wardlines both in mind and body sent him vnto the Catholike King Ferdinand his Court where after he had remayned a while amongst those young gallāts he betooke himselfe to Antony Manriques Duke of Najara and Viceroy of Nauarre liuing then in Pamplona a fayre and principall Citty of that Kingdome and there began to giue himselfe to the study and exercise of warlike affaires And when the said Citty was beseiged by an army of Frenchmen Ignatius who with other souldiers had vndertaken to defend the Castle as he was formost in the Conflict by meanes of a stone which a peece of Attillery strucke from off the wall hauing his left legge sore wounded and his right grieuously crusht broken fell downe halfe dead and indured afterwardes at home a long and painfull cure with such singular patience that all the house did wonder therat But when by Gods helpe he had begun to be some what eased of his griefe and had escaped all danger of death seing that he was yet longer to keepe his bed he desired to haue some prophane booke or other such as he was wont to read to passe the time withall which being not to be found in the house two other Spanish bookes were brought vnto him wherof one conteyned the life of Christ our Lord the other of his Saints With the reading of these bookes he was so vehemently inflamed that he determined frō thēceforth to change his life to follow the steps of Christ and his Saints and to goe to Hiecusalem that he might worship those holy places increase Gods holy spirit in the faithfull and conuert Infidells to imbrace his holy law and gospell Wherfore as soone as his woundes were healed he very much against his Brother Martin Garcia his will forsaking his country his parents all frayle and transitory things as one that hereafter meant to become a fouldier of Christ Iesus tooke his iourney to the Monastery of Montserat there hauing made a generall confession of his former life hanged vp his sword and dagger in the Church of the same Monastery putting on a longside coate of course cloath girded about him with a cord bare headed with a staffe in his hand all the night of the Vigill of the feast of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin watching before our blessed Ladies Altar sometimes standing sometimes vpon his knees asking pardon for his sinnes past he dedicated himselfe wholy to Gods holy seruice From thēce he went to a towne neere by called Manresa and tooke vp his lodging in the Hospitall of S. Lucy where in a certaine caue at the riuers side that runneth by those plaines he began to bring forth worthy fruits of pēnance leading a poore and austere life amongst poore and abiect people whom he daily serued euen in the basest employments of their necessities Hauing exercised himselfe in this place a good while in this schole of pennance and other vertues this Noble Pilgrime came to Rome in the yeare of our Lord. 1523. from whence as sonne as he had obtayned the Apostolicall ben diction which he receiued from Pope Adrian the Sixt that euen vpon Easter day he went first to Venice and afterwards to Hierusalem But when he had there visited those holy places being afraid that he could not conueniently stay and imploy himselfe in the saluation of soules in Palestine he returned into Spaine where to the intent that he might the better procure the spirituall good of his neighbours not withstanding he was now thirty yeares old first at Barcelona he studied Grammer then heard Philosophy and Diuinity in the Vniuersity of Alcala for the space of a yeare and halfe and after this againe at Paris he renewed all the same studies liuing all this while of almes yet neuer leauing off nor interrupting the workes of charity humility and pennance which he was accustomed before to doe At Paris he came acquainted with some others whom he persuaded to the same course of life and they all together made this vow that when their studies were ended all wordly things being despised they should go to Hierusalem and there giue themselues wholy to the saluation of soules by preaching teaching c. But if either within the space of a yeare there should be no fit opportunity to faile or that they should not be permitted to stay at Hierusalem that thē as being absolued from the aforesaid vow they should go to Rome and present their sernice vnto the Pope for the spirituall helpe of their neighbours But whē with ouer much studying and watching Ignatius had fallen into a grieuous disease of the stomacke by the appointment of the Physitians and his Companions aduise he returned into his Countrey in the yeare of our Lord 1535. and there in an hospitall of S. Mary Magdalen in begging his victuals from doore to doore and seruing of the poore he very carefully bestowed the space of three monthes when hauing recouered his health he went thence to Venice whither his companions also of set purpose were to come and in the same Citty receiued the holy Order of Priesthood and made a vow of Pouerty and Chastity before the Lord Verall Archbishop of Rosan who being then the Popes Legate was afterwardes created Cardinall Now the yeare which they had agreed vpon for their pilgrimage being expired and their sayling into the holy Land hindered by the breach of peace betweene the Turkes the Venetians Ignatius with his Company came to Rome in the beginning of the yeare of our Lord 1537. where being entertayned by Quirinus Garzonius a Citizen of Rome lodged in a certaine farme of his at the foot of mount Pincius he offered his seruice vnto the Pope with all readines possible to be imployed in procuring the saluatiō of his neighbours Meane while by instructing the ruder sort of people in the principles of Christian Faith and by other godly and landable liuing he founded and got confirmed his Order of the Society of Iesus for the defence and increase of the Carholike faith good of soules And albeit in the same Society he ordayned three solemne Vowes yet vnto those which are common to other Religious he added a fourth vow wherby he promised a peculiar and speciall Obedience to the Pope in vndertaking of missions euen vnto the Turkes and Infidells themselues wheresoeuer without taking any thing to beare their charges and in teaching children the Christian Doctrine This being done he wrote the Constitutions of the same Society which he afterwards being chosē Generall gouerned with very great praise both for wisedome and vertue And lastly after many labours and trauailes hauing receiued of the Pope his Apostolicall benediction with a plenary Indulgence of his sinnes calling vpon the Name of Iesus he piously reposed in our Lord at Rome the last day of Iuly in the yeare of our Lord 1556. being of the age of threescore and fiue yeares and sixteene yeares after the Society was confirmed by the sea Apostolike
and so begged his victuals in the ship slept in the open ayre aboue the hatches hauing a cable rope for his bed He was alwayes ready to helpe the sicke not only begging of those who had meate for such as wanted but with his owne hands also dressing and parting it amongst them thinking no scorne euen to wash their cloathes or do any other seruice were it neuer so base for them in whose persons this holy and prudent seruant of Christ acknowledged and reuerenced Christ himselfe Hauing spent all day in praying taking paines he vncessantly watched all night in comforting the afflicted and administring the Sacraments to such as were in danger of death Whervpon some were wont to say that the only thinge Francis tooke pleasure in next vnto prayer was seruing of the sicke And this was euer his fashion and manner of liuing not only in this but also in all other voyages he made by sea where in he spent a great part of his life Neither did this his charity towards poore and sicke persons shine only vpon the sea but also vpō land while he abode in Citties the beames of the same charity neuer lost one iot of their brightnes Nay rather being now made all with all that he might gaine and purchase the soules of all for God Almighty to those that either by reason of wealth or health had no need of this kind of seruice he was neuer wanting in other seruioe of no lesse importance for them when occasion was offered neuer sparing of labour which he was to bestow in furthering the saluation of his Neighbours When he arriued at the Indies after a long yeares sea-faring he would graunt no time of rest to his weather beaten body but presently began to fling about the fire which he came to cast into those Prouinces going vp and downe the Citty and calling together with a litle bell into some Church or other the children and people there teaching them the Christian Doctrine with such effieacy of spirit that it pierced euen to the bottome of their hearts like vnto the Doctrine of the Apostles He perswaded them all to sing the prayers he taught them vp and downe the streetes and to teach their friends acquaintance the same at home Which custome by him brought into the Indies to the great glory of God remayneth and is obserued there euen vntill this day Those that were come to yeares of discretion by all gentle meanes possible he inuited to confession pennance and neuer ceased with an vndaunted courage and many times with euident danger of his life venturing into strange and vncouth Proninces that often times barefoote with torne and beggailie apparell to call heathens to the true liberty of the sounes of God In which enterprize Almighty God did specially assist the indeauours of his seruant confirming euery where what he preached with miracles that were most notorious and like to those which the Apostles wrought and inwardly mouing the hearts of those that heard him in such sort that he conuerted and baptized many tho Lsandes and drew many out of the puddle of sinne not without many and troublesome iourneyes both by sea and land Many are the Kingdomes Prouinces and Ilāds through which the Legate of Heauen and of the Roman Sea went sowing the word of God And at lēgth as he was seeking entrance for the Ghospell into the great Kingdome of China this faithfull seruant quite bruised broken with the intollerable paines which beyond all humane force he had so long indured for the glory of God and altogether worne out and consumed with the heauenly burning desire he had to see Christ his Sauiour being now at last out of a desert I le named Sancianum called home vnto his country of Heauen to the marriage of the Lābe of God entred into the ioy which our Lord had prepared for him the second day of Decēber in the yeare of our Lord 1552. The vertues of this holy Apostle are very many and most Heroicall some wherof I shall heere recount The daily profession he made of his faith in receiuing of the Sacraments himselfe with wonderfull great deuotion and with no lesse paines ministring the same to others his heroicall workes his great and dangerous pilgrimages to preach the same faith to Barbarous and Sauage people and that alone without any humane helpe at all expressing and setting foorth so liuely in himselfe the purity and sanctity of the Euāgelicall Doctrine finally the abundance of the fruit which he hath sent out of those forraine countreies into the granaries of the Catholike Church to wit so many millions of Christians amōgst whom so many glorious martyrs haue watered and fertilized the Primitiue Church of those Countre with their blood and so many Confessours in the very middle of most cruel persecutions haue defended the faith of Christ are pregnant proofes of the excellency of that Euangelicall seed of Faith which he carried with him Fiue things he had in him which cannot possibly consist without a most firme and stedfast Hope First a cōtempt of all temporall things most manifestly seene in his despising of all worldly honours dignities and riches which the world in all abondāce did assure him of and imbracing an humble kind of life in religious purity vnder the yoke of obedience and that in the very flowre of his youth Secondly his voluntary sufferance of excessiue trouble labours miseries to the which by how much more grieuous they were so much more willingly did he expose himselfe as it most plainly appeareth in the whole discourse of his life Thirdly an vndaunted courage in attempting hard enterprises putting his very life so oftē in danger amōgst strange and barbarous people As for example when alone he encountred a whole army of Badagars which afterward I will rehearse amongst other miracles Fourthly a wonderfull great security in dangers in so much that in the middest of cares he was without care and without feare in the middest of feares ship wrackes enemies and many other miseries hanging many times ouer his very head Lastly an incredible ioy in aduersity which may be euidently proued by his continuall cheerfulnes of mind and readines of will wherby glorying with the Apostle in the hope of the sonnes of God he suffered so many labours and troubles so many perills and aduersities liuing iustly holily in this world and expecting the blessed hope and comming of Almighty God For the loue of God he most exactly and perfectly kept all his commaundements daily meditating vpō his sacred Law with a pure consciēce and great horrour of neuer so little transgressing or doing any thing against the same him selfe and neuer without great care that others should likewise obserue the same wherin as also in keeping his vowes of voluntary Pouerty Chastity and Obediēce he so excelled that he did not only thereby stop the aduersaries mouthes but by the mouthes and tongues of all not only of Christians
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
the Empire and Marques of the aboue named Castilion and of Martha Tana-Sanrenia no lesse Noble as the Inhabitāts about the Alpes can testify and vertuous as appeareth in that euen from the first day of her mariage she began to pray like another Anne not for feare of barrennes but for the glory of God that it would please our Lord to send her a sonne that in some Religion might wholy dedicate himselfe to his holy seruice And so it seemed that God Almighty therfore vouchsafed to sēd her this Samuel permitting him to haue a dangerous entrance into this world that he might the sooner marke him for his owne with the character of Baptisme which by the Phisitians aduise was giuē him before he was halfe come forth of his mothers wombe but the danger of this passage at lenght by theintercession of our B. Lady was taken away although for a space there remayned some feare and doubt whether he were aliue or dead For he lay still without mouing for the space of an houre whē to shew that he was aliue he gaue one little cry only so gaue ouer and neuer vsed to cry any more as other children are wont to doe a presage doubtlesse of his future behauiour and conditions which were alwayes most gentle mild and courteous After his mother had brought him vp in all piety and feare of God vnto the age of fiue yeares or thereabout his Father desiring to traine vp his sonne in warlike affaires frō his very cradle tooke him away with him to a towne called Casall the greater in the Territory of Milan where whensoeuer he mustered his souldiers he made him march before them in light armour with a little speare vpon his shoulder From hence the Marques his Father being to march with his army to Tunis a Citty in Afrike sent Lewis backe to Castilion where growing now towards seauen yeares of age at which time children begin to haue discretion to discerne betweene good bad he withdrew himselfe by little and little from the conuersation of souldiers and began to apply himselfe to the seruice of God saying euery day at home vpon his knees the prayers which are The Daily Exercise together with the seauen Penitentiall psalmes and the office of our Blessed Lady with so great feruour and care that he neuer omitted the same were he neuer so sicke and was wont to call that the time of his conuersion When the Marques came home and saw his sonnes warlike audacity changed into a pious and prudent modesty he reioyced exceedingly to see how wise and discret an heire he should haue to succeed him in the gouernement of his subiects But Lewis his intentions were leuelled at a farre higher marke which he was not afraid now and then to signify vnto his mother who albeit she desired nothing more then that one of her sonnes should become a Religious man yet was she halfe afraid to heare her eldest sonne and heire talke of taking that course of life much more to persuade him to it Not long after the Marques vpon some occasion going to visit the Duke of Florence tooke both Lewis and his younger brother with him and there set them both to schoole to the end that in that Great Dukes court they might not only learne good manners but other sciences also Lewis at the age of nine yeares being left there by his father began to exercise himselfe in all kinde of vertues especially of Chastity and purity wherof out of the great deuotion he had conceaued towards our Blessed Lady he made a vow to keepe the same perpetually before an Image of hers which the whole Citty hath in great deuotion He heard Masse euery day and besides masse vpon holy dayes he alwayes was present at Euensong And although he knew not yet how to meditate yet the neuer let passe the dayly Exercise and other Offices which we haHe spoken of before rising to say them euery morning as soone as it was day Heere finally he began to wayne himselfe from all kinde of pleasures and pastimes eschewing all conuersation that might giue him occasion to speake the least idle word for he had now begun to frequent the Sacrament of Pennance with much feruour And so euer after he was wont to call Florence the mother of his piety and deuotion Two yeares being now past in Florence Lewis and his brother taking their leaue of the great Duke with Order from the Marques went to liue at Mantua where he came to take so great delight in abstinence and fasting which was for a time prescribed him for the health of his body that afterwardes to the great domage of the same he could not be dissuaded from vsing still the same medicine for the good of his soule Here now as he began to thinke with himselfe how he might make all his inheritance ouer to his Brother and take vpon himselfe an Ecclesiasticall kind of life being called home from the heates of Mantua at the age of twelue yeares he receiued of our Lord the gift of prayer and contemplation and by aduise of Saint Charles Borromeus Cardinall then visiting that Diocesse he began to frequent the holy Communion with exceeding great deuotion But his stomacke now with praying and fasting was growne so weake that he was scarce able to disgest any meate at all Wherfore his Father sent for him to Montserrat to see if by any meanes he could draw him a little from that austerity that he might recouer his health But Lewis there for the space of halfe a yeare could take pleasure in nothing but in his former exercises vsing for his pastime only to visit holy places and Monasteries flying from the conuersation of all but Religious mē by whose examples he was so efficaciously moued that he fully purposed to take vpon him some Religious habit or other although being not yet full thirteene yeares old he had not yet determined of what Order he would be In the meane time being returned home againe with his Father to Castilion he went forward exceedingly in all kind of vertues especially in extraordinary abstinence and mortification From hence not long after as he trauailed into Spaine in company of his Father and other noble Italians he neuer omitted his accustomed contemplations and holy Exercises But he so behaued himselfe for the space of two yeares and more that he liued in the King of Spaines Court that no Prouerbe was so much in the mouthes of the chiefest Coutiers as that the yonger Marques of Castilion seemed not to be made of flesh and bloud Such progresse had he made in the contempt of all worldly honours and pleasures Heere how Lewis being at the age of fifteene yeares and an halfe began to feele in himselfe so ardent a desire of forsaking the world that after many dayes commending the matter to God Almighty in his prayers it pleased his diuine Maiesty by a voyce from heauen to giue him a particular vocation to the Society
Cardinalls VpoÌ„ the report of his death the whole Citty came flocking to kisse his hands feete and among others the Viceroy with all the Nobility and kings officers the Ecclesiasticall and Religious meÌ„ After dinner his body was carried into the Church with much adoe to passe through the presse of people it was laid vpon a hearse All the Religious Orders came to sing the office of the dead the Dominicans Mercedes Franciscans Augustines Trinitarians Minimes with their Superious and Prouincialls as also the whole Chapter of Chanons and all the Priests Pastours of the towne Incredible it is to one that did not see it what a multitude there was of those who came to touch his body with their beades or to get some little peece of his garment for Reliques of sicke folkes who came to touch him in so much that sixe of the Society and two Fathers of S. Dominicke who affoarded their helpe were not sufficient to reach the beades and meddalls wrapped in haÌ„dkerchiffes and throwne by the people that could not come neere to haue them touch his body The Office of the dead being said as the custome is there was made a short SermoÌ„ only to declare vnto the people some few particulars of his life during which time no man presumed to couer his head in presence of the holy Corps though the Church was as full as it could thrust all as deuout and silent as if there had beene no man there The next day being Friday he was most soleÌ„nely interred in the Church of the Society wherat the foresaid Viceroy Nobility Ecclesiasticall Regular were againe present as also the Lord Bishop who the day before was sicke and could not be present The Masse was song with Organs musicke and other significations of deuotion At the same instant that he was carried to be buried a yong man who by reasoÌ„ of a thin skinn couering his eyes caused a great dimnes was almost become blind came full of hope to the holy Brothers Hearse kneeling downe kissing his handes presently all the paine ceased and the little skinne which before couered the ball of his eyes falling away he receiued his sight most perfectly And to the end that some there present might open the eyes of their mindes shut with incredulity Blessed Alphonsus opened also his owne eyes which death had closed a thing no lesse admirable then profitable that might conceaue a great opinion of his holines whom almighty God did honour with so great miracles For a certaine Priest amongst the rest not being very well contented to see the Viceroy and all the Senate one after another to kisse the Blessed Brothers hands yet least he might giue offence by omitting that duety which all others did performe resolued with himselfe not to kisse the holy mans hands as others did but comming with the rest to kisse the crosse which he held in his hands therby intending to conceale his thoughts from the standers by which yet he could not doe from the dead man For as soone as he came neere to the astonishment of all the dead man opening his eyes cast them with a smiling countenance vpon the Priest stretching out his hand seemed to inuite him to kisse it The Priest astonished presently with great reuereÌ„ce kissed the same and departed thence and wholy became another maÌ„ The same day a child was healed of a rupture by the only touch of a peece of his cassock The same time also a sucking child was cured of a vehement ague wherof it lay desperate whose throat being stopped with a great swelling in the iawes it had not sucked for 4. dayes therfore a certaine gentlewoman hauing confidence of supernaturall helpe encouraged the parents of the child and applying an handkerchiffe wherwith she had touched the holy mans body recouered the child presently that there remained not so much as any signe of infirmity Two dayes after Blessed Alphonsus his death there came a woman afflicted with many grieuous infirmities and diseases and among the rest with a dangerous bloudy fluxe in so much that there being no hope of her life a Father was called to assist her at her death Before the Father came she was past sense hauing turned vp the white of her eyes ready to giue vp the ghost when on the suddaine a peace of B. Alphonsus his cassocke being applyed by the Father she cried out that she was cured Her fluxe ceased the ague weÌ„t away in so much that one might doubt whether was first the Reliques applied or she healed As sonne as she was come to her selfe she made her Confession to the Father with the same ioy of mind wherwith she had receaued her corporall health Being thus restored to the health both of body and minde she liued after with much deuotion towards him by whose meanes she receyued it Some 4. daies after his funeralls another womaÌ„ being desperatly sicke of an ague which came euery day vpon her with a great head-ach made recourse to God sending her little Sonne of 7. yeares old to say his beades at B. Alphonsus his Tombe and to touch the Tombe therewith the child did so returning home his mother tooke the beades touching her head put theÌ„ about her necke the paine presently ceased God Almighty recompencing the childes prayer the mothers deuotion and confidence with restoring her health and by and by she falling a sleepe saw B. Alphonsus compassed with a great light who for the accomplishment of the benefit restored also her strength so as she presently rising out of her bed as well as stronge as euer before began with all her forces to singe his prayses by whose intercession she had obtayned that benefit Another womaÌ„ hauing a sore breast extremly swolne and hardened for the space of two monethes had in vaine tried all humane remedies who being wonderfully encouraged by the example of others began to haue hope in Alphonsus and laid a peece of his cloacke to her brest saying a Pater noster which before she had ended the swelling began to be asswaged the corruption to breake forth in such abouÌ„dance that she begaÌ„ to feare least all her breast being inwardly putrified would fall away which feare increased the miracle and the miracle the ioy For two dayes after both the holes of the vlcer were so growne vp that there remayned not so much as any marke therof out of the same briest hauing two dayes before come such aboundance of corruption now the third day there came forth milke as good and pure as euer before by which miracle the mother was preserued from death and her yong suckinge child from staruing These miracles recouÌ„ted are testified by the disposition of sworne witnesses Many other things be daily related which shall after be publshed for God seemeth to haue set vp this holy Brother as a light to the world who also 〈…〉 the same before by his veâ—tues The generall deuotion of the people doth witnes it sufficieÌ„tly who from morning to night neuer cease comming some offering caÌ„dles others making vowes and the like in so much that he seemeth to liue in his sepulcher such are the wonders he worketh A man may ghâ—sse of what saÌ„ctity he was in his life which being dead causeth such deuotioÌ„ in the people that resort vnto him and he recoÌ„peÌ„seth their reares by graÌ„ting their desires That you may expect many the like things hereafter I will briefly recount one worthy of a large relatioÌ„ Some dayes before his death as he lay in his bed thinking on the heaueÌ„ly felicity which was prepared for him from all eternity he began to taste of those delights so much the more purely and aboundaÌ„tly as being abstracted from sensible things he drew neerer to Almighty God who represented vnto his mind the kingdome of Maiorea as he did the whole world to S. Benet in a beame of light adding these words Doest thou see this kingdome I haue resolued to make tâ—ee famous in â—â— by Working of many miracles by meanes of thy prayers And we already hoping of this promise I conclude wishing that whosoeuer hath beene stirred vp to admiration by these may likewise be stirred vp to deuotioÌ„ to this Holy maÌ„ that as the better part of him doth liue immortally in heauen he may also in some sort liue still immortally with vs on earth For the Diuine Goodnesse hath seemed to determine with itselfe so to recoÌ„pence the Deuotion of Holy Alphonsus Rodriquez that as in his life he made him a patterne of Religious perfectioÌ„ for the example of others so now being dead for the glory of himselfe his Saints he maketh him woÌ„derfull to the world causing many to haue confideÌ„ce in his patronage that being departed hence he may not haue lesse Honour by this coÌ„fidence in his sanctity then whiles he remayned heere aliue he had gayned by the opinion of the same His body lyeth buried at Maiorca in the Church of the Fathers of the Society in the same Iland the which is so honoured by all the InhabitaÌ„ts therof that it is wonderfull to see and the dayly and certaine miracles wrought therat are already sufficient to make a whole volume His memory is very famous all ouer Europe and his Picture is exposed to be publikely reuerenced with licence of the Popes Holines in many Churches and Oratories therby to put vs in remembrance of that saying of the Holy Prophet Mirabilis Deus in sanctis suis God is wonderfull in his Saints To whose prayers and merits let all good Christians commend themselues Amen Laâ—s Deo FINIS APPROBATIO HORVM SanctoruÌ„ Vitae ex alijs linguis in Anglicam à D. Eduardo Kinesman versae tutò cum fructu edi possunt Audomarop 27. Maij M. DC XXIII Ioan. Floydus Soc. Iesu Theologus
corner so as he might reach vnto the holy body cut off a finger from S. Isidore with intention to carry the same away and hauing put it vp into his pocket and beginning to close vp the Tombe againe that the thieft might not be perceaued he was suddainly there arested and made so immoueable that he could not styr afoote Wherupon fearing exceedingly to be discouered and punished for fact he tooke the finger and put it to the ioynt from which he had cut it and it instantly fastned therto againe and thereupon he was presently set at liberty and so closing vp the sepulcher departed giuing God and S. Isidore thankes that no worse euill had happened vnto him being also very sory for the rash attempt which he had put in practice There haue happened many times great Drouthes in those partes for want of rayne which hath caused such barrenesse of the ground that the people haue bene ready to starue for want of corne but by carrying S. Isidores sacred body in procession the said drouth hath presently ceased and raine hath so watered the earth that it hath become presently feuitefull And all the husbandmē in Spaine haue taken this holy Saint for their peculiar Patron and doevse euen vntill these daies whensoeuer they sowe corne to pray vnto S. Isidore and call vpon him to blesse the same offering a candle or some such like gift vnto his sepulcher by whose intercession they hope to haue a happy haruest and their piety in this kind is very seldome frustrated Certaine Gentlemen of Spaine trauayling on a time by Coach and passing a very straite and narrow way vpon the side of a rocky hill the horses beinge furious and their footing slippery they fell downe drawing the Coach with the people in it after them into a mighty precipice who seeing the imminent danger cried for helpe to S. Isidore and presently the horses and Coach staied hanging vpon the side of the rocke as it were in the ayre vntill the people all got out and saued themselues to the number of 18. persons and afterward drew vp the horses and Coach without any further hurt For this so euident a miracle they all gaue God and S. Isidore thankes and sent donaries to his Tombe in testimony of the same The Angelicall Musicke and celestiall harmony which hath bene often heard at his sepulcher is wonderfull in so much that infinite people haue witnessed the same hauing bene hearers therof to their great astonishment His apparitiōs to many haue bene very illustrious as may be read at large in the History of his life and in particular he appeared once to Alfonsus King of Castile who making warre vpon the Moores obtained a miraculous victory by his intercessiō merits As also he appared in a visiō at another time to one that lay sicke and was berest of all hope of life by the Phisitians bidding him take comfort and haue confidence in God for that he should recouer and so presently he became wel and receaued againe his perfect health And to conclude the benefits which many haue receaued by the infinite miraculous Cures done at his sepulcher are so many and great that a whole volume might be witten therof For there are recounted aboue twenty blind persons to haue receaued their perfect sight many dease dūbe to haue recouered their hearing and speach many crooked lame and deformed to haue receaued perfect strēght and comlynes of body many sick of the palsy to haue receaued perfect cure and infinit others to haue bene deliuered from all kind of infirmity wherwith they haue bene oppressed Finally the late famous miracle wrought vpon the person of the late King of Spaine Philip the third is testified by thousands of eye-witnesses that were present at the same The substance wherof in brief was this In the yeare of our Lord 1619. the said King of famous memory going a Progresse into Portugall to visit that kingdome together with the Prince and his other Children after he had bene receaued with most noble and magnificent Triumphs as well in Lisbone as other places in his returne to Madrid fell very dangerously sicke of a hoar pestilent feuer or Taberdillo wherby he was in eminent danger of Death and almost despaired of by his Phisitians The court nobility were strocken into feare at this suddaine chance and this dangerous infirmity of their King was recommended to the prayers and deuotion af all the people especially of Religious Orders but he cōtinuing so 2. or 3. dayes with out signe of amendment desired to haue the holy Reliques of S. Isidore brought vnto him with all his force and strēgth of body and mind humbly commending himselfe vnto him and his merits that therby it would please God he might recouer his health he presently felt himselfe much better the feuer relenting and within a few daies after became perfectly well As soone as he had recouered he began to thinke how he might honour the Saint by rendering him thankes for so singular a benefit and presētly determined to procure with all endeauour his Canonizatiō therby to haue him the more knowne honoured throught the world but the death of Pope Paulus V. as his owne also ensuing soone after the busines was differred yet on his death-bed did he seriously commend the same to Philip the fourth his Sonne the now present King of Spaine by whose intercession to the Sea Apostolicke he was with the greatest honour and solemnity that perhaps hath euer bene made in that kind canonized for a Saint by Pope Gregory the XV. the 12. day of March in the yeare of our Lord 1622. in S. Peters Church at Rome that thereby his memory might be famous to posterity His body being taken vp the second time and put into a costly Shrine 450. yeares after his death was found wholy vncorrupt sending forth a most pleasant and sweet smell to the astonishment of all Spaine and so remayneth euen vntill this day His life is written elegantly and at large in Spanish Verse by Lopes de Vega Carpio Secretary to the Marques of Sarria by F. Peter Ribadeneyra D. Alfonsus Villegas in their Excrauagants and others His feast is celebrated by many vpon the 12. day of march on which he was canonized THE LIFE OF THE HOLY Patriarch S. Ignarius of Loyola Authour and Founder of the Society of Iesus Taken out of the most part of the Authenticall Relation made in Consistory before Pope Gregory the 15 by Cardinal de Monte vpon the 19. day of Ianuary 1622. a little before his Cannization and translated into English IGNATIVS Loyola was borne in that coast of Spaine which belongeth to the Mount Pyraeneus in the towne of Aspeythia within the Dioecese of Pamplona the yeare of our Lord 1491. of Bertram Loyola and Mary Sanchez both noble Catholikes and godly parents who in like godlines brought vp their sonne and in the first flowre of his youth as one that was of an excellent to
difficulty to bury him which at last they found meanes to doe in a woodden Coffin in an humble graue at the foote of the High Altar But wheÌ„ Cardinall Pamphilius had vnderstood thereof he was much displeased therwith that a man so famous and illustrious for miracles both aliue dead should be laid in so humble a place therfore dealt seriously with the Fathers of the same Congregation to remoue him who consulting the busines with Cardinall Medices he was taken vp and put into a newfaire Coffin which the said Cardinall had caused to be made and placed in a more decent place at one side of the High Altar with an Arch made ouer the body wherat miracles were wrought so frequently that the walls about were presently hung with votiue Tables and such a most sweet smell as it were of Roses and violets was daily felt to proceed from his body as was wonderfull After some yeares that the holy Body had laine in this place and so many miracles were daily wrought therat a noble cittizen of Florence who had obtained a Sonne by the prayers of S. Philip caused a most sumptuous and gorgeous chappell to be erected neere to the right side of the high altar wherto his body was translated there remaineth to this day and is reuerenced with great deuotion of the whole Christian world He was canonized for a Saint the 12. day of March by Pope Gregory the fifteeÌ„th in the yeares of our Lord 1622. THE ADMIRABLE LIFE of S. Charles Borromeus Archbishop of Milan and Cardinall WritteÌ„ in Italian by Doctour Guissano of the Order of Oblates of S. Ambrose in Milan and translated in to English SAINT Charles was borne in the yeare of our Lord 1538 the 2. day of October Paul the 3. being Pope Charles the 5. being Emperour His father was called Gilbert Borromeus his mother Margaret de Medices sister germane to Pope Pius the 4. not inferior to other Lords of MilaÌ„ eyther for religioÌ„ or for antiquity of their family and nobility Our Lord entending to decl are that he had designed this child for the honor and increase of the Catholike Church it pleased his diuine Maiesty to honour his birth with a strange and wonderfull signe For in the same momeÌ„t wherin he was borne there appeared ouer his mothers bed chamber a light like vnto the beames of the sunne and as long as a crosbow can well carry which was attentiuely considered by sundry persons that beheld the same foretelling by this vnusuall light the spleÌ„dor and heroicall acts as also the holy and irreprehensible conuersation of S. Charles Many were the arguments which he gaue of his future sanctity being yet a little child as to erect and adorne litle Altars before which he made his prayer and other like exercises of deuotion And it is almost incredible how much this little soule tooke delight and contentment therin Which being coÌ„sidered by his Parents seemed to presage no other thing of him but that he was especially called of God to an Ecclesiasticall estate for which cause they clothed him in the habit of a Cleark which he receiued whore the same so inyfully as it seemed they had in this fully accomplished his desire His vertues increased in him together with his yeares wher of he gaue most rare testimony studying in the Vniuersity of Padua where neuer any heard word to issue from his mouth which sauoured not of vertue and edification he was exceeding patient sweet peaceable modest and huÌ„ble so that none euer saw him arrogaÌ„t neuer in any choler neuer addicted to pleasures or any youth full leuity During his studies he had for maister and conductor one Alciatus who was Cardinall vnder whome he made so great profit that at the age of 22. yeares he was with the generall applause of all adorned with the title of Doctor Pius the 4. Vncle to Charles being made Pope in the yeare 1559. he â—ent for him vnto Rome and created him Cardinall Archbishop of MilaÌ„ giuing him charge not only of affaires concerning the gouernment of that Sea but also honored him with suÌ„dry titles of most rich and wealthy dignities Being placed therein although he were set in the highest degree of honor yet he neuer omitted to instruct and teach by his wholsome examples the Prouinces as well neere at hand as far off pursuing the affaires of his charge faithfully with singular prudence to the incredible contentment of euery one Amongst many affaires of importance which were effected and brought to happy end by his labour and industry one that of chiefest moment was the concluding and finishing of the Councell of Trent the which Pope Paul the 3. had begun in the yeare 1537. to withstand and suppresse the wicked heresies of Luther Caluin Zuinglius and other seducers but could not haue it ended for sundry difficulties which occured wherof Pope Pius the 4. hauing once againe vndertakeÌ„ the pursuite he gaue the first chiefest charge therof vnto his nephew Charles as to one most zealous in this affaire wherein he trauelled with such solicitude vigilancy and feruour of courage as none but himselfe could so well haue effected a busines so intricate as that was The Councell being ended himselfe was the first who his Vncle holding yet the soueraigne Sea put in practise the execution of those decrees in his owne bishoprick of Milan and other Bishops moued therto by his exemple did the like by meanes wherof many kingdomes and Prouinces in Christendome increased incredibly in the seruice of God and in Catholike piety but the greatest fruite remained in the Church of MilaÌ„ where this holy Pastour desirous to reforme his cleargy and people began first with his own person then with his house and family dismissing out of his seruice all such persons as seemed to him lesse profitable to his desine to the nuÌ„ber of no lesse then fourescore yet first recoÌ„pensing them all well retaining the Cleargy men of who me he hoped for good exemple and assistance in that which concerned the reformation of his Church of Milan The Catholike Church hath receaued an immortall benefit by the meanes of this holy man for none so much watched and solicited as he to bring into vse the ancient custome to hold Prouinciall and Diocesan councells according to the decree of the councell of Trent For in the space of â— yeares that he resided in Milan he held six Prouinciall councells and eleuen Sinodes of the diocese wherin he instructed his subiects with so many documents and good exaÌ„ples that the new order of the Church of MilaÌ„ did illustrate all especially the adioyning seas For proofe of his zeale charity and liberality we may looke vpon the many Churches Chappels Altars which he eyther builded or repaired as also sundry Colledges and Seminaries which he erected for the education and instruction of youth who should afterwards trauell in the vineyard of Iesus Christ In Milan he built a
satisfy doubts and answere all obiections She had an extraordinary guift in healing of the sick of all infirmities by her prayers and working other miracles so vsually as I may say familiarly as it seemed our Lord neuer denied her any thing that she requested of him The aged weake body of this holy woman almost spent and worne out with continuall trauell frō one Monastery to another being now at Burgos and foreseing her end approaching which she had prophesied 8. yeares before hastened towards Auila where she was borne desiring to end her daies therein her first owne House But reposing as she trauelled at the house of the Duchesse of Alua she was enforced there to make stay partly by her importunity as also by reason of a feuer she had which continued with her increased so incessantly that at the end of three dayes hauing receaued all the rites of the Holy Catholike Church recommended her selfe to God with many deuout prayers and giuen many holesome precepts and admonitions to those that were present to their great cōfort edification with a ioyfull and peaceable serenity of mind she sweetly yeelded vp her soule to her beloued spouse Sauiour vpon the 4. day of October being the feast of S. Francis in the 68. yeare of her age 47. of her being religious It pleased our Lord to shew the holines of this Saint by some signes at her death by many miracles after For at the instant of her death a certaine Religious woman saw two starres to descend vpon her Cell Another sister saw a bright starre shinning ouer her Monastery another starre at the window of the chamber where she died A Religious man in Valladolid saw at the instant of her death the heauens open and a glorious way prepared wherby a soule ascended The prioresse of Segouia smelt in her Cell a most sweet odour at the instāt of her death with an extraordinary light Another Prioresse in Paris saw our Sauiour ascend to heauen with great glory many Angells with him Another sister saw a white doue to ascend frō her mouth All her Conuent at the instant saw a great light and felt a very sweet smell fillinge the house as also from her habit and all things that she had touched The body of this holy Saint lying faire fresh and liuely as though she had bene yet liuing a certaine Religious mā came and touched with her handes his head and eyes and presently recouered of two infirmities which he had in those parts Another Religious woman kissing her seete recouered her smelling which she had lost And that night after her death she appeared to diuers Religious persons After that her body had bene by many and with great deuotiō visited she was with great sollemnity due reuerence enterred Her habit and all things that she vsed be kept still in Alua with great reuerence for holy Reliques and many miracles haue bene wrought by them This holy Saint appeared to diuers after her death and first to one Mother Antonetta in Granada she wing her the glory that she was in and encouraging her in her vertuous course of life Also to a Religious woman in Auila she appeared in great glory She appeared also in Segouia with a sweet odour in the midest of the Quier with a rich crowne on her head And to the Earle of Osorne to the Bishop and diuers others there The miracles after her death were many As the miraculous incorruptiō of her body The pleasant odour and sweetnes therof filling the place where it was kept as also of her habit cloathes and all things she had touched By which being religiously kept many of sundry infirmities were healed Also there was a pretious oyle or liquor that distilled continually from her body and frō euery small part therof though separated a sunder whereby many miracles were done as appeareth by one of her hāds that was carried by the Prouinciall of her Order to Lisbone and by one of her fingers at Malaga Also a linnē cloth died with her bloud continued pure and fresh wherby many miracles were done in diuers places and in diuers manners Don Aluarez de mendoza Bishop of Alua hauing in his life time built a faire chappell with a Tombe therin for himselfe an by a fore-contract with the Prouinciall of her Order another by it for this holy Saint and hearing now of her death and buriall made suite iointly with the people of the towne to the Prouinciall for her body which not being obtayned she was translated to Auila in the moneth of Nouēber 1585. with great sollemnity and ioy But the Duke of Alua and Ferdinand of Toledo Prior of S. Ihons made suit to Pope Sixtus V. for her returne to Alua where she died which he graunted and so with greater ioy and applause she was brought back to Alua the 23. of August 1586. where she remayneth and God by meanes of this his seruāt doth worke many miracles euen to this present as is daily seene by those that be deuout vnto her and frequent her sepulcher the which hath bene adorned enriched with many great guiftes and pretious Iewells of many of the greatest Princes and Religious Bishops and Persons of Spaine and Christendome And after all due diligence and examinations of her life and miracles made as in such cases appertayneth she was Canonized for a Saint by Pope Gregory the XV. vpō the 12. of March 1622. But her feast is celebrated vpon the 4. day of October To rehearse the manifold exāples in euery of her seuerall vertues the frequent apparitions of our Blessed Sauiour and other Saints her visiōs raptes and miracles accordinge to the truth thereof and her desert I should neuer be able to say inough all the aforesaid thinges being so certaine and so well knowne in Spaine as they be yet fresh in memory and many are yet liuing that knew her well and were present and eye witnesses to all that which is here writtē of her And he that shall read her life written by herselfe at the commaūd of her Ghostly Father trāslated lately into English and also her life writtē by Brother Ihon of S. Ierome and Brother Ihon of Iesus Maria of her owne Order from whence this is extracted may be there further satisfied with examples in euery kind these things being heere only touched for breuity sake as a taste out of aboundance God graunt that we following her heauenly documents instructions imitating hervertuous life may by her intercession merit to come to that heauenly glory which she with her deerespouse Iesus now enioyeth Amen THE LIFE AND VERTVES OF Blessed Lewis Gonzaga of the Society of Iesus taken out of his history written at large by Virgilius Ceparius of the same Order BLESSED Lewis Gonzaga was borne in that part of France which lyeth beyōd the Alpes at the Chastle of Castilion in the Diocese of Brixia in the yeare of our Lord 1568. of Ferdinand Prince of
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
these ten yeares past by order of his Superiours giuen the account of his conscience in writing He had great coniunction with the Angells and Saints with whome he conuersed both in heauen and earth and especially with 24. of the more principall amongst whome he deuided the 24. houres to treate and recommend himselfe vnto them wherin he neuer fayled though in the night and in his sleepe awaking duly at the beginning of euery houre to performe his accustomed deuouotion which diligence of his our Sauiour recompensed by discouering vnto him his glory wherin he saw more perfectly and knew all 〈◊〉 B◠in Heauen their names and all particulers as if he had conuersed with them all his life time From his very infancy he bare so extraordinary and tender deuotion towards the Blessed Virgin at whose hands he receiued many fauours that one time discoursing and recreating as it were with her he said O Queene of heauen I loue thee more then my selfe I loue thee more then thou louest me The motherly affection of the Blessed Virgin could hould no longer but appearing presently she made answere vnto him No no Alphōsus it is not so I loue the more then thou louest me His familiarity with the Blessed Virgin and her Sōne was such as is wont to be betweene friends one to another or as of a little child with his father and mother and indeed he esteemed them for such who affoarded him often their corporall presence he spake vnto them but once especially when they entred into his heart with such deuotion sweetnes that he caused the same effectinall those that did heare him whome he exhorted wholy to forget themselues only to delight in his sweet Louers Iesus and Mary for so he was wont to call them because they would be carefull both of body and soule For 40. yeares together he dayly said the Office of the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Lady to which mystery he was much deuoted and the Blessed Virgin one day tould him that she was very much pleased with his deuotion which he did exhort all the Society dayly to practise telling them that one of the principall reasons of the Institution of the Society was to preach and defend the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Lady And this he said with so great affection that he neuer vsed the like feruour therby assuring them that he spake it nor of himselfe but had recaued it by reuelation from heauen The continuall vse of his beades as was found after his death had caused an extraordinary hardnes in his fingars ends I omit an infinite number of things which might be said of his rare vertues of his admirable lights and diuine fauours remitting the Reader to the history of his life which without doubt is one of the most rare and perfect amongst the liues of those Saintes which haue receaued extraordinary fauours from almighty God and will briefly recount his last sicknes death and buriall though from the very beginning of the 47. yeares which he liued in the Colledge of Maiorca our Lord exercised him in all sortes of paines as well diuers persecutiōs of the diuell which vexed him for many yeares as corporall infirmities grieuous sicknes wherwith he visited him from time to time yet he seemeth to haue made choice of the last 7. yeares wherin besides those infirmities which ordinarily accompany old age he began to be extremely troubled with the stone which caused him to keepe his bed continually and the three last monethes of his life to lye only vpon one side being not able to turne himselfe He spent all his time in prayer begging earnestly of almighty God not that he would mitigate or take away his paines but rather he would augment them and lay vpon him others more grieuous His ordinary complaints in his sicknes were that there was too much care had of him who desired rather altogether to be forgot or detested as a carion or dead beast Whē the Rectour once bad him take a few conserues of sweetmeates to comforte him he answered Belieue me Father those sweet things are paines vnto me and these paines sweetnes which he vsually also answered to those who asked him how he did By reason of great familiarity and conuersation with his Father and mother Iesus Mary he spake vnto them with great affection those wordes which he had learned of our Sauiour himselfe O Iesus and Mary my only comforts grant me that I may suffer and die for your loue and that I may be wholy yours and not mine owne Once when he could scarcely speake the Infirmarian asking what troubled him he answered Nothing but selfe loue Some few dayes before his happy death he was taken with such a vehement ague that renewing all his paines it seemed God would take him away within one houre in which time he did nothing but repeate these wordes Yet more good Lord yet more Therfore he receaued the B. Sacrament which for many yeares he had receaued twice a weeke for his Viaticum with his accustomed deuotiō as also the Sacrament of Extreme Vnction still begging of God with inuincible patience to increase his paines He bare such extraordinary respect to the Fathers that whē he could scarce stirre his armes yet he would alwayes when any came to him pull off his night cap. Vpon Saturday in the euening being the 29. of October almighty God performing that which he had promised him before he fell into an extasy much like to those which he had diuers times the yeare before in which he perseuered the three last dayes of his life And although his sicknes had disfigured his body yet after his extasy he became as beautifull as an Angell and as red as a Rose which were certaine proofes of the great flame which burned in his brest brake out by those exteriour signes and exclamations which he vttered from time to time O sweet Iesus O my deare mother and the like About ten a clocke in the night hauing giuen some signe of death approaching all the house came vnto him they oftē repeating the name of Iesus and giuing him a Crucifix to adore he presently opened his eyes which for three dayes before he had kept shut and looking vpon the Crucifix they perceaued thē to be more quicke and liuely then when he was in best health And with this kissing the feete of the Crucifix and saying O sweet Iesus he gaue vp the Ghost the Eue of All-Saints about midnight in the yeare of our Lord 1617. The rare vertue of this holy Brother was in such esteeme that not only those of this Prouince but also those of Italy Cast le And alusia Portugall and the Indies haue sent to Maiorca with earnest intreaty for some of his Reliques Many wrote vnto him cōmending themselues to his prayers only to haue his name written with his owne hand as graue Ecclesiasticall and Secular men Gētlemen of great note Grandies of Spaine
which very much confirmeth the veneratiou of holy Images and pictures In the yeare of our Lord 1603. in Vall dolid a principall Cirty of Spaine one Ferdinand Pretel of Mendoza vpon the 29. day of September had fallen into a single Tertian ague which not many days after came doubling and doubling so long vpō him till at last it was turned into a pestilēt feuer which some call the blacke ague the Spaniards Taberdillo and fot all the Phisicke he tooke in great abundance it brought him at length to so desperate a case that now quite and cleane beinge giuen ouer of the Phisitians he made his confession receiued the Blessed Sacrament and desired that in due time he might haue the Sacramēt of Extreme Vnctiō All which things done the third day of December holding in his hands an Image of S. Ignatius which he had hanging about his necke he called vpon him with a lowd voice and with all his heart commended himselfe vnto him that he might obtaine his health when vpon the sodaine he began to be well and was deliuered from his disease hauing his strength restored him againe in such sort that the thirteenth day of the same moneth he made nine daies iourney frō Valladolid to Valentia through cold and craggy mountaines in the very hart of winter These and multitudes of other miracles being daily seene and wrought throughout Europe together with the Intercession of many Christian Kings and Princes to the sea Apostolike for further declaration of his Sanctity to the world he was by Pope Paul V. beatified in the yeare of Christ 1613. and his feast kept solemne with great deuotion and concourse of people to the Colledges of the Society throughout Christendome And Pope Gregory the XV. being assumpted to the chaire of S. Peter being moued with the foresaid miracles many new ones daily wrought being also thervnto incited at the request of Ferdinand the Emperour of Philip the fourth King of Spaine Lewis the XIII King of France Sigismond King of Polomia the Archdukes of Austria Dukes of Bauaria Sauoy Florence Parma Mantua and others he was Canonized for a Saint in S. Peters Church at Rome vpon the 12. day of March in the yeare of our Lord God 1622. THE LIFE OF S. FRANCIS Xauier of the Society of Iesus and Apostle of the Indies taken also out of the authenticall Relation made in Consistory by Cardinall de Monte the 19. of Ianuary 1622. before Pope Gregory the XV. vpon the Acts of his Canonization c. FRANCIS Xauier was borne in that part of Nauarre which belongeth vnto Spaine in the yeare of our Lord 1497. in the Castle of Xauier of noble Parents to wit Iohn Iasse President of the Kings Counsell of the same Prouince and Mary Azpilcueta Lords of the towne of Xauier and other places ther about who hauing piously brought him vp and diligently instructed him in the principles of Christian Doctrine whē he was growne to ripenes of yeares sent him to Paris that he might furnish himselfe with learning in that famous Vniuersity And afterwards when his father was about to send for him home Mary Magdalen Francis his sister who then with great fame of sanctity was Abbesse of the Monastery of the Reformed Nunns at Gandia being by diuine reuelatiō informed of her Fathers present purpose and the future glory of her brother wrote vnto her said Father that he should maintayne Francis still at Paris in his studies by all meanes possible yea though he should be forced to spend all his reuenewes vpon him to that end For that God Almighty had chosen him to be an Apostle of the new found world Francis therfore at Paris comming to be acquainted with Ignatius Loyola who was afterwards founder of the Society of Iesus was with many prayers and teares by the same Ignatius obtayned of our Lord to be his companion in procuring the glory of God And being instructed by him in the spirituall Exercises profited so well therby that as one set on fire with the loue of Euangellicall perfection and setting naught by all the honours and riches of the world he couragiously vndertooke and constantly followed vnder the bauner of the same Ignatius an austere and contemptible kinde of life going a begging to get his victualls giuing himselfe to continuall prayer meditation of heauenly things and afflicting his body with fasting and other workes of pennance Departing from Paris he came into Italy and whilst he expected opportunity to go with his companiōs into the Holy land that they might labour there in conuerting the Turkes as they had made a vow to do he in Venice Bononia and other Citties with rare example of sanctity feruour of spirit by preaching and doing other workes of charity tooke wonderfull great paines in procuring the saluatiō of his neighbours Especially at Venice where after he was made Priest with great example of humility and charity he serued the sicke in the Hospitall being more ready and willing to assist and helpe those whose very sight by reason of their vncurable diseases and loathsome wounds others were not able to abide and that he might get a more glorious victory of himselfe he of tentimes drunke of the same water wherwith their sores had bene washed When there was no more hope of sayling that yeare he and his companiōs as they had agreed before came to Rome that they might offer thēselues to the Pope to be sent whither he would for the spirituall good of their neighbours And while they were leading there an austere life very poore in whorldly commodities but most rich in spirituall exercises and labours taken for the glory of God hauing newly laid the first foundations of the Society of Iesus Iohn King of Portugall being very earnestly bent to the conuersion of the East Indies made humble suit vnto Pope Paul the third that he would send him some of Ignatius his companions who for learning and holines of life were by all mēs report iudged fit for that voyage that they might preach the Ghospel in those most large and vast Prouinces For this exploit Ignatius by the Popes cōmission appointed Francis who hauing receiued of the Pope the dignity and authority of Legate of the Sea Apostolike as one now chosen by God for an Apostle according to his sisters Prophecy tooke in hand his iourney without delay And the signes and tokens of his Sanctity and Apostolicall feruour while he staid in Portugall were such that by the generall voice of all he was called the Apostle which name not only while he liued but after he was dead also he euer kept still In so much that for his sake throughout all Europe Africke Asia and the new found world as far as the Portugalls dominions reach all that are of the Society of Iesus are called Apostles Out of Portugall he tooke ship for the East Indies but could not be perswaded to take any thing to beare his charges except only an old patcht cloake
to me Giue him me Giue me my loue and that presently that I may enioy him within me And this he spake with such vehemency of spirit that he moued all the standers by to teares The same night he sell againe into an agony with vomiting of bloud yet by the Phisitians care he was preserued from death After a day or two the Phisitians cōming vnto him one morning somewhat earely he said vnto them with a lowd voyce Get you gone my Maisters for I haue no more need of your helpe for the present My soitting of bloud is now stayed and paine of my brest is gone I begin to get strēgth a pace The Phisitiās feeling his pulse found him to be in very good temper to their great amazement and by and by he arose out of his bed and began to follow his exercises as before and so continued vntill the 25. of the same moneth saying masse euery day with great alacrity of deuotion so as he seemed to be now in very perfect health Vpon the 25. day of May which was that yeare the feast of Corpus Christi which is in Rome kept most sollemue of all the dayes in the yeare in saying of his Masse he seemed to pronounce the words in a new tune as it were singing for ioy after which he spent a great part of that day in hearing of Confessions and communicating the people In the afternone came to visit him very many honorable personages amongst whom were Cardinall Pamphilius Augustinus Cusanus Auditour of the Rota and Spinellus Bencius Bishop of Politianum whom he entertayned with a very merry countenance according to his fashion although he knew the houre of his death drew very neere These forsaid Prelates that came to visit him would needs say the Office of the Breuiary with him by which meanes they stayed there till it was farre in the eueninge When supper time came the holy Father eate very sparingly and was very well after supper In so much as himselfe then said that he had not bene better in health at any time for ten yeares before thē he was at that present Moreouer he was so merry and of so pleasant a countenance that death was the least thing thought on of all but of himselfe After this he went to bed and now desiring to conceale his death no longer though yet he spake obscurely he said to those that stood about him Behold we must all die Thē he asked what a clocke it was And they answered that it was almost three When two houres more shall be added said he it wil be fiue after one more added to those it will be six Then he said Goe yee all to bed in the name of God And so they all departed At six a clocke Antony Gallonius the writer of this his life that lay in a Chamber next vnto him soddanly awaking seemed to heare the holy Father to walke vp and downe in his Chamber Wherfore he arose speedily and ran vnto him Where he found the holy man sitting vpon his bed his mouth full of bloud which he began to vomite in aboundance Heerevpon others were called and many remedies applyed but all in vaine About a quarter of an houre after the vomit stayed of it selfe and he tooke breath and spake very readily so as all now thought the danger of death was past By and by after turning to his Disciples who by this time were come all into his chamber he said Stay with me a while for now I begin to striue with death Which words when he had spoken he held his peace and seemed to repose as if he had bene in prayer Remayning in this sort a good while Caesar Baronius read the Commendation of the soule all the rest answering with watry eyes When this was done Baronius stood vp and speaking vnto him with a loud voyce desired that he would speake vnto his Disciples there present and impart his benediction vnto them before he departed The holy Father at these wordes opened his eyes and lifting them vp towards heauen prayed a while and after that gaue them his blessing and so without any signe of paine or any griping or gasping with a most sweet and delectable countenance he gaue vp his blessed soule to rest the 25. day of May being the feast of Corpus Christi in the yeare of our Lord 1595. about the sixt houre within night as himselfe had fortold As soone as he was dead he appeared vnto many in the Citty in particular to a very deuout religious virgin cloathed with a very white pretious garment saying thus vnto her I am now as thou seest called to the Crowne of my labours haue thou a care to follow the course of life thou hast begun and thou shalt enioy the same glory and with this he vanished out of her sight The next morning his body was laid in the Church whervnto all the Citty great small rich and poore made concourse and the Cardinalls and Princes of the Court did no lesse all reuerencing the body of the holy Father and well was he that could come neere to kisse or touch the same Others brought Roses and flowers and strawed his body all ouer but as fast as they were laid vpon him so fast were they taken away and gathered as pious spoiles and applied to all sorts of diseases fores wherby very many were cured And whilest he thus lay vpon the Beere in the Church one Augustinus Magistrius a Roman yong man hauing a sore in his necke which had eaten two great holes one to his mouth and the other to his shoulder and was pronunced incurable came to the holy body and after he had made his prayers tooke the hand of S. Philip and hauing kissed the same deuoutly put it to his necke and touched the soare therwith and was therby presently cured As soone as he came home he tould a yong sister of his whose name was Margaret who for six yeares had laboured of the same disease presently she hasted to the Church with her mother and for that it was impossible for her being but a girle to get vnto the body for the presse of people her mother tooke her vp in her armes carried her with maine strength to the body who taking the holy Fathers hand as her Brother had done and touching her necke therwith was also presently healed Herevpon the Father of the yong man and maide named Alexāder who was 60. yeares of age and who had a running also in his eyes which had continued aboue 2. moneths so grieuous that he could not endure so much as the least light of a candle hearing of the cure of his two children ran presently to the holy body and making his prayers and doing as his childrē had done he was also cured These miracles with many more being diuulged there was such running for the space of three dayes and neights vnto his body that his disciples of the Congregation had great
she whould neuer permit so much as her parents to touch or handle her vnles she were first clothed Growing more in yeares she fled from all the pastimes of that age and delighted only with solitude by the benefit of which she applied her selfe to prayer and deuotion which together with her age so increased in her that at eleauē yeares old she discouered an earnest desire to retire her selfe from the world and to serue God the rest of her dayes in some Monastery One day she saw in spirit a beauteous graue noble matrone fiercely and neerely pursued by many fearfull furious Gyants wherwith she being moued to compassion prayed for her deliuerance with such feruour that at last the matrone seemed to be wholy deliuered from the danger of her pursuers which matrone she vnderstood after to be the holy Church the Giants that pursued her those which at that time had disturbed her peace by a dangerous Schisme In another vision her glorious Patron Saint Paul the Apostle together with the Holy Patriarch S. Benet S. Mary Magdalen appeared to her admonishing her to redouble her prayes and feruour therby to appease and auert the anger of God and his plagues which were already prepared from falling on the Citty of Rome to whom she obeyed with such feruour and earnestnes that she left not praying vntill she was giuen to vnderstand that the wrathe of God was withdrawne and turned from Rome and from the holy Church She had likewise another Reuelation from S. Benet that she was come into the world to helpe to the saluation of soules and that she was the particular guift of God to men in those miserable and wicked times for the good of humane generation and that therefore she was to apply her selfe wholy vnto their ayde This child admirable in vertue and piety hauing sought desired to dedicate her selfe wholy in some Religious monastery to God at twelue yeares old by the expresse and absolute commaundemēt of her parents was constrayned to espouse her selfe to Laurentius de Pontiano a Roman Gentleman After which mariage she liuing in a House of her husbāds on the other side of Tyber made it knowne by a great and violent sicknes that she there had how gratefull that kind of life was vnto her Being recouered from her sicknes she liued as much retired as she could excusing hir selfe from bāquets and feasts both of parents and friends and shunning all kind of sports wherwith others of her yeares and condition vsed to be much recreated and delighted All her delight was in prayer meditation and frequent visitation of Churches where she attended to the Diuine Office Sermons with great tendernes of deuotion She exercised notwithstandinge all those vertues towards her husband which were most rare or any way commendable in a wife but aboue all obedience ioyned with such a great respect and reuerence vnto him that it is most certaine that for the space of 40. yeares that they liued together the peace of sacred mariage was neuer violated betweene them by the least vnkind word for so perfectly and wholy had she subiected her will desire vnto her husband that vpon what occasion soeuer she neuer seemed to haue other will then what she saw to be his If at any time she were called by her husband or by any other of the house to put in order any houshold affaires she would promptly leaue her prayers or any other kind of deuotion vnsinished and goe to doe what she was required It pleased our Lord one day by an especiall miracle to sheew how acceptable this her promptitude was vnto him for in saying the Office of our B. Lady she being called away foure times and as oftē being forced to leaue off in one and the selfe same verse and at last returning found that verse written in godden letters which was done by her good Angell as S. Paul afterward in a vision declared vnto her by which it pleased our Lord to shew in what manner we ought to prefer the obediēce which we owe to our Superiours before his owne seruice The holy Sacrament of wedlocke together with matrimoniall chastity this holy woman conserued in such perfectiō that euery one of her acts was a seuerall testimony of her continency and purity especially by the cōtinuall afflicting of her body with wearing of haire cloth disciplines such like austerities it was easy to gather in what esteeme she had all carnall concupiscēce delight Her austerities were so seuere that her husband pittying her great and excessiue mortificatiōs accorded with her for many yeares before his death to passe the rest of their liues in perfect continency The sight of men not only was vnpleasing vnto her but also afflicted her but yet much more the sight of vnchast and dishonest women whom neuertheles moued by an ardēt charity she laboured earnestly to conuert to God and to retire from their lewd and naughty liues One day passing towards the Iewes streete she saw diuers diuells dauncing in a certaine house making great cheere which moued her to enquire of the neighbours who they were that dwelt in that house and hauing vnderstood that there inhabited two famous Courtesans who were much frequēted she persuaded their Landlord to put them out of his house which was done and the diuells abandoned their lodging The foule Fienns for this cause diuers others were greatly enraged animated against this S. and therefore desirous to reuenge themselues appeared vnto her some times in the likenes of a man sometimes of a woman euer in some or other lasciuious and dishonest manner whome she made still to depart confounded and ashamed through the inuocation of the holy name of Iesus But one day especially the diuell being enraged against her by reason of a notable conquest that she had gotten ouer him he brought into her chamber in the night the body of a dead man halfe putrified casting forth a most pestilent and intollerable stinck which he drew ouer all the parts of her naked bodie so oftē that he left her all ouer infected with that most horrible stinke but especially there remayned a liuely loathsome memory in her imagination that for euer after she neuer eate without vomiting and loathing and which is more she conceyued therevpon such an auersion from all men that whensoeuer she came neere vnto any afterward she trembled with feare and euen supposed then to feele the same most loathsome sauour She desired of God to haue children not for earth but for heauen therfore when they were borne in bringing thē vp she was more carefull to frame their minds then their bodies and to teach them the art to die well rather then any art wherby they might apply themselues to line She had one Sonne named Euangelist who in his infancy was not only indued with more then mature wisedome but also with the guift of Prophesy This child playing one day with his
kindes As of the blessed Trinity of our blessed Sauiour of our B. Lady of S. Peter and S. Paul of the Angels yea and these were not only in spirit but her body also hath bene seene many times eleuated from the ground vntill through her humility she desired of our Lord the cessation of that miraculous fauour which he graunted her This holy Saint was fearfull herselfe least it might be a deceit of the deuill and therfore was content to be narrowly sifted and examined with all diligence not only in her Confessions but also in her life particuler actions and proceedings which were searched by very many Fathers of the Society of Iesus and almost by fourty other principall and the most famous learned men in Spaine and other Countries all graue and reuerend and the best spirituall Maisters then liuing who all allowed and approoued her life her proceedings for good and vertuous free from illusion or deceit After this the holy Saint beginning to build a Monastery our B. Lady S. Ioseph appeared to her and promised to protect and assist her which did encourage her so much as though she found many difficulties yet she brought at last to good effect and finished the same Adding to their former rules some others concerning Mentall Prayer and Meditation all which were approued by the Popes Holines And at the end our Blessed Sauiour appeared to her and set a crowne vpon her head as a reward of her former trauailes She founded diuers other Monasteries after this to the number of seauenteene well knowne as in Medina del Campo in Duruell in Malaga in Valladolid in Toledo in Pastrana in Salamanca in Alua de Tornes in Segouia in Beas in Seuill in Carauaque in Xare in Palencia in Sorie in Granada in Burgos Besides these she founded diuers others as namely fifteene for the discalced Brothers all well knowne in Spaine In all these her Monasteries she caused a reformation with addition of many good and spirituall constitutions all approoued by her Superiours and confirmed by the Pope And during her life time with her infatigable labour and continuall trauell from one to another she gouerned them all in most exact obseruance of their rules and exēplar life to the great edification of all amēdement of many in the way of more vertuous life She wrote foure bookes One of her owne life by commaund of her Ghostly Father one of the way of Perfection one Of the Foundation of her Monasteries And afterward three other bookes contayning relations of her life and of deuout prayers All which said bookes being approoued both by the Inquisition and the graue learned Father aforesaid her Cōfessours with diuers others and being sound and Catholike Doctrine and full of diuine learning and wholesome precepts were thought good to be translated into diuers languages that others reading her holy life following her coūsells might profit therby and increase in vertue to the saluatiō of their soules as very many haue done by her meanes as was before shewed vnto her in a vision The vertues of this Saint were very many and manifest and great store of examples there be therof in euery kind though for breuity sake I will but touch and only name a few of them First she was so carefull in obseruance of the Commandements of Almighty God as her Confessour thought she neuer committed any mortall sinne Her obedience was extraordinary to all her Superiours and Prelats in all things both humane diuine The guift of Chastity giuē her by our Blessed Sauiour was such as she was surnamed by her Confessors The treasure of Virginity And the purity of her mind appeared well by thevncorruptiō of her body after her death and by the modest obseruances she appointed for her Nunnes as the couering of their faces with a veile their strict in closure their silence and other the like She had a great loue to pouerty praising it and commending it to her Nūnes that not only in their holy estate in hauing their meanes without certainty of maintenance and their house without rent but also in their habit which she chose to be very meane Yet principally she commended and preferred inward pouerty of spirit wherin she was a rare and exemplar patterne to all In taming of her flesh she was very rigorous and austere for besides her spare diet she vsed sharpe disciplines sometimes with cordes with keyes with Iron chaines wearing cōtinually a hairecloth next her skin and ordayninge her Order to be one of the strictest in the Church of God And if any meate was made something more dainty by the fire as either rosted or baked she would refuse it saying Meate is to nourrish our bodies not to delight the taste Her sleepe was seldome aboue three houres in a night all the rest she spent in prayer In humility she excelled giuing many worthy testimonies thereof in diuers places both at Rome and abroad seruing all the rest of the sisters by her good will in the lowest ad basest Offices in the house Her courage was great as appeared by her continuall trauells and troubles in erecting Monasteries which yet at last she alwayes brought to good effect Besides the often apparition of deuills which she feared not but euer chased a way from her euen as flies Such was her admirable patience in all crosses and afflictions as she tooke great ioy comfort in suffring them hauing an ardent desire to die for Christ his sake and hauing these wordes often in her mouth O Lord graunt me either to die or at least to suffer for thy sake In her body she suffered long and grieuous sicknesses and infirmities besides her continuall trauaile and toyle In her reputation honour she suffered great detriment and no lesse inward spirituall cōbats and desolatiōs in her soule To speake of the wonderfull Prudence of this holy Saint in gouerning of her many Monasteries of her simplicity sincere vertue in religion and aboue all her extraordinary deuotion to the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar and her other vertues wherein she did excell and was so exemplar it would truly fill whole volumes The same may be said of her diuine contemplation of her eminent Faith of her Hope of her enflamed Loue to God of her Charity to wards her neighbour of her forcible persuasiue vertue of speach her grace of interpretation of Scriptures and Prophesy and in discerning of spirits And for all these her vertues seruice and loue vnto our Lord it may well cause admiration in vs to consider his reciprocall loue and his continuall high and diuine fauours donevnto her His often consolations to her soule and inward spirituall apparitions as also corporally and frequently in diuers formes and manners instructing and directing her from time to time how she should proceed in all her affaires of importance best to his liking and seruice As also dictating to her with his owne voice the very words she should speake to
leaue he went to visite the holy places to salute his friends and other Princes there and to receiue the Popes benediction All which being dispatched vpon Saint Catherine the Virgin and martyrs day at the age of seauenteene yeares eight monethes and six dayes he entred into the Nouiciate of the Society of Iesus at S. Andrews in Rome with as great ioy and iubily of heart as if he had entred into a paradise of all delights and pleasures giuing immortall thankes to God for bringing him out of Aegypt into that Land of Promise flowing with milke and hony Heere now Lewis hauing passed thorough all kind of exorcises in Humility and Obedience with great admiration of all almost the space of a yeare was sent to Naples to recouer his health and to make an end of the course of Philosophy which he had begun at Milan But after halfe a yeare finding by experience that that place nor ayre agreede with his health he was called backe againe to Rome and sent vnto the Romane Colledge where he defended his Philosophy publikly with great applause and so proceeded to heare his higher courses of diuinity After he had liued now two yeares in the Society vpon Saint Catherines day being the day on which first he entred he also made the three vowes of Pouerty Chastity and Obedience as the custome is For albeit he had not spent all this time in the Nouiciate yet God by his holy grace did so supply in his soule the want of that time which the infirmity of his bodye tooke from him that wheresoeuer he liued all his life after he remayned still as it were a Nouice The next yeare vpon the eight abd twentith day of Ianuary he began to take Ecclesiasticall Orders and by the 26. of Frebruary he had receaued one after another vpon seuerall dayes all those which are called the Minores or inferiour Orders The yeare following he was sent to Castilion and Mantua to compose certaine contentions and debates betweene his Brother the Marques his Father being now deceased and the Duke of Mantua which if he had not by the great authority which for his sanctity he alwayes had amongst them taken vp and decided would haue cost much bloudshed on both sides The next yeare he withdrew himselfe with order from his Superiours to Milan where it pleased God to reueale vnto him that the houre of his death approached with which reuelation he returned ioyfully to Rome with his thoughts so fixed on heauen so dead to the world and to all worldly thinges that he appeared rather as one dead then liuing his only sight stirred vp deuotion in others and his very wordes incited his hearers to the loue of God In fine he was in the estimation of all aliuely patterne of all perfection In the yeare 1591. the Citty of Rome was sorely visited with a mortality by reason of the multitude of poore people that were inforced by a former famine to repaire thither for to begge their sustenance at which time the Generall and others of the Society inforcinge themselues to the ayde and succour of the poore besides the large almes that they daily procured for them they laboured the foundation of an Hospitall to relieue and cure the sicke which were in great number visited with sundry dangerous and infectious diseases where those of the Society attended them with great diligence and charity of which number Lewis by much importunity obtained of his Superiours to be one where he serued the sicke with wonderfull deuotion humility and charity exercising himselfe euer most willingly about those that were the most loathsome and dangerously infected In this imployment he together with many others of the Society got that infection wherof afterwards he died which he feeling and knowing that our Lord was pleased to doe him that fauour to deliuer him from the prison of his body and to take him to rest he reioyced exceedingly giuing God most humble and harty thanks for so great a benefit and the more for calling him in such an age and before he was Priest whereby he esteemed himselfe secure of rendring accompt either for the vnprofitable expence of many yeares or the abuse of so great a dignity He made a generall Confession and hauing receaued his Viaticum and Extreme Vnction he attended the houre of his death neuerthelesse it pleased our Lord that the seauenth day of his sicknesse the fury of it ceased and there remayned only a gentle feuer which held him three monthes in all which time he neuer willingly entertayned discourse of any thing but of heauen and heauenly thinges in so much that we may say as it were he had sent his hart before him He being by little and little sore weakened by the feuer it pleased our Lord to reueale vnto him the howre of his decease wherupon with great signes of ioy he said Te Deum laudamus and tould those that were about him that he should dye on the Octaue of the feast of the Blessed Sacrament notwithstanding on Corpus Christi day as also during the Octaue he seemed so well to recouer that on the Octaue day they said vnto him That he should rather thinke of his recouery then of his death that day since there appeared no danger at all To whome he quietly answered The day is not yet past I shall assuredly dye this night The euening being come the Prouinciall came to visit him who demaunded of him how he did Lewis answered I goe Father Whither said the Prouinciall To heauen answered Lewis I trust by the great mercy of God if my sinnes doe not hinder me Pope Gregory the fourteenth hearing that he was in the Agony of death sent vnto him his benediction with a plenary Indulgence of all his sinnes and drawing towards his end he desired earnestly to take a discipline or at least by reason of his owne weakenes that one might be giuen him vpon his backe which being denyed he humbly beseeched leaue of Father Prouinciall that he might dye vpon the ground so great was his feruour and desire of suffering euen then when his sicknesse had rendred him almost incapable of sufferinge In briefe after that he had taken leaue of the Fathers and Brothers of the Colledge with many teares he entred into long and sweet interiour Colloquies with our Lord kissing often a Crucifix which he held in his handes with his eyes sixed thereon and often calling vpon the holy name of Iesus he rendred his soule to rest on Thursday at night being the Octaue of the B. Sacrament the one twentith of Iune in the yeare of our Lord 1591. and in the three and twentith yeare of his age three monthes and eleauen daies after he had bene of the Society fiue yeares and almost seauen monthes He was interred in the Chutch of the Annuntiation in the Roman Colledge with so great concourse of people not only of those of the Society and Schollers but also from the Court and Citty of
denoted He said euery day his Beades he prayed not only many times of the day but would rise in the night to pray while his companions slept accompanying his prayers with diuers acts of humility and mortifications he vsed sundry times secretly to sweep his brothers Chamber fasted in priuate diuers daies and with sore disciplines often chastized his tender body And although his Brother oftē chid him for liuing so retired yet he hauing his eyes fixed on God who aboue all he desired to please would neuer omit his ordinary exercises and deuotions Stanislaus being thus vertuously imployed and disposed our Lord enkindles in him more and more the flames of his Ioue inspired him with a vocation to the Society of Iesus which he vowed although he discouered not his resolutions to any one besides his Confessour vntill six monethes after About that time he was visited with a dangerous sicknesse in the beginning of which being in his Chāber the diuell appeared vnto him in the shape of a great blacke dogge horrible and fearefull who tooke him thrice by the throate attempting to haue strangled him but he recommending himselfe feruently to God by his grace with the sigue of the Crosse chased him away in such māner that he neuer appeared after vnto him His sicknes had reduced him to such extremity that the Phisitiās had giuen him ouer and the Blessed youth lay so afflicted not so much for the death which he saw before his eyes as because he had no meanes to receaue the Blessed Sacrament which he exceedingly desired by reasō that the Host of the house where he lodged was an Heretique Wherfore he commended himselfe earnestly to our Blessed Sauiour to S. Barbara both because she was Patronesse of the Schollers of the Colledge of Viēna where he studied as also that he remembred to haue read in her life that whosoeuer that was deuoted vnto her should neuer die without the Sacraments of the Church And for that the last time which he had communicated was vpon the seast of Saint Barbara aforesaid which is the fourth of December he humbly desired of our Sauiour by the intercessiō of that glorious Saint that he might not yet depart this life without first hauing receiued the Sacraments of the Church And at that present finding himselfe almost in the agony of death he renewed this his petition with greater feruour earnestnesse which our Blessed Sauiour granted For being one night awake languishing in the agony of death he saw enter into his chamber the holy Virgin S. Barbara accompanied with two Angells enuironed with Celestiall brightnes bringing with them the B. Sacramēt from whose hādes with wonderfull reuerence he receaued it and began to be a little better After this great fauour he receaued another most singular and no lesse meruailous for beinge ouercome with the violence of his sickenes and in the extremity of his life our B. Lady appeared vnto him with the child Iesus in her armes and with a gratious countenance and regard admonishing him to enter the Society of Iesus she vanished away leauing the child Iesus lying on the bed by him Stanislaus ayded by the celestiall fauour sodainly began to recouet his strengt to amend at which the Phisitiās were astonished as at a thing cōtrary to all rules of Phisicke These two admirable fauours B. Stanislaus manifested a little before his death to one of his fellow-Nouices named Stephen as also vnto Father Emanuel Sà which notwithstanding hauing done it at vnawares he remayned so much cōfoūded that the teares stood in his eyes Being now restored to perfect health not vnmindfull either of the priuate vow that he had made to enter into the Society or of the admonition of our B. Lady desirous to put it in speedy execution he discouered the same to his ghostly Father who tould him that they could not by any meanes receaue him in the Colledge at Vienna without the consent of his friendes and blessing of his Father But he not willing to expect so long and despayring to obtayne leaue of his Father knowing likewise the auerse nature of his Brother Paul who had often times intreated him with bitter wordes and sometimes with blowes which he euer had indured with great patience and inward consolation for the loue of vertue notwitstanding that he might haue some fit occasion to put his good desires in practise he ceased not to giue many outward testimonies of his inclination one day he discouered it vnto his brother who was thereat so much incēsed against him that he rated him out of his presēce threatning to aduertise his parēts of his proceeding But still cōtinuing to appease his Brother to get at least his good will he spake vnto him one morning in very louing manner who in a rage answered that he should get him gone with a mischiefe chiefe whither he would Stanislaus as an occasion fitly sent him from heauen gladly imbraced what his Brother had said and so putting himselfe in poore apparell hauing confessed and communicated earnestly commended himselfe to God and out B. Lady tooke his iourney on foote from Vienna to Ausburge there to find Father Canisius Prouinciall of Germany to whome he had letters of commendations frō a Father of the Society preacher to the Empresse Maria. So sonne as Paul missed his brother he was much afflicted knowing that he principally by his choller and ill vsage had chased him away he searched diligently many Churches and Religious houses in Viēna but could heare no newes of him vntill by an Hungarian Gentlemā who had beene school-fellow with Stanislaus and by a little note that he had written to his Tutour and left within a booke his resolution was knowne and also the way that he had taken Wherfore his brother with his said Tutour taking with them also their Host and one seruant followed him with all speed in Coach whome they ouertooke on the way but it pleased God that they went on without knowing of him shortly after by reason that the Coach-horses were young and vnsit for trauaile they were forced to returne without passing further Stanislaus now seeing himselfe deliuered from this perill was much animated and comforted and passing on his way he went one Sunday morning to a Church in a village which he supposed to be Catholike with a desire to receaue the Blessed Sacrament but perceauing to belong to Heretikes he was much troubled in his trouble had recourse to our Lord beseeching him with teares in his eyes that he might not be depriued of the food of his soule which he so much thirsted after Our B. Sauiour vouchsafed to heare him and graunt his request as a pious Father desirous to cherish the deuotion of his sonne he sent vnto him an Angell of admirable beauty frō whose hāds he receiued the B. Sacrament in the same manner as he had done before during his sicknes by the prayers of Saint Barbara With this Celestiall food
Stanislaus in short time ariued at Ausburge where not finding Father Canisius he went vnto Dibsinge a towne ten leagues from Ausburge where the said Father was and where he was charitably intreated and shortly after with other two Cōpanions sent vp to Rome and in the eighteenth yeare of his age he arriued at his desired port and where after a most wearisome iourney for that he had trauayled more thē two hundred threescore leagues on foote he was receaued into the Society of Iesus by Father Francis Borgia then Generall vpon the eight and twentith day of October being the feast of S. Simon and Iude in the yeare of our Lord 1567. As soone as his Father vnderstood that he was entred into the Society at Rome he was liuely touched with sorrow because according to flesh and bloud he loued him deerely Therfore he wrote vnto him a letter full of passion and threates That he had dishonoured his House and family by the course he had taken and that if euer he returned into Polonia he would either force him from that state of life or send him to his graue and that insteed of those riches chaines of Gold Iewells that he intended to bequeath him if he had remayned in the world he would load him with captiuity and chaines of iron Stanislaus answered this letter with great humility and modesty and with no lesse courage and constancy that he was most vnworthy to suffer for God who had suffered so much for man yet neuerthelesse if it should please God to be so bountifull vnto him there could not happen any thing more desired by him then euen to die for the testimony of those vowes that he had made promised to God He gaue also incessant thankes to God euen with floudes of teares whē he saw himselfe in the Nouiciate free frō the molestations of parēts in the assured port of religion hauing escaped the stormes and dangers of the world he thought of no other Father but what he had in heauen nor of other mother then the blessed Virgin he contemplated all his fellow Nouices as Saints to the end to imitate their vertues and esteemed himselfe farre vnworthy to liue among such Angells and to be imployed by the great fauour and mercy of God in the seruice of them that were his most deuout and profitable seruants He was truly humble and well instructed in the knowledge of himselfe his desire to be despised and not accounted coūted of for the loue of Christ appeared in his poore habit his earnest seeking for the most abiect and painfull Offices of the house he alwayes rankt himselfe with the last accounting euery one much more worthy then himselfe When he was at Viēna before his entrance into the Society he gaue himselfe so much to prayer that by reason of his long continuāce and attētion his heart and senses had often fayled him in such sort that not without diuers remedies he hath bene brought vnto himselfe againe And if this Blessed Youth did so apply himselfe to prayer and deuotion liuing in the world how much more did he excell being now secure in Religion This only may suffice that he did not only spend in prayer all those houres of the day in which he was not otherwise imployed but also the most part of the night reseruing only so much for sleepe as would hardly serue to suffice nature By his long exercise and custome to pray attentiuely he had obtained such a particuler guift of our Lord that the Maister of the Nouices and his Confessour haue affirmed that he had neuer any distractions in prayer so perfectly had he subdued his imagination to his will And whē any one complayned of distractions or wandring thoughts in prayer Stanislaus wondred at it as a most strange thing vnto him nor was he only so vnited vnto God in prayer and meditation but also in his exteriour and domesticall workes which he performed with such recollection that it was easy to see that no outward thing could trouble the inward quiet of his mind nor attention of his spirit which was increased in him to such perfection that in time of prayer many of the Nouices would endeauour to pray where they might see him for in behoulding him they learned to compose themselues and were incited to an extraordinary recollection of spirit Many repayred vnto him in their troubles and tentations recommending themselues vnto his prayers by which meanes diuers were deliuered from sundry tentations and restored to quietnes of spirit One time a Brother of the Society of Iesus who is now a Priest being assaulted with a great and vehement tentation of auersion from a Superiour communicated the same with Staniflaus who at that time serued in the Kitchin desiring him to pray to God that he would graūt him grace to ouercome it Stanislaus presently went into the Church and by his prayers obtained his present deliuery from that tentation He had the great guift of teares which he shad in great aboundance with a mernailous sweetnes of spirit our Blessed Sauiour had illustrated him by his diuine light with such a knowledge of spirituall things that euery one admired to see so much prudence discretion and spirit in so young a Nouice Our Lord had bestowed diuers great and celestiall guifts and consolations on his B. Soule whereby he became so inflamed with the diuine loue that diuerse times with the force and feruour therof he sell into extasy out of which they could not sometimes recall him without applying to him of linnen dipped in cold water wherby in short time his health was much impayred But who can imagin the singular deuotion that he had to the sacred Queene of Heauen being dissolued in sweetnes of mind as often as he thought vpon her admirable vertues it seemed that both night day he had no other care but how to serue her and meditate vpon the mysteries of her holy life For his affectiō to her was so ardēt in his brest that it could not be contained from discouering it selfe by his words saluting her often speaking alwayes of her graces and vertues making euen whole nights most amorous Colloquies with her whome he euer vsed to call his mother This deuotion of Stanislaus to our blessed Lady was so notable among the Nouices that they to content him when they were together would alwayes hould discourse of the praises priuiledges and excellencies of this most excellent Virgin and for his sake the Maister of the Nouices ordayned that both at rising in morning going to bed and likewise at night after letanies all the Nouices should kneeling towards the Church of S. Maria Maior which is scituated in Rome neere to the Nouitiate of S. And rews salute the B. Virgin demaūd her benediction and desire her to fauour protect all those that desired to enter into the Society This deuotion that he bare to the Blessed Virgin made him desire to die the Eue of her glorious
his life miracles permitted that his Picture might be publiquely set vp neere vnto his Tombe with lights burning before it and the memories and votiue Tables of the miracles which our Lord had wrought by his intercession to be there likewise publiquely hunge vpon the walles the which was done with a wonderfull extraordinary cōcourse of people both frō the Citty Court of Rome the King of Polonia his Embassadour being present the Sunday following the Bishop of Seruia sunge Masse at his body assisted by the forsaid Embassadour of Polonia and other of the Nobility of Poland that were then in Rome Likewise in Polonia in diuers Churches masse was publiquely said in his Commemoration where the Altars were richly adorned with his Reliques and Images placed theron diuers rich guiftes and presents were sent from Polonia and other Countreyes to adorne his Tombe Altar in Rome which are visited euery day with singular deuotion by reason of the many miracles that it hath pleased our Lord to worke by his intercessiō in diuers places of Europe Many praying at his sepulcher haue felt a most sweet odour to proceed from his body which being opened a long time after his death his said body was found entire without any corruption at all The miracles that it hath pleased our Lord to worke by this his seruant are very many at large set downe in the booke of his life out of which these few that follow are briefly taken forth In the Prouince of Rusia a venerable Priest being grieuously sicke B. Stanislaus appeared vnto him with two other Saints assuring him that they shortly should meete all together in heauē vpon which the Priest who was much deuoted vnto him was greatly comforted and shortly after died One that was possessed by the diuell at Rome exceedingly tormenred with euill spirits was deliuered by the intercessiō of B. Stanislaus A certaine Lady in Frence being become lame and impotent by reason of certaine poison that had ben giuen her desired to be carried in a chaire to a certaine Church where humbly beseeching our Lord by the merits of B. Stanislaus to restore vnto her her health and strength she was sodainly healed and rising from her chaire in the sight of many people she walked alone to the wonder astonishment of all that were present especially of the Phisitians who had long before esteemed her incurable Diuers other womē haue ben succoured by his intercession in their trauayles of Childbirth others haue ben deliuered from feuers swellings blindnes many broken legges and armes haue ben made whole many diseases almost incurable healed By drinking a little wine wherein one of his bones had ben steeped one was cured of a dangerous sicknes Another was cured by the touch of one of his teeth and by other his Reliques diuers others At Rome in the yeare 1602 a Gentleman of Poland visited with a cōtinuall feuer desired a certaine Priest to pray vnto B. Stanislaus for his recouery who with great confidēce in the name of God commaunded the feuer by the merits of that B. Seruāt of his to depart and no more afflict the Gentleman which God by his intercession effected and the Gentleman was sodainly restored to his health For these and diuers other restimonies by which it hath pleased God to shew forth the Sanctity of his Seruant Stanislaus his sepulcher or shrine is wunderfully frequented and reuerenced at Rome and adorned by the piety of deuout people with so many ornaments and riches that of the number of the remarquable and memorable thinges to be seene at Rome this is reckoned for one He was of small stature his haire blacke of faire complexion full faced he alwayes looked cheerfully and was of a pleasing composition of body of so rare and singular modesty that the only beholding of his face did moue others to deuotion and purity of life His holy life is of very great esteeme and read with admiration both in France Italy Flaunders Bohemia Germany Polonia and Spaine wherof this is only an abridgement the which whosoeuer shall peruse attentiuely shall find full of rare examples of vertue and learne that there is no age so young that may not with its owne endeauours cooperating with Gods grace imploying it selfe wholy in his seruice gayne to it selfe the treasure of many merits the testimony of an holy life the blessednes of an happy death and finally the glory of an euerlasting kingdome THE LIFE AND VERTVES OF Holy Alphonsus Rodriquez a Brother Coadiutor of the Society of Iesus abridged by Father Michael Iulian of the same Society ALphonsus Rodriquez was borne at Segouia a famous Citty in Spaine and studying in Valentia heard his Humanity and Retoricke two yeares leading a very exēplar kind of life in all modesty deuotion He was called miraculously to the Order of the Society of Iesus was receaued therin for a Coadiutor The first yeare of his Nouiceship he was sent to the Colledge of Maiorca an Iland betweene Sicily and Spaine and because the story of his whole life is now in hand to be written at large remitting my selfe therunto I will only touch some few principall things out of an infinite number which might be recounted From the first day that this holy Brother begā to serue God in the Society of Iesus he made a firme resolution to serue him with great diligence and therfore he besought his diuine maiesty that he would be pleased to exercise him in continuall paines and trauailes He was so excellent in all kind of vertues that he was a perfect modell and patterne of the same He was so humble that he esteemed himselfe the greatest sinner in the world and though he knew by reuelatiō that he should be saued without going to Purgatory yet was he wont to weepe for his sinnes neither did any thing so grieue him as when he saw himselfe esteemed by others wōdring how any body could endure to treate with so base and vile a creature such was his opinion of himselfe He was very notable in mortification both exteriour and interiour seeking in euery thing that which was most repuguant to sense fensuall appetite as well in distastfull meates which if they were by chance giuē him he eate in great hast least they should be changed as also in other pennances and corporall mortifications fastinges wearing of hairecloth and the like and euen in these latter yeares wherin he hath benevery sickly to haue desired leaue he might not omit any fasting dayes besides that euery weeke he vsed to take three disciplines during the time of his infirmity He was so giuē to feruēt prayer that he passed many ho wers of the night and the whole day in continuall prayer in so much that his exteriour exercises did not any way interrupt it giuing sufficiēt testimony by his rare modesty and singular good carriage how feruent his prayers were so that he neuer lost the presence of God not for
he had done pennance But besides these God Almighty by intercession of this Saint both before and after his happy death wrought many miracles which are to be seene more at large in the Relation out of which this summe is taken and in other histories of his life I will heere only rehearse some few of them for our better instruction and further declaration of his sanctity And first his great charity zeale in procuring the saluation of soules was miraculously confirmed in that when a certaine man whose name was Lissanus for being cast in a suite of law and hanged himselfe and was by all mens iudgment stone dead he by his prayers obtayned of God Almighty so much time for him to line againe that might serue his turne to be sorry for his sinnes and to confeâ—â—e them to a Priest and receaue Absolution Secondly to increase our deuotion to holy Reliques that may suffice which happened to Bartholomew Contesti a Chirurgeon and Cittizen of Maiorca who was so tormented with a continual headach that for vehemency of the paine he was diuerse times forced to fal dowen to the very ground And besides this he had so grieuous a disease in one of his eyes that being vnable to behold the least glimpse of light he was fayne to be shut vp in a darke chamber eating no meat but what others put into his mouth As many and sundry medicines were applied as could be deuised but all in vaine for his disease still waxed worse and worse In so much that Bartholomew out of the intollerable paine he felt was not afraid to protest if a certaine Chirurgeon whose name was Pastor were aliue that he would cause him to placke out his eye by the very roote But as he lay now in this pittifull estate hearing by good chaunce of the manifold miracles that were euery where wrought by the intercession of S. Ignatius with great deuotion and hope of recouery by this meanes he desired that they would bring him one of his subscriptions or writings of his owne hand which was no sooner brought vnto him but he found himselfe well without all paine either of head or eyes rising out of his bed and beholding the light of the sunne with great ease and pleasure And that he might be the better assured that this so sudaine a cure was to be attributed to the diuine power and to the intercession of this seruant of God S. Ignatius for two or three seuerall times the Relique was no soner taken away out of his chamber but his former paine returned vnto him and the same Relique was no sooner brought backe againe into the chamber but his paine left him So that Bartholomew was aduised to keepe the Relique alwayes about him thus within three or foure dayes he came to be so perfectly well as if he had neuer bene sicke In Rome a Lady called Drusilla Tursellina being very much vexed with a vehement seuer and with the head-ach hauing vsed many remedies and bene let blood in her armes nostrills and head without profit her sicknes rather increasing euery day was presently healed by a relique of one of the Blessed Fathers bones laid vpon her forehead Another woman named Olimpia Norina had such a vehemeÌ„t paine in her eyes that she came to loose her sight for the space of three moneths had such a coÌ„tinuall ague paine in her head that she could notrest They brought her a subscription of the Blessed Fathers hand at the time that her paine was at the greatest laying it vpon her forehead and eyes she began to see and was ryd of her ague and paine In the same Citty in the yeare 1597. a noble mans child of seauen yeares old called Hierome Gabriell being sick of a pestilent seuer called a Taberdillo and of a plurisy hauing also the wormes so that there was little hope of his life was healed with the same subscription of the Blessed Father In the yeare 1599. the Lady Ioane Vrsina being but a child daughter to Cornelia Vrsina Duchesse of Cesi had so great a cough that she could scarcely breath or suck The Dutches her mother commeÌ„ded her very earnestly and deuoutly to blessed Father Ignatius and beseeched him to obtaine the health of her daughter wherevpon the child hauing bene a night and a halfe without rest presently fell a sleepe and her cough ceased she began to sucke her Nurses breast For which cause the Dutches commaunded a Tablet to be set on the Fathers graue in remembrance of the fauour she had receiued In the same yeare 1599. Angella Ruggiera was troubled with an extraordinary noise in her head for almost a yeare and lost the hearing of her right eare wherto applying a relique of the Blessed Father and making a vow to fast with bread and water the day of his departure and to communicate the day following recouered perfect health and remayned free from that infirmity In the Citty of Naples in the moneth of Iune of the yeare 1599 Donna of Aragon Princesse of Beltran Dutchesse of Terra-noua had a great payne and swelling in her right breast and finding no remedy amongst many which were applied in the space of foure moneths omitting them all as vnprofitable and laying vpon her breast with much deuotion the picture of the Blessed Father she became well the same day and comming to Rome the last Holy yeare of 1600. commaunded a tablet of siluer with foure great waxe Tapers to be set vpon the Blessed Fathers tombe on Easter day in thanksgiuing In the Citty of Nola the yeare 1599. in the moneth of NoueÌ„ber a knight named Francis Blasius being much vexed with a pestilent ague and with a grieuous paine in his head and stomack so that in the iudgement of the Phisitians he was in danger of his life his mother Zenobia Tolphia exhorted him to lay a relique of the bone of Blessed Father Ignatius to his head and to commend himselfe vnto him desiring his fauour He did so and remayned free froÌ„ all his paines and his whole sicknes In the Citty of Lecha which is in the Prouince of Apulia in the Kingdome of Naples a child of three yeares old sonne to the BaroÌ„ of Belli-boni fell from his Nurses armes vpon the ground and did notably hurt his right knee which grew euery day worse because the Nurse for feare concealed the fall and it went so far that it was necessary to open the childs knee oftener then once this helped not wherfore coÌ„ming to cut it the third time the Father fearing his Sonnes death whome he did see consumed with the wound and with the ague which followed thervpon went to the Colledge of the Society and there they gaue him a Relique of the Blessed Fathers bone which he laid vpon the child before they opened his knee the third time and wheÌ„ the Surgeons came to doe it they found him much better and within a few dayes altogether well I will conclude with one more