it were overwhelmed by a grave melancholy, which seemed to him to choke his heart, and which, breaking forth outwardly also, made his eyes so troubled and heavy that he could scarcely lift his eyelids. To these things ^c there was added at last the demon himself, who at the same time, often assailing him with his most terrible temptations, now brought in foul thoughts, now broke in upon his sleep with most filthy phantasms. And though, brought into these straits, Joseph well enough recognized from his hidden struggle that the inner citadel of his soul stood safe and whole amid these assaults, which lasted two years — being fortified, namely, by the divine grace, which indeed was in him the more abundant the more vehemently his griefs had grown — yet, remembering ^d the spiritual delights which he had once enjoyed in the neighbourhood of St. Mary of the Grottella, whom he had been wont to call his Mother, he conceived a desire of returning thither, saying to a certain Religious: "I long to return to St. Mary of the Grottella; because she is my mother."

[23] The General of the Order, being informed — not, however, by Joseph — of the straits of his soul, resolved to call him back to Rome, as he did, that he might pass the Lent of that year there ^e. being called to Rome by which he is delivered: he returns to Assisi, While, then, the Servant of God was returning to Rome together with his companion, there grew in him a desire of seeing again the aforesaid image of the Virgin Mary, and of asking leave for it from his superior; but presently he felt himself reproved for a desire so innocent indeed, but useless, by these inward voices ^f: "What wilt thou? what seekest thou? what askest thou? Am I not the same here as there?" Enlightened by these voices, with his eyes fixed on heaven, he suddenly stood still, and presently turning to his companion said: "My companion, we shall return to Assisi." And indeed he did return to Assisi after a short stay in the City of Rome, where God opened his beneficent hand again, and into his breast, amid the accustomed

swoonings of the soul from love, poured heavenly sweetness abundantly. So great ^g was the joy of the Religious and of the citizens of Assisi at Joseph's being received back, that the former presented him with the filiation of their convent, the latter with the citizenship ^h. The Blessed one too rejoiced at this news, considering that he, as he himself said, "had been made a fellow-townsman of St. Francis"; nay, out of vehement love and joy, being alienated from his senses, he flew up to the ceiling of his cell.

[24] Yet from his first ⁱ entrance into the sacred convent he had already felt the flames of divine love kindled anew in his heart, where he suffers various wonderful raptures when, being presently brought into the church and beholding on its vault a painted image of the Blessed Mary, like to that which is honoured in the Grottella, he cried out, "Ah my Mother, thou hast followed me ^k!" and presently was lifted in the air eighteen paces, as though to embrace her. Then, a few days later, when in like manner at the sight of another image of the blessed Virgin, which very closely resembled the likeness honoured in the Grottella, and which was shown him by father Michaël Angelus Catalani, then Assistant of the Order, he repeated, "Ah my Mother"; and, being carried to it by a sudden leap, remained rapt in a long ecstasy of love, with his face laid against her face. These were happy presages of that most ardent divine love which in the rest of his life grew beyond measure in his heart. For, being restored from past tempests to a most placid calm, he experienced a love so ardent, so strong, so intense, that his blessed soul was always joined more with God than with his own body, and as it were plunged in that boundless sea of love.

[25] Hence ^l it came about that at singing and music in the church, or at discourse about God, or at the name of Jesus or Mary, he suffered sudden swoonings of the soul, and, often stirred by the inward fire, now cried out: "Ah love! ah love!"; now sang pious songs. Among these was one about St. Catherine of Siena, his particular patroness, in which, when he had come to those words, "And by heavenly Love her hands, her feet and her heart were wounded," he broke forth first into a loud wailing, then into a most vehement weeping with a shaking of his whole body, and as though he would have torn away his own flesh, saying, "Open me this breast, cleave me this heart"; and at last, to those who asked what he most desired in this world, he answered, "that God would take to himself my whole, whole heart." Therefore, turning to the Crucified, he was wont to say: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ"; or: "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, draw me upward; I cannot tarry here below: draw me upward, where thou art!"

[26] Likewise ^m, as the memory of the mysteries of Jesus which holy Church recalls came round again, sometimes, full of gladness at the feasts of the Nativity, he invited all to sing with him: and the divine love with which he was kindled, "Little Child, my little Child, give me a little of thy love"; sometimes, sad and groaning, especially in Holy Week: "Knowest thou not, my son (he said to whomever he met), Jesus has been scourged, Jesus has been crucified, Jesus is dead; Jesus is dead for love"; and after other words full of love he concluded: "I am worse than the Jews, since I crucify thee, and know who thou art." Often also on the same days, from the bitterness of his grief, he clung as it were bloodless and lifeless in most sweet swoonings. Afterwards, when the Easter feasts came on, he sang and exulted for many hours; on the feast of Pentecost too, being now full of heavenly fire, he was affected with the same motions of the spirit. By ⁿ such signs of holy love he stirred up the hearts of others also, and strove to arouse them, saying: "Love God, for he who has charity is rich, and knows it not." And since he desired that he should be loved by all, he burst out ^o into tears when he saw him so often offended by men, and was so vehemently moved by that grief that from its vehemence he sometimes spat up living blood.

[27] he strove to arouse in others. Nay [p], it would have been a delight to him to pour it all out from his veins by the martyrdom which he so greatly longed for, to undergo which he desired to be given as companion or servant to any herald of the Gospel among the infidels. And since he wished all to be kindled with this desire, he kindly asked each of the Religious, even the novices: "Would it be pleasing to thee to die for Jesus Christ?" and when they affirmed it, he exulted in his heart and showed an unwonted gladness. But because [q] the perfect denial of oneself is a continual martyrdom, in this he so far advanced that out of an admirable device of love he said: "Lord, I love thee; and if I knew that I had been destined by thee, when thou createdst me, for hell, I would altogether wish to practise all those acts of homage and service which were ever practised by the chief Saints who are in heaven." But this one thing he would then have wished there below, that he might be in a place apart, that he might not hear the curses and blasphemies of the reprobate; adding: "I would be in hell, but in a place separated from the others, that I might not hear curses and blasphemies against God; and in that separated place, plunged in hell, I would nevertheless wish to bless him and to praise him."

[28] Of his many raptures some are recounted. Further, that love, of which Dionysius the Areopagite says, "The divine love is a maker of ecstasy [r]," was an unfailing fountain, from which Joseph, ever drinking, made drunk his heart with the sweetness of ecstasies and wonderful raptures, which I shall now briefly recount, as this compendium of his Life requires. As, then, divine love began to kindle Bl. Joseph's soul from his very boyhood, so from that same time there began in him ecstatic motions and raptures of the spirit, which after he received the priesthood grew into the deepest ecstasies, and persevered up to his death; and these were so frequent that they might be called almost continual, since often one followed close upon another, and any divine thing, however slight, sufficed to make him suddenly break forth into a great cry, be forsaken by his senses, and be joined to God. Nor could there be any doubt of the true and vehement impression of divine love with which he was then affected, since [s], being pricked with needles, pounded with iron, burned with torches applied to him, and with the pupils of his open eyes touched with a finger, he was not moved; and he was then only wont to be restored to the use of his senses when God relaxed it, or the superior commanded.

[29] But if the raptures of the spirit alone made him admirable in love, this was done far more by the vehemence of the raptures of the body, likewise so frequent and so stupendous at Cupertino on the vigil of the Lord's Nativity, he is lifted up in body that of all the heroes of holy Church none is read to have been so abundantly gifted in this respect. But that I may satisfy the piety of readers, and bring light to this short compendium, out of his countless raptures, by which together with his soul the body also of our most loving Blessed one flew, I shall relate some in their order, according to the various places in which he dwelt. And first indeed at Cupertino, on the night of the vigil of the Lord's Nativity [t], Joseph, having heard the pipes and flutes of certain shepherds whom he had invited to celebrate the nativity of the heavenly Child, began first to dance for vehement gladness, then, having heaved a sigh with a great wailing, flew like a bird through the air from the middle of the church up above the high altar, more than five poles distant thence, and there, embracing the tabernacle of the most holy Sacrament, remained sweetly rapt for about a quarter of an hour; nor yet did he meanwhile cast down any one of the burning candles, of which the altar was full, nor was any part of his garment touched by the fire.

[30] Those shepherds were amazed beyond measure; but no less was the wonder of the Religious and of the inhabitants of Cupertino [u], and on the feast of St. Francis he flies in the church. when they saw Bl. Joseph, clothed in a cope, that he might attend the procession on the solemnity of St. Francis, flying above the pulpit, raised fifteen palms from the ground, and on its edge for a long time ecstatic with arms outspread and knees wonderfully bent. Stupendous likewise was his rapture on a certain night of the fifth day of Holy Week [x], while before the sacred sepulchre, which had been set up on the high altar and adorned with lighted clouds and many lamps, he was praying with the other Religious. For unexpectedly he flew straight to embrace the urn of his divine treasure, all the ornaments being untouched; and after some space of time, being called back by his superior, he returned by a like flight whence he had come. In like manner [y] he sometimes flew above the altars of St. Francis and of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Grottella while the Litanies were being recited.

[31] Yet above all others there was that rapture of his love, at once wonderful and pleasing to see, He flies likewise often towards the crosses near the Grottella. when on a certain small hill situated between Cupertino and the convent of the Grottella, wishing to represent mount Calvary [z], and two crosses being already set up there, and seeing ten men with their strength joined striving in vain, on account of its great weight, to set up in the appointed place the third cross, greater than the rest and fifty-four palms high, the Blessed one, moved by his inward fire, flew from the gate of the convent for a space of about eighty paces towards that cross, and, seizing it, alone lifted it up like the lightest straw and set it in the pit prepared. At these crosses he was afterwards wont to pray, and it often happened [aa] that now for ten, now for twelve paces, now above the nail of the middle cross, now above its top, he flew, rapt by his crucified love.

[32] He flew [bb] moreover four paces through the air, Other wonderful raptures of his body in the same place carried away by the fire of the Holy Spirit, when, speaking of his coming to the Apostles, he beheld a certain Religious passing by, carrying a lighted lamp in his hand. He flew [cc] likewise above an olive tree, when he had heard a certain priest say to him: "Brother Joseph, how beautiful a heaven God has made!" And while he remained above it on bended knees for the space of half an hour, it was a stupendous thing to see that branch upon which he stood lightly moved, no otherwise than if a bird had settled upon it. Yet [dd] greater amazement than anywhere else did Joseph stir among the bystanders in the church of St. Clare at Cupertino, where, when he too was present while some sacred virgins were being clothed with the religious habit, and the musicians were singing those words, Come, spouse of Christ, he was seen to run swiftly from his corner, in which he was praying on bended knees, to a certain father Minor Reformed, confessor of that monastery, and, seizing him by the hand with a strength greater than human, to raise him from the ground, and with a most joyful rapture and a violent dance to lead him about with him through the air; for this man was moved by Joseph, and Joseph by God.

[33] raptures of the body at Nardò, I should be longer than is fair if I were to relate here all the raptures and sounding flights through the air which made the Blessed one wonderful at Cupertino;

wherefore, lest I exceed the limits of a compendium, let it suffice to have said that they, as is gathered from the processes [ee], exceeded the number of seventy, not counting those which happened daily during the celebrating of Mass, upon which he was on that account wont to spend two hours. Further, as, having departed from Cupertino, he carried about with him, together with his vehement inward fire, its wonderful outward effects, so it will not be unwelcome to the pious to hear some few out of the very many which in the remaining course of his life, up to his death, were a marvel elsewhere also. Having gone out, then, from Cupertino, he stayed a little while at Nardò [ff]; where, to the sacred awe of all the bystanders, he was seen rapt into ecstasy in the church of St. Francis; and [gg] now, in a certain house which he had entered for the sake of healing the sick, at the sight of an image which represented the Ecce Homo, to remain motionless like a statue; now [hh], in another house, having heard a certain rustic song, to give his accustomed cry, and, lifted from the ground, to bend the knee on the edge of the picture.

[34] at Monopoli, at Naples, After these things, while on his way to Naples [ii] he was passing through Monopoli, being led by his Religious brethren into their church, that he might see a new and beautiful statue of St. Anthony of Padua, at the sight of it he was suddenly raised from the ground and flew for a space of fifteen palms towards the image of the said Saint, set upon the altar; whence he afterwards returned by a like flight along the same way to his former place. The first rapture had scarcely ceased when, a second coming on, he again during the recitation of the litanies flew to the altar of the Virgin conceived without stain, from which in like manner he came back through the air to the place from which he had been lifted. The city of Naples too [kk] wondered at his prodigious raptures; where he, being bidden by the inquisitor, as we said above, to celebrate Mass in the church of St. Gregory the Armenian, which is that of the nuns of St. Ligorius, and being there intent upon prayers in a corner of that church, was with a vast cry suddenly lifted up and flew, and, raised upon his feet, stood upon the altar, with his arms outspread in the manner of a cross, and his limbs so thrust in among the flowers and burning candles that the nuns cried out with loud voices: "He is burning, he is burning"; but he, uttering a cry again, returned unhurt by a like flight to the middle of the church, where, setting his knees on the ground, leaping up and whirling himself round most swiftly, he sang: "Ah blessed Virgin, ah blessed Virgin!"

[35] and at Rome before Pope Urban VIII. Likewise at Assisi. But because God had decreed to show him admirable also before persons of the first dignity, he brought it about that, while he was staying at Rome [ll], the father General took him with him to kiss the feet of the supreme Pontiff Urban VIII: which while he was doing, contemplating Jesus Christ in his Vicar, he remained rapt into ecstasy and lifted from the ground, until he was called back by his General: and the Pontiff, turning to him and greatly wondering, said "that if Joseph should die during his Pontificate, he would bear witness of that deed." Nor is it easy to say how many raptures of this kind there were with which God deigned to honour him during the thirteen years which he spent at Assisi: but among the more famous ones (besides those which we have already related elsewhere in the pursuing of the thread of the history) there is recounted in the first place the one which I subjoin [mm]. After the great high admiral of the kingdom of Castile, ambassador of the Spains to the Apostolic See, while he was passing through Assisi in the year 1645, had conversed with Joseph in his chamber, the father Custos of the sacred convent commanded him to go down from his chamber to the church, where the admiral's wife was awaiting him with a great desire of seeing him and of speaking with him. Joseph answered: "I will obey; but I know not whether it will come to pass that I shall be able to speak with her."

[36] In truth he had scarcely entered the church, and cast his eyes upon the statue of St. Mary conceived without stain before the ambassador of Spain, and many others which stood upon the altar, when he flew forward over the heads of all the bystanders for a space of twelve paces to embrace her feet; and after he had a little while adored the Queen of heaven, he flew back over them with his accustomed cry, and straightway made his way back to his cell, the admiral with his wife being amazed, and those being shaken with holy awe who were present in their company in great numbers. In like manner [nn] certain painters were on another occasion astounded, who, saying before Joseph that they would paint in his chapel the mystery of the conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, heard him first, wholly moved, say: "What? The conception of the Virgin Mary? The immaculate conception!" Then they saw him suddenly forsaken by his senses, and sweetly rapt into ecstasy, and for more than half an hour, with arms outspread and his face turned to heaven, persevering in the contemplation of so great a mystery. Yet greater [oo] was the wonder of a certain priest who, having gone into a church in the country with Joseph, and being asked by him, Are we to believe that the most holy Sacrament is kept here? when, seeing no lamp burning there, he answered, Who could know that? presently heard him break forth into a loud cry, and saw him flying towards the tabernacle, embracing it and adoring the Sacrament, which, though hidden, he already knew to be laid up there, as was afterwards found out.

[37] Not unlike [pp] was the amazement of those who beheld him flying backwards in a lofty flight over their heads, in various places. when he was giving his labour to the polishing of a reliquary and the laying up of a garment of the holy patriarch Francis; as also [qq] of those who saw him rapt in contemplation into the air above the cornice of the chapel of the same Seraphic patriarch, sixteen palms distant from the ground. Nor lastly [rr] was the wonder less of others, by whom he was seen, after uttering his cry, gradually to lift his body upward above the small platform placed in the chapel of St. Ursula, where the most holy Sacrament was kept, with his knees fixed in the very air and his shining face turned downwards to the sacred vessel; and at last, being called back by his superior, to return by the same way. Yet [ss] far more did the father Custos wonder and stand amazed when, after Vespers had been solemnly sung in honour of the immaculate conception in the chapel of the novitiate at Assisi, being asked by Joseph to repeat with him: "Fair Mary," he saw himself seized by him and gripped about the sides, and by him and with him, as he cried out again and again, "Fair Mary, fair Mary!" lifted into the air.

[38] Yet above [tt] the very many other raptures which for brevity's sake we pass over, that one was at once admirable and profitable which a certain nobleman, out of his mind and raving, experienced. He, bound in a chair, was brought to Joseph, that he might pray God for his soundness. He heals a madman lifted with him into the air. Then, when he had been loosed from his bonds and forced to kneel in the chapel, the Servant of God raised himself upon his feet, and, laying his hand upon his head, said: "Lord Baltazar, fear not; commend thyself to God and to his most holy Mother." Saying this, he seized his hair, and, breaking forth into his accustomed cry Ah! lifted himself from the ground, and, raising him with him by the hair, held him thus for a short time in the air, not without the vast amazement of the bystanders, who together with the nobleman, now restored to a sound mind, gave thanks to God, who wrought such prodigies through his Servant.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Ibid. under the title On faith, p. 275, §2, 3, p. 280, §45, and p. 309, §19, and elsewhere.

q. From the Apostolic process of Assisi from folio 267 and following, and the cited Summary p. 277, §8, and elsewhere.

r. In the margin there is here cited St. Dionysius On the Divine Names, chap. 4.

s. From all the Processes. Eye-witnesses reported scattered in the Summary throughout.

t. From the Apostolic process of Nardò from fol. 432 and following; Summary p. 35, §49, p. 46, §162, p. 65, §77 and elsewhere.

u. From the said Apostolic process of Nardò from fol. 275, and the Summary p. 551 at the beginning, and others indicated in the same place p. 550 in the margin, §5.

x. From the ordinary process of Nardò, compulsory, fol. 703 verso and following, and in the Summary p. 548, §45.

y. In the margin is added: Concerning which eye-witnesses are scattered in the same Summary under num. 40 throughout.

z. From the ordinary process of Nardò, compulsory, fol. 675 and following, and 677, and the Summary p. 545, §29; p. 546, §33, and elsewhere.

aa. From the said process of Nardò fol. 579, and the Summary p. 551, §6 and elsewhere.

bb. The cited process fol. 578 verso, and elsewhere.

cc. From the said process of Nardò fol. 572 and 573, and 596 verso, and fol. 680, and the Summary p. 542, §5, p. 543, §13, p. 546, §39, and elsewhere.

dd. From the Apostolic process of Nardò fol. 482, and the Summary p. 555, §17 and elsewhere.

ee. From both processes of Nardò. Witnesses scattered and reported in the Summary under num. 40 throughout.

ff. Concerning Nardò see the Annotations to chap. 1, letter b.

gg. From the Apostolic process of Nardò fol. 290 and following.

hh. From the ordinary process of Nardò fol. 707 and following.

ii. Being summoned thither, namely, by the tribunal of the sacred inquisition in the year 1638, as we said in the Commentary num. 20. Monopolis, of which he presently speaks, likewise by the natives Monopoli,

so called, is a small episcopal city of the kingdom of Naples in the province of Bari, situated on the shore of the Venetian gulf. Further, the following things are noted as taken from the ordinary process of Nardò, compulsory, from fol. 656 and following, and the Summary p. 40, §108.

kk. From the same process from fol. 730, and the Summary p. 51, §194.

ll. From the Apostolic process of Assisi from fol. 302 and following, sup. 332, and the Summary p. 560, §9. The Commentary num. 25 may also be consulted.

mm. From eye-witnesses, from the Apostolic process of Assisi fol. 227, fol. 243 and following, fol. 337, fol. 830 and elsewhere, and in the ordinary process of Nardò from fol. 660, super 7, and scattered in the Summary p. 41, §109, p. 123, §41, p. 559, §2, p. 561, §13, p. 563, §23, p. 576, §83, where others also are indicated.

nn. From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, from fol. 1186 and following, and the Summary p. 558 and following, §9.

oo. From the Apostolic process of Assisi from fol. 365, super 148, and the Summary p. 369, §18.

pp. From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, from fol. 935, and the Summary p. 556, §3.

qq. From the Apostolic process of Assisi fol. 831 and following, and the Summary p. 577, §84, 85.

rr. From the same process of Assisi fol. 335, 1186 and following, and 1745; Summary p. 559, §10, p. 562, §21, p. 578, §91, where others are indicated.

ss. From the same process from fol. 699 verso and following, and the Summary p. 571, §64 and 65.

tt. From the same Apostolic process of Assisi from fol. 253 and following, and the Summary p. 126, §63.

CHAPTER IV.

His love towards God, and the union of his soul with him, and his effectual prayers: the conversion of the prince of Brunswick: his charity towards his neighbour, his knowledge of hidden things, etc., set forth.

[ ] Always joined to God by love, and burning with it Such ecstasies and raptures were certainly the wonderful effects of the divine love with which Joseph's heart blazed. And that love was kindled by the utmost force of the union by which his heart clung to God. Hence the pious and learned father Hieronymus Rodriguez, of the Society of Jesus, after he had conversed with Joseph, asserted among other things "that he was most closely joined with God, and that his heart was more disposed for union with God than gunpowder is for catching fire from any least spark ^a." Indeed he always joined himself more to God in this way by continual prayer, sublime and most perfect, in which ^b, as soon as he lifted his mind to God, God was at hand to enlighten him, to kindle him, and to draw him to himself; no otherwise than if, with his eyes turned to heaven, the most beautiful paradise straightway lay all open. And indeed, as he himself testified to Cardinal de Laurea ^c, speaking as it were of another, he then seemed to himself to be "in a treasure-house of beautiful things, and in a certain most limpid mirror as it were hung there, to discern and contemplate at one glance of the eyes the images of them all joined together — that is, in some such way the hidden mysteries which God in that close union deigned to reveal to him."

[40] he kept his mind ever lifted up to him, Further, the cry and the shriek which he uttered were the effects of the inward fire, which, being unable to remain shut in, breathed itself out breaking forth through his mouth, in that manner, namely, in which — as he himself, being questioned, likewise answered in the third person — "kindled gunpowder bursts forth and roars when it is sent out from a fire-arm." Hence too, on account of its excessive violence, his body, and whatever clung to it, was often lifted up together with his soul. Often too he sang and danced with the raptures, which he, referring them to their cause and effects, rightly called jubilations. But although he was not always in ecstasy or forsaken by his senses, yet he always kept his mind lifted to heaven: wherefore it often happened that, when others spoke to him, he did not know what was said; or, while he answered, he made it plain ^d that he used all natural things as a ladder for contemplating those which are above nature. Thus, being asked by a certain Religious about various women whom he had met on his journey, who they were, he answered now: The most blessed Virgin, now: St. Clare, now: St. Catherine; and, being asked in like manner about men, he named now one Saint, now another.

[41] and prayed with a living hope: The canonical Hours ^e too and his other private prayers he recited with the greatest attention and fervour, which was not obscurely proved by the deep sighs which he then uttered, and by the traces of his knees which he left imprinted on the step of the altar and on the floor of his chapel. And because his prayer was quickened by a living faith and a sure trust in God, he was wont to say to others ^f: "Sons, trust in God (do not trust in another), that it is God who can provide for you: men do not keep their promises, but God never fails them." Sometimes too he cried out ^g: "He who has faith is lord of the world." But of himself he said: "I trust in God"; and said that he was like a man who, cast by chance upon a rock in the sea and surrounded by the waters, looked for help from none but God: and that, if it were needful, by the force of this firm faith he would carry mountains from one boundary of the world to the other. Since, as I have said, his prayer was so quickened, it was also always most effectual.

[42] hence he obtains various things from God. He prayed ^h that God would turn away from the town and territory of Cupertino the utter destruction which an unlooked-for whirlwind threatened, and it straightway vanished. He prayed ⁱ likewise that God would ward off a most harmful storm-cloud and a sudden tempest which was wearing down the inhabitants and afflicting the neighbourhood of the convent of the Grottella; and after his prayer, going out of the church, he cried, "Ah dragon! ah dragon!" And wherever he went the clouds disappeared and the serenity of the sky was brought back. He prayed ^k that he might obtain rain for the parched fields of that place; and scarcely was the procession ended which he had appointed to this end, when he obtained it, as he had promised. Through his prayer ^l Alcides Fabiani, a surgeon, was made invisible to six assassins who were waiting to kill him as he returned from Spello ^m to Assisi. By his prayer ⁿ he snatched the father General of his Order from the grave peril of drowning in the ditch of Cannara near Montefalco ^o, very deep and full of water, into which, falling from the bridge together with his terrified mule, he had commended himself to Bl. Joseph, then still living: and the Blessed one, when he afterwards first beheld him, said: "Come now, father General, thou wast vehemently afraid; thou hadst a fine fall about the tenth hour, while I was celebrating Mass, and then I commended thee to God."

[43] No less [p] did the efficacy of his prayer appear in bringing to the Catholic faith Joannes Fredericus, prince of Brunswick, out of the Lutheran heresy. The prince of Brunswick Joannes Fredericus This prince, twenty-five years of age, while in the year 1649 [q] he was visiting the chief courts of Europe, led by his curiosity, purposely turned aside from Rome to Assisi for the sake of seeing Joseph, whom he had already known by fame in Germany. Having turned aside to the sacred convent, he was received and lodged in the part of the buildings appointed for princes. There he set forth his desire of conversing with Joseph and then presently departing; and on the next morning, with two Counts of his retinue, one a Catholic, the other a heretic, he was brought to the door of the church. The Blessed one was then celebrating Mass there; who, although he knew nothing of the matter, yet felt it when he wished to break the consecrated Host; for he found it exceedingly hard; and when he had striven in vain to break it by force, he laid it back on the paten, and, with his eyes fixed upon the most sacred Host, first broke into a vehement cry, then with a vast shriek flew backwards for a space of five paces through the air on bended knees; and after a like outcry, at last returning to the altar, he divided the sacred Host, but with a great effort.

[44] Being thereupon asked by his superior, at the prince's bidding, the cause of his lamenting, from the Lutheran heresy he answered: "Fellow-townsman, these men whom thou hast sent this morning to my Mass are hard of heart, because they do not believe all that holy mother Church believes; and therefore the Lamb hardened in my hands this morning, nor could I divide him." The prince, struck by such a deed and answer, being no longer anxious about his departure, desired after taking dinner to converse with the Servant of God, as he did until the time of Compline; and the divine grace meanwhile stirring him the more, he wished to be present again at his Mass on the morrow; in which Mass, while the sacred Host was being elevated, a cross of black colour appeared on it to all at the same time in which the celebrant, rapt into the air with his accustomed cry, remained a palm above the footstool of the altar with the Host and his arms thus raised for about an eighth part of an hour. At the sight of so great a prodigy the prince began to weep vehemently: but then one of the two Counts, the heretic, indignantly said: "Cursed be I, for coming into these regions: in my own country I was safe; but here the furies and scruples of conscience harass me."

[45] Further, Joseph, who enlightened by a higher light had seen everything, he converts to the Catholic faith. informed a certain intimate of his of the prince's coming approach to the faith, saying: "Let us rejoice, for the hind is wounded." Indeed, after he had spoken with the prince until the hour of dinner, seeing him while he was returning to his chamber after Vespers, he ran to meet him and girded him with his own girdle, saying with great fervour of spirit: "I bind thee to paradise: now go, venerate St. Francis, attend Compline, accompany the procession devoutly, and do whatever the monks do." All these things the good prince humbly performed, affirming that he was a Catholic, and moreover he wrote himself with his own hand in the register of the cord-bearing sodality of St. Francis. Yet before he publicly abjured his heresy he wished to return into his principality, that he might set its affairs in order; whence in the following year, as he had promised, returning to Assisi, on bended knees before the most holy Sacrament, in the presence of the two Cardinals Facchinetti and Rapaccioli, he abjured his former errors into the hands of Bl. Joseph, who by his effectual prayers had given glory to God, joy to the supreme Pontiff, and salvation to the said prince, who afterwards always held in great veneration the Man who had so well deserved of him.

[46] By his prayers he obtains various things for various people, Countless are the other prodigies which God wrought at the prayers of his Servant; wherefore let it suffice here to have concluded generally with the processes [r] that "his prayer

was never without effect, but always obtained whatever he ever begged for the salvation of souls and of bodies. Those too who had commended themselves to his prayers experienced that the benefits they asked for fell to them at that same time in which the aforesaid Father had prayed for them." Hence he, since he recognized that every true good flows from prayer, and desired every good for his neighbour, frequently urged this: "Pray, pray." Yet, spurred [s] by his vast charity towards his neighbour, he himself ceased not to pray for all, that the just might be confirmed in the divine grace, and that sinners might come to their senses and do penance; and that he might make it the more effectual, now he implored the divine mercy that, as it had borne with men's past sins, so it would bear with their present ones; now he severely chastised his body, that he might pay some part of others' debts to the divine justice.

[47] he kindly receives those who come to him, commends charity While others [t] commended themselves to him, he kindly answered: "Do you for your part have recourse to the blessed God; I certainly shall not fail in mine." To those [u] who had recourse to him who were troubled with scruples of conscience, he repeated that fine saying: "I will not have scruples and melancholy in my house"; and after he had given them sound counsels and consoled them, he was sometimes wont pleasantly to catch up a broom [x] and sweep them from head to heel, saying: "See, I now take all thy scruples away from thee: do well, form a good intention, and fear not." But whenever [y] he had seen or learned that dissensions had arisen, he presently composed the quarrels and made peace as a trusted arbiter; and, as his speech was natural, learned and very calm, he carried away the minds of all who listened to him. He wished therefore all to be sincere, all to be gentle in their works, all to shrink most vehemently from dissimulation, from pride and from boasting. For this cause [z] he frequently commended to all, even to superiors, mercy, gentleness and charity, which he had in his mouth in these most fervent sayings of his: "Charity! charity! He who has charity is rich, and knows it not: he who has not charity has nothing: he is unfortunate, and knows it not. Love and charity is great happiness."

[48] he commends it and practises it in various ways, Hence too, when he had seen something of this kind well done, he rejoiced and sweetly embraced him who had done it; as he embraced a certain Religious who had quieted a discord and composed troubled minds, to whom he said: "Dear son, be thou blessed: may St. Francis bless thee: thou hast done the work of a true son of St. Francis." But although he inculcated charity upon others, and himself showed it even to those by whom he had been wronged (to one of whom [aa] he returned a miracle for an injury; another [bb], who, being reproved by him, had wounded him with a knife, he bound to himself by his gentleness, and, together with pardon for the deed, foretold him at the same time his approaching death; another lastly, who as though raving was hastening to hurt him, he tenderly embraced, and brought him back penitent to God) — yet that same charity [cc] sometimes inflamed his breast with a holy zeal, out of which he sometimes fervently rebuked, in the convents, transgressors even in the least point of the Rules, and called back to the superiors' memory the need of watchfulness.

[49] Sometimes he set himself with force against the wicked; as he set himself at Assisi against two persons enlightened by God with fortitude and a wonderful knowledge of hidden things. whom he saw talking in the church of St. Francis with no regard for the sacred place and for decency. Sometimes [dd] he revealed to souls themselves the secret ills of those souls into which he penetrated by the help of heavenly light, and which he desired to free. Thus to a certain Alphonsus of Montefusco he uncovered his impure temptations, and at once restrained him from them. Thus he warned [ee] a certain woman of Veglie, living at Cupertino, of the poison which she had prepared, and led her, penitent, to hand it over to him to be burned. To a noble youth also [ff] he pointed out the stains of his soul, concerning whom he asked a certain honourable person who had brought him with her for the sake of visiting him: "Who is this Ethiopian whom thou hast brought me hither? Dost thou not see how black he is?" Then, turning to the noble, he said: "Go, go, my son, wash thy face." And it fell out a delight to him that he presently saw him washed by Sacramental confession. Wherefore he thus embraced him on his return, saying: "Come now, thou art fair now, my son; wash thyself often; for yesterday thou wast foul like an Ethiopian." Lastly, as many [gg] as he saw soiled in soul, he said: "Bah, how foul thou art! Go, get thy crossbow in order" — by which manner of speaking he denoted the conscience.

[50] But as he dexterously and with Christian freedom revealed the sins into which they had fallen, however hidden, For the salvation of all that they might amend themselves, so also he succoured with a like love those who were in danger of sinning, that is, were tempted, that they might not fall. The effect of this love a certain priest of Spello [hh] particularly experienced, who was already on the point of staining his soul with a grave fault; being assailed, namely, by two strong enemies, a vehement temptation and the power of consenting. But it happily befell him that he met Joseph; who, taking his hand and putting his mouth to his ear, said: "Son, with a sincere heart, son, resist bravely such a temptation (which he named), because God wills that thou offend him not; this I say to thee, son, this I say to thee." By this prodigious admonition the priest remained victor. Further, that he might strengthen all who were tempted by the demon, he exhorted them to frequent the Sacraments; "Because," he said, "where God often is, the enemy of God cannot often be; and at last God always conquers, because God can do more by his grace than the devil by his temptations." But because the chief ground of loving one's neighbour is God alone, who is the centre of holy love — as all teach with St. Thomas: "The ground of loving one's neighbour is God" [ii] — Joseph's burning charity embraced not only the faithful, to be gained for God, but likewise all the infidels for the same cause.

[51] Therefore he spoke of them with a tender feeling of soul, greatly pitying their condition, he warns that prayer must be made: he ministers to the sick and ready to attempt anything for their salvation. Hence it came about that, while he prayed for them and sometimes penetrated by contemplation into the deep secrets of God, he suffered long ecstasies, from which, being restored to the use of his senses, he wept much, saying to those present: "Sons [kk], pray for the good, pray for sinners, pray for heretics, for the Turks, for the infidels, and at last for all; because we are all redeemed by the most precious blood of Jesus." From the souls of his neighbours he turned his charity to the relieving of their bodies, so far as his superiors allowed him to deal with them; nay, though shut away in his cell, being enlightened with a divine light, he knew what things they needed, and by prayer brought them help. For the rest [ll], while he was free to do so, as soon as he had heard that any were sick, whether at home or abroad, he ran thither at once and exhorted them to commit themselves wholly to the divine will; and, after other pious admonitions, if they dreaded death or were afflicted for any other cause, he comforted them with a glad face and sweet speech, saying: "Well done, for God will provide."

[52] he eats a stinking plaster: his charity in a time of famine. After this he gave himself wholly to their service, even the meanest; he held them up in his arm, put food into their mouths, tended them; and, that he might overcome [mm] his natural nausea, he once with an heroic fortitude of soul ate the leaves which had been applied to the most stinking wound of a certain injured man. So singular, in fine, was his charity towards the sick that the Religious were wont to say that in Joseph's company it was better to be ill than to be well; since in time of sickness he was wholly theirs, but while they were well, wholly his own. Nay [nn], his charity towards the sick went so far that even in his lifetime it was made illustrious by miraculous healings from God. In like manner he made plain his most tender mercy in the time of the deplorable famine which long afflicted Assisi and the neighbouring provinces [oo], during which he melted into tears and prayers to implore the divine help. And when he had not obtained what he desired, that for the sake of those pressed by hunger he might be allowed to beg outside the convent, he went anxiously about within the enclosure of the convent, that he might at least, so far as he could, console his Religious brethren. To all these things [pp] he joined a singularly grateful mind towards those who had deserved well of him, which his charity the more spurred on, so that (since through his poverty he could not otherwise) he might at least promise them, by thanksgiving, by good wishes, by prayers and by promises, that he would specially preserve their memory. "Be thou blessed for the charity which thou usest towards me" (this was one of his most sweet sayings to the surgeon by whom he was tended); "the Lord God will reward it; and I shall never forget to pray for thee, if I come to the place of salvation."

ANNOTATIONS.

p. For this notable conversion of the prince of Brunswick and duke of Hanover from the Lutheran heresy to the Catholic faith, in the margin one reads thus: From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, from fol. 1222 and following, and scattered in the Summary.

p. 88, §131, pp. 113 and following, §298 and 299, p. 276, §2, 3, 4 and 5, p. 567, §42 and 43, p. 573, §73, 74, 75 and elsewhere. See also the preliminary Commentary num. 40.

q. Consult the Commentary in the place just cited.

r. From the Apostolic process of Osimo from fol. 624 and following, and the Summary p. 383, §13.

s. From the ordinary process of Nardò, compulsory, fol. 607 verso, and the Summary p. 332, §2 and 3.

t. From the same process, ibid. §3, and elsewhere scattered in the same Summary throughout.

u. From the Apostolic process of Assisi fol. 383 and fol. 464 verso and elsewhere. The saying which is subjoined is Italian, and runs thus: Scrupoli & malinconia non voglio in casa mia.

x. From the ordinary process of Osimo from fol. 1028 and following, and the Summary p. 213, §202 and 203.

y. From the same Summary p. 338, § XI and 13, p. 348, §53 and elsewhere here and there.

z. Ibid. p. 346, §35, p. 350, §18, 19, 26, and elsewhere scattered under the title On charity throughout.

aa. From the process of Nardò, compulsory, fol. 662 verso, and the Summary p. 43, §120.

bb. From the Apostolic process of Assisi fol. 326, and the Summary p. 344, §21.

cc. From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, from fol. 1129 and following, and the Summary p. 338, § XI and 13 and elsewhere.

dd. From the Apostolic process of Nardò fol. 394 verso, and the Summary p. 335, §2.

ee. From the same Apostolic process of Nardò fol. 406 and 407, and the Summary p. 333, §7, and p. 336, §9.

ff. From the Apostolic process of Assisi fol. 445 verso and 446, and the Summary p. 346, §41.

gg. Scattered in the same Summary throughout.

hh. See what was said above, letter m. But here one reads in the margin: From the Apostolic process of Assisi fol. 492 verso and following, and the Summary p. 347, §44.

ii. In the margin is written: From St. Thomas 2. 2. quest. 27, art. 8.

kk. From the Apostolic process of Assisi from fol. 358 and following, and the Summary p. 345, §24 and elsewhere.

ll. From the same Apostolic process of Assisi fol. 24, 212, 276 to 279, and elsewhere; and the Summary p. 342, §2, 4, and scattered under the title On charity throughout.

mm. From the same Apostolic process of Assisi fol. 360 verso, and the Summary p. 345, §33.

nn. Scattered from the Catalogue of miracles in his life, Summary num. 41, from p. 588 to 595.

oo. From both processes of Assisi, the Apostolic and the ordinary compulsory, from fol. 1127 to 1133, and the Summary p. 337, §7, 8 and elsewhere. Berninus fixes this scarcity of corn in the years 1648 and 1649.

pp. From the Apostolic processes of Assisi and Osimo, Summary num. 26, from p. 396 to 398, where the surgeon is at §10.

CHAPTER V.

The Blessed one's love and trust in the Mother of God made illustrious by miracles: his angelic chastity and fragrance: his utmost voluntary poverty.

[ ] Mary, whom he called his Mother, Bl. Joseph, moreover, pursued with a singular affection of a grateful mind Mary, to whose patronage he ascribed all the good things which he had obtained from God. Wherefore he took care to return her a love than which nothing at once more tender and more strong can be conceived. Having as a boy been taught devotion towards her by his parent, he was wont to call her his Mother ^a, and always had her as a mother, as he himself was always had by her as a son. Hence it cannot be set forth with what services he honoured his heavenly Mother. Her images he adorned with roses, lilies and other flowers; but with these and like adornments he offered his heart and his burning affections. "My Mother ^b," he was wont to say with sweet playfulness, "is hard to please: if I bring her flowers, she says she does not want them; if I bring her cherries, she does not want these either: then I ask, What wilt thou? and she says, I want the heart, because I feed on nothing but the heart." And indeed that his heart was wholly Mary's appeared plainly enough from the devout prayers which he continually recited in her honour; from the sweet sayings which he uttered about her, calling her "Protectress ^c, lady, patroness, mother, spouse, helper"; from the simple and festive songs with which he often praised her; but above all from the ecstasies and most frequent raptures which he suffered at the sight of her images, or during the recitation of her praises.

[54] he loved most tenderly, and instilled love of her Thus once at those words Holy Mary he flew over three pairs of Religious who, set in order in two rows in the church, were reciting the litanies with him. In like manner also he was at other times rapt, now when Holy Mother of God, now when Mother of divine grace, now when Gate of heaven, was pronounced. Nay, even at hearing the name of Mary alone, he frequently fell into ecstasies, and not seldom was also lifted from the ground, as is very well known from the whole course of his life. But then, contemplating the beauty of the Queen of the heavens, he languished for love of her, as he himself one day made plain, when during the celebrating ^d of Mass at her altar he was seen by many rapt into ecstasy and lifted into the air, and was heard to utter these words with tears: "Praise her, ye holy angels, with your songs: I indeed am all on fire, but I cannot worthily praise her." Nor was it enough for him that as many as are in heaven, saints and angels, should love and praise her: he desired that she should be loved and praised also by all men who are on earth.

[55] into all: to praise her He had asked of some inhabitants of Cupertino who had come to the convent of the Grottella for the sake of visiting him ^e: "What have you come hither to do? Perhaps to visit my Lady?" And when they affirmed it, he replied: "And what have you brought her?" And when they said, "The Office and the Rosary," he, perceiving that they had come out of mere curiosity, cried out: "What Office, what Rosary? My Lady wants the heart and the will." By these burning words he stirred up love of the Blessed Mary in their hearts, and then, bidding them fall upon their knees, recited the Litanies with them ^f; which he was wont to do with all who came to his cell. He taught all also to say often to Mary ^g: Refuge of sinners, mother of God, remember me: which was his ejaculatory prayer, which he affirmed to be most pleasing to the blessed Virgin, because she was called the Refuge of sinners. So much was it at Joseph's heart that Mary should be acknowledged as Lady by the frequent repetition of her praises, which are recounted in the Litanies, that when the shepherds with whom he was wont to recite them every Saturday in a chapel near the convent of the Grottella were kept back by the harvest, he said to the sheep which he saw ^h: "Come you hither, come hither, that you may honour the Mother of your God and mine."

[56] At these words, which Joseph had uttered further off than the human voice is wont to carry, he has the sheep obedient to him: through her Litanies and which were prodigiously perceived by those sheep, all those sheep of different folds, though the little shepherds by whom they were watched cried out against it in vain, ran at once to the chapel. And when they had come, Bl. Joseph, full of gladness, began the Litanies; and the sheep, by a prodigy hitherto unheard of, alternated the choir, answering with their voice at each versicle; so that, when Joseph said, Holy Mary, they bleating answered, Baa; and thus they continued at each of her praises up to the end of the Litanies. These being ended, and having received the Blessed one's blessing, leaping merrily they returned to the pastures which they had left. Hence ⁱ the Servant of God had conceived so great a trust in the great Mother that by her Litanies he exorcised and freed the possessed. To women in peril of childbirth also he commended the Litanies, and they were happily delivered. In dissensions he said to the disputants, "Come now, to the Mother, to the Mother"; and he suddenly reconciled them.

[57] In the name of the divine Mother, to whom he wished every good to be ascribed, and invocation he promises and works various miracles, he often promised miracles, which straightway followed. A blind woman ^k received her sight as soon as Bl. Joseph, touching her eyes, had said: "The Mother of God will heal thee." The vicar general of Nardò ^l was unwilling to bless with the accustomed ceremonies the three crosses which Joseph had had set up near the Grottella, so long as the usual violent heat of the year lasted and the place lay open to the burning sun; but at length, overcome by the prayers of the Blessed one, who asserted, "My Mother will not permit thee to suffer from the heat," he put on a cope and performed the ceremonies, being detained by them three hours and a half, and suffered no trouble from the burning heat. Sometimes his poor mother had recourse to Joseph for help; to whom he answered: "My Mother is Mary; but I have nothing, because I am poor: commend thyself to Mary, who will succour thee"; and thus indeed she was always prodigiously succoured.

[58] "Fear not ^m" (he said to a certain priest grievously wounded), "how long is it since thou camest to the Grottella to visit thy Mother?" "Ah," answered the sick man, "dost thou not see, brother Joseph, in what state I am, who cannot move myself?" But then the Servant of God bound up his wounds and began to stroke them with his hand, saying: "Dost thou not trust in thy Mother?" And at the same time in which he thus stroked the wounds, he at once dried them, and at last left him wholly healed. Another priest also was heard ⁿ by Mary, after he, doubting whether he durst ask a certain grace of her, heard from the Blessed one, who was aware of his secret doubt: "Ask it of her, she will grant it thee." To a certain dying man ^o, opening his lips with his own hands, Joseph poured I know not what liquid into his mouth, and said: "Art thou now well?" And he answered: Excellently. Then Bl. Joseph added again: "Come now, say nothing to anyone about me; but say that thou hast been healed by the Mother of God, thy mother and my mother." Lastly, to be brief, I conclude: as Joseph's sanctity, as he himself confessed, began from devotion towards Mary, so the fame of his sanctity began from the many benefits which others obtained from Mary through Joseph's patronage.

[59] and he is cherished by her as a son. His chastity Hence [p] it came about that, as that mutual love always grew far greater, Mary always had Joseph as a most beloved son (and as such a certain handmaid of God saw him on the feast of the Portiuncula

[q], being rapt into ecstasy, treated tenderly by her), and Joseph always honoured Mary as a most loving mother; and as [r] he had always called her his Mother in the course of his life, so now, when dying, he addressed her by the sweet name of Mother, saying to her: "Show thyself to be a Mother." From this love towards the Mother of purity one may argue the love with which the Blessed one pursued purity. He was not indeed, like some others, free from impure temptations, by which, as was said above, he was vehemently assailed; but the stronger the assaults were, the more glorious was the victory which he bore away from them by the help of God and of Mary the Mother. Yet he was troubled [s] with doubts and fears, so that he was once heard to cry out: "Ah my God! I know indeed that thou doest all things well, and that in these temptations I do not sin, by thy grace; yet I would wish neither to feel nor to experience them." But God willed him to be most pure in the midst of those impure assaults, that he might merit the more.

[60] he cultivates surpassingly amid temptations, and breathes it upon others. Certainly his confessors [t] and many others testified that they had never noticed in him even a shadow of unchastity, but had always found him most chaste in mind and body, so that his soul seemed to be angelic rather than human. Hence he, being a great lover of chastity, in order that it might be prized by all, was wont to say [u] "that a chaste soul is like a crystal vessel, pure and clean, full of cold and most limpid water, which in a time of heat is pleasing to all, and than which nothing then can be more welcome; but if even one drop of oil be poured into it, all that water is spoiled and displeases." For the same cause he exhorted them to avoid all danger of losing it; and first indeed by example, being unwilling to deal with women save out of obedience; then by admonitions, teaching that "it is a dangerous thing to deal with women, who bring nothing but harm to those who wish to be God's: let them be fled, let them be fled, and let dealings be had with them only out of obedience." To that same unblemished purity of his it was likewise due that he preserved the faithful who were tempted to unseemly things: now by applying to them something of his own things, as [x] he suddenly delivered a certain young man when he girded the loins of one most grievously tempted with his own girdle; now by his voice alone, as happened to another [y], then lately converted from Mahometanism to the Catholic faith; who, when he complained that he was strongly assailed by such enticements, which he had not felt before, heard from Joseph that this came about because through his false sect unchastity had not been forbidden him, and because the demon does not strive to gain those whom he already possesses. And without delay from that very time he felt himself free from temptations and confirmed in the Catholic faith.

[61] Yet surer and more stupendous signs of his angelic chastity were the stench [z] which he smelled from the bodies of unchaste men, and the most sweet odour which others experienced him to breathe from his body. It was enough for him to have seen a lustful man to know him by the stench. He was once seen restless and agitated; Knowing the lustful by their stench, and being asked [aa] what was the cause, he answered "that he had then conversed with a person defiled by the lust of the senses, and that from that person so great a stench was left in his nostrils that he could not drive it out even by using tobacco." And that he might strike a horror of uncleanness into all, he frequently said [bb] "that the unchaste stink before God and the angels and men." But he himself on the contrary was endowed by God, on account of his chastity, with a heavenly odour, which, as the ascetic doctors teach with the most learned and most pious Cardinal de Laurea, is a sure sign of true purity.

[62] "The notable gift of his purity [cc]," says he, "was evidently recognized by all he himself breathes a wonderful odour. A surpassing cultivator of poverty who dealt with him or received any thing which he had used; because he breathed a most sweet odour, and the things handled by him kept it for a long time: nay, in the dormitories through which he passed he left so manifest an odour that if anyone wished to know whither brother Joseph had gone, it was enough to follow the traces of the odour. And it is certain that the fragrance of a person, as the masters of the spiritual life teach, is a sign of true purity." Therefore that odour was rightly believed by all to exceed the natural order, since they did not know to what fragrance they should call it like, save to that which the Breviary which St. Clare once used breathes at Assisi, and the chest which contains the ashes of the most chaste St. Anthony of Padua; and therefore all called it THE ODOUR AND FRAGRANCE OF PARADISE. With this so surpassing and so fragrant purity there shone in a singular manner in our Blessed one religious poverty. Although it was lawful for him to keep for himself various things suitable to his state, and which were granted for the food and clothing of the Religious, nevertheless he willed always to live deprived not only of all superfluous things, but also of very many which are necessary for human life.

[63] His garment [dd] therefore was always the meanest of all, which he strictly observed in clothing and food, and sometimes most ancient and torn, under which he wore a rough little tunic, which might be called a hair-shirt rather than a garment, and drawers of rough cloth; nor was he ever besides clothed with anything else, not even to ward off cold, save the sandals which he used only when he went out in public [ee]. Hence when he once came to a certain convent, being asked whether he had brought his clothes, he answered that he had brought them, speaking only of those with which he was clothed. In the illness which was his last, he consented indeed [ff], necessity compelling, to accept two white cloths from the surgeon of Osimo; but as soon as he saw that they were woven of linen, "They are too fine," he said, "too fine"; and having refused these, he accepted two others, of white cloth indeed, but rough and coarse. Such was always his extreme poverty in all other things: for all his food, such as it had been from the beginning, was once a day herbs and vegetables, rarely fish; sometimes flesh out of obedience, but which he so often threw up from his stomach, as has been said. Hence he would not admit even the least morsel of bread into his chamber, in which, on account of the frequency of his ecstasies, he ate apart from the others.

[64] As concerns the furniture of his cell [gg], in furniture, and in all things. one footstool, two seats of bark, a little table and a few sacred pictures on paper were all its adornment; and his bed consisted of a wooden board and a pillow of straw. Nevertheless that uncomfortable and most poor bed was so dear to him that, when in the pressure of his illness [hh] he was bidden to use a mattress and linen sheets, he could not long bear the unaccustomed softness, and said that he felt all his bones being bruised; and therefore it was necessary, for his consolation, to lay him back in his most beloved little bed. From money too he so shrank [ii] that not only did he never accept it when offered, and bade those who urged that he should at least keep it for the uses of his convent hand it over to the superiors; but also, when at one time a small coin of the value of two Julii had been placed in his cowl by pious persons, he prodigiously made plain his horror of it by great restlessness and copious sweating, no otherwise than if a most grievous weight had been laid upon his neck, crying out, I can bear no more; nor was he restored to his former serenity before that coin had been taken out of it by those who pitied him. For the rest [kk], he always accounted himself most rich, and said with a cheerful countenance "that he had indeed nothing, but that God provided him with all things." And he acknowledged all his good to be placed in God, and repeated with the Seraphic patriarch: "My God and my all!" Hence when, near to death [ll], he was thinking about the account which the Franciscan Religious are wont at that time to draw up of all the things granted to them by their superiors for their simple use, he had this consolation, that he could say to his superior: "Father guardian, I would draw up the account, but I have nothing."

ANNOTATIONS.

p. From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, from fol. 1144 and following, and the Summary p. 107, §251.

q. Berninus says that this sister Cæcilia de Nobili of Nocera was a Poor Clare, whose elogium Fortunatus Huëber sets forth in the Franciscan Menology at the 24th day of July.

r. From the ordinary process of Osimo, compulsory, from fol. 1127, super 26, and the Summary p. 244, §67.

s. From

the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, from fol. 1053 and following, fol. 1114 and following, fol. 1152, and the Summary p. 84, §93 to 95, p. 86, §108 and 109, p. 108, §260 and elsewhere.

t. From the Apostolic process of Osimo from fol. 430 to 433, super 215, and scattered in the Summary in the places cited above, and p. 430, §3, and elsewhere.

u. From the cited Summary p. 273, §55.

x. From the Apostolic process of Osimo fol. 433, and the Summary p. 430 at the end of §7.

y. From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, fol. 1127 verso and following, and the Summary p. 337, §5.

z. From the Apostolic process of Assisi fol. 375 verso and elsewhere scattered in the Summary throughout.

aa. From the Apostolic process of Assisi fol. 327, and the Summary p. 424, §7.

bb. From the same Apostolic process of Assisi fol. 459, and the Summary p. 425, §16.

cc. From the cited Summary p. 9, §6, pp. 425, 426, 427, 487 and elsewhere. Consult also our preliminary Commentary §5, num. 61 and the following, where we have recounted various testimonies for the same admirable odour.

dd. From all the processes. Witnesses reported in the same Summary under the title On poverty throughout.

ee. These things do not sufficiently agree with what Berninus related from the Summary concerning his manner of life in the convent of Osimo in the preliminary Commentary num. 104; for there, although he never went out in public, he is said to have had his bare feet shod with sandals, and in winter time to have worn a cloak or mantle over his other garments.

ff. From the Apostolic process of Osimo, fol. 853 and following, and the Summary p. 461, §12.

gg. Witnesses in the Summary under the title On poverty.

hh. From the Apostolic process of Osimo fol. 854 and following, and the Summary p. 462, §17.

ii. From the Apostolic process of Assisi fol. 296, and the Summary p. 456, §4.

kk. From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, fol. 1198, and the Summary p. 31, §10, p. 456, §1, and elsewhere.

ll. From the Apostolic process of Osimo fol. 855, and the Summary p. 462, §17 at the end.

CHAPTER VI.

The Blessed one's heroic obedience, famous for miracles and for the submission of animals: his wisdom received from God: his wonderful knowledge of hidden things.

[ ] A cultivator and herald of obedience He could truly say that he had not even a will of his own, because he had consecrated it wholly to holy obedience. Certainly that virtue was in Bl. Joseph so heroic that he protested ^a "that he would rather die than not obey." For this cause he venerated any superior ^b no otherwise than if he had been St. Francis; nor would he hear anything about his faults, lest even a shadow of reason should arise for resisting what was commanded him. Hence too he made plain to all his superiors the whole manner of his life, both inward and outward, most ready to change it if it seemed good to them. And as he would do nothing ^c without the merit of obedience, nor even open or shut the window of his cell without the consent of his lay companion, so, when he had heard his superior's voice or command, he carried out everything without delay. He was ^d one day in the chamber of father Caravaggio, his confessor, who lay grievously sick and, in the judgment of the physicians, certain to die; and being there rapt into ecstasy, he remained raised above his bed while he was being anointed with the sacred oil. Then, being restored to his senses, he wished to return to his cell; but having heard the voice of his superior, by which he was forbidden to go away, he remained motionless on the very tiles on which he was then standing, until he received leave from his superior to depart.

[66] he gives surpassing examples and lessons of this virtue: His command sufficed ^e to make Joseph eat flesh, go out of his cell, deal with anyone, allow the kissing of his feet, give away something of the things which he had used — however much he shrank both from these and from other such things as made either for his relief or for his praise. He was once bidden by his superior General to eat a piece of white sugar which he had given for his refreshment; and he ate it at once. Being asked ^f afterwards by a certain Religious, for the sake of trying him, how he had willingly eaten sugar, he who had been wont to fast on bread and water, he answered with a serene face: "I do what is commanded." At another time the father General had commanded ^g a certain Religious to bid Joseph lay aside his old inner and outer garments, to be given to the illustrious Infanta of Savoy ^h, most devoted to the Blessed one, who had already prepared new garments for him to that end. Joseph at first resisted, not knowing his superior's precept; but when he understood it, he presently put off his cowl and consequently his other garments, saying: "Out of obedience I am content that thou shouldst take from me not only my garment and my little tunic, but, if thou wilt, my flesh and skin also." On other occasions ⁱ besides he was wont to say "that out of obedience he would enter a burning furnace, and that he believed that by its merit he would come out thence unhurt."

[67] he publishes examples and lessons: Therefore, that all the rest also might love and cultivate this virtue, he greatly commended its merit, now calling it ^k "the knife which, killing a man's own will, offers it up to God; now the chariot which carries one most conveniently to paradise; now the dog that leads the blind man. Holy obedience!" (he cried out sometimes on other occasions) "ah holy obedience, whom God himself honours!" Indeed neither blows, nor iron, nor fire could call him back from his ecstasies; but, being called back by obedience, he was presently restored to himself. Being asked therefore in what way this came about, he answered ^l "that the superior's voice was indeed not heard by him, but that God, most loving of obedience, by then withdrawing the vision, willed that he should obey at once." He set forth this same thing also by an elegant comparison. As ^m, he said now and then, the soul is rapt by God, when he lifts the curtain and shows as it were a great treasure-house filled with many most beautiful and unspeakable things of paradise, "so at the voice of obedience (he added) the Lord God then drops the curtain, and restores the soul to the free discharge of its duties."

[68] by it he frees the possessed; So surpassing was the merit of his obedience that God made him terrible by it to the demons, and brought it about that brute animals eagerly obeyed him. And so when he was sent by his superior to exorcise the possessed, by his obedience he enjoined upon the demon a withdrawal from their bodies: "I have come hither," he said, "out of obedience, and therefore thou must depart hence." Sometimes more courteously and more effectually, after the Litanies of the most blessed Virgin had been read over the possessed, he said ⁿ: "I have not come hither to drive thee out of this body, but only to obey; and therefore if you wish to go out, go out; if you do not wish it, do what pleases you: it is enough for me to have obeyed." By which manner of speaking the demon, being the more indignant, forsook the bodies he had beset. Another device at last he used at one time, when the demon by the hand of a woman whom he had possessed struck him a horrible blow as he came in ^o: for Joseph, in no way disturbed on that account, falling upon his knees, brought forth the command given him in writing by his superior, and, laying it upon the possessed woman's hand, said: "Ho there, take holy obedience"; and, the accustomed litanies of the blessed Virgin being said, the demon, not enduring so notable an obedience of our Blessed one, suddenly forsook the body he had beset.

[69] It was wonderful too to see animals devoid of reason obey him most readily. and he often had brute animals A linnet, to which he often said [p], "Praise God," praised him with its song at his every nod, and at his bidding suddenly ceased. To a goldfinch, when he let it fly away [q], he said: "Go, enjoy what God has given thee; I wish nothing else of thee but that, when I call thee, thou come back to praise with me thy God and mine"; and the little bird, obeying these words, flew down into a neighbouring garden, and, being called back by Bl. Joseph, returned immediately to sing the praises of the Creator with him. A kite [r], which had killed another goldfinch very dear to him, because, being taught by him, it often repeated: "Jesus and Mary: brother Joseph, say the Office," being seen by him and called, presently flew up, and, being chidden by him with these words: "Bah, wicked one, thou hast killed my goldfinch; thou hast deserved that I too should kill thee," as though repenting of the deed, sat upon the cage so long until Joseph, striking it with his hand, said: "Go hence; I pardon thee; but do not do it again." A ram [s], bitten by a mad dog and itself also grown mad, was kept shut up in a little garden lest it should hurt anyone; and when the Servant of God had chanced to enter that place, and was warned to beware of that beast, he answered "that he trusted in God"; and then, turning to the ram and handling it, he said: "Foolish one, what dost thou here? Return to thy sheep"; and it, being loosed at his bidding, straightway became sound and gentle, and returned to its flock.

[70] Prodigious [t] likewise was the obedience of a certain white ewe-lamb, wonderfully obedient to him. which Joseph had sent to the nuns of St. Clare at Cupertino, as it were to keep watch over Regular observance. For it was always present first at all the offices, sparing in food, quiet in choir, and solely careful either by a push and rubbing of its body to rouse some drowsy sister, or with its feet and teeth to tear away another's vain adornment. When this had died, the Blessed one promised that he would send those same sacred virgins a little bird which should stir them up to praise God; as indeed was done. For [u] at the time of the divine Offices a certain solitary sparrow flew to the window of the choir and there sang sweetly. Nor did the prodigy stop here: for that same sparrow, seeing two novices quarrelling, set itself between them, and as far as it could, with outspread wings and its little claws, strove to separate them from one another and to appease them: but when it had been ill received by one of them and driven off, it flew away, nor did it ever return, although it had now lived about five years in that house. The nuns, afflicted by that mishap, had recourse to Joseph; and he answered: "It has been rightly done to you; why did you wrong it and drive it away? It will not come back hither any more."

[71] he often had. Yet, moved by their prayers, he promised that he would send it back. And at the first ringing of the bell for choir the sparrow returned, and not only sang at the window but entered the monastery even tamer than before. Then their wonder grew still greater, when, a little bell having been tied to its foot by the nuns for the sake of amusement, it was no longer seen on the fifth and sixth days of Holy Week: and when they therefore appealed to Joseph again, he answered: "I sent it to you to sing;

not to ring: it has not come, because on these days it has been present at the Lord's sepulchre; but I will bid it return"; and indeed it returned, and remained there a long time. Two hares in the neighbourhood of the convent of the Grottella obeyed [x] the Blessed one when he said: "Do not go far hence from the church of the blessed Virgin, because many hunters are pursuing you." And indeed it happily befell them to have obeyed: for one of them, being hard pressed by the hunters, fled first into the church, and then into the convent, where it leapt into Joseph's arms. Then he said: "Did I not tell thee not to go far from the church, because they would flay thee?" And he freed it from the hunters, who had asked that it should be given them. Equally happy was another hare also, which, the dogs pursuing it, took refuge under Bl. Joseph's tunic; and when the marquis of Cupertino, who was the chief of the hunters, coming up a little afterwards, asked Joseph whether he had seen the hare, "Behold it here," he answered, "and do not vex it any more." Then he said to the hare: "Go, hide thyself in this thicket and do not move." And the hare obeyed, the dogs remaining motionless, and the marquis with his companions being amazed beyond measure at so great a prodigy [y].

[72] His wisdom received from God is a marvel to many. Yet not by this gift alone did God make the Blessed one's virtue illustrious, but enriched him most abundantly with other surpassing gifts also. Although, as we said above, he was endowed by nature with a small wit, and, never having been rightly imbued with letters, knew nothing beyond the common Latin speech (as Cardinal de Laurea testified [z]), yet he was endowed by God with a most sublime wisdom, which stirred wonder even in the more accomplished theologians. He penetrated deeply into the sense of the sacred Letters, especially of the psalms; whence he was wont to say [aa] "that he had found no better spiritual book than the divine Office, and that from it he drew every kind of profit." Being questioned [bb] about the most difficult mysteries, that is, about the most holy Trinity, about the Incarnation, about predestination, about the efficacy of grace, about justification, and other like things, he answered readily and eagerly with sublime doctrine, and untied the difficulties proposed by most learned men, and set them forth so clearly by examples taken from bodily things that he convinced everyone. Hence of the many and learned Religious who had experience of this, one said: "This man knows more than I"; another: "Now I am learning a new and good theology"; these: "I have learned more by holding discourse with father Joseph than in the whole time in which I have studied"; others: "Joseph spoke so sublimely of theology as the chief theologians of the whole world could not"; all, in fine, testified "that in Joseph there shone the gifts of the Holy Spirit, of wisdom, of knowledge and of understanding."

[73] To the heavenly light of wisdom, by which he penetrated most of all the hidden mysteries of our faith, there was added another light, by which he clearly knew others' thoughts and secret and hidden matters. Knowing hidden things from God, he reveals various things First of all, to whomever he met who had a soul infected with sin he said: "Go, wash thy face, which thou hast befouled with ink"; or: "Get thy bow in order": by which words he denoted the conscience, as has been said. But if [cc] anyone then said to him that he remembered no sin, he pointed out the time, the place and the manner in which he had sinned: but if he returned to him after making his confession, he kindly said: "Ah, now it is well!" Nay, he knew even the guilty whom he did not see. To one of these, knocking at his door, he said: "Go first to confess, then come back and enter." Nor did it fall out otherwise while he discharged the office of confessor. A certain woman [dd] had recited her whole confession, which she had prepared; then she added "that she was conscious of no other sin besides." But the Blessed one replied: "Confess that thought to which thou consentedst in such and such a place," as it was established from that woman's own testimony that she had truly consented to it.

[74] So also to a novice [ee] who at his counsel had written out a general confession, profitably to various people; among whom he said: "My son, thou hast not told this rightly; because that was not done as thou hast written, but in such and such a manner." Likewise he laid open to all the novices [ff] their faults, even the inward ones, in a certain address, so that all were astounded. Moreover, whoever read the divine Office, or the litanies, or the Rosary with him, was at once warned of the inward wandering of his mind. To one of these he said, "Be here" (in mind, that is); to another he said more plainly: "Thou hast recited the Our Father with a continual wandering of mind." To another lastly, who at nightfall had not yet said the Office of that day, he said: "Where is the Office? The Breviary cries out against thee." Hence [gg] it is read that all who dealt with him, when they were either stained in conscience or stirred by depraved affections, felt themselves very uneasy. And as he revealed others' faults, so also their good deeds. To a woman [hh] named Elizabeth, as she was coming out of the church, he gave thanks for a Salve Regina, which she had indeed recited for him. In like manner [ii], to a certain Tertiary who feared to make known to him certain doubts touching the spiritual progress of her soul, he said: "Whom fearest thou? Tell thy business boldly"; and presently, forestalling her speech, he told everything, just as she had wished to set it forth. To the same woman he was sometimes wont at other times to say: "Thou didst scourge thyself yesterday evening. Thou hast performed such a work of penance. Thou hast had such a thought. Henceforth do this and leave that undone."

[75] In a like way he told Cardinal Rapaccioli, bishop of Terni [kk], Cardinal Rapaccioli, and others what good he had done shut up in his chamber. At another time likewise the same Cardinal had set forth in a letter many scrupulous doubts of soul with which he was vehemently troubled, that he might send it to Joseph to ask his counsel: but at the same time in which he handed it to his secretary for that purpose, he received a letter from Joseph, in which, not without great wonder, he found the answer which he had desired to each head. A certain Religious [ll], having had no conversation with Joseph, received through his companion an answer to all the things about which he had resolved to consult him [mm]: and to another, saddened because he had not professed a more austere religious Order, Joseph, all cheerful, meeting him, said: "What ails thee? Why art thou melancholy? Canst thou not do what the Reformed fathers do? Come, live cheerfully in the Religion which thou hast professed."

[76] Nor were there any thoughts, however hidden and shut within the mind, into which the Servant of God did not penetrate by his great light. To a certain novice [nn], he wonderfully instructs. who during the singing of Terce had been thinking about the garden and its fruits, he courteously reproached the distraction of his mind, repeating to him his own inward words: "I should like today to climb that fig tree in the wood: oh how many figs I shall eat!" While his lay companion [oo], carrying his goldfinch along the road, was reckoning up various persons in his mind, to one of whom he judged it should be given by Joseph, he, turning to him unexpectedly, said: "To none of those persons whom thou hast thought of will I give that little bird: but I will give it its liberty"; and, opening the cage, he let it go. Nor did distance of places [pp] hinder him the more from penetrating thither with his light. A certain servant, at the bidding of his mistress, whom the most bitter pains had seized, was going by night to summon him; when Joseph, who had neither seen him nor learned from him the cause of his coming, said to him from the church of the Grottella, in which he was free for prayers: "Son, return home; for the torments have now ceased, and thy mistress is healed."

[77] He breaks up the work of poisoners; he foretells the death of two Pontiffs. On a certain evening, while conversing with the father Guardian of the Grottella, he suddenly cried out: "Ah, what a stench! this is an infernal stench!" The Guardian indeed perceived nothing; but Joseph, who smelled it and had learned its cause, having asked and obtained leave to go at once to Cupertino, swiftly betook himself thither, and going straight to a certain house, knocked long at the door until it was opened to him; and having climbed the stairs at a quick pace, he found poisoners, men and women, busy with making unguents and oils, of which some were already laid up in jars, others were still cooking. Wherefore, kindled with a holy indignation, with the staff which he had opportunely brought he shattered all the vessels into tiny fragments, and appeared so terrible that all those poisoners, astounded, took headlong to flight. In like manner, while he dwelt elsewhere [qq], he revealed now the healing of some who were grievously sick, now the death of others living in the same city, and especially [rr] the death of two supreme Pontiffs, Urban VIII [ss] and Innocent X [tt], which befell both of them at that very moment of time in which it had been foretold by him. I could here relate a hundred other things of this kind, which, though most hidden and most remote in place and time, most trustworthy witnesses asserted on oath [uu] to have been known by him; I could, I say, relate them here; but for brevity's sake I forbear. Let it suffice to know this: if the light in him was stupendous for knowing present and past secrets, the same was no less wonderful for foreseeing things to come.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Ibid. Summary p. 118, §327.

q. From the Apostolic process of Nardò fol. 435 and 436, and the Summary p. 590, §13.

r. From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, fol. 1141 verso and following, and the cited Summary p. 106, §247.

s. From the ordinary process of Nardò, compulsory, fol. 741 verso, and the Summary p. 291, §8.

t. From the same ordinary process of Nardò fol. 590, and the Summary p. 469, §9.

u. From the same ordinary process of Nardò, compulsory, from fol. 747 verso and following, fol. 755 verso, and elsewhere, and the Summary p. 473, §28, p. 590, §17, etc.

x. From the Apostolic process of Nardò fol. 436, 499 and 518, and the Summary p. 482 and following, §30 and 31, and p. 590, §14, and elsewhere.

y. The things which have been related from num. 69 up to this point will perhaps seem suspect to some critics; yet they do not surpass human belief, nor is there any reason why we should refuse to believe these same things on processes lawfully drawn up.

z. In the margin is cited the aforesaid Cardinal, reported in the cited Summary p. 12, §17. Consult our preliminary Commentary §5, where we have recounted various testimonies by which both Bl. Joseph's natural ignorance and his wonderful wisdom received from God are established.

aa. The cited Summary p. 270, §27, and elsewhere.

bb. The cited Summary p. 12, §17, p. 105, §242 and 243, p. 162, §259 and 260, p. 269, §84, p. 270, §27, p. 279, §35 to 38, p. 281, §51 and 52, p. 285, §4 and 5, p. 312, §6, and elsewhere.

cc. From the same Summary p. XI, §16, and under num. 38 from p. 467 and following, and elsewhere.

dd. From the ordinary process of Nardò from fol. 634, and the Apostolic one fol. 417.

ee. From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, fol. 1124, and the Summary p. 490, §33.

ff. From the same process of Assisi in the cited place, and the Summary p. 491, §34, and elsewhere.

gg. From the Apostolic process of Nardò fol. 268 and following, Summary p. 477, §8, and elsewhere.

hh. From the ordinary process of Nardò fol. 634, and the Summary p. 471, §23.

ii. From the same process fol. 610, and the Summary p. 470, §14 and 15.

kk. Interamna, commonly Terni, is an ancient city of Umbria in the dominion of the Church. Over the bishopric of Terni Franciscus Rapaccioli, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, of whom he here treats, presided from the year 1646 until 1656, in which he resigned it of his own accord, on the witness of Ughelli's Italia sacra enlarged, vol. 1, col. 765. For the deeds which are here narrated in the Life, there is noted in the margin: From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, from fol. 1122 and following, and the Summary p. 490, §31 and elsewhere.

ll. From the ordinary process of Osimo fol. 986, and the Summary p. 350, §16.

mm. From the Apostolic process of Assisi fol. 248 verso and following, and the Summary p. 496, §6 and 7.

nn. From the same process of Assisi, fol. 418 and following, and the Summary p. 500, §25.

oo. From the ordinary process of Nardò fol. 666 and following, and the Summary p. 45, §129.

pp. Scattered in the same ordinary and Apostolic process of Nardò, and in the Summary, where it treats Of the supernatural gifts of the said Blessed one.

qq. Particular cases in the same Summary p. 484, §6, p. 506, §51 and elsewhere.

rr. Ibid. p. 488, §24, p. 527, §45, and elsewhere.

ss. Berninus presents Bl. Joseph prophesying at Assisi concerning the death of Pope Urban VIII, on the same morning on which it happened at Rome, to father Robertus Nutius, a Religious of his Order, in these words, doubtless excerpted from the processes: Know that the Pope has died; and this I know, because this morning, celebrating Mass, I did not find his name in the Memento of the living, but suddenly found it in that of the dead: and on Sunday the news will be brought to this city. Then Berninus observes that these things happened in the year 1644, on the 29th day of July, which was a Friday, and on which Urban died, and that the news of that matter, as the Blessed one had foretold, was brought to Assisi on the Sunday next following by Marinus Nati, secretary of Cardinal Antonius Barberini.

tt. The same Berninus, the places of the processes being cited in the margin, relates the matter thus, near enough. In the year 1655, on the 7th day of January, the Blessed one, having gone out at Assisi from his cell to the chapel to say Mass, seeing coloured priestly vestments, said to the minister: Give me the vestments for the dead, because at this moment the Pope has died at Rome. He adds lastly that the prophecy was accredited by the event.

uu. Ibid. under the title On the gifts, and scattered elsewhere throughout.

CHAPTER VII.

Various prophecies of the Blessed one: apparitions made to him: his sanctity attested even by the demons: some miracles: the coming of illustrious persons to him.

[ ] To some he foretells life, to others death; As concerns himself, he foretold the whole course of his life almost in detail; but of others there are countless examples which could be brought forward, out of which therefore let it suffice to have mentioned only a few. When a certain mother ^a had brought her two sons to him that he might bless them before they went to Rome to give themselves to their studies and to obtain the doctoral laurel, "What doctors, what doctors?" (answered Joseph) "doctors in paradise"; and indeed both died within a short time. Being consulted by a noble Polish youth which of two things were expedient for him, to take a wife or to put on the ecclesiastical dress, when he had answered: "Neither the one nor the other," he within a few months departed this life neither married nor a priest. Another ^b, lying grievously sick, commended his life to his prayers, that he might be able to procure necessaries for his wife, his father and his mother. But our Blessed one cried out: "What wife, father and mother! Son, thou hast need of patience: God wills to have thee: paradise, paradise, a fair thing is paradise!" The event proved the prophecy: for the sick man, being then restored to health, was a few months later cut off by an unlooked-for death. In a like way he presaged also the death of very many others with all its circumstances, and made others already sick sure of recovering health.

[79] Nor less true was the prophecy ^c which he uttered concerning the conversion of a vain and abandoned woman, [likewise a woman's conversion, a notary's priesthood, the surrender of Portolongone,] when, catching sight of her, he said to the bystanders: "Behold a Magdalen"; and then, addressing her, said: "God wills to have thee: put off that vain dress, and love God, Magdalen"; which she carried out exactly, being converted to God and taking the name of Magdalen. True likewise was found his prediction concerning the priesthood of a certain notary ^d, who, having at first resisted his admonitions, experienced the misfortunes foretold him by him; then put on the clerical dress; but when, for want of a patrimony, he despaired of the priesthood, and Joseph had said to him, "Be of good courage; for when the time comes, God will provide for thee," he received a patrimony from a person from whom he had by no means expected it: and so he recognized three prophecies fulfilled in himself. Moreover the surrender of Portolongone, which the army of the Catholic king was besieging in the year 1649, took place, as he had long before prophesied, on the feast of the Assumption of the most holy Virgin Mary ^e. To some barren women he foretold fruitfulness, to others male offspring; and he was a true prophet.

[80] To a certain noble doctor of Assisi ^f, who had often commended himself to his prayers to one a son, to another a marriage, that he might obtain male offspring, and had had recourse to him again for his wife, who was vehemently tormented with the pains of childbirth, he promised that she should be in no peril. But after he had gone away, he approached an intimate Religious of his and said pleasantly: "To this doctor a son will be born this evening; but I would not tell him, lest I be said to play the prophet." But wonderful beyond measure, and at once favourable, was the heap of predictions which he uttered concerning a certain marriage. He had sent ^g to the father of a certain marriageable girl to congratulate him on the concluding of that daughter's nuptials: but he, although he took that office of courtesy kindly, nevertheless answered that they were as yet far off on account of the disagreement of the parties. To which Bl. Joseph, smiling, answered: "What? what? What if he (namely the bridegroom) was born for her? This marriage has been decreed in heaven, and will shortly be contracted on earth." The marriage being afterwards concluded, the bride's mother, fearing I know not what poisoning at the betrothal, and having told her suspicion to no one, bade Joseph be asked to celebrate a Mass for her intention.

[81] But the Servant of God sent back the answer that she should not be anxious: and since he was then himself unwell, and male offspring, and his own death, she should see to it that a Mass against poisonings be celebrated by her parish priest, and that meanwhile they should contract the betrothal: that he promised them male offspring. The woman, astounded at this answer and glad about the promised son, begged Joseph that he would then hold the boy at the sacred font; but he bade the answer be returned to her again: "Provide better for thyself; for I shall not then be among the living." Further, in this deed he uttered almost as many prophecies as words, which the event proved. In a like way, concerning a strong youth ^h already ready to set out for the war, he said, "He will not go"; nor did he set out for the war. Thus to a Religious appointed for the mission to the Congo ⁱ he said, "Thou wilt not go"; nor did he go: thus to another Religious who had been appointed to study at Perugia ^k he calmly said: "It is well at Urbino too"; nor was he sent to Perugia but to Urbino. Certainly nothing came to pass which he denied would come to pass; but on the contrary, whatever he had foretold with a foreseeing mind really happened.

[82] to one a bishopric, to others a Cardinalate, and other things he prophesies. He presaged a bishopric to father Raphaël Palma ^l, Custos of the sacred convent of Assisi, saying, "O what a fine head! O how well the mitre will suit thee!" and he obtained a bishopric. To Nicolaus Albergati, who was afterwards called Ludovisi ^m, to Antonius Bichi ⁿ, bishop of Osimo, and to father Laurentius de Laurea ^o, he foretold the Cardinalate; and these

all obtained it. To Joannes Casimir of Poland he presaged the kingdom, and he gained it. To Cardinal Benedictus Odescalchi, then legate of Ferrara, who was afterwards Pope Innocent XI, he foretold that there would be an abundance of corn, which he greatly desired that he might relieve the want of the said city; and the abundance of corn came about [p]. To two father Custodes of Assisi he prophesied that provision would be made for the extreme need of this sacred convent, and it was abundantly provided for [q]. To a Religious who had desired a certain favour from the father General lately elected, he foretold that it would be granted him, but many years afterwards by another General; and then it was granted him [r]. Lastly, whatever he prophesied to others, who are countless, all these things were found true in all points and with all their least circumstances.

[83] [He is refreshed by various apparitions: his sanctity is revealed to pious persons,] It is no wonder that a soul of this kind, such as Joseph's was, which, though bound to the senses, yet dwelt always lifted up to heaven, received that great light from heaven; since he was no less frequently greatly honoured with heavenly apparitions. Several Saints appeared to him, discoursing with him of heaven: angels offered themselves to be seen by him, and gave him heavenly consolations; to him Christ himself appeared in the shape of a comely boy, now in the consecrated Host, now also elsewhere, who reclined in his arms and filled him with unspeakable sweetness by sweet words and caresses full of love. Nor did God will to show these sensible tokens of his singular friendship to him alone, but to reveal them also to many others. Hence it came about [s] that on the day on which Joseph came to Assisi a certain notable handmaid of God saw him entering escorted by two angels. Another [t] learned by revelation that the angel appointed for Joseph's keeping was of the higher choir: which angel indeed he venerated in so singular a way that he never entered his cell before he had invited him to go in first. By the same venerable handmaid of God his soul was often seen, now in the breast of Jesus Christ, now on the ridge of a very high mountain, which signified the mountain of perfection.

[84] and the demons attest the same, who also But by the confession of the most hostile enemy of sanctity, namely the demon, Joseph's sanctity was perhaps even more brilliantly honoured than by the testimony of God's friends. He said thus [u] to a certain Religious exorcist who had laid a little cord blessed by the Blessed one upon a possessed woman: "If thou knewest the power of that Friar, and how pleasing his soul is to God, thou wouldst be astounded. It is indeed necessary that I say these things, but it is God who compels me so to speak. That Friar is the greatest deadly enemy that we have." And indeed the spirits of hell always treated him as their enemy. The Servant of God was one night [x] at Assisi in the church, intent upon prayers at the altar of St. Francis, when he heard the doors violently opened and a man entering who seemed to have his feet shod with iron. Then, carefully looking round, he noticed that, as he drew near, the lamps went out one after another, until, all being put out, he was alone with him in the darkness. But then the demon, who had put on that shape, leapt raging upon Joseph, and, that he might choke him, threw him to the ground and strongly gripped his throat with his hand. But when he had called upon his seraphic father, he saw him as it were coming out of his tomb, and with a burning taper lighting all the lamps again: at which light the infernal enemy suddenly vanished from his eyes. From this event Joseph was wont pleasantly to call St. Francis the Lamplighter of the church.

[85] Equally vain were the demon's attempts, when, to drown him, also often most grievously vex him. he cast him headlong into the torrent of a river [y]; when he seized him to tear him in pieces, and assailed him to run him through with a sword. Further, although it was permitted him to beat him, and by night and by day frequently and in so horrible a manner to handle him ill, that at the sounds of the blows and the clanking of chains the Religious were struck with compassion, yet he could not shake Joseph's unconquered patience, who, accounting the blows inflicted on him as jests, answered dexterously to those who asked what those unusual noises in his cell meant: "It was a kind of jest." Wherefore the demon by his implacable hatred effected nothing else than that he gave unwillingly to all an irrefragable testimony to Bl. Joseph's sublime sanctity. Further, God, who permitted such infestations of the demons, that his Servant might take from hell itself matter for greater merit and loftier glory, besides the favours already mentioned, lent him as it were even here on earth his almighty right hand for the working of prodigies so easily that his life might rightly be called an unbroken series of miracles.

[86] We have already recounted many of these according to the nature of each virtue and the order of the history A few miracles out of many are recounted. He heals a nobleman's wound: to which they belonged, and far more remain to be mentioned here; but lest we be long beyond measure, let it suffice to have said that bread, wine, honey and other such things were abundantly multiplied in Bl. Joseph's hands, or at his word; that the crippled and the palsied were in a moment of time set upright by the kiss of the Crucifix which he held out to them; that the sick who were almost blind by his touch alone, and others altogether blind, by the application of his little cap and of his writing, were endowed with perfect sight; that by a single sign of the Cross countless sufferers from fever were suddenly healed, and the dying were straightway called back by him as it were from death to life [z]. Nevertheless it will not be unwelcome to hear a distinct relation of three prodigies most wonderful and at the same time most pleasing. A certain Neapolitan nobleman [aa], led by I know not what spirit, boldly entering Bl. Joseph's cell, said to him: "Hypocrite, wicked man; I do not venerate thy person, but the habit which thou wearest, and on account of it I trust that, if thou sign my wound, it will be healed." Having said this, he uncovered his wound: but Joseph first began to laugh; then with a countenance likewise cheerful and humble answered: Thou sayest truly; and he signed the wound, which at that same moment of time was healed.

[87] The doubling of the body, which is rarely read to have happened, was twice granted to our Blessed one of Cupertino. To a certain friend and to his mother dying at Cupertino, To Octavius Piccinnus [bb] of Cupertino, an old man now bereft of strength, who was surnamed Father, when he prayed that he would assist him in dying, Joseph, who then dwelt in the convent of the Grottella, had promised that he would do it: "So it is," he said, "I will come to assist thee then, even were I at that time at Rome." The promise was a prophecy, and the prophecy joined with a great prodigy. For Joseph was at Rome when the old man fell sick, and when the last agony came on he ran to him readily to comfort him; as he was seen by many, and especially by sister Teresia Fatali, a Tertiary, who also spoke with him, when, having seen him, full of amazement she said: "Brother Joseph, how art thou here?" And he said, "To commend Father's soul to God," and presently vanished from her eyes. In like manner, while he dwelt at Assisi, he presented himself at Cupertino [cc] at the agony of his mother, who, desiring then to see him, cried out sorrowfully: "O my brother Joseph, I shall see thee no more!" But then there appeared a great light, which lit up the whole chamber: and the dying woman, now beholding him, full of joy cried out again: "O brother Joseph, my son!"

[88] though far absen[t, he assists: he calls slain flocks back to life.] At the same time the Blessed one at Assisi, going groaning from his cell to the church to pray, met the father Custos, and being asked by him the cause of so great sadness, answered: "That poor mother of mine has just now died": which was established to have been true both from a letter afterwards brought from Cupertino to Assisi, and from the household of Osimo who came afterwards and testified that he had stood by his dying mother [dd]. Stupendous, lastly, was the prodigy which he wrought at Cupertino. When [ee] a horrible hail had killed almost all the sheep of a certain farm [ff], their shepherds had recourse as suppliants to Bl. Joseph: and he, seeing their tears and moved to compassion, went out anxiously into the field together with them, and, having lifted his mind to God, raised each of the dead sheep from the ground, saying: "Rise up in the name of God"; and presently all indeed, coming back to life, suddenly rose up, with such amazement of the shepherds that they lacked strength to give thanks to so beneficent a Patron of theirs.

[89] He is visited by various Cardinals It is no wonder, therefore, if a Man adorned with such notable virtues, and illustrious with such gifts, drew the people to himself wherever he dwelt, and stirred up even pious sodalities of seculars to enrol him among their fellows (as did at Rome the venerable archconfraternity of St. Anthony of Padua, and at Assisi the notable sodality of St. Stephen), and if all who were allowed to know him and to deal with him reckoned themselves happy. So lovable was his countenance, so sweet his speech, so affable his converse, that he bound all to himself. Nor was he visited only by men of middling rank, but also by very many persons of the first dignity, and by all he was called and held the Holy Friar, and was held in veneration [gg]. Besides the most eminent Cardinals Facchinetti, Ludovisi, Rapaccioli and Odescalchi, already mentioned, his sanctity was admired and venerated by the Cardinals Donghi, Pallotta, Verospi, Paluzzi, Sacchetti and others, all of whom never withdrew from him without the greatest consolation, which they had conceived from his proven virtue, from the most holy lessons received, from the ecstasies and raptures they had seen, and from the other wonders of his spirit.

[90] and princes: to Joannes Casimir, afterwards king of Poland Leopold, prince of Tuscany [hh], who was afterwards created Cardinal, had among the rest also come to Assisi for no other cause than to see Joseph: and when the father Custos had mentioned a certain praise of the Virgin St. Mary, he saw him rapt into ecstasy, with his eyes turned to a certain image of that most blessed Virgin, and in that posture of body in which St. Francis is painted when he received the sacred stigmata. From Italy, where his fame was most famous, it penetrated into Germany, France, Poland and other regions. Hence not only the above-mentioned prince of Brunswick and high admiral of Castile, but also many other princes and illustrious men went to Assisi for the sake of seeing the holy Man, where they found that his presence surpassed his fame. There visited him from France the duke of Bouillon; from Austria Elizabeth, duchess of Mantua [ii]; from Poland the princes Radziwiłł and Lubomirski with their wives, prince Zamoyski and other palatines, and often the royal prince Joannes Casimir himself [kk], to whom Joseph, after he had heard from him his desire of embracing a Religious Order, counselled "that he should give his name to none but the Jesuits, because in time it would come about that it would be fitting for him to return to the world, which he could not do from the others."

[91] At another time, besides, he advised him not to let himself be initiated into sacred Orders, as was being asked of him; he counsels various things; he repels a curious marchioness. for God would afterwards expressly make his will known to him. Indeed afterwards, having been created Cardinal by Innocent X, and his brother king Vladislaus having at last died, he was elected king of Poland. Wherefore Joseph, beholding him clothed in secular garments at Assisi, while, setting out from Rome for his kingdom, he was passing through it, said to him with a smile: "What did I tell thee? Go, thus thou wilt do more good to the Christian commonwealth than if thou wert a Religious." The king, much refreshed by these words, departed. And since he had ascertained Bl. Joseph's notable holiness, he often consulted him by letter in hard matters, and from his answers received opportune counsels, not only about those things which he had proposed, but also about others touching Poland, which Bl. Joseph had already foreseen. But a certain illustrious lady was vehemently afflicted [ll], who together with others visited the Blessed one out of mere curiosity to behold him in a rapture. For as soon as she, the last of all, appeared before him, and was about to say, as had been agreed, Jesus and Mary, she heard herself rejected by him with these words: "What then? Comest thou hither out of curiosity? Knowest thou not that God can work miracles through this piece of wood? Go, God be gracious to thee."

[92] Not so did he receive the often-mentioned Infanta Maria of Savoy, The princess Maria of Savoy, most devoted to him, daughter of Carolus Emmanuel, duke of Savoy, and of Catharina of Austria. This illustrious princess, from her earliest years given in a singular manner to piety, and afterwards clothed with the habit of the third Order of St. Francis by the father master Franciscus Angelus Cavallari, of the Order of Minors Conventual, at that time guardian of the convent of St. Francis at Turin, after she had seen the sanctuaries of Italy came to Assisi [mm], and there, having conversed with Joseph, presently felt herself so holily affected that it seemed hard to her to be long absent from him. For this cause she stayed many days at Rivotorto, which is a place not far distant from the town, and about one month at Perugia, whence, returning often to Assisi every week, she conferred with Bl. Joseph about the affairs of her soul, and passed whole days in sacred conversations with him. There grew in her a veneration for the Servant of God in proportion to the prodigies of which she was a spectator, and often also a partaker.

[93] She was deaf [nn], and therefore wont to receive the voices of others by the help of a silver trumpet put to her ears; a partaker in his wonders but without the trumpet she always understood the Blessed one's voice, even though he were somewhat distant from her. When she had wrapped his girdle about her finger, which she had hurt in shutting a door, she was straightway freed from the most bitter pain with which she was tormented. And as she was often present at his Sacrifice, so she often also beheld with wonder his ecstasies and marvellous raptures [oo]. She saw him in her own private chapel lifted three palms from the ground at the elevation of the consecrated Host; and in the chapel of the sacred veil of the Virgin Mary, to which she had given a portion of the most holy Cross set in gold, she saw him very often ecstatic at the time of Mass; and then, having laid aside the sacred vestments, flying above the altar of that chapel, and there on bended knees clinging to a sweet rapture. Lastly she saw him affected with an ecstasy even at dinner, when on a certain day, with the leave and in the presence of the father Custos of the sacred convent (as I shall presently subjoin), she wished to dine with him in the sacristy of the upper church.

[94] and often a spectator, Joseph therefore [pp], obedience pressing, betook himself to her, carrying his dinner with him, and saying that he was bringing food to a certain poor pilgrim woman. But when, the dinner having been begun, he took the third morsel, he was straightway rapt into ecstasy, and fell upon his knees with arms outspread and his eyes fixed upon the princess, who greatly and piously rejoiced at that spectacle. Then, at her nod to the father Custos that he should call him back to his senses by holy obedience, at the superior's voice he was suddenly restored to the use of his senses, and, bowing his head, straightway returned to his cell, saying nothing else but what he had been wont to say on such occasions: "Let my heart be undefiled, that I be not confounded." Being asked afterwards by a certain Religious about the circumstances of that deed, he answered: "We have two holy Clares, one still living on earth, the other in heaven"; and he added that he had seen in her face so great a splendour that he could not withstand it, and that therefore he had suddenly cast himself down. Thus, that is, he singularly praised that princess's holiness, so that by that device he might dexterously hide his own.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. The matter, as it was done, is set forth by Berninus nearly in this manner. The said Cardinal Odescalchi, Pontifical legate of Ferrara, had twice poured out before Joseph the grief which he had conceived from his city of Ferrara being afflicted by the want of corn; and he as often answered: Be of a cheerful mind, for there are certain ships at sea. But Odescalchi, not sufficiently understanding what these words meant, set out from Assisi for Loreto, where, as he was going up the steps of the palace, he received a letter from the most illustrious Sanfelice, vice-legate of that city, by which he was informed of two ships laden with corn that had put in at those shores. Glad at this news, he cried out, Behold brother Joseph's ships.

q. Concerning both consult the preliminary Commentary num. 46 and following.

r. Berninus relates the deed with these circumstances. That Religious was brother Carolus of Corinaldo (a place of the diocese of Senigallia in the duchy of Urbino), a layman of the same Order, who, when he set forth to Bl. Joseph the favour which he desired from his father General, he answered: Hear, son, commend thyself to a certain superior who unexpectedly and shortly will come to Corinaldo; for he shortly, but after my death, will be General

and he, and not the present General, will grant the favour which thou desirest. He adds that that superior, Andreas of Spello, came unexpectedly to Corinaldo, and that in the year 1665 he was raised to the Generalate of his Order and granted the favour asked for.

s. From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, from fol. 1144 and following, and the Summary p. 107, §250 to 255 and elsewhere.

t. In Berninus one reads that this was sister Cæcilia de Nobili of Nocera, of whom we have already made mention above.

u. From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, fol. 1207 and following, and the Summary pp. 592 and following, §36.

x. From the same process fol. 1097 and following, and the Summary p. 100, §219.

y. About this deed read the Commentary num. 49.

z. For all these things there is set in the margin: All these things appear scattered from all the processes, and from the Catalogue of miracles in his life, in the Summary under num. 39, 40 and 41, from p. 529 to 595. Consult also our preliminary Commentary §4, where we have recounted somewhat more fully some miracles wrought by him in his lifetime.

aa. From the ordinary process of Nardò, compulsory, from fol. 664 and following, super 18, and the Summary p. 44, §124.

bb. From the same process fol. 609 and 610, and the Summary p. 469, §13.

cc. From the Apostolic process of Osimo fol. 857 and following, and the Summary p. 527, §46.

dd. Berninus' narrative differs somewhat from these things; but I prefer to hold to our Life, though it touches many things only briefly, for the reason given in the Commentary.

ee. From the Apostolic process of Nardò fol. 498 and following, Summary p. 481, §28, p. 590, §18, and elsewhere.

ff. Berninus affirms that this place is called Li Quarti.

gg. For the list of illustrious persons which is subjoined, one reads thus in the margin: These things appear here and there from both processes of Assisi, the ordinary and the Apostolic, in the Summary pp. 98, 103, 104, 117, 120 and elsewhere, where there are also other notable records of Cardinal Ludovisi p. 4; of Cardinal Facchinetti, p. 5; of Cardinal Bichi pp. 5 and 6; of Cardinal Spinola p. 7; of Cardinal Colonna pp. 7, 8; of Cardinal de Laurea pp. 8 to 12; of the archbishop of Avignon from p. 260; of the bishop of Alessano scattered throughout; of the bishop of Potenza from p. 267; of the bishop of Vieste from p. 273; and very many others in the archive of the Postulation of that cause.

hh. This was Leopold de' Medici of Florence, son of Cosimo II, grand duke of Tuscany, and of Maria Magdalena of Austria, whom Pope Clement IX in the year 1667 enrolled among the purpled Fathers.

ii. This was Isabella Clara, daughter of Leopold of Austria, archduke of Innsbruck, and wife of Carolus Gonzaga III, duke of Mantua. Berninus fixes her coming to the Blessed one in the year 1652, in which he was still living at Assisi, and, the places of the process being cited in the margin, says that she conversed with him in the evening about the affairs of her soul in the sacristy, and that on the morrow she was also present at his Mass in the church, and that on both occasions she wondered as much at his sanctity and learning as at his ecstasies and raptures. He adds lastly from the processes that she, on departing, carried away with her to Mantua, out of veneration, a tunic of that Blessed one, obtained from the superior of the convent.

kk. Joannes Casimir, son of Sigismund III, king of Poland, by Constantia of Austria, and younger brother of Vladislaus IV, likewise king of Poland, having entered the Society of Jesus at Rome, was declared a Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church by Pope Innocent X in the year 1646; but his brother Vladislaus having then died in the year 1648, he obtained the kingdom of Poland, which after a long reign he voluntarily abdicated, and died in France in the year 1672. Further, for the things which are narrated about him in the Life, there are cited in the margin Cardinal de Laurea, from the prince's own mouth, Summary p. XI, §14; the most reverend Claver, bishop of Potenza, ibid. p. 268, §14; and others scattered in the same Summary throughout.

ll. From the same Summary, p. 274, §8. Berninus, the same place being noted in the margin, writes that this was Artemisia, marchioness de' Medici and sister of the duke del Corgna, and that she herself testified to that deed, and from it recognized with great amazement that the secrets of hearts lay open to Bl. Joseph.

mm. From the ordinary process of Assisi, compulsory, from fol. 1136 and following; Summary p. 104, §235.

nn. Ibid., the cited §235.

oo. From the same process from fol. 1054 and following; Summary p. 87, §119 and following.

pp. From the same process fol. 1090, and the Summary p. 99, §209, 210.

CHAPTER VIII.

He cultivates humility in a surpassing degree: by the command of Pope Innocent X he is removed to the Capuchins at Pietrarubbia: thence to the convent of Fossombrone, to which he returns after some stay at Monte-vecchio.

[ ] Thinking most humbly of himself, in words and deeds Bl. Joseph's most profound humility, amid so many honours paid him by heaven and earth, was certainly far more wonderful than his very sanctity, so greatly esteemed and honoured by God and men. Not only was he never heard to utter any word of boasting; but he always accounted himself as the meanest man of the whole world, calling himself now ^a "a dead man, useless for everything," now "brother ass," now "the most wicked and most infamous sinner among all men." Sometimes too he said that "if there were anything good in him, it was all God's, who is always wont to work great things in the greater sinners." Nay, he wondered that the people and princes ran to him, and added: "I truly know not why these men come to me, who am an unlettered and poor sinner." Hence after any work of any moment, and while he received persons of princely rank, falling on his knees and kissing the ground, he repeated: "Not to us, Lord, not to us; but to thy name give the glory"; and he often struck his breast, and sometimes even groaned for the grief with which he was affected by the coming of such persons.

[96] To the meanest estimation of himself which he expressed in words he joined deeds to match. For he humbled himself ^b not only before his superior, but also before all his inferiors; he discharged the meanest offices cheerfully; he shrank most vehemently from applause; he rejoiced at injuries and at contempt of himself, as he plainly showed on a certain day. he puts himself after all others: the graces freely given For while he was discoursing with great fervour about spiritual matters in his cell with some Religious, his confessor, entering it unexpectedly, for the sake of trying his humility said to him with a grave voice and feigning contempt: "What art thou saying, what dost thou say, hypocrite?" To which Joseph, in no way at all moved, replied: "So it is, thou sayest truly, thou sayest truly": and, covering his face with both hands, uttered not another word. Further, in order to hide the gifts and graces received from God ^c, he attributed to fragrant things, which he carried about with him for that end, the supernatural fragrance which he breathed forth without perfumes — nay, even when he carried stinking things about with him — as experience proved. And his ecstasies and raptures he called sleep, faintings, swoonings of the soul, weakness of strength, or something of the kind.

[97] he strives to hide: by a three-year-old boy Often too ^d, foreseeing those same raptures and ecstasies from the inward motions of love, lest he should be a marvel to the bystanders, he was heard to say: "Enough, enough it is: stop, stop; no more!" nay, he begged God utterly to withdraw those heavenly delights from him. Besides, his humility shone forth from the praises with which he honoured others, and from the admonitions which he frequently bestowed, especially upon the novices, to whom he said ^e: "Some of you will be preachers; but be not proud; because a preacher is like a trumpet, which of itself does not sound unless it be blown into: and therefore before you preach you must say this to God: Thou art the breath; I am the trumpet, which without thy breath sounds nothing." In quite another way he spoke of himself, to his own contempt, to a certain little boy. Joseph was ^f out of obedience in the house of a certain Tertiary of Cupertino, when another Tertiary came thither, bringing with her a little boy of about three years of age; whom Joseph, while caressing him, lifted onto a stool, and began to say to him: "My little one, say as I say: Brother Joseph is a great sinner, and when he dies he will go to hell."

[98] he is wonderfully praised. But the little boy, who could scarcely utter words distinctly, much less understand their sense, answered in clear and distinct words: "Brother Joseph is a great saint, and when he dies he will go to paradise." Then the Blessed one, showing himself angry, replied: "That is not what I say; but say after me as I say: Brother Joseph is a great scoundrel," etc. But the boy repeated the same words as before: "Brother Joseph is a great saint," etc.; wherefore the Blessed one, being still more saddened, plucking his ears and his hair, said: "Wilt thou not say as I say?" and again pressed him to say with him: "Brother Joseph is a great scoundrel, and when he dies he will go to hell": but the boy began steadfastly a third time to repeat: "Brother Joseph is a great saint," etc.; and thus he drew tears of joy from all the bystanders, who well knew that God, as he did also on other occasions, had willed to use the mouth of this innocent little boy that he might reward and exalt Bl. Joseph in that very humbling of himself.

[99] At the command of Innocent X, he is removed to Pietrarubbia to the Capuchins Meanwhile, since God had decreed to increase the merits of his Servant far more by the exercise of an unconquered patience, he so disposed that the supreme Pontiff Innocent X, from the abundance and unusual character of his gifts and from the crowds of people flowing together to him, took it into his mind to hide him from the eyes of all; whether because he judged that this caution should be used, or that he might guard so famous and wonderful a sanctity. By letters, therefore, of the sacred general inquisition of the holy Office ^g, he commanded the father inquisitor of Perugia to transport Joseph from Assisi to the convent of the Capuchin fathers of Pietrarubbia, situated on the slope of one of the rough Carpegna mountains, of the diocese of Montefeltro in the duchy of Urbino; which was carried into execution on the twenty-third day of July of the year 1653. But the Blessed one, although he had long before foreseen by divine revelation that that cross was to be borne by him, was nevertheless, after the example of Jesus, somewhat afflicted; for he desired to stay near his Seraphic father with his most beloved Religious brethren.

[100] Nevertheless, after, falling upon his knees,

[101] In like manner ^l God honoured him there with the knowledge of hearts and of hidden things, and by miracles, on account of the excessive concourse of the people with the revelation of things to come, with a frequency of miracles ^m, with apparitions of angels, of Saints and of Jesus himself, and with continual ecstasies and raptures in his cell, in the garden, and above all at the altar. And so, when Bl. Joseph ought to have seemed altogether hidden in those desert mountains, there God made him far more manifest; so far that, since the church could not hold the multitude of people who vehemently desired to be present at his Mass, some climbed upon its roof and uncovered it; others, for the sake of seeing him, even pierced the wall round about; and for their convenience huts and taverns were built near the monastery ⁿ. For this cause ^o, after a stay of three months at Pietrarubbia, by a new command sent from Rome to the archbishop of Urbino, Bl. Joseph was removed thence by the archpriest of that metropolitan church, to whom that charge had been given, to the convent of the same Capuchin fathers at Fossombrone [p].

[102] On this new journey, which he made cheerfully, because he acknowledged God present everywhere, to their convent of Fossombrone he was rapt into ecstasies more often than usual, and was accompanied by the accustomed prodigies. For a stubborn mule and a rough horse, impatient of a burden, which they had appointed for Bl. Joseph's service, obeyed the voices of the guides; and a most violent rain [q], by which all the rest were soaked, did not wet even the hem of his garment. Further, his coming to the aforesaid convent, though kept secret, was not hidden from the people of Fossombrone. Hence they continually pressed the Capuchin fathers [r] that they might be allowed to see him and to beg his prayers; and sometimes so great a crowd of eager people ran together that, to avoid all danger of consenting and the violence of the throng, the said Religious either did not go out of the convent at such times, or hid themselves in it. And so our most patient Joseph lived there as one dead to the world, hidden from the eyes of all, even while he celebrated Mass [s]; for which end a private altar had been set up for him. Wherefore here too he could say what he once cheerfully answered the father guardian, who in the evening, when he had already given himself to rest, asked him: What is being done here, brother Joseph? — "A dead man is being buried."

[103] being taken away, he leads a solitary life, Yet, always living more to God [t], he dwelt with his mind in heaven. Certainly, apart from the time which he spent on the offices of charity towards the sick Religious, and of a most perfect obedience (for he would not even go down into the garden of the convent, as had been granted him, without his superior's leave) — apart, I say, from the time which he spent on these things and on human company according to his manner of life — he was always with the God dear to him. Of the continual ecstasies and raptures with which he was affected here as elsewhere, three especially call for mention. The first of these happened in the garden of the convent [u], where, while a certain Capuchin father was speaking before Joseph about the excellence of the Blessed Virgin Mary, he leapt upon him with outspread arms, and, both having fallen to the ground and cried out, the Religious who ran up found Joseph motionless and forsaken by his senses, who continued in this manner for an hour and a half, dwelling meanwhile with his mind in the heavens.

[104] and is made illustrious by many ecstasies and raptures: The second ecstasy befell in the same garden [x], on the evening of the Sunday on which the Gospel is read: I am the good Shepherd. Joseph, seeing a lamb there, felt himself, after his manner, stirred from created things to the contemplation of supernatural and heavenly ones. "Behold," he said full of exultation, "a little sheep"; and when he wished to seize it, a certain Religious caught it and laid it in his arms. And he, after he had caressed it a little, seized it by the legs and laid it on his neck, and in this way, contemplating the divine Shepherd, ran through the garden towards the father guardian, who was present, crying out full of gladness: "Father guardian, behold the good Shepherd, who carries back the sheep." After this, having tossed the lamb on high, he himself flew backwards through the air above the trees, and there on bended knees and with open arms remained in ecstasy more than two hours, the Religious who were present being amazed beyond measure. Yet more wonderful and unlooked-for was the ecstasy into which he was rapt on the morning of the day of Pentecost.

[105] thence being sent to Monte-vecchio, During the celebrating of Mass [y], when he was uttering those words Come, Creator Spirit, the divine love burst out from his breast with such abundance and such vehemence that he, leaping back swiftly from the altar and uttering a cry like thunder, roamed about his chapel like a thunderbolt, and indeed with so great a force that all the cells of the dormitory shook, and the Religious therefore, coming out of them in confusion, cried out in amazement, An earthquake, an earthquake. But having entered the chapel of the Servant of God, they found the cause of the matter in him, seeing him rapt into ecstasy and plunged in the delights of the Comforter Spirit. Bl. Joseph's stay in the convent of Fossombrone was of about three years, interrupted only for a short time on the occasion of the provincial chapter, on account of which, by the command of the holy Office, he was removed to the convent of the same Capuchin fathers at Monte-vecchio [z], where he stayed with the greatest consolation, especially on account of the apparition with which "the holy Old Man," as he said — that is, St. Felix [aa] — honoured him.

[106] Yet with far greater joy was he filled [bb] when, having returned to the convent of Fossombrone, Jesus Christ appeared to him in the habit of a pilgrim. then he returns to Fossombrone, where Jesus appears to him. Those good Religious loved him most tenderly, both for the things which we have already said above, and because they knew his prophecies to be true from the event, and because they recognized that their own secrets and other hidden things were truly revealed to them by him. This above the rest was experienced [cc] by a certain priest, to whom he revealed a temptation by which he had been stirred during the celebrating of Mass; and by a novice, to whom he said that his mother blessed him every evening; and both had really happened. Lastly they loved him for his lessons, among which that one was notable which he gave to a certain Religious who asked him whether he knew "that to carry about with him the Rule of St. Francis was a thing blessed by him." For he answered "that he knew that very well, but that it was better to carry it on the forehead than on the back [dd]." For these things, therefore, and for others of this kind, which for the sake of the brevity I have set myself I pass over, it is no wonder if those excellent Religious, being afterwards informed of the Blessed one's departure, were affected with a grief, so to speak, past consoling.

ANNOTATIONS.

27, 28, 29, p. 517, §22, p. 521, §13, 14, p. 594, §49.

p. Concerning this place and the other things touching it we treated in the preliminary Commentary num. 92 and the following.

q. Scattered in the same Summary in the cited place.

r. From the ordinary process of Osimo from fol. 1188, 1332 and following, and elsewhere, and the Summary p. 140 from §48 and following, p. 164 from §279, p. 170, §318 and elsewhere.

s. From the process of Osimo, compulsory, from fol. 1345, and the Summary p. 171, §325.

t. Ibid. p. 163, §269, p. 166, §291 and following, p. 169, §310, p. 170, §323 and elsewhere.

u. From the ordinary process of Osimo, compulsory, from fol. 1338 and following, and the Summary p. 166, §292.

x. From the same ordinary process of Osimo from fol. 1343 and following, and the Summary p. 167, §298.

y. From the said ordinary process of Osimo from fol. 1344 and following; Summary p. 168, §299.

z. From the same process, ibid.; Summary p. 170, §323. Go also to our Commentary num. 94.

aa. Of St. Felix of Cantalice, of the Order of Minors Capuchin, as a Blessed confessor — with which title the Roman Pontiff Urban VIII had made him illustrious in the year 1625 — we have treated in our Work at the 18th day of May, on which he died and is honoured. The same man the Pontiff Clement XI likewise enrolled among the Saints by a solemn canonization in the year 1712.

bb. Ibid. p. 152, §180, and elsewhere.

cc. Ibid. p. 152, §179, p. 522, §17 and elsewhere.

dd. Ibid. p. 140, §51 and elsewhere. Further, this answer of the Blessed one in Latin lacks the point which it has in Italian. For with the Italians the word addosso is ambiguous, and signifies both on the back and about one's person. In the latter way it is taken in the passage which I have translated; but the Blessed one, playing on the ambiguity, answered aptly in Italian, indicating that it is better to have the Rule in one's memory and to live according to it, than to carry a copy of it about with one.

CHAPTER IX.

By the command of Pope Alexander VII he is restored to his Order, and is brought back not without prodigies to the convent of Osimo: his deeds there up to his last illness.

[ ] At the command of Alexander VII, he is brought back to his own at Osimo; The supreme Pontiff Alexander VII, judging that his holy Son must at length be restored to the Order of the Minors Conventual, asked of the superiors to what place they had decided to send him ^a. And when they had answered that he would be restored to that same sacred convent of Assisi to which he had before been assigned, it seemed to the Pontiff that in the said sanctuary St. Francis alone sufficed; for Religious of the best example could not be wanting where there had always been a school of true observance. Hence a few days later he bade it be announced to them that he willed Joseph to be sent to the convent of St. Francis at Osimo, which is an ancient city of the March of Ancona, only seven miles distant from the great sanctuary of Loreto, and over which there then presided as bishop Antonius Bichius, his nephew ^b. According to this will of the Pontiff, signified indeed in the year 1656, but, on account of the pestilence with which a part of Italy was then afflicted, first carried into execution in the following year, the father secretary of the same Order was bidden to conduct him thither with caution ^c.

[108] All these things, as also the very hour at which he was to depart, his cloths give off a most sweet fragrance; our Blessed one already knew by divine revelation; and therefore on the evening of the sixth day of July of the year 1657, at the first hour of the night, he opened the window of his cell and looked out through it: and being asked about this by his lay Religious companion, who wondered at the strangeness of the deed, he expressly answered that he must presently remove from that convent to his own people, and that the secretary of his Order was already drawing near to bring him back. Presently at the second hour of the night the secretary came, and, having shown his orders to the father guardian ^d, departed thence with Bl. Joseph that same night. And the most religious fathers, that they might give the last tokens of their great love and grief, although it was night, accompanied the Blessed one through a great part of the steep road as far as the level king's highway; they also with great charity laid two cloths upon him, one on his back, the other on his breast, lest, since he had to go down on foot as far as the plain, the sweat should harm him. Then, before they bade one another farewell, they took back their cloths ^e, which, as soon as they were drawn off, were fragrant with a most sweet odour, which filled that whole road, and, at their return, the whole convent also, whose dwellers found the loss of so great a Man the heavier on that account.

[109] On the contrary, unspeakable was the gladness of his Religious brethren at Joseph being received back; he points out a road never before seen by him, but he too, though he had subjected himself with a most ready mind to the divine will in every place, rejoiced much that he had returned to them; as he himself testified when he came to the first convent he met, that of St. Victoria of Fratte ^f. His guides, though skilled in the roads, had turned aside amid the darkness of night from that which leads to the said convent, and were wandering in every direction in the wood by which the convent is surrounded: but when the Blessed one, who had never seen that region, said: "Towards that quarter where the moon rises, that is the way," they directed their journey thither, and presently caught sight of the tower of that convent. When Bl. Joseph had come hither, having heard that that convent had been founded and established by the holy patriarch Francis ^g, falling down he kissed the ground and gave thanks to God that he had sent him back to live and to die among his brethren. There was present that night the bishop of Fossombrone ^h, who wished himself and his whole household to be blessed by him, by whom his diocese had up to that time been so greatly made illustrious; and he gave one of his household to lead the Blessed one's horse by the hand on the next night, on which he was to set out, that he might go the more safely along those very rough roads.

[110] That servant ⁱ, that he might the better discharge his office, held the reins in one hand he uses a candle wonderfully burning: and a burning candle in the other, which, notwithstanding the strong wind that was blowing, was prodigiously never put out, nor after many hours in which it burned was it seen to be diminished even the least, and therefore it was always kept by that servant like sacred relics. he blesses a poor woman's melons, To avoid the concourse of people, who had already heard of his setting out, the journey was so arranged that they should always turn aside from the cities and castles to the smaller villages and into the houses of country folk. In one of these, when a poor woman presented herself lamenting that her melons, on which she had been wont chiefly to feed her family, sown in her garden, had been gnawed and stripped of their rind by little worms, Bl. Joseph, moved with compassion, blessed the garden, which never produced so many nor so perfect melons as in that same year. When at last they had come to the walls of the city of Osimo, he was bidden to withdraw into a certain house outside it until evening came on: for it had been decreed that he should enter the said city in the evening.

[111] he sees angels above the House of Loreto: he comes to Osimo, Meanwhile, when the Blessed one ^k had climbed up into a rustic arbour and was turning his eyes over the neighbourhood, a certain Religious priest pointed out afar off the dome of the famous church of the sacred House of Loreto, on which Joseph, fixing his gaze, said in amazement: "Dost thou not see the angels going and returning from heaven and the sacred House?" And saying and often repeating this, having uttered his accustomed cry, he was rapt downward and flew towards an almond tree for a space of six poles [ ] length, and of twelve palms in height. It was then the tenth day of July of the year 1657, on the evening of which Bl. Joseph came to the convent of St. Francis of his Order of Minors Conventual at Osimo; where he was placed in remote chambers, to which a chapel and a garden were attached, with a companion to help and serve him (as the same supreme Pontiff Alexander VII had commanded), lest the concourse of people should disturb the wonders which God was working in him.

[112] where, leading a solitary life, with many ecstasies Through the whole time, therefore, in which he lived on there ^m, he never conversed with any but the bishop and his vicar and the Religious of that convent; and, when necessity so required, with the physician and the surgeon. He never even went out of his chambers save to visit the sick Religious, and once only to see the church; which was done by night and with the doors carefully shut. Nevertheless he lived so content with that solitude that he was wont to say ⁿ: "I dwell in a city; but I seem to myself to be in a wood, nay in paradise." And indeed he could truly say that he dwelt in paradise, because almost continually he was rapt in mind into paradise. Known indeed to God alone were the most sweet ecstasies in which alone he was joined with God alone; yet many were made manifest to men also. Cardinal Bichi the bishop often beheld them, who, while he held converse with him sitting beside him ^o, saw him rising with a most swift motion from his seat, and, with knees bent and arms and eyes open, so forsaken by his senses that a fly ran over the pupil of his eye for the long time in which the ecstasy lasted, and yet he did not move even an eyelid.

[113] and raptures and apparitions of Jesus he is refreshed, Spectators of the same were the aforesaid Religious [p], by whom he was seen now to cling in his chapel to ecstasies so deep for six or seven hours that, being carried like a dead man to his cell, not even so was he restored to his senses; now in that same chapel to fly for a space of three paces and to put his mouth to the mouth of the boy Jesus set on the altar; now, having embraced that Child, to exult in a joyful ecstasy through his cell, or to press him strongly to his breast with the tenderest affection: and although that image was of brittle wax, yet it was not broken. Sometimes lastly he was seen by the same men to sing in his chapel [q], in which at the feasts of the Lord's Nativity he had set up a pious crib, to which he invited all the Religious, who noticed that he was at last always rapt into ecstasy. And as [r] he was greatly delighted with the image of the boy Jesus, so nowhere more often than at Osimo is Jesus read to have appeared in the shape of a boy

to him. For the rest, the remaining manner of his life there was this [s]. He persisted in prayers, read sacred books, held pious conversations with the Religious, and enjoyed heavenly delights in the daily Sacrifice of the altar.

[114] And in this there befell that admirable thing, that when the ecstasy ceased and he is vexed by the demon. Endowed with the knowledge of hidden things he accurately went on with the Mass from the place where he had left off, and his vestments too remained fittingly arranged amid so many and so various raptures of the body, by which he was borne forwards, backwards, upwards and downwards and in every direction. Since [t] therefore he passed his whole life of this kind for God, as it were unwillingly and only from the necessity of the body he took a very brief sleep on his accustomed boards, and a most sparing food, and that always of fasting fare; nor did he ever complain of what was brought to him, but even kept silence when his companion, for I know not what cause, had not brought his usual portion for two days. Meanwhile the demon did not cease to tempt him [u] and to trouble him in various ways, whom nevertheless he in no way feared. "I fear nothing," he said, "from his attempts, who live with God and apart from the world." Nevertheless, although he passed so solitary a life, and had never seen the city of Osimo, nor knew any of its inhabitants, he nevertheless spoke of the city, of the citizens, of their houses and families, and of their affairs both inward and outward, so accurately that he seemed to have beheld these things and all these persons with his own eyes, to the great wonder of all who listened to him.

[115] Hence the people of Osimo experienced many benefits and prodigies in their calamities, he bestows various benefits on various people, although they by no means beheld the Worker of them [x]. And sometimes indeed by his words and prayers alone, by which he now suddenly dispersed whirlwinds and tempests, saying: "Depart in the name of God"; now caused women in peril of childbirth happily to be delivered: sometimes also by the things which he himself had used; through which one was freed from a vehement temptation of lust; others recovered from swellings of the glands, from malignant and deadly fevers, from most bitter torments, from hemorrhoids, and from many other ills which it would be long to enumerate all. Nor did that most brilliant light ever fail in him [y], but rather wholly grew, by which he knew hidden things and foreknew things to come; which indeed those Religious wondered at, to one of whom he related in detail whatever had befallen him on his journeys; and to another he pointed out that he had not remembered to pray for him, as he had promised.

[116] To another, called to the confessional seat, he presaged the perverse shame of a young penitent and profitably reveals hidden things. who would with the greatest difficulty be brought to confess a sin which he had already hidden in other confessions, saying: "Go to kill a scorpion"; which words were understood by the confessor when, after the penitent's sincere confession, he saw a scorpion coming forth from his side. Likewise he suddenly made others sure about the life of a country woman, whom they had commended to his prayers, who had been mortally wounded by the chance shot of a fire-arm, saying: "She will not die." Lastly, to be brief, by the help of the same heavenly light he knew that certain Religious had on a certain evening of the days before Ash Wednesday gone to the house of their parents, to refresh themselves decently with them; and therefore he said to the father guardian who visited him in his cell: "Ho there, where are thy sheep?" Hence they, returning presently from thence, came to the Servant of God's cell; and when he saw them he was affected with such joy that, seizing one of them with his hand under the arm, he raised him from the floor like a light straw and carried him about the cell, testifying by that vast gladness his most tender love for his brethren, whom he beheld safe from every danger in the monastery.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. From the said ordinary process of Osimo from fol. 1126 and following, and the Summary p. 223, §281, 284 and 285, and p. 224, §289 and elsewhere.

q. Ibid., and p. 280, §39, p. 580, § XI and elsewhere.

r. From the Apostolic process of Osimo fol. 810 verso, and the Summary p. 527, §43.

s. From both processes of Osimo; witnesses scattered and reported in the same Summary throughout.

t. From the Apostolic process of Osimo from fol. 958 and following, and the Summary p. 199, §75 and following.

u. From the same process from fol. 959, and fol. 1047, and the Summary p. 199, §82, and p. 218, §240.

x. Summary p. 96, §193, p. 287, §10. And in the Catalogue of miracles in his life, from p. 594 and following.

y. From the said processes of Osimo in the same Summary p. 200, §98, p. 225, §297, p. 227, §316, p. 515, §15 and 16, and elsewhere.

CHAPTER X.

His death foretold by himself: his last illness: his blessed death and famous burial.

[ ] Death, which he had foretold, being at hand, now sick, It could not be doubted that a most holy death would answer to so holy a life. This he himself had already foretold at his first entrance into the convent ^a, saying: "This is my rest"; and he had even more plainly asserted that he would die in that convent ^b, and that, if he were not the first of the men of Cupertino to die there, he would be the second; as indeed he died there second of the men of Cupertino. Moreover he revealed that his death was at hand to a certain Religious, with whom he had agreed that each should assist the other, whichever should first have need, in dying. When that man had returned to Osimo, he said to him: "Thou hast come after all; wast thou unwilling to come hither? Dost thou not remember that thou didst promise to assist me in dying?" Lastly he foretold the very day ^c, saying to the Religious "that he would die on the day on which he could not take the Lamb" (that is, Jesus Christ in the Sacrament): and as he said, so it was done. Enlightened with this knowledge, panting for that most happy moment of time in which he should be wholly joined to God, and more vehemently inflamed with the holy ardour which he breathed from his face and his words, he seemed to shrink from his body and from the food by which his life was prolonged.

[118] Wherefore, when on the tenth day of August of the year 1663 he was seized by a fever, while he can, he celebrates Mass, he was so far from grieving ^d that he even exulted the more, and to one who urged him to ask health of God he answered: "Far be it, far be it; beware, beware!" But when, by his austere manner of life bereft of strength, weakened in stomach and quite worn out with leanness, he could not long stand upon his feet, he lay down on his poor little bed and committed himself wholly to the will of the physicians and of his superiors. Nevertheless ^e, so long as the fever at times abated (which happened for five days), he rose every morning to celebrate Mass in his private chapel. But then he enjoyed those heavenly delights in which he had always been wont to rejoice more abundantly than ever at any other time; he himself testifying that ecstasies and wonderful raptures had then befallen him, especially in his last Mass, which he celebrated on the feast of the Assumption of the most blessed Virgin. But after the illness, growing worse, had taken away his power of celebrating, he asked and obtained that he might be allowed daily to be present at another's Mass and to be refreshed with the Eucharist.

[119] burning day by day more with divine love: he gives pious admonitions: It was a sweet spectacle of love ^f to behold him at the time of communion, as though he were affected by no ill, all shining with joy, and, while he received his Jesus in the Sacrament, to hear him cry out: "Behold the gem, behold the gem!" and, having received him, to sink back into swoonings of love, to close his eyes and to grow pale like a dead man. The more the illness gained strength, the more in his heart the flame of divine love increased, which, impatient of being shut in longer, often burst forth through the Blessed one's mouth ^g: "Ah love! ah love!" he cried out, and amid these fiery words he laid both hands upon his breast, no otherwise than if he had tried to open it, that from thence too he might breathe out the inward burning. After these things ^h, turning to the bystanders, he stirred them with words

full of charity, now exhorting them to the practice of prayer, now giving thanks for the offices of charity shown him, and revealing many things by his accustomed prophetic light.

[120] he is rapt to meet the heavenly Viaticum, and having received it This last he did especially for his surgeon, who, although he had often wondered at the Servant of God, sweetly rapt and bereft of all sense amid the incisions and cauteries often applied for the sake of curing him, yet was far more amazed when he heard revealed to him by him a certain most hidden failing of his own, committed long before, and which had already slipped from his own memory. Being hindered by the force of the illness from rising from his bed, he nevertheless wished to receive holy communion daily in it. Being about to receive the last, which on the seventeenth day of September, the second last of his life, was given him by way of Viaticum, he wonderfully showed the abundance and force of his most ardent charity: for, having heard the little bell ⁱ which signified that his Beloved was drawing near, he suddenly leapt from his bed and by an admirable rapture was borne outside his chambers as far as the steps opposite his chapel, where, kneeling down, with his face shining beyond human measure, he was refreshed by his God veiled under the appearance of bread, with a most vehement desire of contemplating him shortly afterwards unveiled in heaven.

[121] he is carried back to his bed: he is anointed: he asks for a humble burial. After the communion, having fallen into the deepest swoon, from love rather than from failure of strength, he was carried back to his little bed. And as at the beginning of his sickness he had said ^k: "The little ass" (so he called his body) "has begun to climb the mountain," and, the illness growing worse, had added: "The little ass has come to the middle of the mountain," so then, reaching the end, he said: "The little ass has come to the top of the mountain: it can move no more; it is near to losing its hide." And this was his one most vehement desire, who therefore often repeated ^l: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ"; and by turns he added: "Let God be praised; thanks be to God; let God's will be done." While he was being anointed with the sacred Oil, as he had asked, being flooded with joy he cried out ^m: "O what odours! O what fragrance! O what delights of paradise!" Then, after he had asked that the profession of Faith be read out to him, and had begged of all pardon for his failings, he earnestly prayed ⁿ that they would bury his body without any solemnity, and would entomb it in a place so remote and unknown that no one might know where brother Joseph was or had been.

[122] He receives the Pontifical blessing on bended knees: Then the vicar general ^o, after the blessing which he had asked and obtained from the dying Blessed one for himself and for all the Religious, set forth to him that the supreme Pontiff, by letters given by Cardinal Chigi, had granted the faculty of imparting to him the Pontifical blessing. But Bl. Joseph, wondering vehemently that the Vicar of Jesus Christ should so kindly favour the meanest little worm of the earth, as he accounted himself, said: "This is not a grace to be received in bed." He wished therefore, though almost at the point of death, to rise, and, being helped by the bystanders, went forward to his neighbouring chapel, where, prostrate on his knees, after the litanies had been recited, he received the said blessing with great devotion from the same vicar, to whom it had been committed. These things being done, the Blessed one, being at once brought back to his little bed, with a placid face and a tranquil mind, by frequent acts of love towards God girded himself for the death that was at hand. To a Religious who, to comfort him, suggested something about the heavenly glory, he candidly answered [p]: "I do not wish to go to hell, because there God is not praised"; likewise to another saying: "Brother Joseph, now is the time to fight and to conquer the demon," he could confidently reply with a most joyful voice: "The victory will be won."

[123] And now nothing more was lacking to him but the glorious triumph, burning with divine love he dies. to which he saw himself close. Accordingly he was much agitated [q], not by the force of the illness, but (as he answered one who asked) by the violence of love, by which his holy soul, being possessed, strove with all its might to break the hard snare by which it was held. This, namely, he signified when he said to some who were speaking of love: "O, thou takest it, O, thou takest it!"; and when, turning to Jesus crucified, he uttered these words full of love [r]: "Take this heart; burn and cleave, my Jesus, this heart." Sometimes too he showed his desire, with which he received discourses about love, saying to those who recited pious prayers or named the love of God [s]: "Say this again." At length, after some most sweet affections towards his Mother, that is, towards the most blessed Virgin Mary, when he heard the antiphon Ave maris Stella recited by a certain priest [t], about a quarter before the sixth hour of the night which ended the eighteenth day of September, in the year 1663, he fell into a most sweet smile, by which he gladdened all the bystanders, and, with his face shining with an unlooked-for light, at the age of sixty years and three months rendered up his soul to his Creator in the convent of Osimo, in which he had dwelt six years, two months and eight days.

[124] The corpse being opened, that it might be treated with balsam [u], The opened body is not harmed by fire; it is exposed for two days the pericardium was found dried up, the ventricles of the heart bloodless, and the heart itself parched and dry, which was believed to have come about from a supernatural burning. There was added another prodigy also [x]: for while the body was being washed with the strongest burnt wine, the linen laid under it (it is not known how) caught fire, and a flame kindled thereby burst out above the sacred body: which, though it was on that account believed to be much marred, after the flame was put out appeared unhurt even in the beard and the hair, which otherwise are wont so easily to be singed. Then [y], by a prudent counsel, it was carried into the sacristy and there exposed; but shut in by a barrier made of beams, and guarded by twenty-four deputies, namely eight canons, eight nobles and as many Religious of that convent, that a tumult of the people might be guarded against, who from the city and the surrounding country and all the neighbouring places suddenly ran together in the greatest numbers, and said with one voice: "That holy Father is dead, who dwelt in the convent of St. Francis"; for all desired to behold at least dead him whom they had not been allowed to see alive.

[125] On the next morning, which was the nineteenth day of September and the first from his death, to the piety of the faithful, and is buried. entrance into that same sacristy was allowed to all up to the third hour of the night; and on the following day, the twentieth of September, the obsequies were celebrated, with the canons, the clergy and all the Religious orders assisting. These being performed, the sacred body remained exposed to public piety until about the fifth hour of the night [z], when it was placed in a wooden chest, that it might be entombed on the morrow. But since the people ran together again not without a tumult, it was necessary to open the chest and to expose the body again to public view for one hour [aa]; after which, all having partly withdrawn of their own accord and partly been driven out with threats, they laid the sacred body out of the aforesaid chest into a cypress coffin, and this into another of oak, and, having at last carried it into the church, entombed it in a new underground sepulchre beneath the pavement of the chapel of the Virgin conceived without stain.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. From the said processes of Osimo, the same Summary p. 210, §175 and 179, p. 256, §89 and elsewhere.

q. From the said processes, the same Summary p. 210, §176, 177 and 178, p. 242, §51, p. 256, §89 and elsewhere.

r. Ibid. p. 198, §61, p. 242, §51, p. 243, §52, p. 256, §89.

s. Ibid. p. 243, §53 and elsewhere.

t. Ibid. p. 237, §5, and p. 241, §48, p. 244, §67, p. 245, §72, p. 246, §6, p. 250, §38 and 39, p. 256, §90 and 91, p. 259, §116 and elsewhere, the cited num. 15 throughout.

u. From the said processes, the same Summary p. 138, §62 and elsewhere.

x. From the said processes in the same Summary p. 251, §40, pp. 256 and 257, §97 and 98, p. 260, §119, and p. 599, §48, where other witnesses are indicated.

y. Ibid., the cited Summary p. 237, §10, XI and 12, p. 241, §40, 41 and 42, p. 245, §74 and 75, p. 247, §

13, p. 251, §41 and 42, p. 253, §57 and 58, p. 255, §77 and elsewhere under num. 15 throughout.

z. From the said processes in the same Summary p. 237, §13 and 14 and elsewhere.

aa. Ibid. p. 238, §16 and 17, p. 241, §44 and 45, p. 245, §78, p. 247, §14 and 15,

Col. 01044A p. 251, §44, p. 253, §61, and elsewhere, the cited num. 15 throughout.

CHAPTER XI

The acts for his canonization and his solemn beatification: various miracles and benefits obtained through him.

[ ] [Processes concerning his life and miracles are drawn up; Clement XII approves his virtues,] God did not delay to make his Servant glorious after death by many and famous miracles, whom while he lived he had made illustrious with so many graces, gifts and prodigies. Hence two years afterwards processes were drawn up by ordinary authority at Nardò, Assisi and Osimo ^a, which, being sent to Rome and handed over to the customary mature examination of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, the venerable Innocent XI, Pontiff of holy memory, signed the commission for the introduction of the cause for his beatification and Canonization ^b. Following upon these, new processes being drawn up in the aforesaid places by Apostolic authority ^c, the examination of his virtues, both theological and cardinal, in an heroic degree, was begun under Clement XI of holy memory ^d, which, being afterwards continued, Clement XII of holy memory happily concluded, who promulgated the solemn decree by which they were approved on the feast of the assumption of the most blessed Virgin in the year 1735 ^e.

[127] Then proceeding was made to the examination of the miracles, and Benedict XIV two miracles of the third kind, namely a knee which, after they had in the three customary congregations — namely the Antepreparatory, held on the second day of March in the year 1751, the Preparatory, held in the same year on the sixteenth day of November, and the General, held by divine disposition on the nineteenth day of September of the year 1752, on which recurs the anniversary day which followed close upon his precious death — after, I say, they had been strictly examined in the said congregations, the present supreme Pontiff Benedict XIV ^f issued a second solemn decree on the feast of the holy patriarch Francis ^g in the same year, in which he approved two of the more notable miracles, by one of which God willed to make Bl. Joseph's dwelling illustrious immediately after his death, by the other his sepulchre two months later: and they are the following. To Victorius de Matthæis of Osimo there had arisen in his right knee a certain cystic humour or swelling ^h, which within the space of about six years, viscous humours continually flowing thither, being gradually increased, had now utterly hardened and grown into a mass the size of a large loaf ⁱ; so that that wretched man could not only not bend his knee, but could not walk freely either, and was tormented with continual pains, which one month before his prodigious cure had grown vehemently worse.

[128] The surgeon, whose help he had implored too late, would attempt nothing in his case of a monstrous swelling suddenly healed, and try no remedy; for since he had found the ill too inveterate and that it had penetrated to the bones, he prudently judged that it could not be cut without great peril of life. Meanwhile, while Victorius thus despaired of every human remedy, Bl. Joseph died; in whose sanctity, celebrated even then by fame, he conceived a sure confidence that through his merits he would obtain his soundness from God. And so on the nineteenth day of September in the morning he betook himself, as best he could, to the church of St. Francis, in whose sacristy the sacred body was already exposed; and since, on account of the excessive crowd of people, he could not approach it, he obtained to be brought into the convent to his chambers, where he had dwelt; and having piously venerated them, he at last went down into the chapel in which the Blessed one had been wont to sacrifice privately. Here, beholding the traces of the knees which by his long practice of prayer he had left imprinted on the footstool of the altar, Victorius, quickened by a living faith, laid his afflicted knee upon them; and from that touch in a single moment of time all pain and the swelling vanished, and, no sign of the former ill being left, that knee remained perfectly healed, made level and free for motion, just as the other, which had been seized by no ill.

[129] and of a cut eye suddenly made whole again. The second miracle befell in the following month of November of the same year 1663 to Stephanus de Matthæis, the former man's son. He was about twelve years old, when, amusing himself with his companion of the same age by throwing pebbles, he was struck by a sharp and scaly stone on the pupil of his right eye in such a way that, the cornea and the uvea being pierced through, the humours together with blood flowed out so copiously that the orbit or ball of the eye appeared pressed in, contracted and drawn inwards. The physician and the surgeon, since they recognized that the sight was now lost and reparable by no art, for a few days strove only with their medicines to draw a scar over the wound: but the youth, being stirred by his mother to a sure confidence in Bl. Joseph's patronage (by whose prodigious efficacy, namely, his father two months before had suddenly recovered from his swelling), had recourse with great hope to the Blessed one, first in his own house, and then, accompanied by his mother, to his sepulchre. There, falling on his knees, he repeated more fervently his suppliant prayers with his mother; after which, having laid his sightless eye against the sepulchral stone, in a moment of time he perfectly recovered his sight, and showed that same eye to all to behold, most perfectly restored to its former orbit and to the wholeness of its other parts.

[130] The same Pontiff solemnly enrols Joseph among the Blessed. After the issuing of that decree concerning the approbation of the two miracles, which the said Pontiff had promulgated on the aforesaid feast day of St. Francis, after he had celebrated Mass at his altar in the basilica of the holy twelve Apostles, and which is reported in full at the end of this Compendium, the same supreme Pontiff, pursuing the Franciscan Order of Minors Conventual with his accustomed favour, at the repeated prayers of the most reverend father master Carolus Antonius Calvi, Minister general of the same Order, and having admitted the favourable report and the written vote of the most illustrious lord Ludovicus Valenti, most worthy promoter of the holy Faith, deigned kindly to consent that the further general congregation, which is wont to be held for the concluding of the causes of the beatification or canonization of the Servants of God, should be dispensed with, rescribing on the twelfth day of December of the year 1752 last past that, the approbation of the virtues and of the two miracles standing, and regard being had to the special circumstances by which he was moved, proceeding might be made in this cause to the formal beatification without a second congregation. Then, the twenty-fourth day of February — which is sacred to the glorious apostle Matthias — being fixed for this matter by the same Most Holy Lord, the great Servant of God Joseph of Cupertino was on that day, with the accustomed ceremonies, solemnly declared enrolled among the Blessed in the Vatican basilica, with that concourse and applause of the people which the fame of his sanctity, long since celebrated and acknowledged throughout the whole Catholic world, rightly demanded ^k.

[131] That we may put the finishing touch to this Compendium, it only remains He heals Pope Alexander VII, whose life was in peril. that we here recount some other more notable miracles and benefits which God has bestowed at the intercession of Bl. Joseph after his death. First of all the Blessed one rewarded with a miracle the supreme Pontiff Alexander VII ^l, by whom, as we have said, he was restored to his Order. While he was discharging the office of prelate Apostolic nuncio at Cologne ^m, he underwent a most bitter cutting for the stone; from which he then indeed in some measure, but not entirely, recovered. Afterwards, having been created Pontiff, he was at one time brought to the last extremity by a retention of urine so obstinate that the physicians for four whole days applied the most effectual remedies in vain. Then the Pontiff, almost at the point of death, remembered Joseph, who had died a little before, and his sanctity, confirmed by God, as report went, by many prodigies; and, full of confidence, having prayed him to succour him readily in his utmost need, he put on a certain little tunic of his. Scarcely had Alexander called upon him and touched the sacred habit, when the pains ceased and the urine flowed out of its own accord and copiously, so that, being now snatched from imminent death, he was able to live on for several years, as he did, wholly free from that ill until his death ⁿ.

[132] The captain ^o Stephanus Blasi of Osimo, so afflicted with a continual pain of the knees Certain men are freed from an ill of the knees, and from a fever, that he could in no way bend them, experienced Joseph's most effectual patronage a few days after his death. For when on a certain day, having entered the church of St. Francis, he wished to set his knees on the bench and could not for the pain, it occurred to him to commend himself to the Blessed one, whose sepulchre was near at hand. Thither, therefore, full of hope he betook himself, and, falling boldly upon the sepulchral stone, not only felt no pain, but could also testify that it had seemed to him that he had set his knees upon cotton. After he had therefore prayed there for some time on bended knees, rising eager and wholly free, he went away sound, nor was he ever afterwards troubled with that ill [p]. When the same Stephanus Blasi at another time laboured under a malignant fever with various [q], the physicians despairing of his life, at that same hour in which his wife Blasia was praying for him at the Blessed one's sepulchre he was restored to health.

[133] A third prodigious healing the aforesaid Stephanus obtained for his son Petrus Ludovicus, and his son from a disease of the eyes. a boy of about four years [r]. While he was one day playing in the courtyard of his father's house with other little boys, he was unexpectedly seized with so vehement a pain of the eyes that he presently closed them, and, weeping bitterly, complained, saying that a wall as it were had fallen upon them. His afflicted mother tried to open his eyelids, but in vain. The physician and surgeon, being called in to heal him, judged with one voice that, the nerves of the eyelids being relaxed, the boy would at last be utterly deprived of sight. But it happily befell that the Blessed one's nephew, father Joannes Donatus of the Order of Minors Conventual, then came to that house; who, since he had by him in a purse some things which his Uncle had once used, trusted that through his merits he would obtain soundness for the boy. And indeed at that very moment of time in which, after short prayers, the aforesaid purse was applied to his eyes, the boy opened them wholly free and sound, no otherwise than if he had never suffered any ill; and so he thenceforward always enjoyed the most perfect health of his eyes.

[134] Lastly the same captain Blasi, with his wife and his son, a priest, obtained another singular grace from Bl. Joseph. They were being carried in a carriage from Corinaldo to Jesi [s], when about the second hour of the night the sky was overcast with a sudden tempest; which then breaking into a most grievous downpour, one of the four horses slipped and fell headlong into a deep precipice, The same man with his household is snatched from a great peril. and dragged the carriage with it as far as its brink

with it. The travellers, vehemently struck by this mishap, suddenly leapt out of the carriage. Meanwhile, as their fear grew in that darkness, Blasia, the captain's wife, remembered that she carried hanging on her breast a Crucifix once given her by the Blessed one; and seizing it presently with her hand, having conceived a trust in the Giver, she fell upon her knees and called upon him with a fervent prayer; and presently experienced a most present and stupendous help. For of the three horses which had remained on the road, two were loosed; and the third alone drew back the carriage hanging from the brink of the precipice; and, what is far more wonderful, there appeared unexpectedly in the air (to use the words of the process) "as it were the moon at the fifteenth day"; although, even if the sky had at that time been serene, the moon could not have appeared so full. Further, with its light it led the travellers to the end of their journey, and then at last that prodigious moon disappeared.

[135] Dangerous fevers driven away from various persons through the Blessed one: Father Antonius Justiniani [t], a Minor Conventual, lying sick of a malignant fever in the convent of Osimo, after receiving the Viaticum, bereft of speech and sense and lying motionless, bore the appearance of a corpse. But a certain Religious, knowing that he was devoted to Bl. Joseph, laid upon his bed a coverlet which the Blessed one had used, and suggested with a loud voice that he should commend himself to him. At this voice the sick man, roused as it were from a deep sleep, answered, "I commend myself to him"; and at that very same time, colour being restored to his face and vigour to his limbs, he suddenly sat up of his own accord in the bed, supped that evening, and slept by night like a man in health, and on the next morning rose entirely well and performed the former duties of his Rule. In like manner [u], at the mere invocation of the Blessed one and the touch of his little cap, Cornelius Saccalosi suddenly recovered from a malignant fever, of whose life the physicians had already declared it was all over.

[136] [A man labouring under a fever, a double swelling of the glands, and a flux of blood] The like grace in a single moment of time was obtained by the countess Ludovica Patrizi at Perugia [x], and at Osimo the canon lord Flaminius Guarnieri, sister Maria Leopardi, a nun in St. Benevenutus', sister Maria Angelica Pranzoni of the same monastery, Joannes Baptista de Plodiis, Antonia his maidservant, Faustina Ambrosia, Francisca Maria Arcangeli, Eugenius Maccatelli, the lord Guidobaldus Viviani, and many others, all of whom were healed in a moment. Father Franciscus Antonius Vernaleone [y], a Minor Conventual of Nardò, being first tormented with various pains, was then fastened to his bed, seized by a malignant fever, a double swelling of the glands, and a flux of blood, which, continuing for twenty-five days, had brought the sick man, the physicians despairing, to the last extremity. To him, lying so perilously ill, a shirt of the Blessed one was brought by a certain Religious, and laid over him on the bed. Nor was Bl. Joseph's ready help wanting, who, appearing to him that same night, said: "Be of good courage, for thou hast recovered both from the fever and from the flux." And so it indeed came to pass, to the amazement of the physicians and of the Religious.

[137] he heals, appearing twice: he succours women in childbirth. The sick man, being prodigiously freed from these ills, was much the more kindled to have recourse again to his Patron for the healing of that one of the two swellings which remained. And about midnight the Blessed one, appearing to him a second time, healed one of them with the sign of the Cross, promising that he should be freed from the other also, but upon certain conditions; which being fulfilled, he indeed obtained full health. Angelica de Costanza [z], after she had brought forth a miscarried daughter at Perugia, was seized with such bitter pains that, being now forsaken by the art of the physicians and fortified with the Viaticum, she awaited death to put an end to her torment. Meanwhile a certain pious woman, who had some little pieces of bread got from the Blessed one's table, and a shred of linen stained with his blood, applied this to the afflicted woman's belly, and, having worked the other into some broth in a spoon, gave it her to swallow, and at the same time implored the Blessed one's help. These things being done, the woman in labour presently cast out another child, dead and putrefied, and at that same moment, being now free of all ill, was as it were called back from death. Great is the number of women in labour who have enjoyed the patronage of this great Servant of God. Among these some carried the child in the womb most happily to full time contrary to what was usual, others emerged prodigiously from a most difficult birth which threatened most present death.

[138] Cornelia Matthæi of Osimo [aa], afflicted with an ill of the back and always dull of mind, Many others are freed from various ills being led to the Blessed one's sepulchre, entirely recovered, and (as one reads in the processes) "came out so fair that she appeared other than she had been." A boy [bb], who from an unknown and most grievous ill was rotting alive, being wrapped in a cloth of Bl. Joseph's, straightway recovered the blooming colour of his flesh and remained perfectly sound. In like manner many other boys suddenly recovered through Bl. Joseph's patronage from their ills, which were either altogether incurable, or could not naturally be healed in a single moment. Many persons too [cc], who had injured eyes — some indeed from a grave and long flux of humours, some from the prick of thorns or reeds, some lastly even from a defect of the organ and of the humours — at his invocation were all healed in a moment of time.

[139] Sister Maria Leoparda Massucci [dd], at the touch of a shred stained with the Blessed one's blood, saw suddenly vanish from her left knee a swelling "as large as a lamb's head." more than a hundred and thirty freed through him. Ludovicus Blasius [ee], one of whose knees was a single wound, when the Blessed one's sandal was applied to the afflicted part, first felt a most sweet odour, which he called "the fragrance of paradise"; and then found himself wholly sound, not even the trace of a scar being left. Likewise others [ff], from bitter pains of the head, others from a dangerous quinsy, others from a contraction of the sinews, others from a rupture, one from epilepsy, one from a monstrous dropsy, one from sciatica, one from a deadly pleurisy, others lastly from many other ills by which human limbs are wont to be seized, came out suddenly free through Bl. Joseph's patronage. But to finish in few words, the prodigious healings which were wrought either by the Blessed one's invocation, or by the applying of his relics or images, and almost all of them in a single moment, exceed the number of one hundred and thirty; and all these are either read recounted in the Apostolic processes, or were afterwards authentically proved by sworn testimonies. In these let God be ever more glorified, who is most wonderful in his Saints; from whom may a spark of his divine love descend into the souls of all the faithful through the merits of his most loving servant Bl. Joseph of Cupertino.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. For this miracle there is cited in our Italian Life the same Apostolic process of Osimo fol. 507 verso and following, and the Summary p. 255, §84.

q. In Italian it is petecchie, which word signifies a kind of pestilential disease, or spots that are signs of an inward burning which feeds upon the vitals. And in the margin there is cited the same Apostolic process of Osimo fol. 496 verso, fol. 768 verso, fol. 782 verso, fol. 870 verso and following, and the Summary p. 599, §53.

r. From the same Apostolic process of Osimo fol. 707 and fol. 781, and verso, and the Summary p. 600, §56. Berninus assigned these things to the year 1660 by a slip of memory or an error of the typesetter.

s. Æsium, by the Italians Jesi, is an episcopal city on the river Esino in the March of Ancona: and Corinaldo is a village in the duchy of Urbino, situated about midway between Fossombrone and Jesi. In the margin there is here added that the following things are drawn from the same Apostolic process of Osimo fol. 708 and 709, and the Summary p. 600, §60. In Berninus these things are said to have happened in the month of March of the year 1688.

t. From

the same Apostolic process of Osimo fol. 369, fol. 745 and 747 verso, and the Summary p. 599, §51. Berninus refers the following miracle to the year 1680.

u. From the Apostolic process of Assisi fol. 921, and the Summary p. 596, §15. Berninus fixes this miracle or benefit in the year 1663.

x. Perusia, called by the natives Perugia, is an episcopal city in the dominion of the supreme Pontiff in Umbria, the head of the Perugian territory. For the rest, for this and the following miracles or benefits these things are noted in the margin: From the same process from fol. 921 verso, and the cited Summary p. 596, §18. Likewise: From the said Apostolic process fol. 472, 509, 818, 871, 1061, 1065, 1072, 1101, 1287, 1425, and the Summary p. 597, §24, 27, 28, p. 598, §34, 35 and 40, p. 599, §50, and p. 601, §68.

y. From the ordinary process of Nardò, compulsory, fol. 764, and the Summary p. 595, §4. Berninus attaches these things to the month of August of the year 1665.

z. For the wonderful healing of this woman and of the other women in childbirth of whom mention is presently made, there are cited in the margin the ordinary process of Nardò fol. 758 and 760, the ordinary process of Assisi fol. 919, 920 and following, 1146 and following, 1164, and the ordinary process of Osimo fol. 1063, 1359, 1365, and the Summary p. 595, §1, p. 596, §10, XI, 14, p. 597, §26 and elsewhere. Berninus affirms that the benefit which is subjoined befell Angelica in the month of May of the year 1664.

aa. From the ordinary process of Osimo from fol. 1266, and the Summary p. 599, §45.

bb. These healings of boys which are subjoined are drawn from the ordinary process of Nardò fol. 761, and the Summary p. 595, §3; and concerning other infants, the ordinary process of Osimo from fol. 1355, 1425, and the Summary p. 599, §49, p. 601, §71 and elsewhere. The same Berninus refers this boy's healing to February of the year 1665.

cc. In the margin one reads: Concerning healings from diseases of the eyes, p. 595, §6, p. 596, §20, p. 597, §29, p. 598, §38, p. 600, §58 and elsewhere.

dd. From the ordinary process of Osimo from fol. 1066, 1376, 1380, and the Summary p. 597, §31.

ee. From the same process of Osimo fol. 510, 717, 768, 781, and the Summary p. 599 and following, §55.

ff. Lastly, for all the following, one reads in the margin: Concerning these things scattered in the cited Summary p. 595, §2, 5 and 8, p. 596, §12, 13, 16, 17 and 19, p. 597, §23, 25 and 30, p. 598, §32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39 and 42, p. 599, §43, 47, 52, 54 and 55, p. 600, §57, 62, 63, 66 and 67, and p. 601, §69 and 70, and from several other sworn depositions, even more recent and most recent, in the Roman archive of the Postulation of that cause.

APPENDIX I ON SOME MIRACLES

[ ] From the Italian Life,

by Dominicus Berninus.

By Dominicus Berninus.

[ ] Out of many miracles some are related. We have seen father Joseph a continual miracle while he lived; now let us see him a continual miracle after death ^a. For he wrought and works so many miracles, at every time, in every place, at his mere invocation, at the mere touch of his relics, at the mere shadow of his name, at the mere kissing of his images, that either he himself might seem to have risen again to continue miracles, or miracles to be continued for his honour. Fifty of these are reckoned in the processes concerning his life, and about eighty within the fifty-nine years which have passed since his death, besides those which the piety of his devotees keeps in silence out of a hidden and prudent counsel. We shall recount some of these, either the more wonderful or the rarer, the rest being passed over; because otherwise not a Life but a History of miracles would have to be woven, which, as has been said elsewhere, would perhaps be a miracle among Histories ^b…

[2] Diseases suddenly driven away; a woman with child The nobleman Gratianus Benigni of Assisi ^c, oppressed by a most grievous illness, and not so much alive as not dead, at the Saint's invocation and the touch of his Crown presently grew better and was healed. Joannes Martelli of Assisi ^d, seized by a dreadful pain at the mouth of the stomach, from which he was mortally languishing, commended himself to the Servant of God, and (the words are those of the process) "the pain suddenly ceased" ^e… Anna Catharina Buttari of Osimo ^f, from a weakness of the loins always unhappy in childbirth, after nine miscarriages, being now with child for the tenth time, committed her child with a living faith to the protection and guardianship of brother Joseph, and vowed to God that, if she should be happily delivered in her time, he should, when he had come to a fitting age, be clothed with the habit of the Conventuals in the honour and glory of brother Joseph. Such was her vow, and such the outcome of the vow, that after a most happy pregnancy of nine months, such as she had never before experienced, she brought forth a living male child, who continued to enjoy the perfect health in which he had been born.

[3] and women in peril in childbirth But Portia Sabetta of Cupertino found herself bereft of hope ^g not from a weakness of the loins, but on account of the reversed position of the child, the midwife and the physicians pronouncing that death was inevitable for her, after vain efforts through a whole day and night and most bitter pains, which, her strength being exhausted, had now brought her to the last gasps of life; and, what afflicted her household and herself the more, had driven them to attempt the Cæsarean cutting. Her husband therefore, despairing on the one hand of other human remedies, and on the other quickened by trust in the prodigious brother Joseph, laid a certain letter of the Servant of God upon the body of his languishing wife; which, as soon as it touched the sick woman, no otherwise than if the child shut within had read in it a command by which it was bidden to come forth into the light, suddenly obeyed and came forth, against the hope of the midwives, and against every difficulty of a wholly contrary natural impediment, which, to be believed, required powers surpassing nature.

[4] In like manner, at the touch of brother Joseph's girdle, in a grave peril of childbirth suddenly and happily were delivered ^h the countess Anna Maria Montesperelli, Cassandra Girensi, preserved unharmed, and among these the writer's daughter-in-law; Hieronyma Mariotti, Elisabetha Saccalossi at Perugia; nay, whoever should wish to enumerate all the benefits which women in labour in peril have obtained in these their straits from our beneficent Servant of God, must write a great volume, out of which married women who should read it might call upon him as their Patron in childbirth. We, before the Church of God, in whose sight this book is published, attest upon oath that our daughter-in-law, while we were writing these things, being now at the full time of her delivery, and, with the mother's pains, the child's peril and the household's fear increased, after the name of brother Joseph of Cupertino, famous for prodigies, had been invoked, was so suddenly and happily delivered that it could not be said whether the imploring or the grace were the readier ⁱ.

[5] Hence a grandson was born to us, who, as in baptism he was called Dominicus from our name, with her child. A dying infant suddenly recovers, when there is applied to him so, God so disposing, may amend his grandfather's errors and ignorance under so great a Patron. Indeed I could say that he, when he was two years old, being called back to life from a most deadly sickness, was by a vow clothed with the habit of brother Joseph, which today, at three years old, he happily wears. From women in labour let us come to newborn infants, in whose favour the pious simplicity of Brother Joseph seems to have wished, even after death, to sport in the working of notable miracles. The suckling little boy of Joannes Canorus, eldest among Cardinal Chigi's servants, being seized by illness at Rome, without hope of life, without appetite for milk, with closed eyes, livid lips, and his whole face showing forth death, lay in his mother's bosom ^k. The father master Joannes Felix Bernabei, a Conventual, applied a small piece of the Servant of God's garment to his breast, at the touch of which the little boy at once opened his eyes, sucked, recognized his mother with a sweet smile, played, and stirred wonder in all; and, to finish in one word, was in a single moment raised up as it were from death to life.

[6] Yet this miracle is the less if it be compared with the following. a piece of the Blessed one's garment, which he wonderfully keeps. As though that little boy had recognized his Patron and the prodigious instrument of the grace obtained, he never let himself be wrapped in his swaddling clothes before he had laid the aforesaid piece of the garment with his little hands upon his breast between his flesh and the swaddling bands: and if at times it had been taken thence, he twisted himself anxiously, and gave rest neither to himself nor to others, and, troubled, looked about him in every direction, and, having found it, showed it with his eyes and hands to the household until it was handed to him. But then, having received it with outstretched arm, he laid it on his breast, and thereupon, content and appeased, returned to his own nature, tranquil for himself and calm and cheerful for others: which certainly stirred in the bystanders at once wonder and tender affections, together with veneration for the name of brother Joseph, who thus even from heaven sported with miracles with that innocent little boy.

[7] Virginia, daughter of Bartholomæus Tenaglia ^l, a noble of Fossombrone, Another infant girl, close to death, by the Blessed one's Rosary an infant of thirteen months, from a malignant fever no longer sucked, did not see, did not feel, and seemed at that very moment about to die. About her cradle stood her noble kinsfolk, whom the mother's grief and the daughter's sickness moved to a like compassion. Meanwhile father brother Joseph Maria of Fossombrone, a Capuchin, came thither by chance, to bid them farewell as he was setting out for Urbino. He, being likewise afflicted and moved by so mournful a sight, exhorted them all to commend the little girl to the venerable brother Joseph of Cupertino; and having asked of Julia Tenaglia, wife of the knight Bentivoglio, who was present there, the Rosary which her son had received as a gift from the Servant of God, he signed the little girl three times with it upon the forehead, the rest meanwhile on bended knees imploring the Saint's help. After these things that Capuchin, setting out for Urbino, said to his companion: "Unless father brother Joseph works a miracle, that girl will this very moment pass to paradise."

[8] is in a moment restored to health and strength. His business at Urbino being finished, that good Religious, returning to Fossombrone after four days, went straight to the palace of the Tenaglias with this mind, that he might console the father and mother for the death of their little daughter. But at his very entrance into the hall he beholds the infant, whom he believed dead, in the arms of her nurse, so fair, with so ruddy a face and so lively a flesh, that, being in doubt whether his eyes deceived him,

or whether the little girl herself were appearing to him from heaven, he stood motionless and speechless with his eyes fixed upon her. Upon his amazement came the mother, who, bathed in tears for joy, said: "Ah, father brother Joseph Maria, God sent thee lately to my house; for hadst thou not come, my little Virginia would now be lying buried under the ground!" Presently she set forth the whole prodigy also: namely that, when he had scarcely left Fossombrone, the infant whom he had signed with brother Joseph's Rosary, being roused as it were from a most heavy sleep, had been restored to most perfect health, not only with no fever, but with no trace of any ill left, plump and ruddy, such as he then saw her. Hearing which, he lifted his eyes and hands to heaven and said: God is wonderful in his Saints, and a wonderful Servant of God is father Joseph of Cupertino, who does such wonderful things in this world ^m…

[9] Sister Victoria Bruni ⁿ, a nun in the monastery of St. Clare at Cupertino, Various diseases of the eyes tormented by a most vehement flux in both eyes, called upon his name and promptly obtained a miraculous healing. A certain blind man ^o, who had lost the organ of sight and the crystalline humour of the pupil, at his mere invocation suddenly received sight, organ and humour. Margarita Donati [p] of Osimo had been born and had always lived with the pain of sharp fluxes into her eyes, from whose torment she often lay fastened to her bed for three continuous months, nor could she discern things, but with the blind man of the Gospel saw men as trees walking. At length, leading a life amid pains and darkness, with neither complete blindness nor sight, being driven more by weariness of life than by the desire of seeing, she went one morning to the church, and there, falling down at brother Joseph's sepulchre, laying her forehead and eyes to the ground, afflicted and pale she cried out: "Behold me, behold me, Servant of God, at thy feet. Either health or death; the one will restore me, the other will take me from the light of this world. I beg thee that by thy prayers a ready miracle be granted me."

[10] and wounds are cured through the Blessed one's patronage; So she asked and obtained. She raised her head and her eyes from the ground and saw heaven; but why do I say that she saw heaven? She saw most perfectly and discerned all the created things under heaven that offered themselves to her sight. The pains ceased, the blindness ceased, and glad and seeing she returned home, by her very appearance alone excellently preaching brother Joseph's sanctity. Francisca Caldieri [q], tormented at Osimo by a like ill, was healed in a moment when the Servant of God's sandal was applied to her eyes. Angela Ratti [r], as she was bending to lift a bundle of firewood, was wounded in the pupil of her left eye by a reed, from which how much pain she drew can more easily be understood than set forth with the pen. Straightway some hairs of father Joseph, in a wrapper, were applied to the injured eye, which was all swollen and running; and presently the swelling, the pain and the running so suddenly vanished that that ill seemed rather to have been a dream than ever to have happened.

[11] To Anna Cecchi, a noblewoman of Fermo [s], while she was clearing her household garden, others are cured of fevers, a thorn penetrated into her eye, and she almost fell into a swoon from the pain. Having invoked brother Joseph's name, she took heart again and drew the thorn out of her eye with her own hands. But since the convulsion did not cease and the swelling continually grew worse, she laid I know not what Relic of the Servant of God upon the eye, and thus, nothing else being applied, the eye was brought back to its former state, as though it had never been wounded by that most sharp thorn. Hence, grateful for the benefit received, she set out for Osimo to his sepulchre. A like grace was obtained at Rome in the year 1722 by the wife of Franciscus Morosini [t]… Catharina Blasi [u], having struggled two months with fevers and being thereby exhausted of strength, betook herself with the help of others to the Servant of God's sepulchre, whence she withdrew so free of all fever and so strong that in health she visited other churches also without support, and returned triumphant on foot to her house.

[12] Magdalena, the aforesaid Catharina's maidservant [x], likewise obtained a not unlike grace, hemorrhoids, pains of sciatica, a flux of blood being healed at his sepulchre, from which she had been brought to the last term of her life. Antonius Castellani too [y], after bitter pains of sciatica, by which he had been fastened to his bed more than two months, when he had bidden himself be carried to the Servant of God's tomb, sitting there upon it was endowed with sudden health, his wife and son and the other bystanders weeping for joy and praising with one voice not so much the Saints in God as (what is more proper) the great God in his Saints, as the Psalmist says: "Praise the Lord in his Saints." And indeed great praise is owed to God for the graces bestowed upon this venerable Servant of his, through whom our age has been made illustrious with such notable miracles, of which, out of the many who today are still living, some were the spectacle and some the spectators, in every place, at every time, in stupendous prodigies, against every kind of ill, in all the parts of the human body — as though he himself had been endowed by God with a singular privilege of power over all those ills by which wretched mortals are afflicted in each of their limbs [z]…

[13] Marsilia Bonafide [aa] … in a moment recovered from a most bitter flux in the knee, and many other ills of bodies, which a shred of brother Joseph's little tunic had touched… From the cure of eyes and knees I proceed to hands, head, shoulders and throat, over which Joseph's admirable patronage triumphed. Diana Scaffiglioni of Osimo [bb], in her right hand, from a stubborn ill, suffered a convulsion for three months by day and by night, and grieved no less that she could not ply the tailor's trade, by which she was wont to procure a living for herself and hers. But after she had earnestly commended herself to the Servant of God, and had applied a piece of his tunic to the afflicted part, she came out free of all pain in a moment of time, and went down into the workshop to take up her accustomed trade. Four years afterwards [cc] a wart grew on her nose near the eye, which, when, impatient of the pain, she had torn it off with her nails, so great a quantity of blood burst forth thence that, having fallen into a swoon, she lay without sight and motion and as it were dead. There was brought to her the same patch of brother Joseph's tunic, and when it was laid on the wound, "she suddenly felt (so the processes have it) the pains cease; and the blood stopped, and on the next morning no trace at all of that ill remained in that part."

[14] Josephus Frisenna [dd] of Cupertino was through a whole year tormented with so vehement and continual a pain of the head when the things which he himself had used were applied, that not only could he not go out of the house to do his business in the country, but he could not even sit up in bed: so sharp were the shakings of his head and the acute torments of his temples. Martia Casalina, his mother-in-law, merely touched him with brother Joseph's Crown; and he so suddenly recovered from so inveterate an ill that, rising presently from his bed, he went out of the house and set himself to husbandry. With the same ill the daughter of Laura Falconieri [ee] laboured so vehemently that she was believed to be possessed by evil spirits on account of the horrible howlings which she uttered and the frenzy into which the most acute pain of the head stirred her. When a letter written by the Servant of God had been laid upon her head, she too was healed in a point of time.

[15] and his help being invoked, By brother Joseph's comb [ff] applied to the ill Antonius of Osimo was suddenly healed; by a patch stained with the Servant of God's blood Andreas Bonfigli was in a moment of time freed from a flux of blood pouring from his nostrils; by his cloth Rosanna Amboni [gg] from a most dangerous quinsy; by a little of his blood Joannes Baptista Pascolini of Assisi [hh] from a broken shoulder-blade; by his sandal Anastasia Risidori [ii] at Osimo from a deadly pleurisy; by his girdle sister Maria Hyppolita Galli, a nun at St. Nicholas' at Osimo, from sciatica; by a small piece of his relics Catharina Rossa from a monstrous dropsy, the lady Victoria Corona Pini from epilepsy, the nephew of Andreas Massi from an internal rupture, Constantia from asthma, the sister lady Victoria Casponi, a nun in the new monastery at Osimo, from a contraction of the sinews, Victoria Antonia Euangelista of Pesaro from an ill-affected hip, a palsied hand and a stammering tongue, Francisca Cialdei of Urbino from a horrible fall down a steep staircase, from which, being all livid and in part broken, she was close to death — all these recovered [kk].

[16] suddenly and prodigiously driven away. But in our own times, in which we can bring forward spectators and witnesses of wonderful events, father Joannes Franciscus Maria Bellani, of the Order of Conventuals at Modena, master in sacred theology and perpetual definitor of the province of Bologna, and brother Franciscus Pavarelli, a professed layman among the same Conventuals, happily passed in a point of time stones as large as beans, and never afterwards suffered such torments any more, although before that time they had been vexed by their unceasing pains, as their authentic testimonies, given on the Kalends of August of the year 1721 and kept by us, make certain. The same befell many others, whose healings, if we wished to relate them all, it would certainly be a greater miracle than those which we have described [ll]…

[17] [A canon, the Blessed one's image having been removed from his bed, is grievously fevered,] The lord Franciscus Sordini, a canon of Alessano [mm], out of a special devotion towards the Servant of God, had for eight years past always had, and had at that time, his image at the bolster in his bed. But it happened that on account of the summer heats the maidservants took away the curtains of the bed and with them the Saint's image at the same time. The canon had not noticed this; but he shortly learned how great a help he had in so powerful a Guardian. For when he had lain down in his bed, he was presently seized by an unwonted and unlooked-for fever, from which he began to be delirious in that bed for many hours until the morning, when, seeking with his eyes the image in order to venerate it and not finding it, he straightway called out for his servants and asked which of them had taken away the said image thence. And having learned the mistake or thoughtlessness, he himself hastened to it and said: "O brother Joseph, my maidservants exposed thee this night to the cold air outside my chamber, and therefore the heat of the fever seized me!"

[18] After these things, the image being restored to its former place, he lay down again in bed, being restored, he is healed: benefits bestowed by him on this man's daughters. and, lying down, sweetly fell asleep, being freed in a moment of time of every shadow of the fever, which naturally ought to have been drawn out for many hours of that day, all wondering that not only in the times of the Apostles, but in ours also, true Servants of God imparted health to the sick by their shadow alone. The same canon, who testified the aforesaid in the processes, also subjoined the following, in which he comprehended many miracles. "Moreover my daughters, whom formerly, while I was a secular, from a lawful marriage

I begot, were seized by many most grievous infirmities, to whom, when I had sent the Servant of God's image, health shortly followed, so that now each of my daughters keeps an image of the said Servant of God with great devotion; moreover they have experienced his patronage in the difficult childbirths which they have suffered, in which, having invoked him, they were gently delivered; and likewise in many infirmities, as I have said most grievous, and such as gave the physicians anxiety, they have kept and recovered health through the help of that same Servant of God."

[19] Dominica Gattucci of Montelupone [nn], Others, by the veneration of the same image, fastened to her bed for many months by incurable torments, lay motionless, drawing out death rather than life; when, at the pious kiss with which she venerated the venerable brother Joseph's image, she fell asleep, and on the next morning, rising of her own accord from her bed, went first to the church to give thanks to God, then to a notary, to attest so prodigious and sudden a healing. Antonia Carella Cicolini, a noblewoman of Castelfidardo [oo], was afflicted with so sharp a pain of the head that, presently bereft of the senses of mind and body, a malignant fever also coming on, she could not confess her sins, and before her death was already lamented by her household as one dead. Matters being thus desperate, there came into the house brother Hieronymus Damiani, a Conventual layman, who at once showed the dying woman an image of father Joseph which he had by him, crying out with a loud voice: Commend thyself, daughter, to brother Joseph. And she, deaf to everything else, heard the name of Joseph, and, having heard it, commended herself to him. Receive the rest from the processes. "Suddenly," she says, "I fell asleep: afterwards, being awakened, I felt myself wholly master of my mind, so that I confessed my sins most rightly, and went on to grow better, so that, to the great wonder of the physicians, I was quit of all danger, and within four days entirely freed from the aforesaid fever also."

[20] The lord Carolus Marcellus Diotajuti, canon of the cathedral church of Osimo, are freed from various diseases. being oppressed by an intolerable torment of the heart, by which his vital breathing was hindered, and destitute of all hope of human help, turned himself to the venerable Servant of God's image, and, commending himself earnestly to him, was presently heard. "Suddenly," say the processes, "he found himself as it were by a divine hand freed from that anguish of death"; and he went to his sepulchre to give thanks to his prodigious Patron for so stupendous a miracle; which, when it had been noised through the city, stirred in all at once wonder and pious affections towards so beneficent a Servant of God, as ready to succour his neighbours as the glance of the eyes, the voice and the thought are swift. And let it suffice to have written thus far concerning the venerable father brother Joseph of Cupertino, more wonderful than imitable in his life, and rather a living prodigy than prodigious after death.

ANNOTATIONS.

p. Berninus says these things happened in the year 1687, by whom the same place as above is cited.

q. In the year 1688, says Berninus, citing the same place, num. 58.

r. In the same place is noted the year 1664, and the same process num. 29.

s. Firmum, by the natives Fermo, is an archiepiscopal city of the dominion of the supreme Pontiff in the March of Ancona. Berninus in the margin writes the year 1663, and the said process num. 38.

t. There follows the healing of Cornelia Matthæi, which we gave at num. 138 of the Life.

u. In the margin is set the year 1685, and the same process num. 65.

x. In the same place there is read the year 1680, and the process num. 66.

y. In the same place, in the year 1664, the process num. 47.

z. There follows the miraculous healing of Victorius de Matthæis, which we have already narrated in the preliminary Commentary num. 124, and in the Life num. 127 and the following.

aa. There is subjoined here and presently, at the same marks, the healing of sister Maria Leopardi, which see in the Life num. 139. Berninus assigns to these the year 1663. I have here also passed over the miracle granted to Ludovicus Blasi, concerning which consult the Life at the same num. 139.

bb. In Berninus the same process is cited, num. 36 and following, and the year 1661 is noted; and thus these things happened before the Blessed one's death.

cc. Namely in the year 1665, as is there written.

dd. Berninus notes the year 1685, and from the same process num. 5.

ee. In the year 1687, says the same Berninus, citing from the process the number 1.

ff. In the same place is noted the year 1664, and from the process the number 54.

gg. In the same place, in the year 1688, the process num. 39.

hh. In the same place, in the year 1695, from the process num. 12.

ii. In the same place it is said to have happened in the year 1661, and thus before the Blessed one's death, and from the process the number 69 is noted.

kk. For all these, no year being noted, the places of the process in the margin in which they are asserted are cited in the order in which I subjoin them. Num. 70, num. 63, num. 34, num. 42, num. 43, num. 32 or 33 (this one is obscurely expressed), num. 25, and num. 57.

ll. There follows here the instrument of Lucia Fortunata, in which she testifies that she recovered her wallet, which, having set out from Osimo for Assisi, she had lost on the way, when, as she was returning from Assisi, having invoked Bl. Joseph, she received it from a certain country boy who had found it: but I have not thought it worth while to recount that.

mm. Aletium, by the natives Lecce, is an episcopal city of the kingdom of Naples, large and populous, in the province of Otranto, of which it is the head. Berninus writes the year 1680, and from the process the number 7.

nn. A village of this name the Blaeu Maps set forth in the March of Ancona, a few miles distant from Macerata towards the Venetian Gulf. Franciscus Orlendius, part 2 of the Sacred and Profane World, p. 700, places it in the diocese of Loreto. In Berninus there is noted in the margin the year 1687, and from the process the number 23.

oo. The said Orlendius assigns this place also, commonly Castel Fidardo, to the diocese of Loreto. Berninus notes in the margin the year 1684, and from the process the number 67.

APPENDIX II

On some more recent Miracles from the Italian Life,

by Paulus Antonius Agellus.

By Paulus Agellus.

CHAPTER I.

A dying man healed, and the same man, being negligent of his vow, chastised, and healed again: a possessed woman wonderfully freed: a woman in peril from her breast restored to health.

[ ] A dying man, by the Blessed one's relics Paulinus Moretti of Montelione in Umbria, in the year 1724, laboured under a continual fever, a pain of the head, a nausea for food and a great weakness, with a torment of the whole body and of the sinews, which on the 5th day of June were then judged to be epileptic. All kinds of human remedies were tried upon him, and among the rest a cautery too upon the back of the head, which the sick man endured without any feeling. On the 6th day of the aforesaid month the physician left him to the care of the priests. Set in this so deplorable a state, the father master Felix Fideli, of the Order of Minors Conventual, visited him; who, when he had heard that the sick man had not yet been fortified with the sacred Viaticum, came nearer to him and said: "Paulinus, the venerable father Joseph of Cupertino of my Order, so prodigious and of such merit with the Lord, will obtain that grace for thee from him. Conceive a trust, and ask for thyself as much time as suffices to receive the Sacraments, and then let the Most High do what he will. I will now seek his relics; do thou meanwhile commend thyself to him from thy heart; and doubt not that thou wilt obtain that grace."

[2] becomes master of himself, and is fortified with the Sacraments; The sick man, who before perceived nothing, testified that he heard that discourse, and that at the name of Bl. Joseph, until then unknown to him, it seemed to him that his torments were lulled. Indeed his violent struggles and contortions ceased, nor were his sighs and groans any longer heard, and he now gave some hope of life. The Religious, having returned and being recognized by the sick man, consoled him with these words: "See, here are the relics of our venerable father Joseph; commend thyself to God, that through the merits of this Servant of his he may grant thee time to receive the Sacraments. Come, Paulinus: here a living faith is needed, and thou shalt obtain the grace." Meanwhile they recited three times the Lord's Prayer and as often the angelic salutation and the Gloria in honour of the most holy Trinity. After these things, the relics being laid upon the dying man's head, he testified that he suddenly began to smell "a certain fragrance and most sweet odour, which he had never at any other time in his life perceived, and that by this odour, with which he was greatly refreshed, he was quickened with the greatest trust in the servant of God, father Joseph." He opened his eyes and recognized all, and, turning to the Religious, said to him: "O father Fideli, what an odour! what an odour!" And he cleansed his soul by confession, and was fortified with the sacred Viaticum, with his own and

his whole family's consolation.

[3] When the physician had come and found the sick man master of himself and labouring under a slight fever, and, the illness afterwards increasing, after a vow made to him he ascribed it to the Blessed one's patronage that beyond all expectation he was better. Yet, Paulinus being now strengthened by the grace of the Sacraments and acquiescing in the divine good pleasure, no one thought of restoring his body to perfect health. And so on the 8th day a vehement and violent fever broke out afresh, which within ten days of the illness again brought him to the last extremity. The aforesaid Religious, who was assisting him in his so grievous sickness, laid the Blessed one's relics upon his head, and exhorted him to ask for the health of his body also; and suggested to him that he should promise his Patron that he would go to Osimo to honour his sepulchre; and added that he himself would celebrate Mass on the next morning to that end. The sick man, being thus admonished, commended himself with a living faith, and bound himself to visit the sepulchre: and the Mass too was celebrated on the next morning, at which, in the sick man's name, three girls, his kinswomen, having first confessed their sins and been refreshed with the divine Banquet, were present.

[4] The fever that morning was indeed vehement; but notwithstanding it the sick man, at that very time in which the Mass was being celebrated, he suddenly recovers: holding the Blessed one's relics in his hand and commending himself most devoutly to him, seemed to himself (as indeed he was) freed of all illness. The Mass being ended, father Fideli, returning to Paulinus now no longer sick, heard from him: "I am healed, I am well, and I wish to rise without delay"; and he would indeed have risen, had not the Religious' prudence hindered him. Hence the physician, being sent for, presently ran up, who, when he found him, before at the point of death, without fever, without pains, with an excellent pulse of the artery, lively and strong, was astounded and wondered beyond measure; and, having learned what had been done, he and the other inhabitants of the place gave most humble thanks to God and to the blessed Joseph, crying out: "This is a miracle! Father Joseph of Cupertino, he indeed is a great Physician!" And Paulinus observed that with the taking away of his grave illness that most sweet odour also ceased, with which he had been wonderfully refreshed so long as that bitter infirmity had lasted.

[5] Nor did the miracle end here. Paulinus, twice brought back from death to life, the vow being afterwards neglected, he is again seized by the illness, set out not for Osimo to give thanks to his Intercessor, but for Rome, on the occasion of the coming year of Jubilee, on the 6th day of October of that same year 1724. But there he began to be so ill that he was forced to return to his fatherland. Having returned to it at the beginning of December, he laboured under a kind of most troublesome dropsy up to the 10th day of May of the year 1725. Against this illness too various remedies having been applied in vain, being about to try heavenly ones he betook himself to Cascia, to implore the help of Bl. Rita, whose body is honoured there ^a. And it pleased God that the aforesaid father Fideli was then living there in the convent of the fathers Minor Conventual of St. Francis; who, seeing him so melancholy, asked him about his health, and at last said: "Paulinus, hast thou fulfilled thy vow of going to Osimo?" And when he answered with a blush, No, he reproached him with an ungrateful mind: whereupon he, being stirred, promised that he would presently perform it, as indeed he did.

[6] And so on the day sacred to the nativity of our Lady, Mary ever Virgin, and the vow being at last fulfilled, he is again suddenly healed. with much torment and discomfort he set out on foot on the journey towards the city of Osimo, and came to it on the 15th day of September of the year aforesaid. Presently he made straight for the church of St. Francis, in which the body of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino rested, where, after receiving the Sacraments of Penance and of the Eucharist, he had scarcely set his knees upon his sepulchral stone when he began to smell that same most sweet odour which he had perceived in his first illness; from which thing he conceived a great hope of recovering entire health. When he was hearing Mass in that place, about the communion of the celebrant he felt a certain warmth which, rising from the soles of his feet, crept with unspeakable sweetness through his whole body, and he seemed to himself to hear a voice which said: "See, here is that grace for thee; thou art now well." The Mass being ended, he found himself so well, lively and strong that he was now equal to bearing any labours. And so he gave thanks to God and to his notable Patron, and returned glad and prosperous to his fatherland, where up to the year 1736, in which he testified the aforesaid upon oath, he enjoyed entire health through the merits of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino.

[7] An eye injured by red-hot iron, Bartholomæus Palmucci, a noble of Macerata ^b, on the 10th day of March of the year 1725 was injured by a red-hot iron in his left eye, from which, since he suffered great pain and a vehement watering, he presently had a surgeon sent for, that he might bring some remedy for his ill. But the surgeon, having examined the eye, asserted that the pupil was ruined, since nothing black appeared any longer in it: moreover that, since the whole eye was already white, it was to be feared that the optic nerve had been injured, and that besides the blindness of the left eye the right also would suffer some defect from it. Meanwhile, for the sake of mitigating the pain, he prescribed certain soothing applications, to be applied again and again. The lady Teresia, the sick man's wife, was most devoted to Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, having indeed been born at Osimo; who therefore had recourse to him with great fervour, and on the same evening on which the unhappy mishap had happened took his image in her hand, and, having applied it with a living faith to her husband's eye, prayed the Blessed one to intercede with God for his soundness: then she laid that same image at the bolster in the bed.

[8] is wonderfully restored to soundness. By the help of the soothing applications, which were repeated, the sick man had slept a little as the night went on; but since the eye ran copiously and the pains grew more vehemently worse, he was awakened; and the fomentations were repeated, and the eye again wrapped in bandages. And so he slept placidly the rest of the night: but in the morning, waking at dawn, he found himself without bandages, opened the eye without pain, shut the right one, and found by experience that he saw perfectly with the left; and therefore he would use no further remedies. The surgeon, coming in the morning and seeing him without bandages, examined the eye, which with vast amazement he found free and sound, without any trace of a fissure, and of as entire a sight as it had been before that bitter burning. And so he continued to be sound on the 24th day of December of the year 1734, when for the undoubted credit of the grace received he gave this authentic testimony.

[9] A countess, long afflicted with an unwonted illness, The lady Maria Masones di Lima, countess of Castello, in the city of Cagliari in Sardinia ^c, was for more than twelve years afflicted with tremblings so extraordinary and wandering, now in one, now in another limb of the body, chiefly in the head, sometimes in the whole body, that the most excellent physicians at Madrid and in other famous cities of Spain found no remedy for them, nay did not even know by what name at least to call them. Hence a suspicion of possession by demons was raised: but the exorcisms employed were all in vain, so that it could never be found out whether she were infested by an evil spirit. At last it was judged that her illness was natural, from the nerves and convulsions. To so great a trouble, for which there was no remedy, there was added another also, namely a white film in one eye, which, continually spreading, hindered her sight; and for the healing of this too art and medicine availed nothing.

[10] Meanwhile, God so disposing, who willed by the healing of this noble matron to glorify his servant Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, before the Blessed one's image she is the more tormented: she on a certain day, going during the Novena of the glorious patriarch St. Dominic to the church of the nuns of his Order, met someone who was carrying a painted image of our Blessed one. This pleased her, and she asked whose Saint's it was; and having learned his name, she had his Life brought to her, in which, when she read his deeds and famous miracles, she conceived a great hope of the Healer she had found. To this end she applied the Servant of God's image to herself, thinking that she would shortly be healed: but it was not so. For the tremblings, which had now ceased for three or four months, seized her again, and the trouble of the eye grew worse. Notwithstanding these things, she persisted in her trust in the Blessed one, being persuaded that that attack of her ill had happened by chance. That night she kept the sacred image on her pillow, trusting that thus she would recover. But she could in no way sleep, being stirred by her accustomed tremblings and by an inward unrest, from which she remained much afflicted and as it were broken in spirit. Wherefore she began to distrust herself, the more because, as often as she either held that image in her hand or looked upon it, she was shaken with the accustomed tremblings: and when this had happened over and over again, at last that illness was believed to arise from an evil spirit, not from a corrupted nature.

[11] And so they came to exorcisms. But although these were employed, she is exorcised in vain at the body of Bl. Salvator: even while she held her head bowed to the chest in which the body of Bl. Salvator ^d rested, she gave no sign of one possessed; but when Bl. Joseph's image was seen, or even secretly brought near her, the accustomed tremblings took hold of her and appeared. Upon this it seemed good to make another trial. Namely, while that lady was occupying herself with a game, the image was secretly applied to her, and presently she felt so great a torment of the heart that, as she herself testified, she had never experienced a greater: but even this she thought had happened by chance. But it shortly appeared that it had not happened by chance: for when the image was shown to her, the infernal spirit, who had lain hidden for so many years, made himself manifest in such words and deeds that all the bystanders, seized with fear and horror, confessed that a miracle had been wrought through that sacred image.

[12] The spirit therefore being made manifest, the exorcist returned on the next day with the aforesaid image, before Joseph's image the demon betrays himself, which the possessed woman, on seeing, shuddered all over. The same happened when she passed before it; and if anywhere she saw any image of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, she began to cry out and to say: Not this one, not this one; and, going up to the wall, she hindered the others from passing. Nay, so great was the evil spirit's resistance that he threw the possessed woman on the ground, who, full of faith, of her own accord in the name of the Servant of God commanded him to let her venerate her Saint (so she called Joseph). And the demon obeyed; and she, being left quiet, prostrated herself before the sacred image and set forth her grave necessity.

[13] At length on the 19th day of July of the year 1727 she was brought to the church of St. Maurus, and from her he is at last driven out. that the exorcisms might be continued. Where, while the exorcist commanded the demon to go out and to leave the possessed woman

free, two Religious of the Pious Schools, namely father Alphonsus of St. Anne, formerly provincial throughout Sardinia, and father Bernardus of St. James, applied to her the image of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino; and at that same point of time the infernal spirit went out of that body, to the greatest joy of that matron, to the unspeakable exultation of her whole most noble family, and to the greatest wonder of all who were present. Besides the offices of a grateful mind by which that fortunate lady bound herself to promote the veneration of her Healer, she willed that the benefit received should be made public by print and by an authentic instrument, that the whole world might learn how powerful with God is the patronage of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino.

[14] A woman dying from a swelling of the breast, Anna Teresia Bundari of Cupertino, in the forty-seventh year of her age, in the month of June of the year 1731, was seized by a troublesome scirrhus, spurious but malignant, under her left breast, which, as it became day by day stronger and more stubborn, yielded nothing at all to the medical art, and wore out the wretched woman with bitter pains and incredible trouble. Towards the end of August there came on a manifest daily periodic fever, accompanied by faintings of the soul, during which the swelling was somewhat diminished, but when it went off it was restored to its former size, which equalled a hen's egg. The fever being taken away, that same tumour clung to her with its former acute torments. In the month of December the same fever returned with more deadly circumstances, that is, with swoonings and palpitations of the heart, and the humours stagnating in the aforesaid breast, being made sharper for the eating away of the afflicted part, created intolerable torment for the sick woman. Hence, the physician who was tending her judging the illness malignant and incurable, she was admonished to let herself be fortified beforehand with the sacred Viaticum; which she did with all submission of soul. Nevertheless, when her household and others suggested that she should commend herself to Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, full of faith in God and of trust in the patronage of her glorious Fellow-townsman, she bade father Regent Ruberti, a Minor Conventual, be sent for and be asked to bring the Blessed one's relics.

[15] after the Blessed one's relics were brought, The Religious ran at once, and at the second hour of the night, bringing forth a little piece of the Servant of God's habit, bade the sick woman and her household recite three times the Our Father, the Hail Mary and the Glory be to the Father, etc., in honour of the most holy Trinity; he stirred her to devotion, signed her with the aforesaid relics, and, leaving them with her, returned to his convent. The dying woman, now abandoned by the physicians, having conceived a living hope of recovering health through the Blessed one's patronage, fell asleep, and about midnight seemed to herself to see in her chamber a certain venerable Religious of the Order of Minors Conventual, but with his head covered by a cowl, so that she could not recognize him. Yet, suspecting that it was father Joseph, she said: "My father Joseph, help me. I beg thee to free me from such grievous effects of the fever, and from this so malignant swelling."

[16] she is healed by his appearing. She repeated the same prayer; and while she was trying to lay hold of that Religious by his garment, he vanished from her eyes, and she was shaken out of sleep. But then she found herself without any pain, without fever and without its effects; and, having put her hand to the place of the swelling, she found it no longer. Great was the exultation in the house, especially of her sisters, who, being called by Anna Teresia, beheld with wonder that that stubborn and malignant humour had vanished; which, as it passed away, that it might make the grace manifest, left for two or three days some pain in the foot, where it joins the leg, with a slight feverish heat; after which she remained free and unhampered, without any other remedy or crisis of the illness; so that she was able to go to the church of the Grottella, to testify the miracle publicly and to render thanks to God and to her notable Patron and fellow-townsman, Bl. Joseph.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER II.

Various diseases and ills of the body suddenly cured by the Blessed one's image, relics and invocation.

[ ] A dying boy, having piously kissed the Blessed one's image brought to him, Michaël Dominicus Donatus, son of the lord doctor Josephus Cafaro and of the lady Euphemia Caldrami, was an infant of thirteen months when he was grievously afflicted with pains and motions of the sinews presaging convulsions, which appeared also from his restlessness and continual wailing. Within eight days of the illness, stretched out in his bed, without motion, with his eyes wholly shut, pale and wasted, most like a corpse, he had come to the last extremity of life. His most loving parents and aunts mourned him most bitterly as one dead ^a; and certain things were already prepared for his honourable burial. In this state he lay from evening until the second hour of the night of the 20th day of July of the year 1734, while meanwhile his last breath was awaited. The parents, therefore, and the aunts having gone out of the chamber, a single maidservant named Irene, and a certain canon of the collegiate church of that place, a priest of upright life, remained with the dying boy. After these two had blessed the little boy who was giving up the ghost with relics and other sacred things, there came into their mind the image of Bl. Joseph which was hanging at the bolster, which, having taken it thence, they applied to the dying infant's lips, saying to him with a loud voice: "Little Donatus, little Donatus, kiss, kiss father Joseph of the Grottella."

[18] At these words the little boy, roused as it were out of a deep lethargy, suddenly recovers, opened his eyes and began to kiss the said sacred image and to say with a clear voice: "The breast, nurse, the breast, nurse." The canon, at first astounded and then full of joy, called the household, among whom the father, running up first, saw not now his little son at the point of death, as he had left him, but a fair boy, eager and lively, such as he had been before his malignant infirmity. The father therefore, exulting with gladness and spiritual delight, took the image and himself too said to his son: "Kiss, kiss, little Donatus, the image of our venerable father Joseph, through whose merits thou art safe and sound." And the little boy kissed it again and again and very often: then he signified that he wished to get up and to take refuge in his nurse's bosom; and she, being present, joyfully took him up and put him to her breasts, which he sucked as of old when in health.

[19] and with his whole family gives thanks in the Church of the Grottella. To give thanks for so notable a benefit, all the dwellers of that house together with the healed son went to the church of the Grottella, which belongs to the Blessed one's convent, and there offered upon the altar of the most blessed Virgin first the pious affections of their souls, then the boy's clothes and swaddling bands, and the cloths and candles which they had prepared for little Donatus' funeral. And when he was returning home glad and merry, often looking at his feet he said: Le pape, le pape ^b; which word his parents did not then indeed understand; but when he kept repeating it continually, they recognized that they had not left their son's little shoes in the church. Wherefore, being ever more assured of the miracle, they sent those too thither for the fulfilling of the vow.

[20] A man labouring under colic pains, by the Blessed one's cap At Montefilottrano, a town of the March of Ancona ^c, Josephus Leali, a mason, twenty-six years old, on the 8th day of July of the year 1735 was seized by pains from colic humours, from which he had also on some other occasions lain grievously sick. He therefore called in the physician as usual, that he might heal his bitter pains, which gave him no rest. He applied whatever remedies the medical art has ever prescribed for the curing of such an illness: and when these availed nothing, he offered him medicines mixed with opium; which, however, like the others, lacked effect. And he had now passed some days of the illness, when, by the order of the father master Sebastianus Beni, a Minor Conventual, a certain Religious of the same Order visited him, bringing with him the cap of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, that he might bless him with it. And he, finding him vehemently agitated by the pains, by which his bowels (as he himself asserted) were being torn to pieces, exhorted him to patience and bade him place his hope in the Blessed one's patronage. Then, having recited an Our Father and a Hail Mary, he signed him, touching the afflicted parts with the cap, and, having again stirred him to have trust in God and in God's Servant, straightway withdrew.

[21] is at once cured. Scarcely had that Religious gone out of the house when the sick man felt himself healed and so free of all ill that he rose from his bed, took food, and enjoyed that rest which he had now lacked for many days. On the next morning the physician, coming to visit him as usual, and, against his own expectation, finding him perfectly healed, was vehemently astounded. But that amazement was presently turned into thanksgiving, when it was learned that he had been healed by the great Servant of God, Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, and so healed indeed that on that very day he was able to ply his trade and to work without any weakness of his strength. And what is more wonderful, whereas on the days of Vigils his pains had been wont to grow worse by reason of the food, after receiving that grace, although he ate fasting fare on the days prescribed by the Church, he never suffered any discomfort. In testimony of a grateful mind the aforesaid Leali set out twice for Osimo, that he might visit the sepulchre of his pious Deliverer in that city; and in his own fatherland he made public attestation of his miraculous healing.

[22] Among so many and so famous miracles of our Blessed one hitherto related, that must not be passed over A Carmelite nun, from many which sister Teresia Margarita of St. Joseph, a professed nun among the discalced Carmelites at Lecce ^d in the monastery of St. Nicholas, experienced in herself. This noble nun in the course of about eight years was oppressed by so great and so bitter a heap of ills that even from the first of them, which was a hysterical epilepsy, on the 8th day of May of the year 1727 she was in the utmost peril of her life. Being freed from this ill, she began in the month of December of the same year to be assailed by attacks of a strong headache, which gradually became so stubborn and dreadful that it not only brought her into delirium, but even drove her to dash her head against the wall. And now, impatient of her bed from excessive madness, she lay continually on the ground, and, adding to the hard blows on her head sharp pieces of rough stone, she bound them tightly to her forehead, by which it was torn and flowed with abundant blood; thinking that by these so bitter pains

outward the torments of her inward torments were somewhat relieved.

[23] No remedy availed this wretched woman; so that the physicians, after a thousand attempts, as though despairing, and most grievous diseases fastened to her bed, at last decided to cut open her skull with fine instruments, that they might discover the cause of so raging a pain. And indeed they found upon the dura mater a callous little swelling equalling the size of a chick-pea; which being taken away by the help of medicines, yet the headache did not cease. Nay, as though this alone had been unequal to tormenting her, there came on spasmodic torments in the stomach, by which she was almost killed; most bitter convulsions in the breast, by which her breathing was cut off; epileptic assaults, and a cough so grievous that whatever she put into her stomach she vomited it all up; from which too, the fibres of the chest often being broken by the vehement straining, she was seen to spit blood. From so horrible a heap of ills, the nerves of the spine of the back being most grievously injured, the sick woman could no longer stand upon her feet or walk, and was forced to crawl like a brute beast whenever she had to pass from one part of her cell to another.

[24] Lastly she became cachectic ^e, and her mouth and throat were infected with frequent ulcers, she was giving up the ghost, bereft of her senses; and her lower belly with many scirrhi. A perpetual fever too clung to her, her legs and feet swelled horribly; in one word, she became as it were a bilge of ills; nor could she sleep, nor rest, nor breathe but with the greatest difficulty; nor take any food without nausea; she was tormented universally in her nerves and muscles with intolerable pain, and with other most grievous circumstances. Since therefore the physicians understood that they could avail nothing in an illness compounded of so many and so great ills, they pronounced that it was quite all over with her healing. This judgment of theirs was confirmed by a most acute burning fever, which came on in the month of September of the year 1735 with so strong a force that she was presently brought to the last extremity. Wherefore she was fortified with the Sacraments; and now her soul, about to depart, was being commended to God, now she lay bereft of the use of her senses, and, a deadly sweat seizing her limbs, she had fallen into a lethargy; so that her impending death was inevitable.

[25] Things being thus, a paper image of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino was brought to the monastery, but after Joseph's image was laid upon her she returns to her senses, which, being offered to him, father Anastasius of St. Joseph, a discalced Carmelite and ordinary confessor of that monastery, about the second or third hour of the night of the 16th day of September laid with a living faith upon the dying woman, and commended her to his patronage with a fervent prayer, that he would deign to obtain health for her from the Giver of all good things. That good Religious had also asked the heavenly Intercessor that, if God were to hear his prayers, he would signify it by some sign; and he obtained his request. For at the eighth hour of that night she opened her eyes and uttered certain words; and thus an opportunity was given to another Religious of the same Order, who had succeeded in the place of the aforesaid confessor, who had by then gone out, of absolving her again sacramentally and of admonishing her to renew her religious vows. To him admonishing her the dying woman answered, and after she was healed affirmed that she remembered that matter very well. After these things she relapsed into her former lethargy.

[26] and while Mass is being celebrated for her, she is suddenly healed. On the 17th day, about dawn, the confessor, having returned, after he had learned that the sign which he had asked for had been obtained, being stirred with greater trust, betook himself to the celebrating of Mass, and in it prayed the Blessed one as fervently as he could to intercede with God for the life and entire soundness of the dying woman. He had not yet gone on as far as the consecration when the dying woman, unexpectedly sitting up in bed, felt that she had entirely recovered. The fever being driven away, the pains, the convulsions driven away, and being free of every ill affection, she began to be dressed again, and, being clothed in a clean shift and in her Religious garments, at once got out of the bed and sat down in a chair; where, when she had heard from a certain nun that she owed her soundness to Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, taking his image in her hands she kissed it many times with great feeling of piety and devotion, and felt, while calling upon his name, "her strength increased and her senses made more ready," as she herself testified. Being therefore restored to perfect health, she set about performing the former duties of her Religious observance, and performed them like all the rest, giving thanks to God and to her holy Intercessor, by whom she had been brought over from death to life.

[27] The duke of Minervino, a grave ill of the jaw, When Ferdinandus Josephus Venturi, duke of Minervino ^f, in the month of November of the year 1737 was staying at Lecce in the house of the lord Nicolaus Montefuscoli, his uncle ^g, a certain slight pain seized his right jaw on the lower side, about which indeed he was then in no way anxious. But on the next day the pain, growing most vehemently worse, forced him to use remedies, and, these availing nothing and the ill pressing ever more intolerably, to call in the physician of that city. He, having inspected the afflicted part, found no sign of any ill; but nevertheless prescribed a certain liquid for the tempering of the convulsion, with a like useless attempt. The aforesaid lord Nicolaus, noticing this, said to his kinsman, since human remedies avail nothing, we must have recourse to heavenly ones; and he affirmed that he would be suddenly healed if he placed a sure trust in the patronage of the servant of God, father Joseph of the Grottella, and allowed his relics, which the other had, to be applied to the ill-affected part.

[28] drives away straightway when a patch of the Blessed one's garment is applied. To this the sick man answered that he had that trust, and asked for the relics. And so the lord Nicolaus without any delay went away to seek the relics; and the duke meanwhile, commending himself with all the affection of his heart to the Blessed one, prayed that "for the notable love with which he had pursued the most holy Virgin, whom, while he lived, he called his Mother, he would deign to free him from so great and so intolerable a torment." Then, having set about reciting the Rosary as well as he could with a certain chamberlain and another servant of his, when he had come to the third station, the lord Nicolaus coming in with the Relics, he was seized by a certain inward gladness and by a chill trembling, and afterwards, uttering a tender lament, cried out: "Ah venerable Father, if thou lovest thy Mother, for the love with which thou wast borne towards her, bid this convulsion depart from me." While he was saying these things, it was the same thing to have applied the Blessed one's relics, which were a patch of his inner garment, to the afflicted limb, and to have been freed at that same moment from so dreadful an ill. He continued the recitation of the Rosary which he had begun with unspeakable gladness, and then settled himself to take sleep, and slept most placidly. Waking at last quite sound, he gave earnest thanks to his healer Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, whose patronage's efficacy he attested both then and thereafter.

[29] Being in the eighth year of his age, Philippus Sebastianus Felix, A bean, which from the ear of a boy, grievously tormented by it, son of the lords Antonius Molineri, a physician of Turin ^h, and Octavia Faggiani, in boyish play put into his right ear a bean, so called from its eye ⁱ, which stuck in it for two whole years, he himself hiding it from his parents out of fear of punishment. During that time the boy suffered a running of the eye, a torment of the ear, a swelling of the jaw and deafness. The matter being at length learned by the father from his elder son, to whom the younger had disclosed it, he without any delay called in the foremost of the most skilful surgeons, that he might take out the bean. But whatever he attempted, even with the utmost pain to the sick boy, he was at last forced to desist from what he had begun, confessing, as he testified on oath, "that the thing was naturally altogether impossible, to draw out that bean." Wherefore he counselled the father to commit this son of his to the divine will, and not to flatter himself thereafter about his life. In this state the boy remained without any other remedy for some months, up to the 17th day of February of the year 1742, on which, while hearing Mass, being seized with a dizziness of the head and having fallen from the bench to the floor, he was carried home by his schoolfellows. Here, being laid in his bed and refreshed by his lady mother Victoria with a certain strengthening medicine, he asked her to send for the surgeon, and promised that he would be in his power.

[30] And so another skilful surgeon was called in by the father, the surgeons had tried in vain to take out, who, that he might operate safely, ordered him to be bound with two bandages and held by three men, that he might not move. But whatever he too strove to do with his instruments, the treatment being four times repeated on four different days, because the bean had penetrated too far into the ear, he laboured in vain, and had to leave the matter undone. From the torment endured and the violent attempts made in the ear, a vehement fever arose, afflicted with which the boy passed eight days and as many nights without rest; wherefore a vein was opened for him, and by that lessening of the blood the fever indeed ceased, but the pain and the deafness remained. The boy's soundness being in this way despaired of, it pleased the divine providence that a certain pious person suggested to the aforesaid lord doctor Molineri that he should commend his afflicted son to Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, and look for a remedy from his patronage.

[31] The counsel pleased the most loving father, who, having returned home, is cast out through Bl. Joseph's help. and having tried to persuade his son of the very same thing, laid the Blessed one's image in his bed, that he might commit himself to him with a living faith; and he himself meanwhile resolved that, if God should heal his son through the intercession of his great Servant, he would presently, to his glory, attest and make manifest the benefit received. It was then the 5th day of March, and the third quarter of the second hour after noon, when, the father having gone away thence, the son held Bl. Joseph's image before his eyes, and, burning with the desire of recovering health, commended himself to him. And behold, the sick boy, full of unlooked-for joy, began to cry out and to shout that they should take away the bean, which of its own accord, without any pain, without shedding of blood, by pus flowing copiously, was coming out of the ear. The mother ran up, and with tweezers most easily took out the troublesome pulse, which appeared in the outer passage of the ear; and the boy, now entirely sound, together with his parents most humbly rendered thanks to God and to Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, to whom they ascribed so prodigious a healing, accomplished in a moment of time. After these things, to the Servant of God's glory, all of them — the father, the mother, the elder son, the younger who was healed, and those two Surgeons — attested that deed in the most authentic manner, blessing for ever God who is wonderful in his Saints.

[32] A nun, from a grave and long disease of the mouth The lord doctor Franciscus Valentini, first physician of the city of Assisi, on the 9th day of January of the year 1744 testified upon oath that sister Maria Imperatrice, a Roman, a nun at St. Quiricus' in that city, had often been visited by him in past years; whose incurable ill, which was a half-paralysis of both the muscles which serve for opening and shutting the mouth, when he had tried six years before to heal, those same muscles for several months were so convulsed and devoid of motion

that, since she could not open her mouth, it was necessary for her nourishment that liquid foods be put into her on that one side where a tooth was missing. This Religious was in other respects of sound mind, nor did she suffer any other trouble than that which we have said, and which she endured for several months, being abandoned not only by the aforesaid physician, who denied that she could be healed, but also by a certain foreign physician likewise, who had confirmed the other's judgment.

[33] is freed in a moment by his invocation; In this so great a crisis the nun suddenly cried out and named Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, commending herself to him with all the affection of her heart; and straightway she opened her mouth, and, being sound as of old and freed from so dreadful a trouble, cried out, A miracle. "These things the Religious related" (thus the said physician concluded his testimony), "these things I testify: that I found her free of that ill, when I had suddenly been sent for to visit her, so that I might wonder at the instantaneous miracle which God had wrought through the intercession of his great servant Bl. Joseph of Cupertino."

[34] as also a boy, by his relics, from smallpox Pompeius, son of the lord Antonius Ottaviani of Camerino ^k and of the lady Felix Giacometti of Macerata, a boy of about one year, had been brought to the last extremity by smallpox, which on the seventh day of the illness had flowed back into the inward parts of the body, and by an almost continual flux of the belly and a most burning fever; and the more was his overcoming of the illness despaired of because the physician could not apply suitable means at so tender an age; and therefore he was held as past hope. From the month of August up to the whole of September of the year 1744 he wasted away, and now the clothes and candles for the funeral array had been made. Meanwhile the lord Paulus Bianzani, having returned to Macerata on the evening of the second day of October, brought to the infant's mother a reliquary in which was enclosed a thread from the wallet of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, obtained with many entreaties from the lord Joannes Giacometti, that woman's father. Having received it, the mother with great faith and devotion signed her son, who, though he had by then been no longer able to move himself, was seen, to the amazement of all the bystanders, to push aside of his own accord the coverlets of the cradle in which he lay, and, laughing and cheerful, to lift his legs on high; beginning, namely, from that time to be better.

[35] and from an ill of the eye that arose from it. Waking on the next morning, he began to sing, to the wonder of those who were present, and to play, and was quite free of all ills: on the third day he wished to get up from the cradle, and thereafter always enjoyed entire health. Nor did the miracle end here. From the multitude of the smallpox a certain polypous swelling of the size of a pea had grown upon that boy, by which the sight of the left eye was utterly shut off. The mother, desiring a complete benefit from the Blessed one, being quickened by a living faith, signed her son's eye with the same reliquary, and with great joy and amazement saw in a moment of time the troublesome swelling vanish and the eye restored to its natural office. Wherefore both she and the father paid the due thanks to God, ascribing their son's life and soundness to Bl. Joseph. To the greater glory also of the holy Intercessor they, together with the physician and other eye-witnesses, testified all that we have hitherto narrated.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER III.

Other miracles and benefits obtained through his patronage.

[ ] An ill of the shin, by a shaving The lord doctor Jacobus Buffi, one of the two chief physicians of Ancona ^a, towards the end of the month of September in the year 1746 came to Osimo for the sake of venerating Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, dead and buried in the church of the fathers Minor Conventual of that city. Here, after he had fulfilled his devotion, he obtained from the father guardian of the convent of St. Francis a small portion of the outer chest in which the body of the aforesaid Servant of God had lain. Setting out thence for Loreto, before he had come to Castelfidardo ^b, since the weather was rainy and the roads clayey, in order to avoid all danger on the slope he wished to mount into the carriage; but as the place was narrow, in mounting he somewhat hurt his right shin; which indeed he then made nothing of. Then, having returned to Ancona, although for the first three days he felt pain, he nevertheless continued to visit his sick, until on the first night of October he was seized with a grave fever, with swelling, most intense torment and an erysipelatous inflammation in the aforesaid shin. These growing ever worse, on the 4th day of October, which is sacred to the holy patriarch Francis, that same shin, swelling and almost twice as thick as its natural state required, appeared of a violet colour and as it were livid, and was afflicted with most bitter pains: and since the medicines availed nothing, he rightly feared lest the ill should degenerate into gangrene.

[37] of his death-coffin, In this so great affliction of his, having recourse to the patronage of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, he begged his father confessor, a Religious of the same Order, to apply something of the shaving of the above-mentioned chest, in which his body had lain, to the ill-affected limb; which the Religious, after some prayers poured forth, performed about the twenty-fourth hour ^c of that same day; the sick man meanwhile praying with a living faith to the Servant of the Lord that he would obtain for him from God the health he desired. The pains continuing until the fifth hour of the night, the sick man fell asleep, and slept until the seventh, when, waking and feeling no pain at all, he felt the shin and found that the swelling had gone down; he examined the pulse of the artery, and recognized that the fever had ceased. Hence, being affected with great consolation, he fell asleep again; and on the next morning, before daylight had risen, having asked for and been brought a light, he uncovered the shin, and found it altogether restored to its natural state, the swelling vanished, the inflammation ceased, and, the livid colour being taken away, the former native one returned. He exulted indeed at so entire and sudden a healing, and rendered the due thanks to God and to his holy Intercessor, whom he chose among his patrons. And he published the miracle, which he set forth in writing with his own hand, and, as an office of a grateful mind, promised that towards the end of the year he would visit the Blessed one's sacred body, and would bring thither a silver votive offering representing a shin, which, after the cult decreed him by holy mother Church, should be hung up at his sacred image.

[38] and another man's long-standing rupture, after the applying Joannes Baptista, son of doctor Dominicus Zacchieri, of the town of Duzzia, of the diocese of Imola ^d, labouring from the tenth year of his age under an internal rupture, could never find any remedy for his ill; nay, those who had undertaken his cure at Forlì ^e, and had visited him at Faenza ^f, and others in other places, had pronounced it incurable. He suffered much at a change of weather, at the eating of pulse and fruits, and on journeys, the swelling growing along with the torment. He armed himself as far as he could with a truss, well knowing that a miracle was needed for his cure. It happily befell him that, having received a pious mind towards Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, when he had heard a certain Religious of his Order mentioning his virtues and miracles, he took care to procure for himself his Life and image, and did procure them. For from the reading and esteem of this, faith and devotion grew in him, and he was wont to recite once in the evening and in the morning an Our Father, a Hail Mary and a Glory be; beseeching the Blessed one to free him from so bitter a rupture.

[39] of the Blessed one's image, and a vow made, is taken away. Meanwhile on the 6th day of August in the year 1747, in the thirty-first year of his age, when he was about to set out from Compita ^g for Rimini, and the injured part was causing him great torment, he recited his accustomed Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory be, imploring Joseph's patronage for his health. He promised besides that he would never relax his devotion towards him in his heart, but would establish it in his house and promote it among others; and that moreover he would see to it that many Masses were celebrated, and would keep vigils and fasts in his honour. Amid these things, with a living faith in God and a sure confidence conceived in the Blessed one's patronage, it came into his mind to touch the afflicted part with his image. And he touched it, and presently felt great relief in that part and in the belly, and, examining it with his hand laid on it, found that the swelling had vanished and the pain had been taken away. Understanding thus that he had been healed in a moment of time, he gave most earnest thanks to the divine Clemency and to his Intercessor, to whom he acknowledged himself thenceforth perpetually bound, never afterwards suffering even the least pain, or the least swelling or descent of the intestines. And although he had cast away his truss and had tested his health in many ways, he nevertheless wished to be examined also by a skilled surgeon, who affirmed that no defect at all remained in that part of the body. On the 20th day of December of the year 1747 he made a public testimony of the miracle, that the glory of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino might be ever more spread abroad.

[40] The lord Josephus Brunetti, a priest of Osimo, from the 19th day of January of the year 1750 up to the 23rd of the same month was fastened to his bed by a most grievous pain of the head and a flux into his left eye, without any power of resting by day or by night. A priest, bidden in sleep to venerate the Blessed one's image, On the evening of the 23rd day, the ill growing worse to such a degree that it could no longer be borne, he began with a fervent prayer to call upon Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, that he would entreat God for his soundness. Amid these things he fell asleep, and in this his short sleep he seemed to himself to commit himself to the Blessed one's patronage, to have his image before his eyes, and to speak thus: "My father Joseph, grant me this grace, obtain for me health from the Lord God." While he was thus praying out of great affection, that one seemed with a loud voice to answer him reproachfully: "Why dost thou ask a grace and commend thyself to me, while thou keepest me under the bed? Take me hence, if thou wouldst have the grace: for I will be openly in sight, and I will be honoured."

[41] Roused by this reproach, and bathed in sweat, the priest obeying, is freed from a grave pain of the head. began to lament, and, having called together his household and others who were present in the neighbouring chamber, said: "Take away hence straightway from under this bed father Joseph, who has reproached me because I keep him so ill." And they, having taken out from under the bed a little chest and opened it, took thence the cast or mould which after the Blessed one's death had been made from plaster poured over his face. This therefore the lord Gregorius Luchetti, a priest, offered to the sick man to be venerated with a pious kiss, and with it touched his head; and behold, he was presently free of all pain. The priest Brunetti, now sound and quit of every ill, suddenly sat up in his bed, all who stood by wondering and congratulating him, among whom were two other priests, one his own brother, sick a little before, and the secretary of the aforesaid city, who all, together with two physicians of that place, attested this prodigious healing, obtained through the intercession of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, to the glory and praise of God.

[42] Lest we be troublesome beyond measure to the reader, we shall touch as briefly as we may He succours women in peril in childbirth upon the remaining graces and miracles granted by God through the patronage of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, meaning to recount them in that order in which they have from time to time been reported in authentic instruments. Beginning therefore with Osimo, where he left his mortal spoils, we shall say that the lady Anna Menichelli, wife of the lord Dominicus Paulucci, labouring in childbirth in the year 1733, on the 25th day of September, would have died, had not her husband, piously affected towards the Blessed one, given the wretched woman in labour a little cloth stained with his blood to sup out of a spoon. Which being done, he presently went out of the house to call in the physician and the surgeon: but before these Bl. Joseph was there first, and the lady brought forth a male child, which, since it put out its feet first, was baptized on these by the prudent midwife before it wholly came forth into the light. The boy afterwards died; but the mother escaped so grave a peril, and both parents had in that sadness this spiritual consolation, that their son had received the grace of baptism. The benefit was made public by the aforesaid lord Dominicus, who ceased not to praise God and his patron Bl. Joseph.

[43] when invoked, The lady Angela Zotti, wife of the lord Joannes Baptista Piovesana, in the year 1737, on the 20th day of November, at Portogruaro ^h, of the diocese of Concordia, after most bitter pains of childbirth was in no way able to be delivered. For the boy, having come out of the womb with the rest of his body, could not free his head; and the labour had now held for two hours, so that it was quite all over with mother and son. Amid these straits Bl. Joseph of Cupertino came into the mind of the woman in labour, who applied to herself with a living faith a piece of that Servant of God's sandal, which she had before received from a Religious of his Order, and presently without any delay brought forth a boy alive and sound, though of only eight months. The mother, being happily quit of all danger in a moment, to the singular wonder and joy of the midwife, of another woman, of her husband and of her mother, all with one accord testified the prodigy to the greater glory of God, blessing and giving thanks to the blessed Intercessor, so beneficent to those who invoke him and implore his patronage.

[44] and the son of one of these, held for dead, Yet more wonderful did our Blessed one show himself in the case of the lady Rosa Montini, wife of the lord Thomas Ciapponi, secretary of Montolmo ⁱ. She, in her first childbirth, which fell on the 29th day of the month of July of the year 1723, being exhausted of strength and unable to bring forth into the light the child, which had already put out its head, was together with her son in peril of life. In these so sad straits her husband gave her a very small piece of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino's garment in a cup, with water, to swallow: and she was suddenly and happily delivered. Yet that joy was very short, because the boy was choked by the mother's convulsions and straining, and appeared livid, without breath, without motion of the heart, and altogether cold. Being carried to the fire for the sake of warming, after he had been warmed there for half an hour without any sign of life, he was placed in a little straw basket, the helpers having gone back to the mother, who, having got wind of her loss, wept bitterly.

[45] he suddenly heals entirely. Wherefore the husband, although he too was afflicted beyond measure, said to his wife and to the other women: Let us commend him to Bl. Joseph, and, since he made him to be born, let us pray that he may give him life also, and we shall lay his name upon him in Baptism if he be raised up from death. And so they began to pray, imploring the Servant of God's help with great fervour; and while they were thus praying, they heard some voice or rather a breathing; hence, running up to the boy, they found him alive and sound, as he lives to this day. In Baptism he was named Joseph according to the vow; but from the greatness and the public knowledge of the miracle the name of the Raised Dead One clung to him in that his fatherland.

[46] He restores a broken shin, In the second year of this eighteenth century Maria Franciscus Cingolani, a baker of Montelupone ^k, of the diocese of Loreto, when in the aforesaid town (as is wont to be done throughout the whole province of the March) the Translation of the sacred House was being celebrated, put fire to a small piece of ordnance, which, being driven backwards, injured his shin and broke it into three parts. And so the surgeon retained at the public charge was sent for, who, after he had given him his services, went off to the other parts of his duty. Maria Franciscus was piously affected towards Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, and therefore on a certain night, when he was suffering vehemently from his broken shin, he deserved to hear a certain voice, by which it was said to him: "Rise, Maria Franciscus, thou art healed. I am Joseph of Cupertino." At the same time in which he heard that voice, he also felt a certain noise given off from his shin, no otherwise than if the broken bones were being joined to one another. On the next morning, indeed rising from his bed, he found that he had entirely recovered from his broken shin. And that he might render thanks to God and to his blessed Intercessor, he set out for Osimo to visit his sacred tomb, and there amid sweet tears made known the benefit received, and, in testimony of a grateful mind, offered the most humble affections of his devotion.

[47] In the same town of Montelupone the noble lord Jacobus Basvechi in the year 1692, by the touch of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino's little cap, drove away an abscess from his head he drives away an abscess; he preserves a man in peril in a river, which for the space of forty days, tormenting him with most bitter pains, had brought him to the last extremity. He, while his illness pressed him grievously, had promised that, if he were healed, he would go to Osimo to honour the Blessed one's sepulchre. And he went, together with his wife, and a Religious of the same Order to which the Blessed one had belonged, and two servants; but in crossing the river Potenza ^l his horse, its feet caught in a hole, fell; and the lord Jacobus himself, who, sitting upon it, had his feet entangled in the stirrups, and had gone before his companions, having called upon Bl. Joseph, found himself freed from the saddle, and crossed almost the whole breadth of the river on foot through the water to the further bank. After the others of his company had come thither, since they thought him wholly soaked, when they asked whether he wished to put on other clothes, he answered: See how much I am bound to blessed Joseph. I am not wetted by even one drop of water. And so indeed it had happened; for no part either of his body or of his clothes was wet. Great was the wonder of all, and greater still the thanksgivings which they rendered to God and to the Blessed one at his sepulchre, where they also made known to all the twofold benefit received from him.

[48] In the year 1751, in the month of August, the lord doctor of medicine Marinus Jacobus Presotini of Recanati ^m, in his fatherland, he suddenly heals an ill of the kidneys. was seized by a slight inflammation of the kidneys with a bitter pain in the left side, from which it came about that he made bloody urine. He himself, being skilled in the medical art, recognized the gravity of his ill, which, since from the signs it was becoming ever more dangerous and more deadly, he resolved to heal according to the laws of the art. But when, some weeks having now passed, he noticed that he was availing nothing in this way, but on the contrary that the ill was ever growing worse and that the blood was flowing more copiously, having thereafter dismissed human remedies, he had recourse with great confidence to the help of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, by whose patronage he hoped to obtain health from God. Nor did his hope deceive him: for, his image being applied with a living faith to the afflicted part, a little afterwards he found himself entirely sound: whence, being grateful towards his Patron, he concluded his authentic testimony on this matter with these words: "I attest, therefore, that I must confess the grace imparted to me, though an unworthy servant, by God thrice best and greatest, for the merits of so great a Patron (namely Joseph of Cupertino). In faith whereof I have here subscribed myself in my own hand on this 4th day of December 1751."

[49] A boy brought to the last extremity by various diseases Jacobus Philippus, son of Josephus Maria Vignati and of Magdalena his wife, natives of Osimo, a boy of three years and six months, was attacked about the middle of September of the year 1751 by a sharp ill of the throat, by fever, by pains and by a frenzy which gave no room for rest. Almost all power of speaking and hearing failed him, and the sinews of his neck were so weakened that he could not hold up his head. In this so deplorable a state he was examined by Andreas Valenti, a surgeon, who pronounced that it was all over with his soundness, "unless one of the Saints should confer a miracle upon him." Yet he prescribed him a certain ointment, with which, being anointed eight or ten times, he was nevertheless nothing the better, but rather wholly wasted away, except his arms, which he moved a little.

[50] quickly recovers by his help; In that infirmity he continued as one dying up to the 6th day of January of the current year 1752, on which day his father carried him to the chambers of Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, and placed him in his seat, and, having taken him back after notable and fervent prayers, noticed that he had begun to hold up his head. Then, having carried him home, he handed him to his wife; and when he was now betaking himself to his business, he heard himself addressed by him with a clear voice: Whither goest thou, father? Hence, returning to him, he bade him recite an Our Father in honour of father Joseph, that he might heal him. And so indeed on the next morning, the 7th day of January, the boy, having been placed by his mother on a bench, was seen by the lady Julia Magnani, passing by, playing with his feet. The mother, being called with these words: "Thy son is healed," bade him rise and walk: and he rose and walked, and entirely recovered the health he had lost; so that his father, returning home four days later, found him, as he had already heard, quite sound. And he paid

thanks to God and to blessed Joseph his intercessor, and, together with the other witnesses of the grace received, publicly attested it to his glory.

[51] a girl's rupture is cured. Alexius Starnari of Montefilottrano ⁿ, an inhabitant of Perugia, and Teresia his wife, in the month of April of this year 1752 brought their daughter of thirteen years to Osimo, together with Maria Cecconi, her aunt on the mother's side, that they might implore Bl. Joseph of Cupertino for her health. This girl had for about seven years laboured under a certain infirmity, believed by them to be a rupture, and therefore she was kept bound with bandages; but the same, being examined by a skilled surgeon in the former of the two said cities, was judged to be a rupture of the groin. On the 25th day of the aforesaid month they all met in the sacristy of the fathers Minor Conventual of St. Francis at Osimo, and, setting their knees on the ground there before the Blessed one's image, prayed with great fervour for the health of their daughter and niece. On the next morning, the 26th day, they set out thence for Loreto, when the aunt, eager to inspect and examine her niece's ill, undid the bandages and found her entirely healed. At length, having returned to Perugia, they had the girl examined by a surgeon on three distinct occasions and at different times, who affirmed that she was utterly free of the aforesaid trouble. Wherefore, that they might show themselves grateful to their notable Patron Bl. Joseph of Cupertino, from whom they had obtained that grace, praising the divine mercy they made the deed public by an authentic instrument.

[52] Here let us put an end to the Life, the virtues and the miracles of our admirable Bl. Joseph of Cupertino; not because there do not remain other great and prodigious things to be told of him; The author's epilogue. but because we judge that the things which we have hitherto narrated are as fit to convey a clear idea of his sanctity, so also profitable for stirring up the devotion of the faithful towards that great Servant of that eternal and immortal Lord, to whose praise and glory we have undertaken this our Work solely, and to this end, helped by his aid, have brought it through ^o.

ANNOTATIONS.