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THE LIFE
OF
ST. FRANCES OF ROME,
BY
LADY GEORGIANA FULLERTON;
OF
BLESSED LUCY OF NARNI,
OF
DOMINICA OF PARADISO
AND OF
ANNE DE MONTMORENCY:
WITH
An Introductory Essay
ON THE MIRACULOUS LIFE OF THE SAINTS,
BY J. M. CAPES, ESQ. N.B. The proprietorship of this Series is securedin all countries where the Copyright is protected. The authorities onwhich the History of St. Frances of Rome rests are as follows:
Her life by Mattiotti, her Confessor for ten years. Mattiotti enjoinedher, as a matter of obedience, to relate to him from time to time hervisions in the minutest detail. He was a timid and suspicious man,and for two or three years kept a daily record of all she told him;afterwards, as his confidence in her sanctity and sanity grew complete,he contented himself with a more general account of her ecstasies, andalso put together a private history of her life. After her death, hewrote a regular biography, which is now to be found in the Bollandistcollection (Venice, 1735, vol. ii.).
Early in the seventeenth century, Ursinus, a Jesuit, wrote a life, whichwas highly esteemed, but which was never printed, and, except in certainfragments, is now lost.
In 1641, Fuligato, a Jesuit, wrote the second life, in the Bollandistcollection, which contains particulars of events that happened afterMattiotti's time.
Other well-written lives have since appeared: especially a recent one bythe Vicomte de Bussière, in which will be found various details toolong to be included in the sketch here presented to the English reader.INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.
THE MIRACULOUS LIFE OF THE SAINTS.
In presenting to the general reader a newly-written Life of soextraordinary a person as St. Frances of Rome, together with thebiographical sketches contained in the present volume, it may be usefulto introduce them with a few brief remarks on that peculiar feature inthe histories of many Saints, which is least in accordance with thepopular ideas of modern times. A mere translation, or republication of aforeign or ancient book, does not necessarily imply any degree of assentto the principles involved in the original writer's statements. The newversion or edition may be nothing more than a work of antiquarian orliterary interest, by no means professing any thing more than a beliefthat persons will be found who will, from some motive or other, be gladto read it.
Not so, however, in the case of a biography which, though not pretendingto present the results of fresh researches, does profess to give anaccount new in shape, and adapted to the wants of the day in whichit asks its share of public attention. In this case no person canhonourably write, and no editor can honourably sanction, any statementsbut such as are not only possible and probable, but, allowingfor the degree of authenticity in each case claimed, on the wholehistorically true. No honest man, who absolutely disbelieves in alldocuments in which the original chronicler has mingled accounts ofsupernatural events with the record of his own personal knowledge,could possibly either write or edit such Lives as those included inthe following pages; sti