The Life of St. Frances of Rome, and Others

The Life of St. Frances of Rome,
and Others

The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of St. Frances of Rome, and
Others
by Georgiana Fullerton Copyright laws are changing all over the world.
Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before
downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg
eBook.
This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project
Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the
header without written permission.
Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the
eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is
important information about your specific rights and restrictions in how
the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a
donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since
1971**
*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of
Volunteers!*****
Title: The Life of St. Frances of Rome, and Others
Author: Georgiana Fullerton
Release Date: July, 2005 [EBook #8495] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on July 16, 2003]

Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LIFE OF ST.
FRANCES AND OTHERS ***

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team

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
secured in all countries where the Copyright is protected._ The
authorities on which the History of St. Frances of Rome rests are as
follows:
Her life by Mattiotti, her Confessor for ten years. Mattiotti enjoined her,
as a matter of obedience, to relate to him from time to time her visions
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, and also put

together a private history of her life. After her death, he wrote a regular
biography, which is now to be found in the Bollandist collection
(Venice, 1735, vol. ii.).
Early in the seventeenth century, Ursinus, a Jesuit, wrote a life, which
was highly esteemed, but which was never printed, and, except in
certain fragments, is now lost.
In 1641, Fuligato, a Jesuit, wrote the second life, in the Bollandist
collection, which contains particulars of events that happened after
Mattiotti's time.
Other well-written lives have since appeared: especially a recent one by
the Vicomte de Bussière, in which will be found various details too
long 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 so
extraordinary a person as St. Frances of Rome, together with the
biographical sketches contained in the present volume, it may be useful
to introduce them with a few brief remarks on that peculiar feature in
the histories of many Saints, which is least in accordance with the
popular ideas of modern times. A mere translation, or republication of a
foreign or ancient book, does not necessarily imply any degree of
assent to the principles involved in the original writer's statements. The
new version or edition may be nothing more than a work of antiquarian
or literary interest, by no means professing any thing more than a belief
that persons will be found who will, from some motive or other, be
glad to read it.
Not so, however, in the case of a biography which, though not
pretending to present the results of fresh researches, does profess to
give an account new in shape, and adapted to the wants of the day in
which it asks its share of public attention. In this case no person can
honourably write, and no editor can honourably sanction, any
statements but such as are not only possible and probable, but, allowing
for the degree of authenticity in each case claimed, on the whole
historically true. No honest man, who absolutely disbelieves in all
documents in which the original chronicler has mingled accounts of
supernatural events with the record of his own personal knowledge,
could possibly either write or edit such Lives as those included in the

following pages; still less could they be made public by one who
disbelieves in the reality of modern miracles altogether.
In presenting,