Albert the Abbot
Acta Sanctorum, May 20
Source text: Public Domain. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://actasanctorum.org/may/day-20/albert-the-abbot.html
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CONCERNING B. ALBERT THE ABBOT,

OF THE VALLOMBROSAN ORDER AT BOLOGNA IN ITALY.

IN THE YEAR 1245.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Of his cult, Acts, and distinction from S. Albert the Carmelite.

Albert, Abbot of the Order of Vallombrosa, at Bologna (B.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

The diocese of Bologna in Romandiola, the past
century inclining to its end, when Eudoxius
Locatelli of S. Sophia completed his work concerning the Vallombrosan
history, numbered only two Abbeys of that Order,
four Priories.
Of these Priories one outside the gate of S. Vitalis, by the testimony of
Antonius Pauli Masini on August 7, called S. Albert de Savena,
[He leaves his name to the church in which he was buried,] simply to Eudoxius S. Albert, sometime had the title
of a Parish church, but the name of S. Albert
(when perhaps before it was simply called de Savena, with the title
of the Saint to whom it was dedicated added) is believed to have received about
the year 1244 from B. Albert of Paris, Abbot
of Bologna, of the Vallombrosan Order, buried there
and famous for miracles. Of this in the already cited little book of Jerome the Vallombrosan
to Lorenzo de' Medici these things are read.

[2] There is at Bologna, near the city, a certain monastery
of this our Religion, which from the name of B. Albert
the temple is called of S. Albert, for in it his
body is established to be buried. He therefore as in life,
also and after death, shone forth with many miracles: of
which one to relate at present has not seemed amiss,
which we received from many religious worthy of faith both of our own and of the Camaldolese
Congregation.
For they said that there were at Bologna of the Beccaria certain
citizens, [the Commendatory Abbot, attempting to plunder its pavement,] great in birth, and then flourishing in the city,
powerful in riches and forces, to whom (as today ecclesiastical
laws are) that monastery came in Commendation;
if it is right to call it Commendation,
which would be proved by many reasons to be a destruction,
did not the time warn us to hasten elsewhere: but
this I would dare to say, that the Christian Religion has lost almost the true
names of all things. These citizens therefore,
to return to my purpose, from then little by little deprived both of dignities
and of honors, yet by no means perceived
the divine vengeance: but, as the Wise man says, they held
discipline odious, and neglected the precept of the Lord.
And especially one more unjust than the rest,
who although he labored with constant gout and intermittent fever,
yet from the unjust work, when many of his friends advised him,
did not turn aside; nay he preferred, for the possession of
fallacious and fleeting things, both in this miserable life
to be tortured by various scourges and straits, and in
the future eternal age to be tormented, than here, content with his own
and small as it is said, to live holily and justly. He therefore
when he desired to adorn his palace with polished stones
without his own expense, [is miraculously hindered.] ordered marble stones to be carried off from the aforesaid
temple. But Jesus willing, by the prayers of B. Albert
himself it came to pass, that not even one
stone could the workmen and country-folk move from there:
for when they tried to attempt so great a wickedness, soon
they were miserably tortured. Turned into stupor and admiration thereby,
the workmen, stiff and trembling, return to Bologna;
and narrating what beyond the usual had happened to them,
they vehemently extolled his sanctity.
Nay, those dwelling near and far, not
once a year, [Seeds are blessed under his invocation.] but every month flock from all sides
to that place in throngs with offerings, for the sake of devotion
and of fulfilling vows.
There is also another thing no less to be reported, that all
the farmers of the same country would dare neither to sow grain, nor
to commit other seed to the earth, unless first through
a religious man, inhabiting that monastery,
the grain or part of the threshed earth, brought in a basket or hamper,
were blessed.

[3] In the table, containing the names and a brief eulogy of seven
Blessed of the Vallombrosan Order, [reckoned among the Blessed] hung in the Sacristy
of the Vallombrosan monastery itself, of which above, the last is
B. Albert of Bologna, by whose prayers that field is both
preserved and yearly rendered more fertile, so that
the rustics in throngs, with baskets filled with earth, from the Presbyter
of that place where he is buried, seek a blessing.
Eudoxius book 2 chapter 31 narrating nearly the same things which Jerome in Latin,
himself in Italian; adds, that the rustics mix the seed or earth
so blessed with the seeds to be scattered through the fields,
and find this most useful: but that citizen,
whose sacrilegious avarice gave occasion to the aforesaid
Miracle, he calls John de Beccariis, who in the year
1404 obtained that Abbey then still for his son.
But he supposes B. Albert himself to have flourished as Abbot in it, [is said to have died in the year 1245]
in the time of Valentinus I, the 16th General, that is,
between the year 1235 and 1254. Arnoldus Wion,
the faith of the tables sent to him being cited, thus writes: At Bologna
in the monastery of S. Albert, Abbot of the Order
of Vallombrosa, who left his name to the monastery from his own name:
and in the Notes he asserts that he died in the year of Christ
1245. Arnoldus is transcribed by Philip Ferrarius, in
the Catalogue of Saints who are not in the Roman Martyrology,
but for the year 1245 he has 1243, perhaps by the fault
of the typesetters. Gabriel Bucelinus corrected this error, who in
the Benedictine Menology, as before Hugo Menardus in
the Martyrology, ascribed Albert to this 20th day of May,
namely from the authority and faith of Arnoldus.

[4] Antonius Pauli Masini wondrously entangled everything. For
since on the 20th day of May, on which this Vallombrosan Albert
is placed by the aforesaid authors, he had made mention
of S. Albert the Martyr, having his cult in the church
of all Saints in Brainia of the square of S. Stephen, [He is confounded with S. Albert the Carmelite.]
where his Relics are preserved; of the Vallombrosan himself,
as we saw, and his church he treats on August 7, when
S. Albert Confessor of the Order of Carmelites in that whole
Order, and specially at Bologna, is venerated: and he adds
that in the aforesaid church of S. Albert, on account of the equivocation,
there seems painted on the high altar S. Albert
the Carmelite, in place of the Vallombrosan. Who were the authors of this
confusion, is not difficult to divine:
and the age of the picture itself will easily indicate, when first it was introduced.
The fortune of the church, transferred from Religious to seculars, had obscured
the memory of the former Albert, and had made him almost unknown
to the common people of Bologna. Hence it was easy, the cult of the latter
growing famous, after the Canonization celebrated in the 15th century,
and the authority together with the discipline of the Carmelites of Bologna,
joined to the Mantuan Congregation, reflourishing, to persuade the people
that he whom they formerly venerated there was the Saint of their own
Order: which indeed I would say is to be attributed not to any bad
faith, but to excessive simplicity and negligence of scrutinizing the truth.
Albert the Martyr, whose Relics are in that other Brainensian church,
we know of none; therefore concerning these we ask to be more fully informed, whence and
when they were brought thither. For as regards S. Albert
Patriarch of Jerusalem, he indeed died a Martyr:
but that his Relics were ever translated from the Holy Land,
we nowhere read; and the Order which venerates him by reason
of the Rule received, venerates him as a Confessor.
