neere vnto Campo Vaccino commonly called S. Maria Nuoua and there with great solemnity and veneration interred wherat miracles haue bene daily euer since wrought and the same is greatly honoured and reuerenced by all the people of Rome euen vntill this day She was Canonized for a S. by Pope Paul the fifth the 29. day of May in the yeare of our Lord 1606. Her feast is vsually celebrated vpon the ninth day of March. THE LIFE OF THE HOLY Virgin S. Teresa of Iesus of the Order of our Blessed Lady of Mont Carmell Foundresse of the Congregation of the discalced Carmelites IN the famous Citty of Auila in the Kingdome of Castile in Spaine was borne the holy and glorious Saint Teresa vpon the 28. of March in the yeare of our Lord 1515. Her Father was called Alfonso Cepeda and her mother Batrixe Ahumada Both were noble and excelled in all kind of piety and vertue wherein with great care they brought vp their children in particular this their yong and tender daughter She being about the age of seauen yeares contemplating of the ioyes and glory of heauen would oftē pronounce to her selfe these words and say O Eternity Eternity Eternity vsing also daily many prayers especially the Rosary by her mothers instruction made very deuout to our Blessed Lady In these her yong yeares reading in the liues of Saints the torments deaths of the Blessed martyrs and the glory they had obtayned therby she iudged that they had gotten heauen at an easy rate wishing that she might suffer the like paines to attaine the like glory And being inflamed thus with the loue of heauen and of death for Christ his sake she instilled the like desire into her yong brother in such sort that they determined iointly to goe together amōg the Moores that at their hāds they might receaue the crowne of martyrdome But beginning their iourney they met with their vncle who by intercepting hindred them and brought thē back to their parents Their intention thus crossed as they remained in their Fathers house they passed their time often in the Garden and Orchard where they would build little houses like Celles and Hermitages and though after the manner of childrē yet it fore shewed what she should afterward accōplish as inded she did At the age of 12. yeares her mother died whereat being much afflicted she presēted herselfe before an image of our B. Lady desiring her to be her mother whome she euer after found ready with her protection helpe and assistance in all her necessities Now our Lord began to enkindle in this his seruant the spirit of prayer and inward deuotion in so much that at the age of 20. yeares she fully despised the world and desired earnestly a Religious course of life though her Father out of his extraordinary loue to her would not consent therto Yet she remembring the counsell of S. Hierome brake violently from all and entred into the Monastery of the Order of the Incarnation in Auila where she passed her Nouiceship with great alacrity and comfort Shortly after she falling into an extreme sicknes her Father was inforced to couey her into the country to the house of a phisitian for helpe But it auayled not for her infirmity did daily and diuersly increase and in such sort that all being out of hope of her life the last Sacraments were ministred vnto her she lay a dying At which time she was in a traunce for foure dayes and comming to her selfe againe she complained of those that had called her back from heauē where she said she had seene many mysteries as also the saluation of her Father diuers other friendes which should be saued by her meanes and many Monasteries which she was to erect and her owne happy death all which proued afterward true After her recouery by her prayers she obtayned health for a Religious person of their Monastery and new amendment of life for a Priest who was besotted with the dishonest loue of a woman who had bewitched him with her diuellish inchantments by a Copper Idoll which she had giuen him to weare which this holy womā obtayning of him cast into a riuer whereby he was freed and lead afterwards a vertuous life and died blessedly And for diuers others she obtained health and many she reduced to vertuous life by her example and prayers and by the intercession of S. Ioseph to whom she was very affectionate and deuout Being on a time at her prayers she cast her selfe prostrate before a piteous Picture of our B. Sauiour beseeching his grace and assistance to protect her from offending him any more from which time euer after she found continuall increase of spirituall comforts and also amendement of her former life For after this time our Lord did communicate himselfe vnto her in diuers manners aswell in inward and spirituall comforts conuersing speaking to her soule as also by outward and plaine apparitions guiding and directinge her with his counsell in all her affaires of difficulty and speaking to her in his owne voice She being once surprised with an extasy our Lord said to her My will is that hereafter thou be not conuersant with men but with Angells which wordes made such impression in her as from that time she wholly abandoned the world and all humane things adhered only to God Our Lord himselfe frō this time teaching and aduising her her sanctity being suspected by others what she should say answere to stop their mouths as she euer did And our Lord said also to her Feare not daughter for I will not leaue thee Frō which time forward she seemed wholly vnited to God Being once in her deuotions our B. Sauiour appeared to her againe hauing with him S. Peter S. Paul and shewed to her first his hands shining beautifully and after that his face and thus continued with her the space of three daies Also hearing Masse vpon S. Pauls day our Blessed Sauiour appeared to her in his humanity very glorious And these apparitions of our Sauiour at Masse time in diuers formes continued to her more then three yeares These visions being very frequent increasing her Confessor and diuers others grew suspitious that they might be illusions of the deuill and she be deceiued but our Lord himselfe did with his presence and speach to her both satisfy and instruct her how she should stop the slaunderous mouths of all After this a Seraphim appeared to her with a flaming dart in his hand wherwith he seemed to pierce her hart so as from that time forward she remained wholy inflamed with the loue of God and of which wound she felt at diuers times very sensible paine Once in a vision she was taken vp to heauen where she saw such misteries and fulnes of glory and ioyes as cannot be expressed Our Lord saying to her Consider daughter how great ioyes worldlings depriue thēselues of These visions came to her very often and in diuers
assumption which he long before foretold should be graūted him What shall I say of the other rare and singular vertues which as from the liuely fountaine of the diuine liberality filowed plentifully in his soule And of his so entiere and perfect Obedience that he neuer found repugnance in any thing that was commaunded him he obeyed the voyce of his Superiour as the voyce of God and had euer a perfect cōformity of will with his What shall I say of his sweetnes affability or of his Compassion modesty and silence of the rigorous and austere mortifications with which he afflicted his body by fasts disciplines and hairecloth as if he had beene a most grieuous sinner it being certaine by the report of his Confessour that in his life he had neuer sinned mortally that often in his ordinary Confessions he could not find him culpable of any sinne for which to giue him absolution In briefe all the Nouices beheld him as a mirrour modell of the Society the Maister of the Nouices would exhort them to imitate his example All those which frequēted him familiarly esteemed him as a soule particularly elected by God rich of vertues merits euen in behoulding him they were enflamed in the feare and loue of God Stanislaus thus rich in vertues hauing made so great a progresse in so few dayes of his Nouiceship consumed with the diuine loue and desire to honor the Blessed Virgin in heauē humbly beseeched our Lord to take him from hence into his kingdome that he might see and enioy his glorious presence which petition our Lord graunted him as followeth The Eue of Saint Laurēce he meditaring of his martyrdome with a feruent desire to imitate him to be burned in the liuely flames of the loue of God demaunded of the rest of the Nouices who were all thē assembled how one might burne and suffer for Iesus Christ in the imitation of Saint Laurence Euery one said his opinion to which he answered that he would suffer some mortification in honour of that blessed Saint to the end that he might pray for him vnto the B. Virgin his Mother to take him quickly out of this exile and that he might be present in heauen at the celebration of her Glorious Assumption To this intention he made a publique discipline in the refectory on his knees could his fault kissed the feete of euery one begged his meate and eate it on the ground From thence he went to serue in the kitchin where by occasion of the fier that he saw he contemplated the torment of Saint Laurēce on the Gridiron with such vehemency and attention that his spirits languished senses fayled him In that manner he was carried to his bed and was foūd to haue a feuer which althought at the beginning it was light and the Phisitians secure of any danger yet Stanislaus told the Rector that for certaine he should not liue nor euer rise from his bed So he began to decline dayly towards his end which when he felt approaching he desired that they would suffer him to dye vpon the ground He was taken with a great flux of bloud and there vpon ensued a cold feuer Hauing receyued the blessed Sacraments of the Altar and of Extreme Vnction most deuoutly he fixt his eyes on heauen and so remayned a small space with his thoughts rauished and lifted vp to God vntill the Rector demaunded of him if he were resigned into the hands of our Lord prepared eyther to liue or die according to his pleasure To which he answered cheerfully My God my hart is ready Then hauing louingly imbraced all those that came to see him he imbraced also an image of our blessed Lady which he had euer held most deare he said some prayers propre for the time and made a Colloquy in Latin vnto the Crucifix which was before his eyes thanking out Lord with his whole heart for all his benefits mercies bestowed vpon him and desiring him for the merites of those blessed woundes of his feete his handes his side and head which he often kissed to pardon him all his sinnes and to receaue his soule into his blessed hands in peace The B. Virgin Mother of God appeared vnto him accompanied with diuers other Virgins to whome he spake a long time and a little after with a sweet silence he deliuered his soule into the hāds of his Creatour about the ninth houre of the night the 14. day of August 1568. the 19. yeare of his age and sixt moneth of his Nouiceship hauing with few dayes labour obtayned as many crownes merits as others perhaps in many yeares His body remained so fayre his cheekes so ruddy his eyes so cleere as one would haue thought him liuing It was obserued that during his sicknes except when he was spoken vnto his eyes were alwayes closed although he were awake and when vpon any occasion he opened them he lifted them vp towards heauen with a smiling countenance as if he had beheld some pleasing obiect His body was put in a Coffin which was extraordinary but graunted to him in particuler by reason of the great opinion of his sanctity in the Church of the Nouiciate of Saint Andrews he being the first of the company that was there enterred There came thither such multitudes of people to kisse his feete that Doctor Tollet afterward Cardinal was amazed therat and said Is it not a strange thing that all Rome should run to reuerence the body of a yenge Polacke Nouice as a Saint The opinion of his sanctity much more increased by a booke written in Italian of his life printed in Rome two yeares after his death wherein he was styled Blessed and in Polonia the same was written in Latin where it was so frequent affectuous that many only with reading therof haue bene incited to enter into the same Society Presently after his portraicture was painted in Polonia and his pictures were set vp publikely with the tittle of Saint and reuerenced not only by the vulgar but euen by the Bishops Prelats Palatines Lords also by the King himselfe who placed the same amōg the rank of Saints pictures in his Pallace vpon the feast of S. Michaell the Archāgell in the yeare of our Lord 1604. Some of his reliques being carried to the twone of Gallici in the yeare 1602. were receaued there with a solemne procession and kissed with great deuotion by all the people Clement the eight who had bene legate in Polonia before he was Pope graūted out two Breues in one whereof he beatified Stanislaus and in the other graunted six yeares and six quarentens of pardō to those that should visit on the day of his decease a certaine Chappell built and dedicated to his honour in Polonia His body is still honored at Rome with great veneration and concourse of people in the yeare of our Lord 1605. the fourteenth day of August Pope Paul the fifth hauing perused the Sūmary of
AN APPENDIX OF THE SAINTS lately Canonized and Beatifyed by PAVLE the fift AND GREGORIE the Fifteenth DOWAY By HENRIE TAYLOR 1624. To the Catholike Readers in England DEare Countrimen If my abilitie in Health Wealth or Vnderstanding were answereable to my desire of your good you should heare from mee oftner But these gifts are at the disposure of a higher power And therefore at the abounding in any one or all of these ought to tend vnto his glorie so their want shall not inforce mee to derogate either from that or hinder mee from laboring to the vtmost of my power to bring you such merchandize as may refresh your soules with spirituall delight and comfort Wherefore I haue reprinted the Appendix of such Saints liues as were lately Canonized and beatified by Paule the fift and Gregorie the fifteenth translated into English by M. Ed. Kinsman The motiues vrging mee hereunto next after your good was the generall approbation and likeing of the booke amongst all which had it the raritie of it amongst many which desirde it it being annexed to the Saints liues of the wholl yeare and therfore cannot bee had without the byeing of the wholl volume which many will not for that they haue those liues all ready and others cannot the volume being of so great a price exceeding their poore ability These are the reasons mouing mee to this I haue heere done wherfore I hope you will take it in as good part at I meane it therest of my indeauours to you which is sincerely wishing they may proue happie Mediums to bring you safe to the peaceable harbour of Eternall blisse still resting Yours in what he is Henry Taylor AN APPENDIX OF the Saints lately Canonized and Beatifyed by Paule the Fift and Gregorie the Fifteene And First The Miraculous life and Vertues of Saint Isidore Husbandman and Patrone of Madrid in Spaine lately canonized by Pope Gregory the XV. Abridged and translated out of Spanish SAINT Isidore was borne in the ancient Kingdome of Castile in the famous Cittie of Madrid in Spaine where the Kinges Court is ordinarily kept about the yeere of our Lord 1130. of very Catholike and deuout Parents though of meane condition whom they piouslie brought vp and instructed in all kinde of vertue according to their poore abilitie especially in Prayer saying of his Beades hearing Masse frequenting of Sermons Exhortations and the like and for corporal exercises he was brought vp and taught to Till and manure the ground in maner of a Laborer or Husbandman After that he was growen to mans estate and his Parents both dead he married a wife of an honest though poore family like vnto himselfe and beginneth to dispose and set in order that little meanes which he had still following his manuall art of Husbandrie labouring for day-wages and hire for other Husbandmen of the Countrey that were rich and had landes of their owne to manure But yet with all he had got a pious custome and vse which grew vp with him euen from his Childhood to heare Masse dailie before hee began to labour Which he neuer omitted though there were neuer so great hast of worke to be done And for this cause certaine of his neighbours through the instigation of the diuell who now began to make hoate war vpon S. Isidore for his sanctitie and holynesse of life which they could not endure stirred vp against him his maister of whom he had taken a peece of ground to plow and was to labour by the day complaining grieuously of him that he came euery day very late to worke and that besides he omitted the same oftentimes in the day and went to his praiers His maister the Farmer was much incensed against him by hearing this their accusation and one day falling into a fit of choller at their reportes presently went vnto him in the field to see if it were true or no which they had told him by way of complaint And comming in all hast vnto the field where S. Isidore was to be at his work he saw three plowes going two whereof were drawne gouerned by Angels in the likenes of young men cloathed in most pure and white garments At the first sight whereof standing amazed he drew neeres vnto them when vpon the sudaine they vanished away Heere vpon he came to S. Isidore whom hee found at the other plow seeing so much worke done beyond his expectation he fel downe at his seruants feete and cryed him pardon for so easily beleuing the false reportes his neighbours had made of him assuring himselfe of the trueth of the wordes which Saint Isidore had often told him to wit that how much time soeuer he spent in prayer the same was recompensed larglie in his worke by the handes of his sweete Sauiour and rather to the profite then any way to the lest hinderance or losse of his Maister And so he departed with confusion in himselfe and full of loue and reuerence towards his seruant As soone as his said maister was departed the Angels returned againe vnto the plowes and as they laboured they taught S. Isidore and instructed him in many mysteries of his faith accompanying him all that day vntill night going home with him also euen to his house whither when hee came he found a poore Pilgrime at his doore asking an almes of meate for the refreshing of his body who calling his wife and bidding her giue the Pilgrime some what to eate shee replyed sadly and said there was nothing in the house Hee bid her looke into the Potte for some Pottage and Flesh but she knowing that al was spent said there was assuredly none left and withall she tooke vp the Pot into her hands to shew that it was empty But behold a wonder for she felt the Pot heauy and lookeing thereinto found it full of very excellent Pottage Flesh where with she fed the Pilgrime liberally and with admiration acknowledge the miracle her husband in the meane time with drawing himselfe into an inner roome and falling to his praiers as his custome was The same night he being a sleepe the said Pilgrime appeared vnto him againe in the same habit that he had done before in the Euening and seemed to awake him and put vpon him a Pilgrims weede and sayling ouer the seas conducted him to the holy land whether when he was come he shewed him all the places of chiefe note where our Sauiour had taught preached was taken examined whipped condemned and lastlie suffered death for our sakes Which places S. Isidore semed to reuerence and greatly to adore with gust and affection of hart and afterward was presently conueyed backe to his own house where the Pilgrime tooke his leaue and departed Vpon a time in a great Frost and Snow one Iohn de Vargas a Farmer sent Saint Isidore to the Mill with a sacke of wheate to haue it ground to make bread for his family Saint Isidore tooke the sacke of corne early in the morning and
Rome that not without great difficulty could his body be buried euery one striuing to kisse his handes and for some relique of him some cutting his haire others his garments others euen his fingers ends He was put into a Coffin and laid in the Chappell of the Crucifix and from thence in the yeare of our Lord 1598. he was remoued to a more eminent place of the same Church finally the thirteenth day of May in the yeare 1605. he was solemnely translated with musicke and lights into the great Chappell of our Blessed Lady in the same Church and there placed in the wall neere the right side of the Altar This translation was caused by reason of the many miracles that it pleased out Lord to worke by him in diuers places and the multitude of people that came dayly to his Tombe to offer vp theire vowes which exceedingly increased the deuotion of the people and the concourse to his B. Reliques which was a thing so celebrated at Rome that Pope Paul the fifth in the month of SepteÌ„ber 1607. gaue order that an inquisition might be made of his life and miracles for his Canonization Among the many miracles that haue bene wrought by the intercessioÌ„ of Blessed Lewis there be forty and foure approued and recorded which he hath done in the State of CastilioÌ„ his owne proper Countrey and patrimony where his Image is placed on an Altar with twelue lamps before it continually burning besides the other innumerable lights which the people daily offer vnto his honour and before the same are hanged on the walles more then three hundred votiue Tablets offered in remembrance and for deuotion of his miracles Our Lord in diuers other places hath likewise shewed forth his wonders by the meanes of this blessed Saint rendring health to diuers dangerously sicke of feuers and other diseases restoring the blind to sight the deafe to hearing helping of women in the perill of child-birth with many others which are all at large recorded in the Booke of his life out of which I will only rehearse briefly these few that follow In the yeare 1593. his mother being in danger of her life hauing receaued the holy Sacraments of CommunioÌ„ and Extreme Vnction her sonne appeared resplendent and glorious vnto her with the comfort of whose presence she presently began to amend and in few dayes recouered her perfect health which was the first miracle that it pleased God to worke by him after his death The Duke of Mantua comming to Rome in the yeare 1605. visited with great deuotion the tombe of his Cosen Lewis and had there giuen him by his Brother Francis Gonzaga theÌ„ Embassadour for the Emperour a relique of his with which returning by Florence to Mantua he was taken with a grieuous paine in his knee which had long sorely vexed him to which applying this holy Relique of B. Lewis he was presently cured the which was testified by his owne letter written backe to Rome to the Marques his Brother He had likewise the guift of Prophesy foretould vnto his mother that his Brother Francis who was the youngest of his Brothers should be the Rayser vp and glory of their House which proued true as likewise diuers other things which he foretould Who seeth not in this life and admireth not the bounty and liberality of our Lord who had so filled with his grace this Blessed young man whome he made choiceof euen from his mothers wombe to render glorious both in heauen and earth How great spirit in so young age what recollection in so many troubles what mortifications in the miedest of pleasures and delightes what humility in greatnesse what misprise of all worldly thinges and earnest seeking after heauenly To what greater degree of perfection can a soule ariue in this life beyond the preseruatioÌ„ of the grace receaued in Baptisme theÌ„ not to feele in their body the tentations of the flesh not to suffer in prayer distractioÌ„s of thoughts and to liue on earth as an Angell in heauen All which vertues are apparaÌ„t to haue bene eminent in this blessed young maÌ„ whose life we all ought to imitate to the end that imitating his vertues we may be also made partakers of his rewards and merits He was Beatified by Pope Paul the fifth by whome leaue was also grauÌ„ted to say masse of him His feast is kept by the Fathers of the Society of Iesus with great solemnity plenary Indulgence and in the Diocesse of Mantua is for the most part kept holy THE LIFE AND VERTVES of B. Stanislaus Kostka of the Society of Iesus abridged out of his life written by Peter Rybadeneira and others of the same Society BLESSED Stanislaus was borne in the Kingdome of Polonia in the yeare of our Lord 1550. in a Castle of his ancestours called Kostkouo His Fathers name was Iohn Kostka his mothers Margaret Keysban both Illustrious and of the principall houses of that Kingdome but much illustrated by this that neuer any of that house was tainted with heresy Out of their family haue issued diuers Lords Palatines Electors Senators Captaines Bishops and other of great dignity in that kingdome God blest them with diuers children and amongst others with this Stanislaus who hauing laudably passed his infancy at home was â—â—â—t by his Father being the but thitteene yeares of age together with another of his Brothers elder then he to Vienna in Austria where the Emperour Maximilian at that time kept his Court for to study there in the Colledge of the Fathers of the Society of Iesus which was at that time very famous for the education of youth StaÌ„nislaus studied so diligently there being of an excellent wit that he surpassed all the rest of his School-fellowes of whome for his gentlenes modesty he was generally beloued Euery morning before he went to schoole and euery euening after he came from schoole he vsed to make his prayers in the Church of the Society He auoyded all ill company all conuersation with Libertines or any other thing that had not the odour of deuotion With all diligence he was a great louer of silence and neuer spake but what he had first well weighed considered He was modestly cheerfull and cheerfully modest affable He conuersed most willingly with those that were simple and sincere he was very compassionate and succoured to his power all those that were in neede or extremity he was euer the first vp of his school-fellowes in the morning he contented not himselfe with hearing one masse daily nor on feasts with fewer then all he could possibly heare He went meanely cladde and for all the cold season which in those parts is very bitter in the winter he neuer wore gloues nor would euer vse the helpe of any seruant vnlesse when he was commaunded by his maister or brother Almost all his Orations and Declamations that he made in the exercise of Eloquence were in the praise of the glorious Virgin Mary to whome he was singularly