Visions of Sainthood in Medieval Rome

The Lives of Margherita Colonna by Giovanni Colonna and Stefania

Lezlie S. Knox, Sean L. Field, Larry Field, Lezlie S. Knox, Sean L. Field

• Publisher: University of Notre Dame Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780268102043
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: European Medieval History
• Index: History

Margherita Colonna (1255–1280) was born into one of the great baronial families that dominated Rome politically and culturally in the thirteenth century. After the death of her father and mother, Margherita was raised by her brothers, including Cardinal Giacomo Colonna. The two extant contemporary accounts of her short life offer a daring model of mystical lay piety forged in imitation of St. Francis but worked out in the vibrant world of medieval Rome.

In Visions of Sainthood in Medieval Rome, Larry F. Field, Lezlie S. Knox, and Sean L. Field present the first English translations of Margherita Colonna's two "lives" and a dossier of associated texts, along with thoroughly researched contextualization and scholarly examination. The first of the two lives was written by a layman, the Roman Senator Giovanni Colonna, one of Margherita Colonna's brothers. The second was written by a woman named Stefania, who had been a close follower of Margherita Colonna and assumed leadership of her Franciscan community after Margherita's death. These intriguing texts open up new perspectives on numerous historical questions. How did authorial gender and status influence hagiographic perspective? How fluid was the nature of female Franciscan identity during the era in which the papacy was creating the Order of St. Clare? What were the experiences and influences of female visionaries? And what was the process of saint-making at the heart of an aristocratic Roman family? These texts add rich new texture to our overall picture of medieval visionary culture and will interest students and scholars of medieval and renaissance history, literature, religion, and women's studies.

ONE

The Life of the Blessed Virgin Margherita of the Family Name Colonna, by Giovanni Colonna

The first “life” of Margherita Colonna was composed by her older brother, the Roman senator Giovanni Colonna. It was begun shortly after her death on 30 December 1280 and was completed before 1285.

Our translation is based on the text edited in DV, 111–88, compared with Rome, Biblioteca Casanatense ms. 104, folios 1–26.¹ We have found very few errors in Oliger’s edition, and we have accepted the vast majority of his emendations where passages seem to have been miscopied by the scribe or corrupted at an earlier stage of transmission. Chapter numbers follow those established by Oliger, but for paragraph breaks within chapters we have sometimes deviated from his editorial decisions.

CHAPTER I. HERE BEGINS THE LIFE OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARGHERITA, OF THE FAMILY NAME COLONNA²

Margherita was born of a noble line of Romans.³ While she remained “in her family household,”⁴ not yet having left the secular world but having lost her more worthy parent,⁵ she came under the tutelage of her mother and her brothers.⁶ Then, while she was still a very young girl, her mother died.⁷ But although she was released from a mother’s [oversight],⁸ she did not misuse the freedom granted her to do as she pleased; rather, she willingly placed herself under the control and direction of the [elder]⁹ of her brothers so that she might live with him in a more modest fashion. Yet [later,] when she had set out in the service of Christ, she instead stayed under the power and guardianship of her more worthy brother [Giacomo], who had inspired her toward a holy manner of life.¹⁰ This [brother, Giacomo], because of both the holy esteem in which he was held and his accumulated accomplishments, was raised to the service of the universal church and now occupies the most worthy office of cardinal.¹¹

While dwelling in the world, she therefore kept herself unsullied by it.¹² For chastity had been inborn in her mind, and it grew with her from infancy.¹³ As the unsteady years of blooming girlhood approached, she became increasingly modest, ever more sure in her progress, bearing a heart wise in age while still tender in years. Just as in all her deeds and acts there was nothing worthy of reproach, so there was no one who would speak ill of her,¹⁴ for the Lord was always watching over her.¹⁵

CHAPTER II. ON HER VIRGINITY, AND THE VISION BETWEEN THE ANGELS¹⁶

Indeed, she was a wise virgin,¹⁷ so chaste and modest, just as widespread reputation and the judge of truth proclaimed her to be. Thus many noblemen longed for her hand in marriage, inspired more by the firmest belief in her goodness than enticed by an ample dowry or her high birth. Indeed, in their quest for marriage some preferred her to her older sister of marriageable age.¹⁸ But, by God’s will, obstacles stood in the way while the wise virgin’s decision still remained unknown.

During this time,¹⁹ while her older brother [Giovanni], with whom she was then living, was busy finding her an earthly husband, her more worthy brother [Giacomo], the one just mentioned, in a more worthy fashion tried to betroth her in a more worthy marriage. He had been educated in goodness from the cradle itself, and, having come into the lot of Aaron²⁰ while studying in Bologna,²¹ he was advanced into the blessing of sweetness²² and became that merchant of the heavenly pearl,²³ who when he had found it gave up all his possessions in order to obtain it.²⁴

Thus it came to pass that [Giacomo] had to return home to arrange his father’s financial obligations, according to God’s will.²⁵ Then he preached the pearl²⁶ [of wisdom] hidden in his heart to his Margherita; and like an envoy [of God] he endeavored to consecrate this virgin to the Son of the Virgin.²⁷ He explained that in earthly marriages happiness is fleeting and ends in grief after many woes and sorrows.²⁸ But, by contrast, in never-ending marriages where bodily integrity remains, the soul is betrothed to a heavenly spouse. For in these [eternal marriages], if there is some initial weariness, it lasts only a little while or disappears quickly, because of the comforts that according to the multitude of sorrows give joy to the soul.²⁹ Instead, the soul rejoices without end when it is finally brought to the marriage chamber of the longed-for spouse. Often and more often again he repeated these points and others like them to his listener. In divinely eloquent words, and seizing every opportunity of time and place, he beat upon the ears of this virgin. And the virgin willingly heard his words, and now sought times at which she would be free to listen secretly.³⁰ Her soul was transfixed by the piercing sword of the word of God,³¹ and at that moment she first resolved to preserve her virginity from then on, dedicating it to God in all humility. Moreover, her brother’s preaching could not have been in vain.³² For he advised, as was his practice, that one begin a conversation with a prayer that one not speak in vain. For a seed sown upon good ground yields fruit a hundred fold.³³

Of the two brothers who were working at cross purposes as to the place in life that the virgin should occupy, the efforts of one [brother, Giovanni], came to nothing, and his concern was in vain. For after complicated negotiations, he promised this virgin, without her knowledge, to a suitor whose noble birth and wealth were not unequal to her own.³⁴ When [Margherita] heard what had been done, she was not at all pleased; yet the wise girl kept this to herself until the appropriate moment. The efforts of the other [brother, Giacomo], however, were not in vain. For he debated many issues with his brother, even if he did not then disclose the as yet unripe decision of the virgin concerning those matters about which he had been so persuasive, because the virgin wanted her hand in deeds to precede her tongue in words, and her promise to be given by its execution. The wise man nevertheless discerned what she would do at the right moment, bending her soul to his holy advice.

Before the more worthy brother [Giacomo] was given final confirmation in a letter from the virgin (for he had left his home and his other brother), God showed him a lofty indication of his sister’s future status with a wondrous prophetic sign.³⁵ He was praying ceaselessly for his sister, beseeching the poor and the friends of God whom he knew to be worthy, obtaining their consent to pray for her, adding devotion upon devotion, asking help from the flocks of saints—especially from the holy virgins by whose example he was praying that she would be instructed and consecrated—that they would intercede with the Son of the Virgin so that his sister’s “heart” would be made “immaculate and her body” not be corrupted.³⁶

Therefore, upon the arrival of the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Margherita, who has been listed in the catalogue of saints for many years, he was filled with greater devotion to her on behalf of his sister who shared the same name of Margherita.³⁷ That day he dined with the Friars³⁸ and saw to it that they solemnly celebrated Mass in honor of the virgin whose feast it was. And wholeheartedly committing himself to that same devotion, he fed pilgrims and the harborless in his own lodgings.³⁹ And when everything had been solemnly carried out as it should, in the middle of the day when everyone else in the house had retired for their midday nap, he remained alone in the garden, in back where there is a meadow, and devoted himself completely to reading the legend of the most blessed virgin whose feast he was celebrating. And as he came to the passage where it reads, “Margherita, virgin, come to the repose of your Christ!”⁴⁰ he was immediately transformed. And, as though led to a performance, he saw his sister between two guardian angels, carried through the air by their efforts. He saw this and marveled and watched intently for as long as he was able; and the whole time he was able to recognize his sister.⁴¹ After an hour the vision began to shift, so that the house now blocked his sight. Then he ran, and racing through the house he came outside to the square in front of the house where the miraculous vision was being directed. Once again he beheld her just as he had seen her, in the middle between the two [angels]. And just as he had known her and known whom she was with before, so here he recognized her again, until the vision took itself up on high and flew off, away from the sight of his steady gaze.

Of course from such a vision he concluded that he was seeing that she had been brought out of prison to praise the name of the Lord.⁴² But, in fact, it was not so! In truth it signified the passage out of Egypt of the daughter of Israel.⁴³ Her brother [Giacomo] had not yet heard of this change, though it had clearly occurred. But a short while later, through a certain written prophecy,⁴⁴ the virgin let him know that she had left her house and her brother [Giovanni], going to reside at Mount [Prenestino], until she should arrive “at the Mount which is Christ.”⁴⁵

We have seen that this did indeed come to pass.⁴⁶ For although she had longed to build her own monastery where she could enclose herself with her followers, vowing service to the Lord, and though she had decided to go to the monastery at Assisi,⁴⁷ she was able to do neither of these things. She was prevented, until—after extreme self-deprivation, innumerable expenses, the endurance of great sickness, in all patience,⁴⁸ as the story of her life will show—she “might shatter the alabaster bottle of her body”⁴⁹ in the houses of the afor...