following reasons. (1) The text just given talks of “the desire for
Holy Communion” having been given to her on that day in 1473, and of
this desire “never failing her throughout the remainder of her life”;
but it does not say, that the desire for _daily_ Communion was given
to her then, or that such a desire was continuously satisfied from the
first. (2) On page 18_b_ we have: “For about two years she had this
desire for death, and this desire continued within her, up to when she
began to communicate daily.” This passage, (which does not occur, here
or with this Communion notation, in the MSS.,) originally without doubt
referred to her later desire for death, carefully described by Vernazza
(pp. 98_a_, _b_; 99_b_, _c_) as occurring in 1507--a description in the
midst of which now occurs an account of certain death-like swoons which
attacked her in 1509 (pp. 98_c_, and 133_b_; this latter experience is
given in the MSS. as occurring in November 1509). Still this passage
points to a tradition, or early inference, that the beginning of the
daily communions did not synchronize with her conversion nor indeed
with any other very marked date, but took place not many years after
her return to fervour. (3) It is impossible to assume that she did
not communicate at all during these first fourteen months, since
there is no evidence that, even before her conversion, she had ever
abstained from Holy Communion altogether, and since two Eastertides
with their strict obligation recurred twice within this period. And if
she did communicate repeatedly within this time, then this Lady-Day,
three days after her conversion, would be a most natural occasion for
one of these communions. And the desire and not its gratification
would be mentioned, because the writer characteristically wants her
conversion to be followed by something absolutely unintermittent, and
such unintermittence attached, for the present, not to her communions
themselves, but only to her desire for them.
[59] _Vita_, pp. 8, 9. A MS. list of conclusions concerning various
points of her life, which is contained in the volume _Documenti su
S. Caterina da Genova_, in the University Library of Genoa, declares
this interdict to have lasted ten days, and in the year 1489. This
information is probably correct.
[60] _Ibid._ pp. 8, 9.
[61] _Vita_, p. 7_b_.
[62] I have been unable to discover more than one case illustrative of
the practice of that time and town. The Venerable Battista Vernazza, an
Augustinian Canoness from 1510 to 1587, was not allowed daily Communion
till the last years of her life. _Opere_, Genoa, 1755, Vol. I, p. 21.
[63] _Vita_, p. 116_c_. This passage opens a chapter full of the
most authentic information, derived directly from Don Marabotto, her
Confessor and close friend from 1499 onwards. I have, in her saying,
read “Amore” for the “Signore” of the text of the _Vita_: my reasons
will appear later on.
[64] _Vita_, pp. 119_c_, 116_c_, 117_b_.
[65] _Ibid._ p. 16_b_.
[66] _Vita_, p. 6.
[67] _Ibid._ p. 140_b_, _c_.
[68] See here, ch. v, § ii, 2 and 5.
[69] Denzinger’s _Enchiridion Definitionum_, ed. 1888, No. 363.
[70] _Summa Theologica_, III, supplem. quaest. 6, art. 3.
[71] Denzinger, _op. cit._ No. 780; _Summa Theologica_, III, supplem.
quaest. 6, art. 3.
[72] Antonii Ballerini, _Opus Theologicum Morale_, ed. Palmieri, S.J.,
Prato, 1892, Vol. V, pp. 576-597. The large variations in the earlier
practice of Penitence and Confession are admirably described in Abbé
Boudhinon’s articles, “Sur l’Histoire de la Pénitence,” in the _Revue
d’Histoire et de Littérature Religieuses_, 1897, pp. 306-344, 496-524.
[73] The reason for this lies in the emphatic, repeated conviction
of R. 1, based, no doubt, upon the authentic documents (probably
Vernazza’s memoranda) that he has incorporated, (a conviction which
appears wherever his scheme was not tampered with by R. 2,) that her
great penitential period lasted four years (so still on pp. 12_b_,
13_b_ twice, 14_c_; and originally, no doubt, on p. 6_a_, and probably
on p. 5_c_, where now we read “a little over a year,” and “about
fourteen months” respectively). For not all the subsequent doctoring,
that shall be traced later on as having been applied by R. 2 to some
of the refractory passages, succeeds in making it likely that these
penitential exercises outlasted the complete disappearance from
her sight of her sins, which we have already quoted from the last
likely passage. And it is equally improbable that formal and repeated
Confession should not have formed part and parcel of the whole of this
penitential time. On the other hand, “her Confessor,” on p. 7_7_,
and “the spiritual physician” on p. 8_a_, indeed all other mentions
of a Confessor throughout the Life subsequent to her first convert
Confession, will be shown in the Appendix to apply exclusively to Don
Marabotto, and to the last eleven years of her life.
[74] _Vita_, p. 56_b_, _c_. Her words as printed there are: “Io non
vorrei grazia ne misericordia [nella presente vita] ma giustizia e
vendetta del malfattore.” But the words I have bracketed are certainly
a gloss; for she is speaking here out of the fulness of her feeling,
without the intrusion of reflection. And as regards temporal punishment
in the other life, and the soul’s attitude towards it there, she says
in the _Trattato_, p. 180_b_: “Know for certain, that of the payment
required from those souls (in Purgatory), there is not remitted even
the least farthing, this having been thus established by the divine
justice.… Those souls have no more any personal choice, and can no more
will anything but what God wills.”
[75] _Dialogo_, pp. 203_a_, 208_b_.
[76] From the authenticated copies of the entries in the Cartulary,
prefixed to the MS. Life of the Saint in the _Biblioteca della Missione
Urbana_, Genoa, Nos. 30, 8, 14; and from careful copies of the still
extant original Wills made for me by Dre. Ferretto, of the Archivio di
Stato, Genova.
[77] Benedicti XIV, _De servorum Dei Beatificatione et Beatorum
Canonisatione_, ed. Padua, 1743, Vol. II, p. 239_a_.
[78] _Vita_, pp. 56_c_; 3_c_; 95_c_; 124_c_, 125_b_; 122_b_.
[79] I have followed here, for my _terminus a quo_, Vallebona rather
than the Bollandists (who prefer 1474 for the date of her conversion),
because the ten years required between her marriage in January 1463
and her conversion, have fully elapsed by March 1473, and because the
earlier we place her conversion, the larger is the number of lonely
convert years that we can find room for, and the more nearly accurate
her own allegation of twenty-five years of such loneliness becomes.
If we follow the chronology given in the text we get a thoroughly
understandable sequence: Catherine’s conversion, March 1473; Giuliano’s
bankruptcy, summer of that year; his conversion under the joint
influence of her zeal and of his misfortune; the decision of the couple
to settle in the midst of the poor and suffering, whom they were now
determined to serve, and the execution of this decision, between
Michaelmas and Christmas of the same year.
[80] Vallebona, p. 55.
[81] Lived 1550-1614, worked heroically amongst the poor and
pestilential sick, founded the Order of the Fathers of a Good Death,
and was himself at Genoa, already gravely ill, in 1613.
[82] Vallebona, pp. 55, 56, shows, from Giuliano’s still extant will
of 1497, how this income from his property in the Island of Scios
alone amounted to about 30,000 modern Italian lire. We shall study the
instructive growth of legend in the matter of Catherine’s “poverty”
later on.
[83] _Vita_, p. 122_b_.
[84] Vallebona, pp. 106, 108.
[85] An interesting legendary development in the _Dialogo_ of this very
straightforward account of the _Vita_ will occupy us later on.
[86] _Vita_, pp. 20, 21.
[87] _Ibid._ p. 12.
[88] See an interesting article: “De Suor Tommasina Fieschi,” by F.
Alizeri, in _Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria_, Genova, 1868,
pp. 403-415.
[89] The choice of subjects may possibly betray the influence of
Catherine--of the Pietà which Catherine had so much loved as a child,
and of her special devotion to the Holy Eucharist. But the particular
form of the latter is in Tommasina unlike Catherine: had Catherine
painted that symbolical picture, it would have referred to the moment,
not Consecration, but of Communion.
[90] _Vita_, pp. 123, 124. Suor Tommasa did not die till 1534, over
86 years of age. I have been unable to discover her baptismal and her
married names. We shall give some further details about Catherine’s
probable relations with her, as writer and as painter.
[91] _Vita_, pp. 12, 13.
[92] _Ibid._ pp. 5, 6, 14.
[93] _Ibid._ p. 13.
[94] _Vita_, p. 6_a_.
[95] _Ibid._ 14_b_. I have introduced into my account a note of
gradualness which is presented by no single (even authentic) document
of the _Vita_, but which any attempt at harmonizing those documents
imperatively requires. For there is, on the one hand, the repeated
insistence upon her four years of particular penances for her own
particular sins; and the vivid account of the final complete withdrawal
of all sight of those sins and of all desire for those penances
(_Ibid._ pp. 12_b_, 13_c_; 14_b_, 5_c_). And there is, on the other
hand, the, apparently, equally authentic saying, as to her performing
her penances, before the end of those years, without any particular
object in view (_Ibid._ p. 14_b_). The only unforced harmonization is
then to assume that a period, in which the sight of her particular sins
had been at first all but unintermittent and then still predominant,
had shaded off into another period, in which this sight occurred in
ever fewer moments, until at last, at the end of four years, a day came
on which it ceased altogether.
[96] The only possible dates are 1475 or 1476. For the change referred
to takes place “some appreciable time (_alquanto tempo_) after her
conversion” (_Vita_, p. 10_a_); and yet it must be early enough to
allow of twenty-three Lents and Advents between the beginning of the
change up to its end. And this end came at latest in 1501 (p. 127_a_),
but probably in 1499, the year in which Don Marabotto became her
Confessor. The Lent of 1496 (what remained of it on Lady-Day of that
year) seems to me the more likely of the two possible starting-points.
[97] _Vita_, p. 10_a_.
[98] _Ibid._ p. 11_a_.
[99] _Ibid._ p. 10_b_.
[100] _Vita_, p. 8_a_.
[101] See below, next page.
[102] MS. “A,” p. 24, title to chapter vii; _Vita_, p. 10_a_.
Twenty-five Lents are too many, because: (1) it is impossible to
interpret the “alquanto tempo dopo la sua conversione,” when these
fasts began (_Ibid._ p. 10_a_), as less than two years; and (2) it is
impossible to bring her resignation of the Matronship of the Hospital
lower down than the autumn of 1497, a resignation which the _Ibid._ (p.
96) tells us took place in consequence of her “great bodily weakness,”
which forced her to “take some food after Holy Communion to restore her
bodily forces, even though it were a fast day.” This allows for at most
twenty-three Lents and twenty-two Advents.
[103] _Ibid._ p. 11_b_.
[104] _Vita_, p. 11_c_. I take the last section of this chapter (pp.
11, 12) to be a later, exaggerating doublet to this account.
[105] _Ibid._ p. 11_b_.
[106] _Ibid._ p. 14_b_, 5_c_.
[107] _Vita_, p. 16_b_.
[108] _Ibid._ pp. 23_a_, 49_a_.
[109] _Ibid._ p. 15_b_.
[110] _Vita_, pp. 15_c_, 97_a_, 15_c_.
[111] _Ibid._ pp. 15_c_, 16_a_, 47_b_.
[112] _Ibid._ p. 17_b_.
[113] I translate _Frate predicatore_ thus, because the generally
well-informed Parpera (in his _Vita_ of the Saint, 1681) identifies
him with Padre Domenico de Ponzo, an Observant Franciscan and zealous
preacher. Boll. p. 161 D. In other places, also, the _Vita_ makes use
of purely popular and misleading designations:--p. 117_b_ “questo
Religioso” is Don Marabotto, Secular Priest; pp. 94_c_, 95_a_, _c_,
98_c_, 99_b_, “Religioso” is Vernazza, layman; p. 123_b_, “Sorelle” is
a Sister and Sisters-in-law. Even the final Redactor in the Preface,
p. viii_c_, calls the Secular-Priest Marabotto and the Layman-Lawyer
Vernazza, “divoti religiosi.”
[114] _Vita_, pp. 51, 52. I take this episode to have occurred whilst
the pair were still living out of the Hospital, because of the _giunta
in casa_, which could hardly be applied to their two little rooms in
the latter, whilst this sensitiveness to the opinion of others in
this matter of love appears psychologically to be more likely during
the early years of her convert life than from 1490 onwards, when,
as Matron, she occupied a separate little house within the Hospital
precincts (hence _sua casa_ in _Vita_, p. 96_b_).
[115] I shall give reasons in due course for holding that the rooms
still shown in the Hospital as Catherine’s are different from any ever
occupied by herself, and that the little house within the Hospital
grounds, in which she died in 1510, and into which she (and Giuliano)
probably moved in 1490, has long ceased to exist.
[116] _Vita_, p. 20_b_. This characteristic fact has been “explained
away” in the _Dialogo_. See Appendix.
[117] _Vita_, p. 20_c_.
[118] _Ibid._ p. 21_c_. All the books and papers of the Hospital
referring to these years up to her death, were long ago destroyed
by fire. I have, however, no doubt as to the, at least substantial,
accuracy of the above account. For ten wills and assignments, drawn
up, by various lawyers, in her presence, by her desire and at her
dictation,--nine of them during the years of her weakness and
illness,--are still extant, have been carefully copied out for me, and
will be analyzed further on. They are all, except on one minor point,
admirably precise, detailed, and wise.
[119] _Vita_, p. 21_b_.
[120] The above paragraph is based, with Vallebona, _op. cit._ pp.
67-72, upon the assumption that Catherine took the kind of share
described in the labours of this time; since it is practically
unthinkable that she should not have acted as is here supposed, given
the combination of the following facts, which are all beyond dispute.
(1) The fully reliable Giustiniani in his _Annali_ describes, under the
date of 1493, the incidents of the Pestilence as given above; tells us
how well, nevertheless, the sick and poor were looked after by those
who, from amongst the educated classes, remained amongst them; and
affirms that the Borgo di San Germano, identical with the Acquasola
quarter, was assigned to those stricken by the Pestilence. (2) Agostino
Adorno, Giuliano’s cousin, was Doge of Genoa during this year. And the
friendly terms on which the cousins were at this time are proved by
Giuliano’s Will of the following year (October 1494). (3) Catherine had
already been Matron of the Hospital for two years and more, and was
to continue to be so for another three years. She certainly did not
absent herself from her post at this time. And her Hospital directly
abutted against the Acquasola quarter. (4) The details furnished by
all the sources conjointly with regard to her six years’ Headship of
the Hospital, are so extraordinarily scanty, that we must not too much
wonder at the all but complete dearth of any allusion to a work which
cannot have lasted longer than as many months. (5) The _Dialogo_, p.
222_b_, says: “She would go, too,” (_i.e._ besides visiting the sick
and poor in their own houses,) “to the poor of San Lazzaro, in which
place she would find the greatest possible calamity.” This clearly
refers to some special (Lazar-, Leper-) Refuge, and the term can
certainly cover aid given to the pest-stricken. And we shall see that
the record here is derived from the writer’s father, Ettore Vernazza,
the heroic lover of the pest-stricken poor.
I have, in my text, assumed that the _Vita_ gives us an anecdote
relative to her visiting the pestiferous sick of Acquasola. But to do
this, I have had (_a_) to take “pestiferous fever” as equivalent to
“Pestilence,” and to assume that it was not an isolated precursory case
of the coming general visitation; (_b_) to omit, in the _Vita’s_ text,
“nell’ ospedale,” as an indication where the sick woman was; and “allo
stesso servizio (dell’ ospedale),” as descriptive of where Catherine
went back to: the anecdote may well originally have been without
indication of the place in which the infection came to reduce her to
death’s door.
[121] _Inaugurazione della Statua d’Ettore Vernazza_ (1863), Genova,
Sordo-Muti, 1867. Most of my facts concerning Ettore and his daughters
are taken from this _brochure_, with its careful biographical Discourse
by Avvocato Professore Giuseppe Morro (pp. 5-31), and its ample
collection of admirable wills and financial decisions (pp. 61-94).
[122] Quoted _ibid._ p. 21. It is absolutely certain that these words
refer to the pestilence of 1493, since the epidemic did not again visit
Genoa till 1503, when Vernazza must have been over thirty years of
age. And Battista’s silence as to any meeting between her Father and
Catherine must not be pressed, since she nowhere mentions Catherine,
and yet we know for certain how close and long was the intimacy between
them.
[123] The words of the _Vita_, p. 105_c_, that those who wrote this
Life “saw and experienced these wonderful operations for _many years_,”
are given in MS. “A” as “during _fifteen consecutive_ years (per
quindici continui anni),” p. 366. All points to her having got to know
Don Marabotto later than at this time and than Vernazza, yet only the
one or the other of these two men can be meant; hence Vernazza must
be intended here. But I have nowhere in the _Vita_ been able to trace
passages that could with probability be both attributed to Vernazza,
and dated before the years 1498-1499.
[124] The precise date of Vernazza’s marriage is unknown. But since his
eldest child was born on April 15, 1497, it cannot have taken place
later than June 1496. The date of the sale of the Palazzo is derived
from Catherine’s act of consent to the sale, preserved in the Archivio
di Stato; a copy lies before me. The date of her resignation is derived
from the _Vita_, p. 96_b_, which says she did so “quando fù di anni
circa cinquanta.” This “circa” must no doubt here, as so often (as,
_e.g._, on p. 97_b_, where “circa sessanta-tre” refers to November
1509, when she was sixty-two), be interpreted as “nearly fifty”: she
was really forty-nine.
[125] The date of Tommasina’s birth comes from _Ritratti ed Elogi di
Liguri Illustri_, Genova, Ponthenier; the date of the beginning of
Giuliano’s illness from his Codicil of January 10, 1497, in which
he declares himself as “languishing” and “infirm in body”; and the
approximate date of his death from two entries in the Cartulary of
the Bank of St. George, as to investments made by Catherine (copies
in _Documenti su S. Caterina da Genova_, University Library, Genoa,
B. VII, 31), of which the first, on July 14, 1497, gives her name
as “Catterinetta, filia Jacobi di Fiesco et uxor Juliani Adorni”;
and the second, on October 6, 1497, describes her as “uxor et heres
testamentaria quondam fratris Juliani Adorni.”
[126] _Vita_, pp. 122_b_, _c_, 123_a_. I have preserved the descriptive
account of Catherine’s prayer and of its effect, although it may
possibly be but a later dramatized interpretation of the undoubtedly
authentic report of her declaration made to Vernazza.--The immediate
cause of Giuliano’s pain and impatience is given by _Vita_, p. 122_b_,
as “una gran passione d’urina”; Vallebona, p. 73, declares the malady
to have been a “cestite cronica” (tape-worm). I have omitted a short
dialogue which is given, after her remark to Vernazza, as having
occurred between her friends and herself, concerning her liberation
from much oppression, and her own indifference to all except the will
of God, because her answer is given in _oratio obliqua_, and is quite
colourless and general; the passage is doubtless of no historical
value: there never lived a less conventional, vapidly moralizing soul
than hers.
[127] I work from careful copies specially made for me direct from the
originals, by Dre. Augusto Ferretto, of the Archivio di Stato in Genoa.
[128] _Inaugurazione_, pp. 12, 13.
[129] I work again from a copy made by Dre. Ferretto from the original
in the Archivio di Stato, Genoa.
[130] Marabotto’s help in business matters cannot, on any large scale,
have begun till considerably later than his spiritual help. For
whereas her Codicil of 1503 nowhere mentions Marabotto, her Will of
1506 leaves him, as we shall see, a little legacy; her Will of 1509
protects him against all harassing inquisition into the details of
his administration of her affairs; and her Codicil of 1510 mentions
only him and Don Carenzio. And it is incredible that business help
should have been given throughout four years, and should have failed
to gain any recognition in a document which commemorates so many
lesser services. Marabotto was Rector in 1504 (I owe this date to
the kindness of the Rev. Padre Vincenzo Celesia, author of the MS.
_Storia dell’ Ospedale di Pammatone in Genova_, 1897); he was no more
Rector in September 1509, but Don Jacobo Carenzio then held this post
(Catherine’s Codicil of that date). Indeed already in March 1509
Marabotto seems not to have been Rector (Catherine’s Will of that date
mentions him repeatedly, but nowhere as Rector). I take the Offices
of _Rettore_ (Master), and of _Rettora_ (Matron), to have never been
exercised simultaneously: but that, at any one time, there was always
only a Rettore or a Rettora presiding over the whole Hospital. The
Office of Rettora was abolished altogether in 1730 (_Storia dell’
Ospedale_, p. 1135).
[131] _Vita_, p. 117_b_.
[132] The Appendix will show that the “Religioso,” the “dolce
figliuolo,” of pp. 94, 95, and the “Religioso, figliuolo,” of pp. 98,
99, must be Ettore Vernazza, and not Cattaneo Marabotto.
[133] I take all these facts from F. Federici’s careful MS. work,
_Famiglie Nobili di Genova_, _sub verbo_ Marabotto.
[134] _Vita_, p. 118, _a_, _b_. The first of these two passages
is followed, in the same section, by two other slightly different
accounts. The third of these is no doubt authentic, but refers to a
still later period: it shall be given in its proper place. These two
authentic accounts are (as is often the case in the _Vita_) joined
together by a vague and yet absolute, unauthentic account, which
declares that she told him all things (apparently on all occasions): a
statement untrue of any time in her life.
[135] _Vita_, pp. 117_c_, 118_a_.
[136] _Vita_, p. 94_c_. The three lines which follow in the printed
_Vita_ are wanting in MS. “A” of 1547, p. 235, and are a disfiguring
gloss of R 2.
[137] _Vita_, pp. 94, 95.
[138] _Vita_, p. 97_b_; 250, _a_, _b_.
[139] Angel, 50_b_; Cherub, 16_a_, 97_b_; Seraph, 130_b_.
[140] _Vita_, pp. 47_b_, 50_a_, 72_b_.
[141] _Ibid._ p. 115_b_.
[142] _Ibid._ p. 115_b_. There are three passages in the _Vita_
referring to cases of possession. (_a_) Page 39_b_ makes Catherine, in
finishing up a discourse as to Evil being essentially but a Privation
of Love, refer to a “Religioso” and to a “Spiritato,” and how the
latter, “costretto” by the former to tell him what he was, “answered
with great force: ‘I am that unhappy wretch bereft of love.’ And he
(the evil spirit) said so with a voice so piteous and penetrating,
that it moved me (Catherine) through and through with compassion.” The
Possessed One is here a man. In MS “A” (p. 92) the story is still quite
loosely co-ordinated with her speech; it was originally no doubt an
independent anecdote; and was, possibly after a good many intermediary
literary fixations, introduced into this place and connection by R 1
or R 2. (_b_) Page 115_a_, _b_, gives the story reproduced in the text
above. The Possessed One is here a woman; and here the entire passage
formally claims directly to reproduce an actual scene from Catherine’s
life. (_c_) Page 162_a_ gives an anecdote of a “figliuola spirituale”
of Catherine, who had “il demonio adosso”; and tells how, at the
time of her Mistress’s death, the “spirito” within her, “costretto,”
declared that he had seen Catherine unite herself with God,--and all
this with “tormento,” so that “pareva a sè intollerabile.” This passage
clearly refers to the same person as that of passage _b_.
As to the historicity of the event described in the text, we must
distinguish between the general fact of Catherine’s moral and psychic
ascendency over Mariola, a fact as entirely beyond dispute as it
is valuable and characteristic; and the occurrence of the scene as
given above. As to the latter, the question of its value is of course
distinct from that of its occurrence. Its supposed evidential worth is
_nil_, since Mariola had been intimate with and devoted to Catherine
for probably a good ten years at least. But the scene may nevertheless
have actually occurred. It is true that the partly parallel case of
the “Spiritato” shows how easily such a dramatization of doctrine or
transference of experience can occur. And Denys the Areopagite and
Jacopone da Todi are full of this comparison of the soul arrived at
a state of union to an Angel, Cherub or Seraph; and these writers
have greatly influenced not only Catherine’s authentic teaching, but
also the successive amplifications and modifications of her life and
sayings. And again we shall prove that certain legendary matters were
inserted in the _Vita_ at a late date--between 1545 and 1551. But these
passages all claim to be based upon evidence supplied by Argentina del
Sale; and they were evidently not accepted by Marabotto (1528); the
literary form of these legends differs much from that of our passage;
and if the former are still absent from MSS. “A” and “B,” the latter
is already present in both. And we have such entirely first-hand proof
for the curiously naïf, formal, exteriorizing character of Marabotto’s
mind, as to leave it always possible that he did bring about a little
scene of the sort here described. If so, Marabotto’s rôle in it will
have been prompted, in part, by a wish still further to increase
Catherine’s hold upon Mariola’s mind.
[143] _Vita_, p. 112_a_.
[144] _Vita_, p. 72_b_.
[145] _Ibid._ p. 113_b_. I take these two motives alone to have
operated throughout such actions of hers during this last period.
The additional motive attributed to her (_Ibid._ pp. 129_c_, 130_a_,
and 134_a_), where she is represented as applying a lighted candle
or live coal to her bare arm, for the purpose of testing whether her
interior spiritual fire or this exterior material one is the greater,
is entirely unlike Catherine’s spirit. It belongs to the demonstrably
legendary and disfiguring interpretations which shall be studied
further on. The sentence on p. 134_a_, in which she herself is made to
declare this motive, is most certainly a worthless gloss.
[146] _Vita_, p. 127_a_.
[147] It is remarkable how tough-lived has been the legend which makes
Vernazza have an only child. Not only Father Sticken (_Acta Sanctorum_,
September, Vol. V, pp. 123-195) has it in 1752, but even Vallebona,
in his _Perla dei Fieschi_, still repeats it in 1887. And yet the
_Inaugurazione_ pamphlet had appeared in Genoa in 1867, giving on pp.
13, 14, 72, 73 the fullest proofs as to the reality of these two other
children.
[148] _Vita_, p. 123_b_.
[149] I get the date of 1502 for those three deaths from Angelo L.
Giovo’s MS. _Vita_ of the Saint in the _Biblioteca della Missione
Urbana_ (Part I, ch. iii). All three names are prominent in the Will of
1498; in the Codicil of 1503, Jacobo and Giovanni are both styled “the
late,” and her brother Lorenzo has become the sole residuary legatee.
Limbania appears nowhere after the Will of 1498.
[150] _Atti della Società Ligure di Storia Patria_, Genova, 1868, p.
411 (with plate). The article is dated 1871.
[151] _Vita_, pp. 124_b_-126. I get Argentina’s maiden name from a Will
of hers of the year 1522, of which a copy exists in the MS. volume
_Documenti relativi a S. Caterina da Genova_, in the Genoa University
Library, B. VII, 31. I have taken Argentina to have previously known,
perhaps even to have served, Catherine, because of her surprise at
Marco’s ignorance as to the identity of his visitor; and I have treated
such possible service as but slight, because in Giuliano’s Will of 1494
and in Catherine’s Will and Codicil of 1498 and 1503, legacies are left
to the two maids Benedetta and Mariola, but not a word appears as yet
as to Argentina. The date as to the year I derive from the following
facts:--(1) Catherine, as soon as Marco is buried, carries out her
promise to him, and receives Argentina into her house: so the _Vita_,
pp. 126_c_, 125_c_. (2) Whereas in the Codicil of 1503 there is still
no trace of Argentina, in the Will of 1506 she appears, and receives
legacies of personal linen, etc. These gifts are somewhat increased in
the Will of 1509. Argentina has evidently not been long in Catherine’s
service at the time of the drawing up of the Will of 1506. (3) The
Protonotary Angelo L. Giovo (MS. _Vita_ of the Saint of the _Biblioteca
della Missione Urbana_ Part I, ch. iii) puts down the date of Marco’s
death as 1495. Although this is evidently wrong, I think it wise to
keep at least one of his numbers, which I do by fixing upon 1505.
[152] _Documenti su S. Caterina da Genova_, University of Genoa
Library, gives a note by Angelo L. Giovo, based on the Book of the
Acts of the Protectors of the Hospital: “1506, Marzo, 16mo. Si vede
che detta Catarinetta Adorna haveva cura dell’ Hospitale, ricevendo li
figli esposti e li pegni per essi.”
[153] From Dre. Ferretto’s copy of the original in the Archivio di
Stato.
[154] The clause in this Will which says, “And Testatrix, knowing that
the said Giuliano her husband, left to a certain female Religious £150:
Therefore she herewith annuls the said legacy, in virtue of the power
given her for this purpose,” reads, at first sight, like a harsh,
unjust act. But it follows upon a similar annulation of the legacy to
the Hospital; and we may be quite sure that Catherine, who had now
loved and served this Institution for thirty-three years, would not
treat it unjustly. And in the Will of 1509 Catherine explains that the
former legacy has been annulled, “in consideration of the satisfaction
or settlement (_solutio_) already effected by Testatrix herself with
regard to the said legacy.”
[155] _Documenti_: extracts by Giovo from “Acts of the Protectors.”
[156] From Dre. Ferretto’s copy of the original in the Archivio di
Stato, Genoa.
[157] From Dre. Ferretto’s careful copy of the original in the Archivio
di Stato, Genoa.
[158] In the printed _Vita_ a passage occurs on p. 10_b_, describing
the interior heat which accompanied her great fasts (1476-1499). But
the passage is wanting in the MSS., and is no doubt only a gloss to
explain how, at those times, she came to drink water mixed with vinegar.
[159] “Operazione”: _Vita_, pp. 106_c_, 117_b_, 121_b_, 143_b_,
148_b_, 149_c_. “Assalto”: pp. 138_b_, _c_ (3); 139_a_; 143, _b_, _c_
(3); 144_a_ (2); 148_a_. “Assedio”: p. 118_b_. “Saetta”: pp. 141_a_,
145_a_. “Ferita”: p. 141_a_, _c_ (2). “Raggio”: pp. 133_b_, 157_c_.
“Scintilla”: pp. 132_a_, 148_b_. The “ferita” occurs already (as
a “dolce ferita”) in the account of her Conversion, pp. 4, 5; and
“saetta,” “ferita,” “raggio” and “scintilla,” appear very often in her
own sayings.
[160] The passage in _Vita_, p. 10_b_, which declares that she “felt”
(tasted) something sweet within her, upon drinking that salt and sour
water during her long fasts, is wanting in the MSS., and is itself
an interesting attempt to materialize her saying, on p. 11_b_, as to
the “other thing” (_i.e._ the love of God), that she was “feeling”
(tasting) within herself.
[161] _Vita_, p. 8_a_.
[162] _Ibid._ p. 9_b_. The present conclusion of the sentence, and all
the parallels throughout the rest of the page, show plainly that the
sentence originally read as I have given it.
[163] _Vita_, p. 9_b_.
[164] _Ibid._ p. 16_b_.
[165] _Ibid._ p. 5_b_.
[166] _Vita_, p. 98, _a_, _b_. This is the first of three incidents,
given in chronological order, all referring to her desire for death,
which make up Chapter XXXVIII of the printed _Vita_. The last two are,
beyond all doubt, conversations with Vernazza; and this first incident
is also probably transmitted to us by him.--I have in my translation
left out the numerous glosses by which the various Redactors have
desperately attempted to eviscerate this story, attempts based on the
double conviction, that Catherine was already absolutely perfect, and
that “every desire is imperfect” (p. 100_a_). These changes will be
studied later on.
[167] _Vita_, pp. 118, _b_, _c_, 119_b_, 119_a_. This vivid and simple
dialogue is followed (p. 119_b_) by a clearly secondary parallel
discourse of Catherine. Only the descriptive end of this latter
paragraph is no doubt authentic, and has been incorporated in the above
translation.
[168] _Vita_, p. 127_a_.
[169] I translate the above from the oldest account of the event, given
by MS. “A,” p. 193, at the opening of its Chapter XXIX (the number is
accidentally omitted), which is headed: “How in the year 1506, on the
11th of November, there came upon her so great a burning in the heart,
that she wondered at her not expiring.” This 1506, repeated in the
opening line of the chapter itself, is an undoubted slip; for she is
said to be 63 years old (and she was in her 63rd year in 1509), and the
place occupied by the corresponding paragraph in the printed _Vita_,
p. 133_b_ (within a year of her death, p. 132_b_, and some time before
December 1509, p. 138_b_), again clearly marks the date as 1509.
[170] _Vita_, p. 132_a_, _b_. The first eight sentences have been in
part fused by R 1 into fewer larger periods. The last sentence is
wanting in MSS. “A”and “B”; although clearly formed upon the model and
with the material of the previous sentences, it appears in the printed
_Vita_ as referring to an “altra vista” (see p. 133_b_).
[171] _Vita_, p. 135_a_. I have, in Catherine’s speech, omitted a final
clause, “which burns me entirely within and without,” because it is not
necessary to the sense, and violates the rhythm, which is ever present
in all Catherine’s authentic sayings.
[172] _Ibid._ pp. 135_c_, 136_a_. I have omitted two glosses introduced
by “cioè,” “that is”; and three short amplifications, which introduce a
direct conflict between the two parts. There is, within this particular
picture and scene, no direct conflict, but, at first, a complete
contrariety of aim.
[173] _Vita_, p. 136_c_. This is one out of four or five parallel
sayings which are accumulated here. They shall be examined later on.
[174] _Vita_, pp. 98_c_, 99_a_; 99_b_, _c_. I have, in the first
conversation, omitted the introductory attribution of her use of
the word “giddiness” to humility; and, in the second, suppressed
the conclusion which repeatedly declares that never again did any
such desire arise within her. For both clauses have got a vague and
secondary form, and the second is in direct contradiction with the
facts.
[175] _Vita_, 138_c_.
[176] _Vita_, pp. 139_b_, 140_b_, _c_. I have omitted the evidently
derivative, transcendentally reflective, second of the three paragraphs
in which this story now appears; the explanatory glosses of the same
tone as that paragraph; a redundant sentence in Catherine’s speech;
and the evidently late and schematic designation of “assalto” for the
entire incident, which is, surely, nothing of the sort.
[177] _Vita_, pp. 120_b_; 119_c_, 120_a_. The sequence and date assumed
above I think to be, all things considered, the most likely among the
possible alternatives. As to her remarks to Marabotto, they appear in
the _Vita_ before his three days’ absence. But the interior evidence
seems strongly in favour of my inversion of that (evidently, in any
case, very loose and quite unemphasized) order.
[178] _Ibid._ pp. 141_c_, 143_c_.
[179] _Vita_, p. 141_c_.
[180] _Ibid._ 142_a_. MSS. “A” and “B” open out their chapter on her
last illness with the statement that it was (only) four months before
her death that she took to her bed. I take it that from the end of
January 1510 onwards, she was often in bed, yet still sometimes out of
it; but that from mid-May to the end she no more left it.
[181] _Ibid._ p. 142_b_, _c_. I have, in her prayer, omitted the first
seven words of the present text: “(Già sono trentacinque anni in
circa, che) giammai, Signor mio …” For she would hardly inform God of
the approximate number of years of her convert life; the double “già”
points to a gloss; and such a gloss would almost irresistibly find
its way into this place, so as to mitigate the absoluteness of the
statement.
[182] _Ibid._ p. 143_b_. I have omitted the words: “which (the right
shoulder) appeared as though severed from the body; and similarly one
rib seemed severed from the others …” They have precisely the same
“colour,” and no doubt proceed from the same contributor, as the longer
passage relative to her supposed stigmatization, absent from all the
MSS., but given in the printed _Vita_ on the authority of Argentina.
[183] _Vita_, pp. 143_c_, 71_c_. The second passage, though occurring
in an early chapter of the _Vita_, undoubtedly belongs to these final
months and fits well into this particular day.
[184] _Ibid._ p. 144_a_. I have accepted this passage, because of its
great vividness. But pp. 139_b_-145_b_ of the printed _Vita_ do not
exist in the MSS.
[185] _Ibid._ p. 145_b_. On pp. 145_c_, 146_a_, she is said to have,
during this time, seen many visions of Angels, to have laughed in their
company, and to have herself recounted this after these occurrences.
She is similarly declared to have seen Evil Spirits (_i Demoni_), but
only with slight fear. And these passages occur also in the MSS.--But
they stand so entirely outside of any context or attribution to any
definite days; such general assertions prove, throughout the _Vita_,
to be so little trustworthy; and they are such vague and colourless
doubles of similar, but definitely dated and characterized, reports
to be accepted in their place a little lower down, that I cannot but
reject them here.
[186] _Vita_, pp. 144_b_; 145_c_.
[187] _Ibid._ p. 145_c_.
[188] _Ibid._ p. 146_b_.
[189] _Vita_, pp. 146_c_-147_c_.
[190] Lingard’s _History of England_, ed. 1855, Vol. IV, p. 166; James
Gairdner, _Henry VII_, London, 1889, p. 208.
[191] The five passages of the _Vita_ concerning Physicians (pp. 71_c_,
72_a_; 145_c_, 146_b_; 146_c_-147_c_; 158_c_, 159_a_) all bear very
clear marks of successive additions, glosses, and re-castings,--always
in the direction indicated above.
The entire Boerio-episode (pp. 146_c_-147_c_), is wanting in all the
MSS. It is, however, most plainly authentic. I believe both the episode
and a further passage concerning Boerio to have been furnished by
Boerio’s son, a Secular Priest, who died a septuagenarian in 1561;
his monument still exists in the Church of the Santa Annunciata, at
Sturla, near Genoa. See the _Biografia Medica Ligure_, by Dottore G.
B. Pescetto, Genova, 1846, Vol. I, p. 104.--There are some suspicious
symptoms connected with that first consultation of Physicians: Boerio’s
interviews read as though they had not been quite recently preceded
by such an activity--and it is possible that we have here an account
produced by a retrogressive doubling of the undoubtedly authentic
consultation of the 10th of September, to be described presently.
Still, there is nothing intrinsically improbable in the account itself.
I have, then, allowed both consultations to stand.
[192] _Vita_, p. 72_a_.
[193] Copies of these six entries in the _Manuale Cartularii_ of the
Hospital exist attached to the MS. _Vita_ in the _Biblioteca della
Missione Urbana_.
[194] From the copy of the original Codicil in the Archivio di Stato,
made for me by Dre. Ferretto. The Inventory exists attached to the MS.
_Vita_ just mentioned.
[195] _Vita_, p. 148_b_. It is remarkable that, since January 10,
this is the first date given by the _Vita_; that a series of dated
days then extends onwards to August 28 (pp. 148_a_-152_a_); that
then a gap occurs, filled in with a general but authentic account
(pp. 152_b_-153_c_), evidently by another hand, the same writer who
gave us the (also dateless) account from mid-January to mid-May (pp.
141_b_-145_b_); and that the dated chronicle is finally carried on from
September 2 to the end, September 15 (pp. 153_c_-161_a_). If I am right
as to the oneness of authorship as regards these two undated parts,
then they are either not by Vernazza; or if they are, then Vernazza
must have been about Catherine till September 2.
Now the _Vita_, p. 120_b_, tells us how Marabotto on one occasion left
her “for three days,” at a time when she was already suffering much
from “accidenti.” It is evident, that this absence fits in admirably
with the gap already mentioned. Hence these dateless accounts can
hardly be by Marabotto; and indeed their whole tone and point of view
are unlike his. They might be by Carenzio: we shall see how strikingly
objective and precise are the oldest constituents of the report as to
the last three days of her life, during which, or at least at the end
of which, Marabotto was as certainly absent as was Vernazza. There
is, however, I think, some difference of tone between this latter
report, and those dateless passages; whereas those passages are
strikingly similar, in form and tone, to the oldest constituents of the
_Trattato_, which are undoubtedly the literary work of Vernazza.
The probabilities then are, that these dateless accounts are by
Vernazza; and that he left Genoa on September 1 or 2.
[196] _Vita_, p. 148_c_. “Disse molte belle parole al santo Sacramento
[e ai circonstanti, con tanto fervore e pietà,] che ognuno ne piangeva
per divozione.” I have omitted the bracketed words, as a disfiguring
gloss.
[197] _Vita_, p. 149_b_. I have neglected the numerous glosses to this
account, and have read “several” instead of “seven” days, since she
was again in great distress on August 22, or 23 at latest (_Ibid._ p.
149_c_).
[198] _Ibid._ p. 149_c_. I have here omitted an evidently later
insertion and transition between that highly localized paralysis and
the death-like sickness of the whole of her; and have made the latter
come on after the former, for how otherwise could any one know about
that paralysis?
[199] _Ibid._ p. 150_b_. This fact and passage have occasioned an
interesting succession of obvious accretions and re-statements.
[200] _Ibid._ p. 151_a_, _b_. I have in the text followed the MSS.
as against the printed _Vita_, and have omitted a long clause, which
attempts to find the explanation of these words of hers in a subsequent
permanent change of attitude towards all those from whom she asked or
received a service.
[201] _Vita_, p. 153_b_.
[202] _Vita_, pp. 150_a_, 154_b_, 127_c_, 153_c_.
[203] A copy of this entry exists, in the Priest Giovo’s handwriting,
in the collection of Documents prefixed to the MS. _Vita_ of St.
Catherine, in the _Biblioteca della Missione Urbana_, Genoa.
[204] _Vita_, p. 154_b_, and the Inventory among the documents in the
_Vita_, volume of the _Biblioteca della Missione_.
[205] _Vita_, pp. 153_a_, 155_a_; 157_c_, 158_a_. For this 7th
September three heat-and-light impressions are given: (1) “A ray of
divine love”; (2) “a vision of fiery stairs”; and (3) this apprehension
of the whole world on fire. Perhaps the first also is authentic; the
last is certainly so. The middle one seems to be secondary, and to have
slipped in to form a transition and link between the other two accounts.
[206] _Ibid._ p. 153_a_.
[207] _Vita_, p. 155_b_, _c_. A third paragraph, pp. 155_c_, 156_a_
(equally wanting in all the MSS. and claiming to be based on the
authority of Argentina), follows here, and tells how the latter
saw one of her mistress’s arms grow over half a palm in additional
length, during the following night; and again how Catherine had told
her, Argentina, that she, Catherine, “would before her death bear
the stigmata and mysteries of the Passion in her own person.” These
“facts” are thoroughly characteristic of the source from which they
are no doubt derived.--A fourth paragraph, p. 156_b_, _c_, has also
been omitted by me, although it occurs also in the MSS. It contains a
long prayer put into Catherine’s mouth, and modelled on our Lord’s High
Priestly Prayer in John xvii, 1-13. It is far too long, elaborate, and
uncharacteristic to be authentic.
[208] _Ibid._ p. 156_c_.
[209] _Ibid._ p. 158_b_. I have here omitted, after “miseries,” the
clause “through which she had passed.” For during her middle period she
seems indeed not to have seen her faults till after she herself had
got beyond them: yet that particular dispensation was then vouchsafed
her because of the excessive pain which the sight of still present
imperfections would have caused her; and it is that peculiarity which
explains the extreme rarity or absence of Confession during that time.
But now we have both the pain and the Confession: and I cannot find
any instances, as in this case, of (evidently keen) annoyance, or
of Confession, with respect to past and overcome imperfections.--I
have also omitted a sentence after “departed from her”: “not that
they were matters of any importance, but every slightest defect was
intolerable to her.” For this is to judge the Saint by another standard
than that of her own conscience, and to make her sanctity consist
of scrupulosity.--And I have dropped a further notice for the same
day,--a “vista” vouchsafed to her of “a pure and perfect mind, into
which only the memory of divine things can still enter,” with her
corresponding laugh and exclamation: “O, to find oneself in this degree
(of perfection) at the time of death!” For, beautiful as it is, this
clause but reproduces, in the softened form of a general and joyous
aspiration, what the previous anecdote had given as a particular and
depressing consciousness. And the previous anecdote was evidently
offensive to both Redactors.
[210] _Vita_, pp. 158_c_, 159_a_, _b_.
[211] _Vita_, p. 159_c_. The Codicil I give from Dre. Ferretto’s copy
of the original in the Archivio di Stato, Genoa. I have, in the _Vita_
passage, omitted a sentence which now stands between the drop-of-water
incident, and that of the attack at night, which declares: “All this
day she remained without speaking, without ever opening her eyes or
eating or drinking”; for it would be difficult, if we retain it, to
find room for the drawing up of the Codicil, which certainly took place
before the attack.
[212] _Vita_, p. 160_a_.
[213] _Vita_, pp. 169_c_, 161_a_.
[214] _Vita_, pp. 161_c_-163_a_.
[215] _Vita_, p. 162_b_.
[216] _Ibid._ pp. 163_b_-164_a_.
[217] _Ibid._ p. 153_a_ (end of August or beginning of September 1510),
“through the intense heat of this fire of love she became yellow all
over, like the colour of saffron”; p. 161_b_, (“after death) that
yellow colour was spread over her whole body, which at first had only
been around the region of the heart”; p. 164_c_ (on opening her coffin
in the autumn of 1511), “the skin which corresponded to the heart was
still red in sign of the ardent love which she had harboured in it, the
rest of the body was yellow.”
[218] _Vita_, pp. 17_c_, 18_a_, (97_c_).
[219] _Ibid._ p. 129_b_, (165_c_). In both places there is an explicit
reference to Saint Ignatius (of Antioch), “whose heart, when examined
after his martyrdom, was found to have written upon it, in letters of
gold, the sweet name of Jesus.” Perhaps also two lines of Jacopone da
Todi had some influence here. In _Loda_ LXXXVIII, v. 11, he says of the
perfected soul: “The heart annihilates itself, undone (melted down)
as though it were wax, and finds itself, after this act, bearing the
figure (the seal-impression) of Christ Himself.”
[220] _Ibid._ p. 165_c_.
[221] These and similar matters will be found carefully studied in the
Appendix.
[222] _Lode_ III, XIII, XXXIII, XXXV, XLV, LVIII (_a_) and (_b_),
LXXIII, LXXV (_a_) and (_b_), LXXVII, LXXIX, LXXXI, LXXXIII, LXXXV,
LXXXVIII, LXXXIX, LXXXX, LXXXXVII, LXXXXIX.
[223] _Vita_, pp. 32_c_, 33_a_, _b_. I must refer the reader, once for
all, to the Appendix, for the explanation of the methods used in the
selection and the emendation of the texts presented in this chapter.
[224] _Vita_, pp. 29_c_; 91_c_; 30_b_; 55_c_, 56_a_; 61_a_.
[225] _Ibid._ p. 76_c_.
[226] _Ibid._ pp. 101_b_; 101_a_; 79_c_.
[227] _Vita_, pp. 36_b_; 80_c_, 81_a_; 74_b_.
[228] _Ibid._ pp. 9_b_; _ibid._, 8_c_.
[229] _Vita_, p. 11_c_.
[230] _Ibid._ p. 11_b_.
[231] _Vita_, pp. 22_b_; 25_c_; 26_b_.--105_c_.--25_c_, 26_a_, 80_b_.
[232] _Ibid._ pp. 15_c_, 16_a_.--9_b_; 53_b_; 67_c_.
[233] _Vita_, pp. 26_b_; 50_b_.--36_b_; 36_c_.--36_b_.
[234] _Ibid._ p. 48_b_.
[235] _Ibid._ pp. 23_c_; 27_a_. The fact of “Nettezza” remaining
at last her only term for the perfection of God shows plainly how
comprehensive, definite, and characteristic must have been the
meaning she attached to the word. The history of this conception no
doubt begins with Plato’s “the Same”; and this, through Plotinus and
Victorinus Afer’s Latin translation of him, reappears as “the Idipsum,
the Self-Same,” as one of the names of God in St. Augustine; a term
which in Dionysius (largely based as he is upon Plotinus’s disciple
Proclus) occurs continually, and can there be still everywhere
translated as “Identity” or “Self-Identity” (so also Parker). But with
Catherine the idea seems to have been approximated more to that of
Purity, although I take it that, with her, “Purità” means the absence
of all excess (of anything foreign to the true nature of God’s or
the soul’s essence); and “Netezza,” the absence of all defect, in
the shape of any failure fully to actualize all the possibilities
of this same true nature. I have had to resign myself, as the least
inadequate suggestions of the rich meaning of “Netezza” and “Netto,”
to alternating between the sadly general terms “fulness” and “full,”
and the pedantic-sounding “self-adequation,” with here and there “clear
fulness.”
[236] _Vita_, pp. 15_b_, 22_c_; 23_b_; 49_a_; 69_a_.
[237] _Vita_, pp. 31_c_, 32_a_.--66_a_, 66_b_, 87_c_, 107_a_.
[238] _Ibid._ pp. 75_b_, 66_b_.
[239] _Ibid._ pp. 87_c_, 106_a_, 106_c_.
[240] _Vita_, p. 114_a_.
[241] _Ibid._ 28_c_, 29_a_, 29_b_.
[242] _Ibid._ pp. 42_b_, 43_c_.
[243] _Vita_, p. 42_a_.
[244] _Ibid._ pp. 83_c_, 84_a_, 86_b_, 87_a_.
[245] _Ibid._ p. 108_b_.
[246] _Vita_, pp. 81_b_.
[247] _Ibid._ pp. 81_c_; 82_a_; 103_b_.
[248] _Ibid._ p. 31_b_.
[249] _Vita_ p. 54_b_, _c_.
[250] _Ibid._ pp. 52_c_, 53_a_.
[251] _Ibid._ pp. 95_c_, 125_a_; 122_c_; 76_a_.
[252] _Vita_, pp. 9_b_, 15_b_; 11_b_, 8_c_; 155_a_.
[253] _Vita_, pp. 136_b_, 183_c_; 19_b_, 107_b_.
[254] _Ibid._ p. 113_c_.
[255] _Ibid._ pp. 24_b_, 23_b_, 24_b_.
[256] _Vita_, pp. 59_c_, 76_c_, 77_a_.
[257] _Ibid._ p. 37_a_.
[258] _Vita_, pp. 94_a_; 109_b_.
[259] _Ibid._ pp. 87_c_, 53_b_.
[260] _Vita_, pp. 23_c_, 24_a_, 23_c_, 22_c_, 61_c_; 77_b_.
[261] _Ibid._ pp. 34_c_; 175_c_.
[262] _Vita_, pp. 171_c_, 172_a_.
[263] _Ibid._ pp. 30_a_, 29_c_; 43_c_.
[264] _Ibid._ pp. 171_c_, 172_a_.
[265] _Vita_, pp. 52_a_; 51_b_; 106_c_.-94_c_; 95_b_.
[266] _Ibid._ pp. 23_a_; 24_a_.
[267] _Vita_, p. 60_c_.
[268] _Ibid._ pp. 76_b_; 27_a_.
[269] _Ibid._ pp. 8_a_; 15_b_.--8_c_.
[270] _Vita_ (_Trattato_), p. 169_b_. See also _Vita_, Preface, p.
viii_b_; and p. 144_b_.
[271] _Vita_, pp. 172_c_; _ibid._--38_b_, _c_; 39_a_.
[272] _Vita_, pp. 173_a_.--173_b_.--33_b_.
[273] _Ibid._ (_Trattato_), pp. 170_b_ (169_c_).
[274] _Vita_ (_T._), p. 175_b_.
[275] _Ibid._ (_T._), p. 177_b_.
[276] _Ibid._ (_T._), p. 176_a_; _Vita_ proper, p. 78_c_.
[277] _Vita_ (_T._), p. 175_a_ (see p. 169_b_).
[278] _Ibid._ (_T._), p. 176_a_.
[279] _Vita_ (_T._), pp. 169_c_, 170_a_.--182_b._
[280] _Vita_ (_T._), pp. 173_c_, 174_a_; 171_b_.--64_b_;
177_b_.--170_c_.
[281] _Ibid._ (_T._), p. 172_b_.
[282] _Vita_ (_T._), p. 172_a_.
[283] _Ibid._ (_T._), p. 174_b_.
[284] _Ibid._
[285] _Vita_ (_T._), p. 174_b_.
[286] _Ibid._
[287] _Vita_ (_T._), p. 182_b_.
[288] _Vita_ (_T._), p. 170_c_.
[289] _Vita_ (_T._), p. 178_b_.
[290] _Vita_ (_T._), p. 178_b_.
[291] _Ibid._
[292] A copy of this document exists prefixed to the MS. _Vita_ of the
_Biblioteca delta Missione Urbana_.
[293] Copy in the same volume.
[294] _Vita_, p. 164_b_. This first coffin is still extant: it stands
now, empty in a glass case, in the smaller of the two rooms shown
in the Hospital as her last dwelling-place. Twice over the _Vita_
talks of a “deposito,” although directly only in connection with
its opening “about eighteen months later,” _i.e._ not before March
1512. Now Argentina del Sale declares, in a Will of the year 1522 (a
copy, in Giovo’s handwriting, exists in the volume of the _Biblioteca
della Missione_), that she desires to be buried “in the Church of
the Annunciata, in the monument of the late Giuliano Adorno.” Thus
Giuliano’s grave was still generally known and fully accessible
twelve years after Catherine’s death; and it was a “monumento,” not a
“deposito.” I have been completely baffled in all my attempts to trace
the eventual fate of that monument, or even its precise site, or the
precise date of its disappearance. I can but offer two alternative
conjectures. (1) It stood in the choir-end of the Church. If so, it
will have been covered up, promiscuously with many another vault and
mortuary slab, when, in 1537, this end was cut off, for the purpose of
widening the bastion which still runs behind it and above it, outside.
(2) The “monument” was a slab on the floor of the nave or of some
side-chapel. The present flooring of all the former, and of a large
part of the Chapels, is relatively new; and it is (all but certainly)
superimposed upon the old flooring or at least upon the old sepulchral
slabs, since not one inscription remains visible in the nave. And if
Giuliano’s “monument” lay there, it will still be extant, hidden away
under the present flooring.--In either case it remains remarkable that
the slight trouble was not taken to shift nave-wards, or to raise to
the newer nave- or chapel-flooring, the “monument” of Catherine’s own
husband. There are certainly monuments still visible in the Church
older than 1497. It is impossible to resist the conclusion that some
occasion was gladly seized for _not_ moving or raising this monument,
and for thus letting the saintly wife appear entirely alone in the
Hospital Church, unattended by any memorial of her very imperfect
husband.
[295] The Inventory and this Acceptance both exist, in copy, in the MS.
_Vita_ of the _Biblioteca della Missione_. I owe a careful copy of the
former to the kindness of Don Giacomo C. Grasso, the Librarian.
[296] From the documents in the MS. _Vita_ of the _Biblioteca della
Missione_.
[297] _Vita_, pp. 164_b_, _c_, 165_c_. Great and repeated stress is
laid here, with unattractively realistic proofs and details, upon the
damage done by the damp to the coffin and grave-clothes, and upon the
contrasting spotlessness of the body.
[298] MS. _Vita_ of the _Biblioteca della Missione_.
[299] Even the little engraving of the title-page of the first edition
of the _Vita_ (1551), which shows Catherine kneeling before a crucifix,
represents her, not indeed with a nimbus, but with a diadem upon her
head.
[300] Reprinted in _Vita_, p. 282_b_.
[301] A little Prayer-book marker picture, which will, I think, have
been first engraved in 1737, when the body was, as indeed it is to this
hour, considered quite incorrupt, already gives the large paper rose
which has lain ever since in the place of the mouth and nose, which
have perished long ago. But I have been unable to test the claim to
incorruption further back than this.
[302] _Vita_, pp. 165_c_, 27_b_, 277_a_. In this last passage Maria
Fiesca makes a declaration as to the partial fleshiness and elasticity
of the body, _e.g._ of the right shoulder; and as to its extraordinary
weight.
[303] All three classes of cases are represented in Padre Maineri’s
account, reproduced in the _Vita_, p. 282_b_, _c_.
[304] Maineri, in _Vita_, p. 278, _b_, _c_. The first edition of the
_Vita_ calls her “Beata” on its title-page. MS. “A,” of 1547, 1548, has
simply “Madonna Catherineta Adorna” on the Franciscan copyist’s own
title, and “Beata” on the title copied by him from the MS. used by him.
[305] There is evidence that the many-sided Queen took an interest in
Catherine, in the Oratorian G. Parpera’s very careful _Beata Caterina
di Genova Illustrata_, Genova, 1682. But the Index of her Latin (and
Italian) MSS. in the Vatican Library contains no indication of any MS.
“Life” or “Doctrine” possessed by Christina.
[306] The main facts and dates of these paragraphs devoted to the
various Processes are derived from Padre Maineri’s very clear account,
first published in 1737, and reprinted at the end of the _Vita_, pp.
278-282.
[307] Copy in MS. _Vita_ in the _Biblioteca della Missione_.
[308] So Padre Celesia, _op. cit._ p. 1121.
[309] Copy in the MS. _Vita_ of the _Biblioteca della Missione_.
[310] From twenty-two conclusions concerning Catherine and her circle,
constituting one of the papers in the volume, _Documenti_, etc., of
the University Library. They were evidently written after 1675 and
before 1737 (Catherine is “Beata” throughout), but are, wherever I have
been able to test them, as a rule completely right, and never entirely
wrong. It is certainly somewhat strange that Argentina should, as is
there stated, have “continued in the said Hospital, and was living
in it still in 1523,” and should have “similarly continued to be the
servant of the Priest Cattaneo (Marabotto).” Still, she may have slept
at the Hospital and worked at Marabotto’s. I had thought of concluding
from this that Marabotto had been given Catherine’s house in the
Hospital, after Don Carenzio’s death there. But the apparently complete
absence of any mention of Marabotto in the Hospital books, after July
1512, makes me shrink from doing so.
[311] I am proud of this important discovery, since even Giovo had to
leave a blank for this date in his Chapter IV of Part I of his MS.
_Vita_, in the _Biblioteca della Missione_, written in 1675. I found
the date amongst some notes and copies, in a sprawly handwriting, not
Giovo’s, but the same which copied out the entry as to Carenzio’s
funeral expenses. It is true that in Marabotto’s case this writer
gives no proof or document; yet there is no reason for distrusting his
assertion.
[312] Copy from Hospital Cartulary in MS. _Vita_ of the _Biblioteca
della Missione Urbana_: “1511, 7 Julii: Hereditas quondam Caterinetae
Adurnae, pro Maria, olim famula ipsius et filia Hospitalis, pro legato
facto dictae Mariae per dictam q(uondam) Caterinetam, £50.--Maria
praedicta pro D. P. Cattaneo Marabotto, qui habuit curam guarnimentorum
ipsius Mariae, dedicatae in Monasterio Sanctae Brigidae, £50.”--I take
these two successive entries to refer to two successive stages of the
same transaction, and to but one and the same sum.
[313] From the documents given in the MS. _Vita_ of the _Biblioteca
della Missione Urbana_.
[314] My quotations from this letter are all taken from Giuseppe
Morro’s careful address on Vernazza, published in _Inaugurazione della
Statua d’Ettore Vernazza_, Genova, 1867, pp. 5-31. It stands _in
extenso_ in the fine edition of his daughter’s works: _Opere Spirituale
della Ven. Madre Donna Battista Vernazza_, 6 vols., Genoa, 1755; Vol.
VI, Letter XXV.
[315] The document is given in fall, and carefully analyzed, in
_Inaugurazione_, etc., pp. 61-70.
[316] Battista’s letter, as quoted in _Inaugurazione_, p. 16.
[317] _Inaugurazione_, pp. 17, 18.
[318] Printed in _Inaugurazione_, pp. 71-73.
[319] The present, second and much larger and detached SS. Annunziata,
on the square of that name, was not built (for the Capuchins) till
1587. In Giuliano’s and Catherine’s Wills of 1494, 1498, and 1506, the
Hospital Church occurs indifferently as “Church of the Annunciation
of the Order of Friars Minor of the Observance” with and without the
addition of “adjoining the Hospital,” or “adjoining the Hospital of
Pammatone.”
[320] This was a Cistercian Convent, founded in the twelfth
century, outside one of the Genoese gates. Only its Chapel survived
the destruction of the Convent at the time of the Revolutionary
secularization. And even this Chapel was in January 1903 in process of
demolition, to make room for the new Via Venti Settembre.
[321] The three daughters’ names in Religion all occur in a document of
the Bank of St. George printed in _Inaugurazione_, p. 79.
[322] _Inaugurazione_, p. 18, quoting Battista’s letter of 1581.
[323] _Inaugurazione_, pp. 19, 20.
[324] I derive this particular from Professore G. Morro’s
_Inaugurazione_, p. 20.
[325] _Inaugurazione_, p. 20.
[326] _Inaugurazione_, p. 21.
[327] _Inaugurazione_, pp. 21, 22. Battista’s account would lead one
to place that last Communion on the Feast itself; but the various
inscriptions erected by the most careful Committee of 1867, shows that
it occurred really on the Eve. See _Inaugurazione_, pp. 37; 39, 40. One
more instance of a slight displacement of date effected by a (no doubt
unconscious) desire to find a full synchronism between the Feast of the
Baptist and the final Communion of one so devoted to that Saint. The
Committee evidently shrank from interpreting her “three days after”: it
may evidently mean either the 26th or the 27th.
[328] As to the older monuments, see _Inaugurazione_, p. 5. An
excellent photograph of Varni’s statue forms the title-picture to this
publication.
[329] An engraving of this (now lost) portrait exists in _Ritratti ed
Elogii di Liguri Illustri_, Genova, Ponthonier, and appears reproduced
here as the Frontispiece to Vol. II.
[330] _Inaugurazione_, p. 26.
[331] Even such a rhetorical apostrophe as occurs in the peroration
of Dottore Morro’s speech (_Inaugurazione_, p. 30): “Thou worthy of
incense and of altars, as was that Catherine Fieschi, whose friend and
confidant and spiritual son thou wast, and who was God-mother to thy
own first-born,” stands, I think, alone.
[332] Schmöger: _Leben der gottseligen Anna Katharina Emmerich_,
Freiburg, 1867, 1870, Vol. II, pp. 892, 898, 900.
[333] Vallebona, _op. cit._ p. 83: “Santissima mia Diva, | questo mio
cor ricevi: | che quando al sole apriva | le luci a giorni brevi, |
infin d’allor fei voto, | con animo devoto, | non mai, madre adorata,
| esser da Te sviata.” “My most holy Protectress” and “adored Mother”
may apply to Catherine. But I have had to punctuate so as to make
“che” = “perchè,” as in Jacopone throughout: so that we now have not
a declaration of time, as to when she, the Protectress, accepted
Tommasa’s heart (which might well have been at Baptism); but a prayer
that this Mother may accept her heart, in view of the fact that she,
Tommasa, had, from her first opening of her eyes to life (surely, on
coming to some degree of reason), vowed never to be parted from this
Mother. And thus the application to Catherine remains possible but
becomes uncertain.
[334] I feel obliged to put the matter in this hypothetical form
because of the several undeniable indications of Catherine’s loss of
interest in many, perhaps most, events and occurrences, since, at
latest, the beginning of 1509.
[335] See the admirably vivid account of, and wisely-balanced judgment
concerning, these events, in the Catholic Alfred von Reumont’s little
book, _Vittoria Colonna_, Freiburg, 1881, pp. 117-152; 194-215.
[336] _Acta Sanctorum_, Vol. VI, pp. 192-196.
[337] For Gerson’s “Rigorism,” see J. B. Schwab’s admirable monograph,
_Johannes Gerson_, Regensburg, 1858; and for Contarini’s, Morone’s, and
the Colonna’s views, see Reumont’s _Vittoria Colonna_.
[338] _Opere_, Vol. VI, p. 192.
[339] See the Preface to the _Opere_, Vol. I, p. 10.
[340] _Opere_, ed. Genoa, 1755, Vol. V, pp. 218-227.
[341] See here, pp. 265, 266; 272; 280; 264, 265; 135; 160, 274-276.
[342] See here, pp. 116; 117, 266.
[343] The last clause here is very obscure in the original: “non voglio
meritare te, ma rimeritare lo amore che ti porto”; but I take the above
translation to render correctly the substantial meaning.
[344] See here, pp. 265; 262, 263, 261.
[345] See here, pp. 266, 268; 285; 261; 275, 159, 141.
[346] See here, pp. 260, 261, 273, 274.
[347] Ch iv, §§ xiii, xiv, xvi (Parker, pp. 48-50).
[348] See here, pp. 138; 277; 260.
[349] See here, p. 270.
[350] See here, pp. 270; 290; 275, 270.
[351] See here, pp. 138, 139; 265, 260; 272.
[352] _Opere_, ed. 1755, Vol. VI, pp. 247, 248.
[353] See here, pp. 263, 266, 280; 272, 275; 292; 277, 262.
[354] See here, pp. 284; 166-174; 143-145.
[355] See here, pp. 140, 141; 131, 116.
[356] _Inaugurazione_, pp. 26, 27.
[357] _Ibid._ pp. 74, 75, 77, 78. _Ibid._ p. 94.
[358] Here, pp. 319, 320; 140, 141, 268.
[359] Date of death: _Ritratti ed Elogii di Liguri Illustri_,
Genova, Ponthenier (Elogio della Ven. Battista Vernazza). Communion:
_Opere della Ven. B. Vernazza_, ed. cit., Vol. I, p. 21. The
portrait-frontispiece of the second volume of this work is a faithful
facsimile of the portrait (a lithograph by F. Scotto) published among
the _Ritratti_, between 1823 and 1830. The original picture, which will
have hung in the convent of S. Marie delle Grazie, I have not been able
to trace. The portrait now in possession of the Nuns of the convent of
S. Maria in Passione, the successors of those Canonesses, is a quite
conventional, inauthentic likeness.
[360] “A(nno) 1456, 27 Augti, ex Locis Pomerae uxore Bartolomaei de
Auria et a de modo Isabellae dedicatae in monasterio S. David, ad
instantiam Andreae Auria, unici ejus filii ex heredis, et Franciscae
matris Catherinetae filiae Jacobi de Flisco, Loci duo in ratione dictae
Catherinetae per ejus maritare et (si) dictae Franciscae fecerit
consilio.” From parchment-bound small folio vol.: _Documenti su S.
Catherina da Genova MSS._, in R. University Library, Genoa.
[361] From Dre. Ferretto’s copy of original in the Archivio di Stato
Genoa.
[362] The originals of both deeds are in the Archivio di Stato, Genoa,
Atti del Not. Battista Strata, folie 39, parte II, and 96 (parte III).
[363] Copies of these two entries, in the MS. volume “Documenti …
Caterina da Genova,” University Library, Genoa, B VII 31.
[364] The first four documents exist, copied, in the _Vita_ of the
_Biblioteca della Missione Urbana_; the last is in the Archivio di
Stato, and has been copied out plain for me by Dre. Ferretto.
[365] Ettore Vernazza: _Inaugurazione_, pp. 21, 22; 39, 40. Cattaneo
Marrabotto: Don Giovo’s declaration among the “Conclusions” (in his
own handwriting) attached to the MS. _Vita_ of St. Catherine in the
_Biblioteca della Missione Urbana_, Genoa. Tommasa Fiesca: Fed.
Alizieri, in _Atti della Società di Storia Patria_, Vol. VIII, Genoa,
1868, p. 408. Battista Vernazza, _Opere Spirituali della Ven. B.
Vernazza_, Genoa, ed. 1775, Vol. I, Preface.
[366] MS. A, pp. 3; 367; 368-398; 399.
[367] _Ibid._ pp. 361-363; 364; 87, 88.
[368] MS. A, p. 160.
[369] _Ibid._ pp. 134; 168; 198-200; 329; in contrast respectively with
pp. 62; 124; 76; 161 of the Printed _Life_.
[370] MS. A, p. 193, which appears, in a somewhat modified form, in the
Pr. L., p. 97_c_; and, with further transformations, on pp. 139_a_;
139_c_; 140_a_; 140_b_ of the same.
[371] _Ibid._ p. 169, compared with Pr. L., p. 124_c_.
[372] _Ibid._ p. 163, compared with Pr. L., p. 122_c_.
[373] Pr. L., pp. 155_b_-156_a_.
[374] Pr. L., pp. 146_c_-147_c_; 154_b_.
[375] Pr. L., pp. 51_a_-53_b_.
[376] MS. A, p. 168, compared with Pr. L. pp. 123_b_-124_b_.
[377] Pr. L. pp. 116_c_-121_b_; 139_a_-140_c_. Retained lines: MS. p.
40 = Pr. L., p. 116_c_.
[378] Pr. L., p. 119_c_.
[379] MS. ch. iv = Pr. L., ch. ii, pp. 4_a_-5_c_.
[380] MS. ch. v = Pr. L., ch. ii, pp. 5_c_-6_c_.
[381] I purposely leave this sentence in its tell-tale clumsiness of
form.
[382] This corresponds, as to its substance, to Pr. L., pp. 5_c_-6_c_.
[383] Pr. L., p. 14_c_.
[384] MS. B. fol. 2_r_ et _v_.
[385] _Ibid._ fol. 19_r_ et _v_.
[386] MS. B: the break, on fol. 30_r_; the abrupt ending, on bottom of
fol. 33_v_.
[387] Hence _Dialogo_ (Pr. L.) pp. 185_c_-190_c_ is an expansion of the
_Vita_-proper (Pr. L.) p. 31; and _Dialogo_ pp. 191_a_-198_a_ is an
expansion of _Vita_-proper p. 33.
[388] Hence _Dialogo_ (Pr. L.) pp. 198_b_-206_b_ corresponds to
_Vita_-proper pp. 4_a_-5_a_.
[389] P. 205_c_.
[390] Pp. 206_c_, 207_b_.
[391] _Dialogo_ pp. 207_c_-212_a_ is thus equivalent to _Vita_-proper
p. 5_b_.
[392] _Dialogo_, pp. 212_b_-212_c_ is hence equivalent to _Vita_-proper
pp. 12_b_-13_c_.
[393] _Dialogo_ pp. 213_c_-225_c_ thus corresponds to _Vita_-proper pp.
9_b_, 15_b_; 13_c_, 14_a_; 20_a_, 21_a_; 123_b_; 13_b_; 96_b_-97_a_.
[394] See here, pp. 353, 354.
[395] _Dialogo_, pp. 215_c_, 216_a_.
[396] _Dialogo_, p. 197_a_.
[397] _Ibid._ p. 209_b_.
[398] _Ibid._ p. 223_c_.
[399] _Ibid._ p. 221_c_.
[400] _Dialogo_, pp. 20_a_, 13_c_, 21_a_, 20_a_.
[401] _Ibid._ pp. 220_c_, 222_c_.
[402] _Ibid._ p. 21_b_.
[403] _Dialogo_, p. 123_b_.
[404] From MS. A, p. 174: “Li buttò le braccie al collo, e,
stringendola con singulti, non si poteva saziar di piangere.” The
Printed _Vita_, p. 125_b_, has only: “La abbracciò piangendo, per lungo
spazio di tempo.”
[405] See here, pp. 169-171.
[406] See here, pp. 185, 186; 194; 205.
[407] _Ibid._ pp. 221, 222_a_.
[408] See here, pp. 363; 346, 347.
[409] _Ibid._ pp. 56_b_, 203_a_; 33_b_, 202_b_.
[410] _Vita_, pp. 32_c_, 26_c_, 58_a_, 48_a_, 135_a_.
[411] _Ibid._ pp. 76_a_, 157_c_; 103_b_.
[412] _Vita_, pp. 212_c_, 213_a_; 222_b_; 220_c_, 221_c_.
[413] See here, p. 146.
[414] See here, pp. 145, 146.
[415] _Vita_, p. 21_a_.
[416] See here, pp. 344-358; 359-364.
[417] Dan. ix, 24.
[418] Gen. xxix, 20; xxx, 27.
[419] See here, pp. 351, 355.
[420] Compare, as to human intercourse, _Dialogo_ p. 221_b_,
with Battista’s advice, given here p. 363; and, as to spiritual
consolations, _Dialogo_ pp. 215_c_, 216_a_, with Battista’s
_Colloquies_, here pp. 346, 347.
[421] Catherine, Pr. _Vita_, p. 209_c_; Battista, in one of the
_Colloquii_ given in the _Opere_, _loc. cit._, but not otherwise
reproduced here; Catherine, Pr. _Vita_, pp. 209_c_, 211_c_, 211_b_, 32;
Battista, here, pp. 359, 360.
[422] Catherine, Pr. _Vita_, p. 97_b_; Battista, Pr. _Vita_, p. 201_b_;
here, p. 360; and _Dialogo_, p. 211_a_.
[423] I have not succeeded in finding a copy of this rare book: the
six chief libraries of Genoa; the Ambrosian Library, Milan; and the
Vatican and Angelica Libraries, Rome, are certainly without it. My
general description, and my special reproduction of one passage, of
it are taken from a series of very careful accounts of the successive
early editions of the book, preserved among the Documents relative
to the Process of Catherine’s Beatification of 1630-1675, in the
Archiepiscopal Archives, Genoa.
[424] _Vita_, pp. 5_b_, 6_b_, 155_b_-156_a_; 211_b_, 264_b_.
[425] _Vita_, pp. vii_c_, viii_a_; viii_b_.
[426] _Colloquies_, _Opere_, Vol. V, p. 219. _Letters_, _ibid._ Vol.
VI, p. 24. _Dialogo_, pp. 187_b_, 215_b_, 220_c_, 223_b_, 237_c_,
247_b_, 248_c_, 273_b_. _Dialogo_, p. 266_b_.
[427] _Vita_: Chapter Second, pp. 226_a_-275_a_. Part Second, pp.
226_a_-245_c_; Part Third, pp. 246_a_-275_a_. The moralizing narrative:
last sentence, p. 245_c_.
[428] _Dialogo_ p. 225_c_, paraphrase of _Vita_ p. 6_c_.
[429] “Nine years before her death,” _Vita_, p. 127_a_; “one year
before she passed away,” p. 132_b_; Purgatory, pp. 128_c_, 129_a_;
136_c_, 144_b_; “Prison of the Body,” p. 137_a_; emaciation, pp.
144_a_, 160_b_; vomitings, pp. 127_c_, 138_c_, 160_a_, _b_; inability
to move, pp. 128_a_, 137_b_.
[430] _Vita_, pp. 227_a_-241_b_; 213_c_-225_c_.
[431] The “scintilla,” “stilla,” and “immersion in the sweetness of
Love”: _Dialogo_, p. 252_a_, _b_, _c_. In the Vita-proper “scintilla”
is but once (and in a doubtful passage) so used, p. 148_b_; in the
other passages “non una minima scintilla” means there “not a glimpse”
of this or that, pp. 5_c_, 62_a_. “Stilla” of Blessedness, p. 119_c_;
“goccia” of Love, pp. 94_b_-95_c_; “gocciola” of spiritual water
(refreshment), p. 135_b_. “Ocean” and immersion therein, pp. 59_b_,
60_b_.
[432] _Vita_, pp. 78_c_, 79_a_.
[433] Thus _Vita_ (_Dialogo_), p. 266_a_ = _Vita_ (proper), p. 117_b_,
_c_; and _Vita_ (_Dialogo_), p. 266_c_ = _Vita_ (proper), pp. 120_b_,
117_b_.
[434] _Dialogo_, p. 234_b_.
[435] _Dialogo_, p. 241_b_.
[436] _Ibid._ p. 260_b_.
[437] _Vita_, p. 268_c_.
[438] _Ibid._ p. 269_c_.
[439] _Ibid._ p. 270_b_.
[440] _Dialogo_, p. 212_c_; and here, p. 146.
[441] _Ibid._ p. 273_a_.
[442] _Ibid._ p. 275_a_.
[443] _Dialogo_, p. 250_b_.
[444] _Vita_, p. 97_b_: “This creature would appear with a countenance
like unto a Cherub; she gave great consolation to every one who gazed
upon her, and those who visited her knew not how to depart from her.”
And pp. 94_b_-95_c_. See here, pp. 159-161.
[445] _Ibid._ pp. 231_a_; 242_b_; 248_c_; 249_a_.
[446] See here, pp. 327-329.
[447] See here, pp. 353, 354.
[448] _Dialogo_, pp. 242_b_; 221_b_; 232b; _Vita_-proper, 117_c_,
118_a_.
[449] _Vita_-proper, pp. 101_b_; _Dialogo_, 247_b_.
[450] _Dialogo_, p. 248_c_; _Vita_-proper, 76_a_.
[451] _Dialogo_, p. 259_c_.
[452] _Ibid._ 266_b_.
[453] _Dialogo_, p. 264_b_; and here, pp. 349-351, 360.
[454] _Vita_, p. 144_c_.
[455] First seven Chapters: _Vita_, pp. 169_b_-75_c_. Last ten
chapters: _Ibid._ pp. 175_c_-184_c_.
[456] See here, pp. 140, 141.
[457] Denzinger, _Enchiridion Definitionum_, ed. 1888, p. 178, No. 38:
“Animae in Purgatorio non sunt securae de earum salute saltem omnes;
nec probatum est, ullis aut rationibus aut Scripturis, ipsas esse extra
statum merendi aut augendae charitatis.”
[458] His Epitaph, in the Church of the Annunciation, at Sturla,
just outside Genoa, is given in full in Pescetto’s _Biografia Medica
Ligure_, Genova, 1846, p. 104.
[459] MS. A, p. 348 = Pr. L., 155_b_, 156_b_.
[460] Pr. _Vita_, pp. 155_b_, _c_, 156_a_.
[461] _Padre_: pp. 117_b_, 118_b_; _Figliuolo_, pp. 99_b_; 94_b_, _c_,
95_a_, _b_; 122_c_.
[462] _Madre_, pp. 98_c_; 94_b_, _c_, 95_a_, _b_ (twice).
[463] _Vita_, pp. 50_b_, 37_a_-38_a_; 61_c_, 62_a_; 83_a_; 92_a_.
[464] _Vita_, pp. 53_a_, 76_c_, 73_a_.
[465] _Vita_, pp. 4_b_, 151_b_.
[466] I derive all these titles from the Documents in the Curia
Arcivescovile of Genoa already referred to. The Editions 1568, 1601, I
have examined in the Ambrosian Library, Milan.
[467] The Bull is given in full by Fr. Sticker: _Acta Sanctorum_,
Sept., Vol. V, ed. 1866, pp. 181 F-188 A. See there, p. 183 B, E. In
the former passage the double description is rightly attributed to
the same event; and the contradiction between them is ably eliminated
by the Bull’s words: “She seemed to herself to behold the image of
the suffering Saviour” (instead of _Vita_, p. 5_b_, “affixed to the
Cross”); and, in the latter passage, the description of her poverty is
kept free from the extravagances of the _Dialogo_, pp. 220_c_, 221_c_.
END OF VOL. I
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