ICONOGRAPHIE CHRÉTIENNE: Bienheureuse LUCIE BROCOLELLI de NARNI, vierge tertiaire dominicaine et mystique

Bienheureuse Lucie Brocolelli

tertiaire dominicaine (✝ v. 1544)

Originaire de l'Ombrie, elle se maria, puis avec l'accord de son époux, elle devint tertiaire dominicaine à Viterbe. Elle fut envoyée comme prieure à Ferrare, mais cette stigmatisée de la Passion du Christ était incapable de diriger sa communauté. Déposée, elle connut d'abord bien des vexations, puis elle fut oubliée et vécut ainsi trente-neuf ans sans jamais se plaindre. Son culte fut confirmé en 1710 par le pape Clément XI.

À Ferrare en Émilie, l’an 1544, la bienheureuse Lucie Broccadelli, religieuse, qui supporta avec patience de multiples épreuves et tourments tant dans le mariage que dans le monastère du Tiers-Ordre de Saint Dominique, où elle fut contrainte à l’isolement total.

Martyrologe romain

SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/9166/Bienheureuse-Lucie-Brocolelli.html

Blessed Lucy Brocolelli of Narni, OP V (AC)

Born in 1476; died 1544; beatified 1720. Very early, it became evident to her pious Italian family that this child was set for something unusual in life, for some of her heavenly favors were visible. When Lucy was five years old, she had a vision of Our Lady; two years later, Our Lady came with Saint Dominic, who gave her the scapular. At age 12, she made private vows and, even at this early age, had determined to become a Dominican. However, family affairs were to make this difficult. Lucy's father died, leaving her in the care of an uncle. He felt that the best way to dispose of a pretty niece was to marry her off as soon as possible.

The efforts of her uncle to get Lucy successfully married form a colorful chapter in the life of the Blessed Lucy. At one time, he arranged a big family party, and his choice of Lucy's husband was there. He thought it better not to tell Lucy what he had in mind, because she had such queer ideas, so he presented the young man to her in front of the entire assembly. The young man made a valiant attempt to place a ring on Lucy's finger, and he was thoroughly slapped for his pains.

The next time, the uncle approached the matter with more tact, arranging a marriage with Count Pietro of Milan, who was not a stranger to the family. Lucy was, in fact, very fond of him, but she had resolved to live as a religious. The strain of the situation made her seriously ill. During her illness, Our Lady appeared to her again, accompanied by Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine, and told her to go ahead with the marriage as a legal contract, but to explain to Pietro that she was bound to her vow of virginity and must keep it. When Lucy recovered, the matter was explained to Pietro, and the marriage was solemnized.

Lucy's life now became that of the mistress of a large and busy household. She took great care to instruct the servants in their religion and soon became known for her benefactions to the poor.

Pietro, to do him justice, never seems to have objected when his young wife gave away clothes and food, nor when she performed great penances. He knew that she wore a hair-shirt under her rich clothing, and that she spent most of the night in prayer and working for the poor. He even made allowances for the legend told him by the servants, that SS Catherine, Agnes, and Agnes of Montepulciano came to help her make bread for the poor. However, when a talkative servant one day informed him that Lucy was entertaining a handsome young man, who seemed to be an old friend, Pietro took his sword and went to see. He was embarrassed to find Lucy contemplating a large and beautiful crucifix, and he was further confused when the servant told him that was the young man.

When Lucy departed for the desert to become an anchorite, and returned the next day, saying that Saint Dominic had brought her home, Pietro's patience finally gave out. He had his young wife locked up. Here she remained for the season of Lent; sympathetic servants brought her food until Easter. Perhaps they had both decided that Lucy could not live the life God had planned for her in Pietro's house. She returned to her mother's house and put on the habit of a Dominican tertiary.

Shortly after this, Lucy went to Viterbo and joined a group of Third Order sisters. She tried very hard to hide her spiritual favors, because they complicated her life wherever she went. She had the stigmata visibly, and she was usually in ecstasy, which meant a steady stream of curious people who wanted to question her, investigate her, or just stare at her. Even the sisters were nervous about her methods of prayer. Once they called in the bishop, and he watched with them for 12 hours, while Lucy went through the drama of the Passion.

The bishop hesitated to pass judgment and called in the inquisition. From here, she was referred directly to the pope. After talking to her, the pope pronounced in her favor and told her to go home and pray for him. Here the hard-pressed Pietro had his final appearance in Lucy's life. He made a last effort to persuade Lucy to change her plans and come back to him. Finally he decided to become a Franciscan, and, in later years, he was a famous preacher.

When Lucy returned to Viterbo, she may have thought her troubles were over, but they were just beginning. The duke of Ferrara, in the manner of other wealthy nobles with a guilty conscience, decided to build a monastery and, hearing of the fame of the mystic of Viterbo, demanded that she come there and be prioress. Lucy had been praying for some time that a means would be found to build a new convent of strict observance, and she agreed to go to the new convent at Narni.

This touched off a two-year battle between the towns. Viterbo had the mystic and did not want to lose her; the duke of Ferrara sent his troops to take her by force, and much blood was shed before she was finally brought to Narni. The shock and grief of this violence was a new trial for Lucy. The duke sent his daughter-in-law, Lucrezia Borgia, to find postulants for the new convent. The records say, sedately: "Many of these did not persevere."

The duke of Ferrara liked to show off the convent he had founded. He brought all his guests to see it. One time, he arrived with a troop of dancing girls, who had been entertaining at a banquet, and demanded that Lucy show them her stigmata and, if possible, go into ecstasy. It is not surprising that such events would upset religious life, and that sooner or later something would have to be done about it. Some of the sisters, naturally, thought it was Lucy's fault.

The petitioned the bishop, and he sent six nuns from the Second Order to reform the community. Lucy's foundation was of the Third Order; exactly what the difference was we do not know. The Second Order nuns, according to the chronicle, "brought in the very folds of their veils the seed of war"; nuns of the Second Order wore black veils, a privilege not allowed to tertiaries.

The uneasy episode ended when one of the visitors was made prioress. Lucy was placed on penance. The nature of her fault is not mentioned, nor is there any explanation of the fact that, until her death, 39 years later, she was never allowed to speak to anyone but her confessor, who was chosen by the prioress.

It is hard to understand how anyone not a saint could have so long endured such a life. Lucy's only friends during her 39 years of exile were heavenly ones; the Dominican, Catherine of Racconigi, sometimes visited her--evidently by bi-location--and her heavenly friends often came to brighten her lonely cell.

Lucy was buried without honors, but miracles occurring at her tomb soon made it necessary to transfer her relics to a more accessible place. She was reinterred, first in the monastery church, then in the cathedral (Dorcy).

SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/1115.shtml

Blessed Lucy of Narni, V.O.P.

Memorial Day: November 16th

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Very early, it became evident to her pious Italian family that this child was set for something unusual in life, for some of her heavenly favors were visible. When Lucy was five years old, she had a vision of Our Lady; two years later, Our Lady came with Saint Dominic, who gave her the scapular. At age 12, she made private vows and, even at this early age, had determined to become a Dominican. However, family affairs were to make this difficult. Lucy's father died, leaving her in the care of an uncle. He felt that the best way to dispose of a pretty niece was to marry her off as soon as possible.

Lucy's life now became that of the mistress of a large and busy household. She took great care to instruct the servants in their religion and soon became known for her benefactions to the poor.

Born: in Narni, Italy in 1476

Died: died in 1544

Beatified: Pope Clement XI in 1720 declared her Blessed.

Prayers/Commemorations

First Vespers:

Ant. This is a wise Virgin whom the Lord found watching, who took her lamp and oil, and when the Lord came she entered with Him into the marriage feast

V. Pray for us Blessed Lucy

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ

Lauds:

Ant. Come, O my chosen one, and I will place my throne in thee, for the King hath exceedingly desired thy beauty

V. Virgins shall be led to the King after her

R. Her companions shall be presented to Thee

Second Vespers:

Ant. She has girded her loins with courage and hath strengthened her arm; therefore shall her lamp not be put out forever

V. Pray for us Blessed Lucy

R. That we may be made worthy of the promises of Christ

Prayer:

Let us Pray: O God, who, by the gifts of virginity and patience, didst enable Blessed Lucy, adorned with the marks of the passion of Thy Son, to elude the alluring world, and to overcome its persecutions grant, through her intercession and example, that we may be neither overcome by the snares of earth nor subdued by adversity. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

SOURCE : http://www.willingshepherds.org/Dominican%20Saints%20November.html#Lucy Narni

BLESSED LUCY OF NARNI

by Lady Georgiana Fullerton

T h e C h i l d h o o d

IT was towards the latter end of the 15th century that Lucia Brocadelli (Broccoletti) was born in the ancient city of Narnia, in Umbria, where her father's house had long held a noble and distinguished rank. Even as a baby in the cradle, there were not wanting signs which marked her as no ordinary child; and if we may credit the account given us by her old biographers, both her nurses and mother were accustomed to see her daily visited by an unknown religious dressed in the Dominican habit, whose majestic appearance seemed something more than human, and who, taking her from her cradle, embraced her tenderly, and gave her her blessing. They watched closely, to see whence this mysterious visitor came and whither she went, but were never able to follow her; and the mother becoming at length alarmed at the daily recurrence of this circumstance, it was revealed to her that her child's unknown visitor was no other than Saint Catherine of Sienna, to whom she was given as an adopted daughter.

The accounts that have been preserved of Lucia's childhood have a peculiar interest of their own. Whilst the early biographies of many saints present us with instances of extraordinary graces and favours granted to them in infancy, quite as numerous and remarkable as those bestowed on Blessed Lucy, yet in her case we find them mixed with the details of a characteristic vivacity of temperament, which give them a lifelike reality, and show her to us, in the midst of her supernatural visitations, with all the impetuosity of an imaginative child. When she was only four years old, her mother's brother, Don Simon, came on a visit to his sister's house, and brought with him from Rome various toys and presents for the children. Lucy was given her choice; and whilst the others were loudly clamouring for the dolls and puppets, she selected a little rosary with an image of the Child Jesus; and this being given to her, she took it in her arms, bestowing every name of childish endearment on it, kissing its hands and feet, and calling it her dear Christarello, a name which continued to be given to it ever afterwards. The rest of the day she spent in her own little room, where she arranged a corner for the reception of the Christarello, and was never tired of seeing and caressing her new treasure. Henceforth it was here that she spent the happiest moments of the day. If ever she got into any trouble in the house, it was here she came to pour out all her sorrow; and the innocent simplicity of her devotion was so pleasing to God, that more than once He permitted that the Christarello should wipe away the tears which she shed on these occasions with His little hand, as was several times witnessed by her mother, who watched her through the half-open door.

As she grew a little older, she began to accompany her mother to church; and they frequently went to visit the great church of Saint Augustine, which was close to the house where they lived. Now it happened that in this church, among other devout images, there was a small bas-relief of the Blessed Virgin holding her Divine Son in her arms, which took the child's fancy the first time they entered, so that she stopped to look at it. Her mother observed her as she lingered behind: "Lucy," she said, "do you know who that beautiful lady is whom you see there? She is the Mother of your Christarello; and the little Child whom she carries in her arms is the Christarello also. If you like, we will come here sometimes; and you shall bring the rosary you are so fond of, and say it before her image." Lucy was delighted at the idea; and whenever she could escape from her nurse's hand, she found her way to the church, to admire this new object of her devotion.

One day, being thus occupied, the thought came into her head, how much she would like to hold the Christarello for once in her own arms, as she had learnt to hold her little baby brother. She therefore prayed to the Blessed Virgin with great earnestness that her request might be granted, and immediately the marble figure of the little Jesus was extended to her by His Mother, and placed in her arms. Nor was this all: no sooner had she received her precious burden, than she felt the cold marble become a living Child; and, full of delight, she ran home still carrying Him; and though she met many people on the way, who stopped her as she hurried along, and tried to take Him from her, she succeeded in getting safe to her own room at home, where she shut herself up with her treasure, and remained with Him for three days and nights without food or sleep, insensible to all the entreaties and remonstrances of her astonished mother. Conquered at length by fatigue, on the third day she fell asleep; and when she woke she became sensible of the truth that God abides only with those who watch with Him; for, on opening her eyes, the first thing she perceived was that the Christarello was gone. Her cries of distress were heard by her mother, who, to console her, carried her once more to the church; and there they found the marble child restored to the image as before, although for the three previous days its place in the arms of the Virgin's figure had been empty.

She was accustomed from time to time to pay a visit to the uncle before mentioned, and when about seven years old she went as usual to spend some time with him at his country house. She remembered, on the occasion of a former visit, to have seen a room in some part of the house where there were some little angels painted on the walls, as it seemed to her, holding their hands and dancing; and the first morning after her arrival, she determined to set out on a diligent search after the dancing angels. The room in which they were painted was in a wing of the house which had fallen out of repair, and was no longer used by the family; a staircase had led to the upper story, but this was now fallen and in ruins; and though Lucy, as she stood at the bottom, could see the little angels on the wall above her head, all her efforts were unavailing to climb the broken staircase and reach the object of her search. She had recourse to her usual expedient, prayer to the Christarello, and instantly found herself in the empty room, without well knowing how she came there. But her thoughts were soon busy with the angels. There they were; little winged children, their heads garlanded with flowers, their mantles floating as it seemed in the air; and they danced with such an air of enjoyment and superhuman grace, that Lucy sat on the ground before them, absorbed in admiration. As she sat thus, she heard her own name called from the window. She turned round, expecting to see her uncle or some of the servants of the house; but a very different spectacle met her eye. A glorious company of saints and angels stood round the Person of Jesus Himself. On His right was His Virgin Mother; on His left, Saint Catherine and the great Patriarch Saint Dominic, with many others.

Then those mystic espousals were celebrated which we read of in so many other tales of the Saints of God: the Divine Spouse receiving the hand of the delighted child from His Blessed Mother, placed a ring on her finger, which she preserved to the hour of her death; after which He assigned her to the special guardianship of Saint Dominic and Saint Catherine, whom from that day she always was used to call her "father and mother." "And have you nothing to give Me?" He then asked of His little Spouse; "will you not give Me that silk mantle and pretty necklace?" Lucy was dressed in the rich fashion of the day, with a crimson damask mantle over her other garments, and a necklace of gold and coral beads about her neck; but at these words of her Spouse, she hastily stripped them off, and lay them at His feet. He did not fail, however, to give her a richer dress in their place; for she had no sooner taken off the silk mantle, than Saint Dominic clothed her with the scapular of his order, which she continued to wear during the rest of her life under her other clothes.

When the vision had disappeared, Lucy found herself full of a new and inexpressible joy. She turned to the little angels on the wall, the only companions left her after the last of the heavenly train had faded from her eyes, and with the simplicity of her childish glee, she spoke to them as though they were alive. "You dear little angels," she said, "are you not glad at what our Lord has done?" Then the angels seemed to move from the wall, and to become, indeed, full of life; and they spoke to her in reply, and said they were very glad to have her for their queen and lady, as the Spouse of their dear Lord. And they invited her to join in their dance of joy, and sang so sweet and harmonious a music, and held out their hands so kindly and graciously, that Lucy would have been well content never to have left her happy place of retreat; nor would she have done so, if she had not been found by her uncle, and carried against her will back to the house.

T h e M a r r i a g e

The death of her father, left her whilst still young, to the guardianship of her uncle. All her own wishes were fixed on a life of religion, but her uncle had different views for her; and after long resistance on her part, he succeeded in inducing her to accept as her husband Count Pietro of Milan, a young nobleman of considerable worth and abilities. The marriage was accordingly celebrated; but not until, in answer to earnest prayers, Lucy had received a divine revelation that a life so contrary to all her own wishes and intentions was indeed God's will regarding her.

Doubtless it is one of those cases in which it is not easy for us to follow the ways of Divine Providence. The marriage was followed by much suffering to both parties; yet, if we be willing to take the Saints' lives as they are given us, without seeking to reduce the supernatural elements we find in them to the level of our own understanding, we shall not he disposed to doubt the truth of the revelation which commanded it, or to fancy things would have been much better if Blessed Lucy had never been placed in a position so little in harmony with her own wishes. On the contrary, we must admire the grace of God, which would perhaps never have been so amply manifested in His servant, had she been called to a more congenial way of life. We are accustomed to admire the wonderful variety of examples which are presented to us in the lives of the Saints: that of Blessed Lucy offers us one of a soul with all her sympathies and desires fixed on the higher life of religion, yet fulfilling with perfect exactitude the minutest duties of a different vocation. She sanctified herself in the will of God, though that will was manifested to her in a position which the world is used to call the hardest of all to bear - an ill-assorted marriage. She found means to practise the humiliation of the cloister, without laying aside the duties, or even the becoming dignity, of her station.

Her first care, on finding herself the young mistress of a house full of servants, was with them, whom she ever looked on less as menials than as a cherished portion of her family. And in the beautiful account given us of her intercourse with them, we must remember that at the period in which she lived, it was considered nothing uncommon or unbecoming for ladies of the highest rank to join in the household occupations, and take their part in the day's employment, working with their servants, and presiding amongst them with an affectionate familiarity, which, without rendering them less a mistress, gave them at the same time almost the position of a mother. Blessed Lucy delighted in the opportunities, which the simple manners of the day thus afforded her, of laying aside her rich dress and ornaments, and assisting in her own kitchen, where she always chose the meanest and most tiresome offices. What was with others only done in compliance with the ordinary habit of the day, was with her made the occasion of secret humiliations. One of her servants, a woman of very holy life and disposition, she took into her confidence, submitting herself to her direction, and obeying her as a religious superior. On Holy Thursday, she washed the feet of all her domestics; and that with so touching a devotion as to draw tears from the eyes of the rudest and most indifferent among them. So perfect was the discipline she succeeded in introducing among them, that, far from presenting the spectacle of disorder so common in households filled with a crowd of feudal retainers of all kinds, her palace had the quietude and serenity of a monastery. Never was an oath or licentious word heard among them; the name of God was honoured; and habits of devotion became cherished and familiar, where before they had been too often an occasion of mockery. All the family dined at the same table; and during the repast the Lives of the Saints, or the Holy Scriptures, were read aloud. If any fault were committed by any of the household, Blessed Lucy knew how to punish it so rigorously as to prevent a repetition of the offence; and in this she was often assisted by the gift of prophecy, which she enjoyed in a remarkable degree.

We read an amusing account of two of her maidens, who took the opportunity of their mistress's absence at church to kill two fine capons, which they resolved to dress privately for their own eating. The birds were already on the spit, when their mistress was heard entering the house. Fearful of discovery, they took the half-roasted capons from the fire, and hid them under a bed. Blessed Lucy, however, knew all that had happened. "Where are the capons," she said, "that were in the court this morning?" "They have flown away," said the two women, in great confusion: "we have been looking for them every where." "Do not try to deceive God, my children," replied Blessed Lucy: "they are both under your bed; if you will follow me, I will show them to you." The servants followed her in silent dismay; but their astonishment was still more increased, when not only did she lead them to the very place where they had hidden their spoils, hut calling the birds to come out, they flew out alive, and began to crow lustily.

In another story of her life, we find her represented with her women washing the linen of the house by the side of a river that flowed by the castle. Whilst so engaged, one of them fell into the river and sank to the bottom; but Blessed Lucy made the sign of the cross over the water, and immediately the drowning woman appeared on the surface safe and sound, close to the river's bank.

And in the midst of these simple and homely occupations, the supernatural life of prayer, and ecstacy, and communion with God, was never for a moment interrupted. Strange and beautiful sights were seen by many of those who were present in the church when she communicated: sometimes a column of fire rested on her head; sometimes her face itself shone and sparkled like the sun. Once two little children, whom she had adopted as her own, saw, as they knelt behind her, two angels come and crown their mother with a garland, of exquisite roses. But the children began to weep; for they said one to another, "Certainly our mother cannot have long to live, for the angels are even now crowning her with flowers."

The beauty of her face, and its extraordinary brilliancy at these times, had a singular power in controlling those who beheld it. Even Count Pietro himself was tamed and conquered by a glance from her eye, when it shone with this more than human splendour.

This mention of Count Pietro's name reminds us that it is tune we should say something of him, and of his share in a story which has in some parts, as we read it, the character of a romance. He was not a bad man; he seems indeed to have had many good qualities, and to have been possessed in some respects of a degree of refinement beyond what was common at the time. He was sincerely attached to his saintly wife; but he could not understand her. They were beings of different worlds; and the very qualities which extorted his respect and admiration often sadly perplexed and worried him. Her very affection for himself was above his comprehension; his own feelings were too much made up of the ordinary selfishness of the world, for him to know how to measure the love of one whose love was in God. He felt her power over himself; and whilst he yielded to it, it irritated him, and not the less because there was nothing of which he could complain. This irritation showed itself in a morose jealousy, sometimes varied by fits of passionate violence; in which he went so far as to confine his wife to her room, and once even to threaten her life.

T h e E s c a p e

All this, and the yet more wearing trial of their daily intercourse, was borne by Blessed Lucy with unvarying sweetness and gentleness. But though she accommodated herself in every thing to his sullen temper, and even showed him a true and loyal obedience, the desire after those heavenly espousals to which she had been promised whilst still a child never left her heart; and as time went on, she began to look about for some opportunity of carrying her wishes into effect. In those days it was no uncommon spectacle to see a wife or a husband, in obedience to the interior call of heaven, abandon every tie of flesh and blood for the retirement of the cloister; nor was the propriety of such a step ever questioned. Society, as a body, in the ages of faith, acknowledged the principle, that one whom Christ calls should leave all and follow Him. When, therefore, we hear that Blessed Lucy at length resolved to leave her husband's house, and take the habit of religion in the Order of Saint Dominic, we must remember that she was no more acting contrary to the custom of the age, than when she worked with her servants in the kitchen. It is not an easy matter at any time for us to judge of the vocation or conscience of another; but when we have to carry back our investigation four hundred years, we can hardly hope that the whole history of a resolution of this nature, - why it was carried out now, and why it was not carried out before her marriage, - should be laid open before us like the pages of a book. Of one thing only we cannot doubt, - God's will had been very clearly and sufficiently declared; both at first, when she consented to give up her own wishes, and now, when the time was come for them to be granted. She contented herself at first with receiving the habit of the third order, and remaining in her mother's house for a year; during which time she had to endure much from the indignation of her husband, who expressed his own disapproval of her step in a very summary way, by burning down the monastery of the prior who had given her the habit. But her uncles at length took the case into their own hands; and after considering the very extraordinary signs of a divine call which had been made manifest in her life, they decided that she should be suffered to follow it without further molestation, and placed her in the monastery of Saint Catherine of Sienna at Rome.

F r o m R o m e t o V i t e r b o

Within a year from her entrance there, the fame of her sanctity had become so universal, that Father Joachim Turriano, the General of the Order, being about to found a new convent of nuns at Viterbo, selected her as the prioress of the new foundation; on which office she accordingly entered in the year 1496, being then exactly twenty years of age. So great was the reputation she enjoyed, that though the number of religious sent with her to Viterbo by the general was only five, the crowds that applied for admission as soon as her presence was known was so great that the convent had to be enlarged; and she soon saw herself at the head of a numerous and flourishing community.

Meanwhile, her unhappy husband had not abandoned all hopes of inducing her even yet to return to the world. He had followed her to Rome, and made vain efforts to see and speak with her: he now followed her also to Viterbo; and though unsuccessful in his attempts to obtain the slightest answer to his continual applications and appeals, he continued to linger about the convent, in the restless mood of one who would not give up his design as hopeless. Every tongue around him was busy with the fame of Lucy's saintliness; from one he heard of her almost continual prayer, from another, of the glory which was seen to hover over her face in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament: but soon, in the February following her removal to Viterbo, the interest of all was absorbed in a new report, - that she had received the sacred stigmata; and that in so remarkable a manner as to put all doubt on the subject out of the question.

T h e S t i g m a t a : 1496 February 25

For it was in the choir, with the other religious, that, being engaged in profound meditation on the Passion, she was observed by one of the sisters to look pale and as if suffering acute pain. The sister went up to her to support her, and was struck with the appearance of her hands, the bones of which seemed dislocated, and the nerves torn. "Mother of God!" she exclaimed, "what is the matter with your hands?" "Nothing," was the faint reply; "they are only gone to sleep." But within a few moments the agony she was enduring and endeavouring to conceal overpowered her, and she became perfectly senseless. They carried her from the choir and restored her to consciousness, so that she was able to return within an hour and receive Holy Communion; but the same sister who had first observed her, being convinced something very extraordinary had happened, continued to watch her, and followed her to her cell. She then remarked that her hands were livid, and the skin raised and much inflamed; and by the end of the week the wounds became large and open, and shed so great an abundance of blood that it could no longer be concealed. The excitement which followed, when these circumstances became generally known, can hardly be described.

A minute investigation was first made by the Bishop of Viterbo; after which three successive commissions of inquiry were appointed by the command of the Pope to examine the affair, and each of these inquiries terminated in the declaration that the truth of the miracle was beyond all dispute. Multitudes flocked to the convent to see and touch the sacred wounds, and came back full of the wonders which their own eyes had witnessed. Duke Hercules of Este, the future son-in-law of the Pope, made earnest applications to his uncle to suffer her to be removed to his own city of Ferrara; and whilst all these things were going on, Count Pietro still remained in Viterbo.

The world about him was echoing with his wife's renown, but none knew his own connection with her. Each marvel that he heard did but seem to widen the gulf between them; yet still he stayed and lingered within sight of the walls that shut her from him for ever: now bitterly accusing himself for the blindness of his own conduct towards her; now striving to keep alive a kind of despairing hope that, could he but once gain admittance to her presence, he might even yet regain possession of a treasure which, when it was his, he knew not how to value. At length his desires were granted. A sudden inspiration induced Lucy to consent to an interview: it was the first that had taken place since she had fled from his house, and it was the last they ever had in this life.

It must have been a singular meeting: the two years of their separation had altered both. As to the Count, his restless despair had worn him to an old man. He had never seen Narni since the day of her departure for Rome, whither he had followed her; and had spent the long days of those two years hanging about the convent-gates like some miserable beggar. And the same two years had placed Lucy far beyond his reach, as it were in a supernatural world above him. When she stood before him at the grate, and he beheld her marked with those sacred and mysterious wounds, and bearing in her whole appearance the air of one whose sympathies were for ever removed from the affections of humanity, his heart failed him. He had thought to speak to her of her home, and the claims which should recall her to the world; he saw before him something a little lower than the angels; and falling on his knees, he bent his eyes to the ground, and remained silent. Then she spoke; and heaven seemed to speak to him by her voice. The mists of earthly passion rolled away from his heart as he listened; the world and its hopes died in him at that moment; an extraordinary struggle tore his very soul, then passed away, and left it in a profound calm. For the first time he caught a glimpse of that reality which till now he had treated as a dream; the world and its unquiet joys were now themselves the dream, and heaven opened on him as the reality. All life fell away from him in that hour; and when his wife ceased speaking, she had won his soul to God. He dragged himself to her feet, and bathed them in his tears; he conjured her pardon for all the persecutions and violence of the past, and renounced every right or claim over her obedience for ever. Then, leaving her without another word, he obeyed the voice which had so powerfully spoken to his heart; for within a few weeks he took the habit of the Friars Minor of the strict observance; and persevering in it for many years, died a little before his wife, with the reputation of sanctity.

T o F e r r a r a

Were this a romance, the story of Blessed Lucy might well end here. But her life was yet scarcely begun. Shortly after the interview with her husband just spoken of, Duke Hercules obtained the Pope's orders for her removal to Ferrara. This was only done by stealth; for the people of Viterbo having got intelligence of the design, guarded the city night and day; so that, in order to gain possession of the Saint, the duke was reduced to the expedient of loading several mules with large baskets, as if full of goods; and in one of these Blessed Lucy was concealed and carried off, under the guardianship of a strong body of armed men. Being arrived at Ferrara, the duke received her with extraordinary honours, and built a magnificent convent for her reception, to which Pope Alexander VI. granted singular privileges, by a brief wherein he declared her to have "followed the footsteps of Saint Catherine of Sienna in all things." In this convent she gave the habit to her own mother, as well as to many noble ladies of Ferrara.

It were too long to tell of all the signs of Divine favour which were granted to her during the first years of her new government; of the miracles wrought by her hands, the visions of marvellous beauty that were given to her gaze; and the familiarity with which she seemed to live among the saints and angels. Thus one day, passing into the dormitory, she was met by the figure of a religious, whom she knew to be Saint Catherine of Sienna. Prostrating herself at her feet, she prayed her to bless the new monastery, which was dedicated in her name. The saint willingly complied, and they went through the house together; Blessed Lucy carrying the holy water, whilst Saint Catherine sprinkled the cells, as the manner is in blessing a house. Whilst they went along, they sang together the hymn _Ace Maris Stella_; and having finished, Saint Catherine left her staff with Blessed Lucy, and took her leave. And another time they saw in the same dormitory a great company of angels, and the form of one of surpassing beauty, and clad in an azure robe in the midst of them, standing among them as their queen. Then she sent them hither and thither, like soldiers to their posts, and bid them guard the various offices of the monastery; "for," she said, "we must take possession of this house."

One lingers over this period of her story, unwilling to pass on to the sorrowful conclusion. God, who had elevated her so highly in the sight of the world, was about to set upon her life the seal of a profound humiliation. Hitherto she had been placed before the eyes of man as an object of enthusiastic veneration: her convent gates were crowded by peisons of all ranks, who thronged only to see her for a moment. Duke Hercules of Este applied to her for counsel in all difficulties of state. The Pope had issued extraordinary briefs to enable the religious of other convents and orders to pass under her government, and even to leave the second order to join her community, which belonged to the third, - a privilege we shall scarcely find granted in any other case. But now these triumphs and distinctions were about to have an end.

T h e T r i a l

Blessed Lucy was about twenty-nine years of age. The honour in which she was held, and the public celebrity she enjoyed, were a continual source of sorrow and humiliation to her; and with the desire to escape from something of the popular applause which followed her, she ceased not earnestly to implore her Divine Spouse to remove from her the visible marks of the sacred stigmata, which were the chief cause of the veneration which was paid her by the world. Her request was in part granted, the wounds in her hands and feet closed; but that of the side, which was concealed from the eyes of others, remained open to the hour of her death. Whether the withdrawal of these visible tokens of the Divine favour was the cause of the change in the sentiments of her subjects, we are not told; but we find shortly after, that some among them, disgusted at her refusal to allow the community to become incorporated with the second order, rose in rebellion, and even attempted her life. The scandal of this crime was concealed through the exertions of Lucy herself; but on the death of her great protector, Duke Hercules, in 1505, the discontented members of the community recommenced their plots against her authority and reputation. Then - designs were laid with consummate art; and at length they publicly accused her of having been seen in her cell endeavouring to re-open the wounds of her hands and feet with a knife, in order to impose on the public. Their evidence was so ably concocted, that they succeeded in gaining over the heads of the order to their side.

Hasty and violent measures were at once adopted; every apostolic privilege granted by Pope Alexander was revoked; she was degraded from her office of prioress, deprived of every right and voice in the community, and placed below the youngest novice in the house. She was, moreover, forbidden to speak to any one except the confessor, kept in a strict imprisonment, and treated in every way as if proved guilty of an infamous imposture. Nor was this disgrace confined within the enclosure of her own monastery; it spread as far as her reputation had extended. All Italy was moved with a transport of indignation against her; the storm of invective which was raised reached her even in her prison; her name became a proverb of reproach through Europe; and the nuns who had been professed at her hands made their professions over again to the new prioress, as if their vows formerly made to her had been invalid.

One can hardly picture a state of desolation equal to that in which Blessed Lucy now found herself. It was as if this token of deep abjection and humiliation were required as a confirmation of her saintliness. If any such proof were indeed needed, it was furnished by the conduct which she exhibited under this extraordinary trial. During the whole remaining period of her life, a space of eight-and-thirty years, she bore her heavy cross without a murmur. Perhaps its hardest suffering was, to live thus among those whom she had gathered, together with her own hands, and had sought to lead to the highest paths of religion, compelled now to be a silent witness of their wickedness. Her life was a long prayer for her persecutors, and we are assured that no sorrow or regret ever seemed to shadow the deep tranquillity of her soul. So far as it touched herself, she took it as a more precious token of her Spouse's love than all the graces and favours He had ever heaped on her before. But it is no part of saintliness to be indifferent to the sins of others; and we can scarcely fathom the anguish which must hourly have pierced her heart, at the ingratitude and malignity of her unworthy children.

T h e E n d

And so closed the life which had opened in such a joyous and beautiful childhood. God indeed knew how to comfort one whom the world had utterly cast out; and though cut off from the least communication with any human being, she could scarcely be pitied whilst her neglected and solitary cell was the resort of celestial visitants and friends. The reader is possibly a little tired of such tales; yet we ask his indulgence whilst referring to one of these last incidents in the life of Blessed Lucy, which we can scarcely omit.

There lived at the same time, at Caramagna in Savoy, another beatified saint of the same illustrious order, Blessed Catherine of Raconigi. She had never seen Blessed Lucy; but had heard of her saintly fame, and the lustre of her life and miracles, and then also of her sufferings and disgrace. But the saints of God judge not as the world judges; and Catherine knew by the light of divine illumination the falsehood of the charges brought against her sister. She had ever longed to see and speak with her; and now more than ever, when the glitter of the world's applause was exchanged for its contumely and persecution. The thought of her sister, never seen with mortal eye, yet so dearly loved in God, never left her mind; and she prayed earnestly to their common Lord and Spouse, that He would comfort and support her, and, if such were His blessed will, satisfy in some way her own intense desire to hold some kind of intercourse with her even in this life. One night, as she was thus praying in her cell at Caramagna, her desires were heard and granted. The same evening Lucy was also alone and in prayer; and to her in like manner God had revealed the sanctity of Catherine, kindling in her heart a loving sympathy with one who, though a stranger in the world's language, had been brought very near to her heart in the mysteries of the Heart of Jesus. We cannot say how and in what way it was, but they spent that night together; but when morning came, and found her again alone as before, Lucy had received such strength and consolation from her sister's visit, that, as her biographer says, "she desired new affronts and persecutions for the glory of that Lord who knew so well how to comfort and suppoit her in them."

Her last illness came on her in her sixty-eighth year: for eight-and-thirty years she had lived stripped of all human consolation; and the malice of her enemies continued unabated to the last. None came near her, as she lay weak and dying on her miserable bed. Like her Lord and Master, they hid their faces from her, counting her as a leper. The ordinary offices of charity, which they would have done to the poorest beggar in the streets, they denied to her; she was left to die as she had lived, alone. But if the world abandoned her, God did not. Her pillow was smoothed and tended by more than a mother's care. Saint Catherine did not neglect her charge. It is said she was more than once seen by the sick-bed, having in her company one of the sisters of the community, who had departed a short time before, with the reputation of sanctity; and together they did the office of infirmarians to the dying Saint. When the last hour drew nigh, she called the sisters around her bed, and humbly asked their pardon for any scandal she had given them in life. We do not find one word of justification, or remonstrance, or even of regret; only some broken words of exhortation, not to be offended at her imperfection, but to love God and be detached from creatures, and abide steadfastly by their rule. At midnight, on the 15th of November, 1544, she felt the moment of release was at hand; and without any death-struggle or sign of suffering, she raised her hands and cried, "Up to heaven, up to heaven!" and so expired, with a smile that remained on the dead face with so extraordinary a beauty, that none could look on it without a sentiment of awe, for they knew it was the beauty of one of God's Saints.

T h e T r u t h

The truth could not longer be concealed; one supernatural token after another was given to declare the blessedness of the departed soul. Angelic voices were heard singing above the cell by all the sisters; an extraordinary perfume filled the cell and the whole house; and the community, who had probably for the most part been deceived by one or two in authority, without any malice on their own part, now loudly insisted on justice being done to the deceased. It was done, so far as funeral honours can make amends for a life of cruelty and calumniation. The body was exposed in the church; and the fickle crowds who had called her an impostor while living, crowded now to see and touch the sacred remains. The wound in her side was examined, and found dripping with fresh wet blood; the sick were cured, and evil spirits cast out, by cloths which had been placed on the relics.

Four years after the body was taken from its grave, and found fresh and beautiful as in life. Then it was again exposed in the church to the veneration of the faithful, who crowded once more to pay it honour, and were wonder-struck at the perfume, as of sweet violets, which issued from it, and attached to every thing which it touched. And it was again disinterred, little more than a century ago, in 1710, when it presented the same appearance as before, and the sacred stigmata were observed distinct and visible to all. On this occasion a part of the body was translated to Narni, where it now reposes in a magnificent shrine, and receives extraordinary honours, amid the scene of her childish devotion to the Christarello. Perhaps, as we read of these honours to the dead, we may feel they were but poor reparation for the calumnies and injuries heaped on her while living: or, if we seek to measure these things in the balance of the sanctuary, we can believe that to her blessed spirit now, those long years of abandonment and desolation, which cut her off from all communion with this earth for more than half her mortal life, were a far more precious gift than all the shrines, and funeral honours, and popular veneration, which the world in its tardy repentance was moved to give her.

She was finally beatified by Pope Clement XI (1700-1721) on 1710 March 1. The official document is dated March 26. In 1797 her body was transferred from the convent of Saint Catherine of Siena to the Cathedral of Ferrara. And on 1935 May 26 - to the Cathedral of Narni.***

The text of this document was abstracted from the Project Gutenberg text of The Life of Saint Frances of Rome, of Blessed Lucy of Narni, of Dominica of Paradiso, and of Anne de Montmorency by Lady Georgiana Fullerton. It was produced as an online text by Juliet Sutherland, David Widger and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

for a Chronology of Blessed Lucy

Immagini su concessione della Diocesi di Terni-Narni-Amelia - Ufficio per i Beni Culturali ecclesiastici (autorizzazione 099/10).

SOURCE : http://www.narnia.it/lucia1_eu.htm

Lucia Brocadelli, Lucrezia Borgia and Ercole I d'Este: A Tentative Chronology

NARNI

1476 December 13. Lucia Brocadelli, the oldest of the 11 children of Bartolomeo Brocadelli and Gentilina Cassio, is born in Narnia.

1480 April 14. Lucrezia Borgia, the third of four children of Rodrigo Borgia and Vanozza dei Catanei, is born in Subiaco.

1483 November 10. Martin Luther is born at Eisleben in Saxony.

1487. The Dominican Inquisitor Heinrich Kramer ( Henricus Institoris: 1430-1505 ) publishes in Strasburg the notorious witch-hunter's handbook "Malleus Maleficarum" (The Hammer of Witches); considered "one of the most vicious and damaging books in all of world literature".

1489. Lucia Brocadelli's spiritual director, Padre Martino da Tivoli, the prior of the convent of St. Dominic in Narni, allows 12-year-old Lucy to make the wow of perpetual consecration.

1490. Lucia is thirteen. Her father Bartolomeo, the treasurer of Narni, dies being only 40 years old. Her uncles and relatives begin pressing her to marry.

1491. The 14-year-old Lucia marries the 22-year-old lawyer Count Pietro di Alessio from Milan (the adopted son of his aunt who is living in Narni) and becomes the Countess Lucia di Alessio (La Signora Contessa Lucia).

1492 August 11 Lucrezia's father Rodrigo becomes Pope Alexander VI. On October 12 "Columbus discovers America".

1493 June 12 The 13-year-old Lucrezia marries Giovanni Sforza, Lord of Pesaro.

1494 March 30. Soon after the beginning of Lent (February 12) Pietro di Alessio puts Countess Lucia in solitary confinement. On the Easter Day, March 30th, she escapes to her mother's house. Pietro remains calm and patiently keeps waiting for her return. But she does something he had never expected.

1494 May 8 (Ascension). The seventeen-year-old Lucia receives from her spiritual director Padre Martino da Tivoli, the habit of Dominican Tertiaries and becomes Sister Lucia of the Third Order of Saint Dominic. Her furious husband tries to kill Padre Martino and burns down the Dominican priory. Despite his constant harassment Sister Lucia stays in Narni with her mother until the beginning of 1495.

R O M E a n d V I T E R B O

1495. With the support of her uncles, Suor Lucia goes to Rome and enters the monastery of the Dominican Tertiaries near Pantheon (in which St. Catherine of Siena died in 1380). Her sanctity impresses everyone so much that by the end of the year Master General of the Dominican Order Joachim Turriano, decides to send her as the prioress with five other sisters to found a new monastery of Dominican tertiaries in Viterbo. (There is also another version of this event).

1496 February 25. The 19-year-old Lucy arrives in Viterbo by the end of January and at the convent of St. Thomas, in the morning of the second Friday of Lent, 1496 February 25, she receives the Sacred Wounds (the Stigmata), which begin to bleed more and more profusely. During the Passion Week, Lucy seems so close to death that her mother and Padre Martino are summoned from Narni. But she survives - and immediately becomes a celebrity. Special commisions are formed, a local medical examination of her stigmata takes place and then their ecclesiastical investigation by the inquisitor of Bologna, Dominican Giovanni Cagnazzo de Tabia. All attest their authenticity.(Another version describes the first two investigations slightly differently).

At some later time in 1496 Count Pietro di Alessio meets Lucia in Viterbo; for the first time since 1494, and also for the very last time. Then he returns to Narnia, sells all his property and joins the Franciscans (He died in September 1544 - just a month and a half before Lucy - as a fine preacher with the reputation of sanctity; often using the examples from their married life in his sermons).

1497 April 23 begins the third investigation of Lucy's Stigmata wounds, conducted by another Inquisitor of Bologna, Domenico di Gargnano. Much more thorough than the first two - the detailed notarial document can be found in Kramer's Clipeum.

1497 May 13 the pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.

Meanwhile the fame of Sister Lucy continues to spread and reaches Ferrara (about 370 km or 230 miles to the north). Duke Ercole I d'Este (Ercole il Magnifico: 1471-1505), asks Domenico da Gargagno to write to Lucia and to invite her in his name to Ferrara as his counselor, promissing to build her a monastery. Lucia accepts his offer immediately. The Duke begins negotiations with the papal court, with the Dominican Order and the municipal council of Viterbo.

1497 August 9. Duke Ercole himself writes to Sister Lucy telling her that he is very pleased with her decision and that he is sending her two monks and two mules to pick her up.

1497 October 14. Two moths later, Antonio Mei da Narni, one of uncles of Lucy, responds to the Duke that, when he went to Viterbo to pick Lucia up (supposedly "to see her dying mother"), he was arrested, brought to Palazzo dei Signori (City Hall) and barely escaped unmolested. So now he is asking the Duke to send him twenty-four well armed mounted soldiers, and one good additional horse for Lucia...

1497 December 20. The pope annuls Lucrezia's four-year marriage to Giovanni Sforza.

1498 January 10. The Duke's captain Alessandro da Fiorano writes to him that as he was hiding while waiting for Lucia at a Marian shrine near Viterbo, he was discovered, surrounded by about 400 soldiers, taken captive and led into the city... where he tried to explain to the authorities that he was their friend, and had been merely waiting there for two of his own soldiers who had gone to pray... But they told him very plainly to go home and to tell the Duke to forget his fantasies!...

1498 January 18. The pope requests Lucia to be sent to him in Rome; the municipal council of Viterbo refuses to let her leave the city. (Another version, describing her visit and her conversation with the Pope seems improbable).

1498. Duke Ercole (who has been in contact with Savonarola since 1495) also keeps writing repeatedly to the Florentine Signoria asking for his release. His letters have no effect.

1498 May 23 Fra Girolamo Savonarola (1452-1498) and two of his companions are burned at the Piazza della Signoria in Florence. Some of his followers flee to his home city of Ferrara which now begins to become a center of the Savonarolan spirituality. At the hour of Savonarola's execution "a nun in Viterbo has a vision of three Dominicans being summoned by singing angels to Paradise" ("It is not unlikely" that this nun was LB).

1498 July 21. 18-year-old Lucrezia marries the 18-year-old Duke Alfonso of Aragon (Bisceglie).

1498. The Pope and the General of the Dominicans cotinue to keep writing to the city of Viterbo again and again, asking them to let Lucia go and threatening severe penalties if they don't.. The magistrates of the city continue to refuse. In 1901 Luigi Gandini found and published 61 letters of the Duke, Sister Lucy, her uncle and Captain de Fiorano, beginning 1497 August 9 and ending 1500 April 13. This whole colourful affair can be found there in much detail ("Sulla venuta in Ferrara della beata Suor Lucia da Narni...").

F E R R A R A

1499 April 15. Finally 22-year-old Lucia secretly leaves Viterbo. Escorted by the Duke's soldiers she stops at her mother's house in Narni and on 1499 May 7th she is solemnly received in Ferrara, as the spiritual guide and personal adviser (madre spirituale e consigliera) of the Duke Ercole I d'Este - who meets her with his Court at the city gates. (The entire process cost him about 3000 ducats...). Immediately 13 young candidates apply at her new religious community. They are joined by Lucia's mother Gentilina who arrived to Ferrara together with her and with some other noble Narnian ladies.

1499 June 2, less than a month after Lucia's arrival, the Duke Ercole himself lays the first stone for the construction of the convent and of the church of St. Catherine of Siena (then on the street of St. Catherine, now Via Arianuova).

1499 November 1 Lucrezia's and Alfonso's son Rodrigo is born.

1500 January 1. Girolamo Savonarola's niece Veronica, at the age of thirteen, receives her habit of a Dominican Tertiary and the religious name of Suor Girolama at Lucy's community of Santa Caterina da Siena. (Twice the prioress, she died there in 1553).

1500 March 2. The fourth official inquisitorial examination of Lucy's stigmata wounds is conducted by the papal nuncio and inquisitor Heinrich Kramer (the author of the notorious 1487 witchcraft treatise) who is on his way from Rome to Moravia (now Czech Republic). March 4 Duke Ercole writes his famous letter, outligning his theory of the efficacy of holy women (see below).

1500 Summer. Lucrezia's deeply beloved 20-year-old husband Alfonso of Aragon is murdered and two months later the pope formally proposes her in marriage to the Prince Alfonso d'Este of Ferrara (his father Ercole is very upset and yields only 1501 July 8. The verbal marriage contract then takes place on 1 September).

1501 April 20. The Inquisitor Kramer publishes in Olomouc (in Moravia) a manual for preachers how to confute heretics ("Sancte Romane ecclesie fidei defensionis clipeum...") which also contains a lengthy letter of Duke Ercole I of 1500 March 4, affirming the authenticity of Lucia Brocadelli's mystical gifts and the notarial document of her 1497 April 23 examination in Viterbo. (The first printed biographical notice about Lucy).

1501 May 29. The promulgation of the official Breve of Erection by the Pope Alexander VI which nominates Lucia as the first prioress granting her the final authority and a number of exceptional priviledges to her whole community (freedom of movement etc)..

1501 August 5, on the feast of Saint Dominic, Suor Lucia and her 22 companions solemnly move into their long-awaited new convent. When completed (in 1503), it had special quarters for 'La Madre (Abbadessa) Suor Lucia', 46 cells for novices and 95 cells for the sisters; it also had an exceptional number of sacred paintings and other works of art.

1501 September 16. The Inquisitor Kramer publishes in Moravia a booklet about the mystical experiences of Sister Lucy and three other holy Italian women: "Stigmifere virginis Lucie de Narnia... facta admiratione digna". It contains a new letter of 1501 January 23 by the Duke Ercole and three other letters by the bishops of Ferrara, Adria and Milan. Also a four page poem (carmen theocasticon) in Lucia's praise. Four days later this booklet is there also published in German; later in Latin and in Spanish in Seville. Two more (abridged and anonymous) versions appear: one in Latin in Nuremberg 1501 and another again in German (Strasburg 1502). [A total of five printed versions appear in three different languages within two years].

1501 December 30 the 25-year-old son of the Duke Ercole, Prince Alfonso d'Este marries 21-year-old Lucrezia Borgia by proxy in the Sala Paolina at the Vatican. Lucrezia leaves Rome on January 6 and makes her state entry into Ferrara on 1502 February 2 with a huge dowry and "her personal gift" of eleven Sisters and candidates for Sister Lucy's convent (which are timed to arrive a couple days ahead).

1502 February 16 (or January 18). At the personal request of the pope, Lucy is officially examined again (for the FIFTH time!) by the pope's physician Bernardo Bongiovanni da Recanati, Bishop of Venosa; at the presence of the entire Court. All her miraculous gifts, especially her ability to read thoughts and to predict future events, are confirmed as real again.

1502. Lucia continues councelling both nobility and ordinary people, rich and poor; is marked by a stunning wisdom and discernment. She is also visited by other Italian holy women (Stefana Quinzani, Caterina da Racconigi). By July 1502 her community of S. Catherina of Siena (of the Third Order of St. Dominic) reaches 72 members. The Duke Ercole anticipates a hundred; Lucrezia is helping Lucia with recruiting more vocations. Meanwhile the sisters themselves are divided. Some say that Lucy is much too young (then 25) to be a prioress and that she is not strict enough; while others accuse her "of excessive asceticism and evangelical radicality". Many are jelous of her priviledges and of her fame.

1503 March 26. The pope sends to Lucia 10 more sisters from another older Ferrarese Dominican convent (S. Caterina Martire of the Second Dominican Order).

(1503. Copernicus receives his doctorate from the University of Ferrara in the spring of 1503. Lived 1473-1543)

1503 August 18. The pope, Lucrezia's father Alexander VI, dies (72 yrs old).

1503 September 2. Lucy is replaced by a new prioress Suor Maria da Parma, one of the ten sisters the pope sent her in March. The new pope Pius III, installed on October 8 and dies on October 18. On October 31 he is replaced by Julius II (1503-1513), the patron of Michelangelo.

1504 Corpus Christi. Suor Lucia is officially present at the ducal palace to witness the procession. On December 13th she is 28 years old, the Duke is 73.

T h e S i l e n c e

1505 January 24 Lucy's patron Ercole I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara dies. Prince Alfonso becomes Duke Alfonso I d'Este (1505-1534). Some sisters at St. Catherine's convent immediately rise up in an open rebellion.

1505 February 20. Lucy, in the presence of the Dominican Vicar General and the new Duchess Lucrezia, has to sign a document which repeals all her privileges and in which she accepts the prohibition to leave the house and to speak to anyone in private (without the presence and supervision of another sister). Even her right to chose her spiritual director is taken away. Her Savonarolan confessor Fra Niccolo is replaced by Fra Benedetto da Mantova who is hostile toward her mystical experiences; her stigmata wounds disappear. Formerly a central figure of the Savonarolan Church reform movement, now she is very successfully discredited by being publicly accused of fraud - of simulating sanctity and of fabricating the wounds. (Probably she is also even accused of sorcery and tortured by the Inquisition). Her name is more and more often "prudently ignored"; whatever positive was previously written about her is now carefully deleted in the new editions. Exposed to the coldness and mistrust of her own community - and to the public disgrace and contempt - she lives for the remaining 39 years of her life (1505-1544) in total isolation. Forgotten by all those who previously venerated her so much - now - "known only to God". The saints continue to visit her in her visions. Shortly before her death, in the sixth of her, recently discovered, "Seven Revelations", she tells about the Virgin Mary saying to her: "Your name is Light because you are the daughter of the eternal light" (Tuo nome Luce perche sei fiola de la eterna luce). And Jesus is telling about her to the apostle Paul: "She [Lucy] has been greatly crucified by her false enemies. Some have broken her head, others the fingers of her hand, some have pulled her around and treated her badly, some have thrown her into the well, some have knocked out her teeth. And she has suffered all these things and great pain with true patience for my love".

1518 November 24. Lucrezia's mother dies.

1519 June 24. The Duchess Lucrezia (Borgia) Ercole dies after a difficult pregnancy with Isabella Maria d'Este (her eighth child - being only 39 years old). She is buried at the convent Corpus Domini. Her last Savonarolan spiritual director Tommaso Caiani in 1528 was assasinated in Tuscany, allegedly on orders of Pope Clement VII. His correspondence with Lucrezia was recently (2006) published by Gabriella Zarri under the title of "La religione di Lucrezia Borgia".

1521 January 3. Pope Leo X excommunicates Martin Luther (who lived 1483-1546 and who in 1511 had spent a month in Rome). In 1525 Giulia Farnese dies.

1534 October 31 dies Lucrezia's husband Duke Alfonso d'Este (born 1476 July 21 - five months older than Lucia). His and Lucrezia's son succeeds him as Ercole II d'Este (1534-1559).

1544. At the request of her confessor Lucy writes down a brief account of some of her revelations (which were discovered at the Pavia Library in 1999).

* * * 1544 November 15. Two hours after midnight Suor Lucia Brocadelli dies and three days later she is buried at her convent (67 yrs old). The funeral has to be delayed because of a sudden and completely unexpected flood of visitors all wanting to pay her their last respects.

L A T E R

1545 December 13. The Council of Trent opens (47 years after Girolamo Savonarola died).

1546 February 18. Martin Luther dies at Eisleben (where he was born 1483 November 10)

1548 August 27. Lucia's body is found intact and is transferred to a glass urn.

(1564 February 15: Galileo Galilei is born in Pisa. 1567 October 1: Pietro Carnesecchi (friend of Giulia Gonzaga) is burned in Rome. 1600 February 17: Giordano Bruno is burned in Rome.

1647 November 15 the Church officially recognizes the Sister Lucy's uninterrupted veneration of the people.

1710 March 1 Lucia is declared Blessed by Pope Clement XI (1700-1721). On June 10 her relic arrives at the Cathedral of Narni and is placed in a special chapel.

1797 Napoleon suppresses the Blessed Lucy's convent of St. Catherine and her body is transferred to the altar of St. Lorence in the Cathedral of Ferrara. The site of her convent is cleared in 1813.

1932 August 23 she is visited by more than 500 pilgrims from the diocese of Narni

1935 May 26 (Sixth Sunday of Easter). After 440 years, at the request of Cesare Boccoleri, Bishop of Narnia (Terni and Narni), and with the consent of Ruggero Bovelli, Archbishop of Ferrara, BEATA LUCIA DE NARNIA RETURNS HOME (which she had left in 1495) and is SOLEMNLY RECEIVED BY THE PEOPLE AND THE CITY OF NARNI.

kvz 2008 II 4 14:28

Below: Beata Lucia - Girolamo Savonarola. Alexander VI - Lucrezia Borgia - Ercole I d'Este. The Cathedral and the Castle of Ferrara - The Cathedral of Narni.

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Blessed Lucia Brocadelli of Narnia

Born in 1476; died 1544; beatified in 1710.

Already very early it became evident to her pious Italian family that this child was set for something unusual in life. When Lucy was five years old, she had a vision of the Child Jesus with Our Lady. Two years later, Our Lady appeared with Child Jesus, Saint Catherine of Siena and Saint Dominic. Jesus gave her a ring and Saint Dominic gave her the scapular. At age 12, she made a private vow of total consecration, determined, even at this early age, to become a Dominican. However, family affairs were to make this difficult. Next year Lucy's father died, leaving her in the care of an uncle. And this uncle felt that the best way to dispose of a pretty niece was to marry her off as soon as possible.

Lucy's life now became that of the mistress of a large and busy household. She took great care to instruct the servants in their religion and soon became known for her benefactions to the poor. Pietro, to do him justice, never seems to have objected when his young wife gave away clothes and food, nor when she performed great penances. He knew that she wore a hair-shirt under her rich clothing, and that she spent most of the night in prayer and working for the poor. He even made allowances for the legend told him by the servants, that SS Catherine, Agnes, and Agnes of Montepulciano came to help her make bread for the poor. Only when a talkative servant one day informed him that Lucy was entertaining a handsome young man, who seemed to be an old friend, Pietro took his sword and went to see. He was embarrassed to find Lucy contemplating a large and beautiful crucifix, and he was further confused when the servant told him that the figure on the crucifix looked like the young man he had seen.

But when, after having disappeared for the entire night, Countess Lucia returned home early in the morning in the company of two men and claimed that they were Saint Dominic and John the Baptist, Pietro's patience finally gave out. He had his young wife locked up. Here she remained for the season of Lent; sympathetic servants brought her food until Easter. Being allowed to go to the church, Lucy never returned. She went to her mother's house and on the Feast of the Ascension, 1494 May 8, she put on the habit of a Dominican tertiary.

Count Pietro was furious, burned down the Dominican priory and even tried to kill her spiritual director who had given her the habit. Rich and influential, he continued to try to bring her back. Next year Lucia went to Rome and entered the monastery of the Dominican tertiaries near Pantheon. Her sanctity impressed everyone so much that by the end of the year, with five other sisters, she was sent by the Master General of the Dominicans to start a new monastery in Viterbo.

Friday, 1496 February 25, Lucia received the Stigmata, the Sacred Wounds. She tried very hard to hide her spiritual favors, because they complicated her life wherever she went. She had the stigmata visibly, and she was usually in ecstasy, which meant a steady stream of curious people who wanted to question her, investigate her, or just stare at her. Even the sisters were nervous about her methods of prayer. Once they called in the bishop, and he watched Lucy with the sisters for 12 hours, while she went through the drama of the Passion.

The bishop hesitated to pass judgment and called for special commissions; the second one was presided by a famous Inquisitor of Bologna. All declared that her stigmata were authentic. Here the hard-pressed Pietro had his final appearance in Lucy's life. He made a last effort to persuade Lucy to change her plans and to come back to him. After seeing her, he returned to Narni, sold everything he had and became a Franciscan. In later years, he was a famous preacher.

The duke of Ferrara was planning to build a monastery and, hearing of the fame of the mystic of Viterbo, asked Sister Lucia to come there and be its prioress. Lucy had been praying for some time that a means would be found to build a new convent of strict observance, and she agreed to go to Ferrara.

This touched off a two-year battle between the towns. Viterbo had the mystic and did not want to lose her; the duke of Ferrara sent first his messengers and then his troops to bring her. Much money and time was lost before she finally escaped from Viterbo and was solemnly received in Ferrara on 1499 May 7. Later Duke Ercole asked his future daughter-in-law, Lucrezia Borgia, to bring for Lucy's convent eleven candidates from Rome on her way to Ferrara. They arrived a few days ahead of Lucrezia's state entry into Ferrara on 1502 February 2. But the records say, sedately: "Many of these did not persevere."

They petitioned the bishop, and, by the order of the Pope, he sent ten nuns from the Second Order to reform the community. Lucy's foundation was of the Third Order; of people who remain laymen even after their vows. The Second Order "real" nuns, according to the chronicle, "brought in the very folds of their veils the seed of war"; nuns of the Second Order wore black veils, a privilege not allowed to tertiaries.

The uneasy episode ended when one of these ten nuns was made prioress and when Duke Ercole died on 24 January 1505. Lucy was placed on penance. The nature of her fault is not mentioned, nor was there any explanation of the fact that, until her death, 39 years later, she was never allowed to speak to anyone but her confessor, who was chosen by the prioress. Only now, 500 years later, the situation is slowly beginning to clear.

The Dominican provincial, probably nervous for the prestige of the order, would not let any member of the order go to see her. Her stigmata disappeared, too late to do her any good, and vindictive companions said: "See, she was a fraud all the time." When she died in 1544, people thought she had been dead for many years. It is hard to understand how anyone not a saint could have so long endured such a life. Lucy's only friends during her 39 years of exile were heavenly ones; the Dominican Catherine of Racconigi, sometimes visited her--evidently by bi-location--and her other heavenly friends often also came to brighten her lonely cell.

Immediately after her death everything suddenly changed. When her body was laid out for burial so many people wanted to pay their last respects that her funeral had to be delayed by three days. Her tomb in the monastery church was opened four years later and her perfectly preserved body was transferred to a glass case. When Napoleon suppressed her monastery in 1797 her body was transferred to the Cathedral of Ferrara and on 1935 May 26 - to the Cathedral of Narni.

Yes, there is a small town in Italy, very close to Rome, that bears the Italian name of Narni. Until about 200 years ago, for about two thousand years, it was known only as Narnia. And this ancient name even today still continues unchanged not only in Latin but also in some English books.

It certainly continues in the seven books of the "Chronicles of Narnia" by C.S. Lewis, who found this name in an atlas when he was about fourteen years old. The little Lucy of his Chronicles, just like the Blessed Lucy, is also a girl who believes and who can see many things that other people cannot see.

For Know more open the Wardrobe of Narnia

Immagini su concessione della Diocesi di Terni-Narni-Amelia - Ufficio per i Beni Culturali ecclesiastici (autorizzazione 099/10).

A Bibliography of LUCIA BROCADELLI of Narni (1476 - 1544)

1476 - 1600 .& Undated

Vita della b. Lucia copiata dall'originale di sua mano. Undated Manuscript. Ferrara, Archivio della Curia Archivescovile: Residui Ecclesiastici E. 14

Lettere autografe e copie di letere della Beata Suor Lucia da Narni. Manuscripts. Archivio di Stato di Modena, Giurisdizione Sovrana, Santi e beati, busta 430 A

Processi di beatificazione della b. Lucia da Narni. Manuscripts. Archivio Storico Diocesano di Curia arcivescovile di Ferrara: Residui ecclesiastici. Fondo Santa Caterina da Siena, busta 3/25-26.

Domenico di GARGNANO, The inquisitorial examination of Lucia Brocadelli by the Inquisitor Domenico di Gargnano on 1497 April 23 in Viterbo. The notarial document. Published in Kramer's Clipeum in 1501 (see below).

Ercole I d'ESTE (1431-1505) and Lucia BROCADELLI (1476-1544), Lettere. Published in Luigi GANDINI, Sulla venuta in Ferrara della beata Suor Lucia da Narni. Sue lettere ed altri documenti inediti, 1497-1498-1499. Modena 1901 (repeated below).

Heinrich KRAMER (Henricus INSTITORIS: 1430-1505), Sancte Romane ecclesie fidei defensionis clipeum Adversus waldensium seu Pickardorum heresim (briefly called : Clipeum). Olmutz 1501 April 20. Includes 12 pages in quarto (30 cm) about Lucia Brocadelli and three other Italian living saints.

Heinrich KRAMER (ed.), Stigmifere virginis Lucie de Narnia aliarumque spiritualium personarum feminei sexus facta admiratione digna (briefly: Stigmifere). Olmutz 1501 September 16. Eight leaves (16 pages) in quarto; within two years published in three languages, four cities and five editions (two in Olmutz, one in Nuremberg, Seville and Strasburg).

Lucia BROCADELLI, Seven Revelations. The Book of Blessed Lucia of Narni written in her own hand in the year of Our Lord 1544. Introduced and Translated by E. Ann MATTER. Published in Maiju LEHMIJOKE-GARDNER (ed.), Dominican Penitent Women. New York 2005, 216-43. 316 p. [Original manuscript in Pavia, Biblioteca Civica "Bonetta" MS II.112 (gia B12).]

Arcangelo MARCHESELLI di Viadana (1500?), Vita di Lucia da Narni. A lost manuscript of a near contemporary (see Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum II, 1721, 209). Used by Razzi, see his Parte II, 83.

Serafino RAZZI (1531-1611), Seconda parte delle Vite de' santi e beati dell'ordine de' frati predicatori nelle quale si raccontano le vita, et opere, di molte Sante, e Beate Donne del medesimo ordine. Firenze 1577, 151-57, 179. 183 p.

Serafino RAZZI, Vita dei Santi e Beati del sacro ordine de' Frati Predicatori, cosi' huomini, come donne: con aggiunta di molte vite che nella prima impressione non erano. Firenze 1588. 356 p.

1601 - 1700

Giacomo MARCIANESE, Narratione della nascita, vita, e morte della B. Lucia da Narni dell'ordine di S. Domenico, fondatrice del monastero di S. Caterina da Siena di Ferrara. Ferrara 1616. 239 p.

Giacomo MARCIANESE, Narratione della nascita, vita, e morte della b. Lucia da Narni dell'ordine di San Domenico, fondatrice del monastero di Santa Caterina da Siena di Ferrara. Ferrara 1640. 227 p.

Giacomo MARCIANESE, Vita della B. Lucia di Narni dell'Ordine di S. Domenico fondatrice delli monasteri di S. Domenico di Viterbo, e di S. Catarina da Siena di Ferrara. Con l'aggiunta in quest'ultima impressione d'alcune notitie particolari, e d'vna gratia specialissima. Viterbo 1663. 240 p.

Giacinto Maria ANTI (1684-1727), L'immobilita del proposito, ouero la virginita trionfante di Lucia da Narni. Opera sacra di Giacinto Maria Anti. Vicenza 1691. 171 p.

1701 - 1800

CLEMENS XI, Papa (1649-1721), Confirmatio decreti Congregationis Sacrorum Rituum editi super sententia... qua declaratum fuerat, constare de cultu immemorabili Beatae Luciae de Narnia exhibito. Romae, 1710 [26 March 1710].

Domenico PONSI (1675-1740), Vita della b. Lucia vergine di Narni religiosa dell'ordine de' Predicatori, ... raccolta dal p.l.f. Domenico Ponsi dello stesso ordine. Roma 1711. 275 p.

Domenico PONSI, Aggiunta al libro della vita della beata Lucia di Narni composto dal p. fr. Domenico PONSI dell'Ordine de Predicatori nell'anno 1711. Roma 1711. 188 p.

Domenico PONSI, Vita della B. Lucia di Narni dell'ordine de predicatori, fondatrice del Monistero di S. Caterina di Siena della citta di Ferrara. Ferrara 1729.

Novena ad onore della gloriosa Vergine Beata Lucia da Narni dell'ordine de predicatori. Ferrara 1774. 27 p.

1801 - 1900

Nicola GRISPIGNI, Breve storica narrazione della vergine Beata Lucia da Narni del terz'ordine di S. Domenico. Viterbo 1830. 137 p.

Nicola GRISPIGNI, Preparamento devoto di sette giorni precedenti la festivita della Beata Lucia da Narni. Viterbo 1830. 30 p.

Georgiana FULLERTON (1812-1885), Blessed Lucy of Narni. Part of The Life of St. Frances of Rome, of blessed Lucy of Narni, etc. New York 1855, 139-158. [20 p.]. 206 p.

http://www.narnia.it/lucia1_eu.htm or http://www.canadiana.org/ECO/mtq?doc=33385

Tommaso Maria GRANELLO (1840-1911), La beata Lucia da Narni : vergine del terz'ordine di San Domenico / per fra Tommaso Maria Granello dei predicatori. Ferrara 1879. 230 p.

1901 - 2000

Luigi Alberto GANDINI (1827-1906), Sulla venuta in Ferrara della beata Suor Lucia da Narni del Terzo Ordine di S. Domenico. Sue lettere ed altri documenti inediti, 1497-1498-1499. Modena 1901. 123 p.

Gildo BRUGNOLA (1890-?), La beata Lucia da Narni del terz'Ordine domenicano. Milano 1935. 118 p.

Mary Jean DORCY (1914-1988), Blessed Lucy of Narni (1476-1544). In Saint Dominic's Family: Lives and Legends by Sister Mary Jean Dorcy, O.P. Dubuque 1964, 267-270. [3 p.] 632 p.

Edmund G. GARDNER (1869-1935), Dukes and Poets in Ferrara: A Study in the Poetry, Religion, and Politics of the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries. New York 1968 (1904), 364-381, 466. 578 p.

Adriano PROSPERI, Brocadelli (Broccadelli), Lucia. In Dizionario biografico degli Italiani. Roma 1972, 14:381-83.

Gabriella ZARRI, Piet e profezia alle corti padane: le pie consigliere dei principi. In Paolo ROSSI et al., Il Rinascimento nelle corti padane: Societ e cultura. Atti del Convegno di Ferrara-Reggio Emilia, 1975. Bari 1977, 201-237. 617 p.

Gabriella ZARRI, Le sante vive: Per una tipologia della santita' femminile nel primo Cinquecento. In Annali dell'Istituto storico italo-germanico in Trento 6 (1980): 388-9.

Gino COTINI, L'amore vince sempre: Biografia della Beata Lucia Brocadelli (Nel cinquantenario della Traslazione delle Reliquie). Manoscritto. Narni 1985. 37 p.

http://www.narnia.it/lucia1.htm

Lucia Brocadelli e il suo tempo: Atti del Convegno di studio tenuto a Narni il 24-25 ottobre 1986. Terni 1989. 147 p.

Gabriella ZARRI, Le sante vive: Profezie di corte e devozione femminile tra '400 e '500 (Cultura e religiosita feminile nella prima eta moderna). Torino 1990 (1992, 2000), 96-97, 134. 258 p.

Dyan ELLIOT, Spiritual Marriage: Sexual Abstinence in Medieval Wedlock. Princeton 1993, 218-22, 275. 375 p.

E. Ann MATTER, Prophetic Patronage as Repression: Lucia Brocadelli da Narnia and Ercole d'Este. In Scott L. WAUGH and Peter D. DIEHL (ed.), Christendom and Its Discontents: Exclusion, Persecution, and Rebellion, 1000-1500. Cambridge 1996, 168-176. [9 p.] 376 p.

Thomas TUOHY, Herculean Ferrara: Ercole d'Este, 1471-1505, and the Invention of a Ducal Capital. Cambridge 1996, 176, 180-81, 327, 371, 382. 534 p.

Lucetta SCARAFFIA, Gabriella ZARRI, Women and Faith: Catholic Religious Life in Italy From Late Antiquity to the Present. Cambridge 1999, 496 p.

E. Ann MATTER, Armando MAGGI, Maiju LEHMIJOKI-GARDNER, e Gabriella ZARRI, Lucia Brocadelli da Narni: Riscoperta di un manoscritto pavese. In Bolletino della societa pavese di storia patria 100 (2000): 173-99, esp. 177, 189-99. G. Zarri, Lucia, pp.99-116.

2001 - 2007

E. Ann MATTER, Armando MAGGI, and Maiju LEHMIJOKI-GARDNER (ed.), Le rivelazioni of Lucia Brocadelli da Narni. Archivum Fratrum Praedicatorum 71 (2001): 311-44. [34 p.]

Gabriella ZARRI, Lucia da Narni e il movimento femminile savonaroliano. In Gigliola FRAGNITO e Mario MIEGGE (ed.) Girolamo Savonarola da Ferrara all'Europa: Atti del Convegno tenuto a Ferrara nel 1998 per la celebrazione del 5. centenario della morte di Girolamo Savonarola. Firenze 2001, 99-116; esp. 102-12. 553 p.

Ileana TOZZI, Tra mistica e politica: L'esperienza femminile nel terz'ordine della penitenza di San Domenico. In Rassegna Storica online, n. 1 NS (IV), 2003 (suppl. a Storiadelmondo, n.4, 24 gennaio 2003).

http://www.storiadelmondo.com/rso/1/tozzi.terziarie.pdf [31 p.]

Or: http://www.medio-evo.org/misticaepolitica.htm 32-38 [63 p.]

Tamar HERZIG, The Rise and Fall of a Savonarolan Visionary: Lucia Brocadelli's [Forgotten] Contribution to the Piagnone [Savonarolan] Movement. In Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte / Archive for Reformation History 95[/i] (2004), 3460. [27 p.]

Tamar HERZIG, Holy Women, Male Promoters, and Savonarolan Piety in Northern Italy, c. 1498-1545. Ph.D. diss., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2005, 1215. 541 p. (On Lucia 194-224).

E. Ann MATTER, Lucia Brocadelli: Seven Revelations. In Maiju LEHMIJOKI-GARDNER (ed.), Dominican Penitent Women. New York 2005, 212-43. [32 p.] 316 p.

E. Ann MATTER, Religious Dissidence and the Bible in Sixteenth-Century Italy: The Idiosyncratic Bible of Lucia Brocadelli da Narni. In Scripture and Pluralism: Reading the Bible in the Religiously Plural Worlds of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Leiden 2005. 248 p.

Tamar HERZIG, Witches, Saints, and Heretics: Heinrich Kramer's Ties with Italian Women Mystics. In Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft (journal), Summer 2006, 24-55 [32 p.]

http://magic.pennpress.org/PennPress/journals/magic/sampleArt3.pdf . (P.31: "Lucia Brocadelli, also known as Lucia of Narni, [is] the most famous Italian living saint ('santa viva') of the early sixteenth century".)

Gabriella ZARRI, La religione di Lucrezia Borgia : Le lettere inedite del confessore. Roma 2006, 116-130. [14 p.] 332 p. [P.S. The name Brocadelli here is spelled as Broccadelli and Brucurelli].

Tamar HERZIG, Savonarola's Women: Visions and Reform in Renaissance Italy. Chicago (Fall) 2007, 320 p.

P.S. Tamar Herzig is a visiting scholar at the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She received her Ph.D., Summa cum laude, in History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 2005 with a dissertation on Holy Women, Male Promoters, and Savonarolan Piety and has also been the recipient of many scholarships and awards.

Dr. Herzig also contributed to the book L'Italia dell'inquisitore. Storia e geografia dell'Italia del Cinquecento nella 'Descrittione' di Leandro Alberti (2004) with her chapter on Fra Leandro Alberti and the Savonarolan Movement in Northern Italy.

Reference: RICERCA BIBLIOGRAFICA; Accesso al Servizio Bibliotecario Nazionale Italiano (SNB), ai cataloghi stranieri, ai cataloghi storici e a quelli specialistici:

http://www.internetculturale.it/moduli/opac/opac.jsp . Etc

kvz 2007 IX 5 17:44

Kindly send your impressions, additions and corrections to fgiusepp2@tin.it

biografia aggiornata per approfondimenti

Immagini su concessione della Diocesi di Terni-Narni-Amelia - Ufficio per i Beni Culturali ecclesiastici (autorizzazione 099/10).

SOURCE : http://www.narnia.it/luciabiografia.htm

Voir aussi : http://historia-800years-op.com/index.php?option=com_flexicontent&view=item&cid=70:recherche-saintete&id=1278:lucie-de-narni&Itemid=640&lang=fr