Guido Count of Donoratico
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/guido-count-of-donoratico.html
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CONCERNING S. GUIDO COUNT OF DONORATICO

IN ETRURIA, A SOLITARY.

13TH CENTURY.

HISTORICAL COLLECTION.

Of his cult, acts, translation, and family.

Guido, Count of Donoratico, Solitary in Etruria (S.)

BY THE AUTHOR D. P.

Ferrarius in the general Catalogue of Saints,
who are not in the Roman Martyrology, says: In
the Pisan territory, of S. Guido Confessor,
and notes, [Memory in the Calendars,] From the tables of the Church
of Pisa, celebrating him on this day. He
was Count of the castle of Donoratico in the Pisan diocese: whose
Life Silvanus Razzi, a Camaldolese monk,
wove together in the books on the Saints of Etruria from Manuscript
monuments. These things Ferrarius there, taking the Pisan diocese more broadly
for the whole Province: for Donoratico pertains to the Massa
Bishopric. The same in the Catalogue of Saints
of Italy notes, that the proper Acts of S. Guido are wanting by the injury of the times.
But what has been said, is held rather from
tradition, than from any old writing, a few things excepted.
Therefore from Razzi he wove this eulogy.

[2] Guidus or Guido, of the most noble Gherardesca
family, Count of Donoratico (which castle is of the Pisan
diocese) there having cast off the care of human things, [Eulogy of his life,]
chose a solitary life about the year of salvation one thousand
ninety in prayers, fastings, vigils, and pious
meditations. But first of all he gave attention to the relief
of the poor, before he shut himself up.
When he had been engaged for a long time even to extreme old age
in exercises of this kind, on the 13th
of the Kalends of June, in the year of the Lord one thousand ninety-nine,
he exchanged this mortal life for the perennial.
At his migration, they say the bells of the castle, no one ringing,
sounded. Callistus III the Supreme Pontiff
called him a Saint, and gave to the Archbishop of Pisa
the power of transferring the body from the castle of Castaneto to the city:
[miracles] where in the Cathedral Church
buried it is kept. These things there. Brautius Bishop of Sarsina
celebrates him with such a verse:

The vast wilderness concealed the famous man living,
The dead Saint the sacred bells sound.

[3] I know not whence Ferrarius received the year of death so definite,
since Razzi (whom he alone had before his eyes)
about the beginning of the 12th century, in which SS. Galganus and Gerard
de Villa-Magna, likewise the Blessed Verdiana and Joanna of Signa
cultivated a solitary life, suspects that Guido too came
to the same, and lived in it even to extreme
age, the pictures of that age being witnesses, such as at Pisa and
elsewhere are seen, representing an old man, exhausted by leanness and
age. The frequency of miracles, but over which time has drawn
oblivion, [cult.] he supposes to be sufficiently proved:
as indeed it is proved, from the public cult which followed it;
so great indeed, that even now between Pisa and Leghorn
are seen the traces of a church and monastery, in his name erected. This monastery, while the Republic of the Pisans flourished,
was inhabited first by Monks, then by Nuns,
the title of the Abbey of S. Guido being preserved hitherto.
The Brief of Pope Calixtus III, directed to the Archbishop of Pisa
(he was Julian de Riccii, in the 42nd year of his Bishopric,
of Christ 1461, having departed life) is of this kind, given
at Rome at S. Peter's on May 15, 1457, in the 3rd year
of his (Pontificate), in place of which to the over-careless Ferrarius it crept in to note
the year 1403, since this Calixtus was created Pope only in the year
1455, on April 8.

[4] Our beloved Sons the Priors of the city of Pisa, kindled with zeal of devotion,
as was set forth in their name,
greatly desire, that the body of S. Guido, placed in the church
of Donoratico of the Massa diocese, [The translation permitted by Calixtus III in the year 1457,] be removed thence:
since on account of the desolation of the place, it is known to be less
worthily placed. The said Priors also assert,
that if the said body be transferred to their Church
of Pisa, it could be preserved in a more decent manner,
and the devotion of the people would rise greater, on
account of which the salvation of the souls of the faithful would come forth. We therefore
commending this their pious and catholic desire
in the Lord, to thy Fraternity, if to this
the assent of our venerable Brother the Bishop of Massa, Ordinary of the place,
and of the Patrons of the aforesaid church accede,
of transferring the aforesaid body, and decently placing it in thy Church,
the solemnities accustomed to be observed in such cases being observed,
free leave and every kind of
faculty by the present we grant and
bestow, whatsoever things to the contrary
notwithstanding.

[5] [before this attempted in the year 1450,] Now that business had begun to be treated by the Pisans
already from the year 1450, or (as the Pisans reckon, anticipating the beginning
of the common year by nine months)
1451, as appears from their letter, given November 10,
to the worshipful and excellent men, Gherardus and Simon
Counts of Castaneto (which title they seem to have usurped,
after the destruction of Donoratico, near to Castaneto by two miles)
in which they make faith to Master Lorenzo son of John, Canon
of Pisa, their orator, concerning those things which had been proposed
about the body of S. Guido, as to one most well informed of their intention.
But neither then did they obtain what they sought,
nor was the Pontifical intercession efficacious enough;
whether Peter de Urso, at that time Bishop of Massa, opposed their wishes,
without whose leave Calixtus suffered nothing to be done;
or whether the Counts of Donoratico and Castaneto themselves were unwilling
to be deprived of that domestic protection, because either already long before
or then they had received the sacred deposit itself with them at Castaneto.
For (as Razzi says) in a certain book
of Matthew son of John, of the late Matthew Setarioli, there is found written
of this kind. I make memory, I Matthew
above-written, how on this day June 16, 1459
in the Pisan style, was conducted into the city of Pisa
the body of S. Guido, that is, his holy Relics. It was
moreover the day of Friday (whence is confirmed, [accomplished in the year 1458.] what concerning the Pisan style
we said: since the concurrence of the 16th day of June and Feria
VI happened in the year with us 1458, having the Dominical
letter A) and the Relics themselves were at Castaneto,
and in a great retinue were conducted even
to the greater or Cathedral church, by all
the Priors of Pisa and the whole Clergy, with many
torches, and a copious multitude of both sexes, both
of citizens and of the inhabitants, to the praise of God. Amen. And
note, that the said S. Guido was of the Counts of Donoratico,
and our Pisan citizen.

[6] But rightly does that Matthew interpret the Body as
Relics, [The Relics of Castaneto.] or the greater part of the body: for as the same
Razzi observes, there remained at Castaneto (for the protection
namely of the place and the domestic veneration of the family itself)
in the parochial church of the place one shin, and one jaw,
and certain other particles. Moreover, says
the same, by a most ancient and undoubted tradition it is narrated,
that on one of the Saint's shoulders there grew a shrub
(the Italians call it scopa) which cut off is preserved among
the Relics of the already said parish of Castaneto, and is shown
to the people, and is carried around processionally
on the feast of the Epiphany. And this perhaps was the first beginning
of the miracles of the Saint after death, and the cause of raising from the earth
and the common burial the body: just as in many
other Saints we have found to have come to pass by usage: nor do we doubt,
that the leaves and twigs received thence and devoutly employed,
many graces also of miraculous healings were obtained.
But at Pisa the Relics are shown on the
Octave day of Easter, and the feast in the Cathedral and the whole
diocese is kept under the rite of a Double Office of the Common
of a Confessor, on the 20th day of May.

[7] Thus far Razzi, who finally to the commendation, by no means
common, of the Donoratican family, whence S. Guido sprang, [Born also of the same Family as he]
adds the following memory, anciently preserved
at Pisa among the Fathers of the Order of Preachers of the convent of S. Catherine
of Siena, concerning a certain one of that convent, founded in the year 1222,
the Blessed (as they call him) Gaddo; who together with
his brother Boniface, afterwards Bishop of Chironensis, among the first
of it was reckoned an inmate. Brother Gaddus, of
the Counts of Donoratico, [B. Gaddus of the Order of Preachers.] a most noble family and among
the chief of the Pisans and most celebrated in all Italy, in
riches and delights educated, next to magistracies and honors,
all things despised chose our poverty,
preferring it to kingdoms and thrones. But the hand
which he had put to the plough, he never drew back,
nor looked behind his back. Forgetful of his former dignity,
he pretended no pride; he showed nothing of his own liberty,
which he had sold for Christ, in his acts.
Humble, abject, he followed a humble
master: and as in composing his manners, he was occupied with all
his might: so to learning letters he diligently applied himself.
Not sparing vigils and labors, without which no
virtue is procured, returning from Paris, made
general Preacher and Lector of Pisa, he met his day,
not without the loss of the Order: for he was hoped to turn out a great man.

[8] R. P. Antonius Tagnocchi de Terrinca, of the Order of S.
Francis of Empoli in Etruria, has ready for the press a Theater
of the Saints and Blessed of the Etruscan Minorites, where
he reckons S. Guido among the Tertiaries of his Order; [Whether Guido is to be reckoned among the Franciscan Tertiaries.] and is of the opinion
that he was a disciple of B. Lucchesius, whose Acts we illustrated on April 28, the first
Tertiary in that Province, admitted by S. Francis himself to the habit
and rule, led by the authority of the Most Illustrious Lord Hippolytus Count de Gherardesca,
Doctor of both Laws and Canon of the Metropolitan of Florence, who affirmed it
to himself on the 4th day of January in the year 1678: and that
in the church of B. Lucchesius himself at Poggibonsi there is found
an image of B. Guido, painted in the habit of the third Order.
Which if they have any foundation in truth, Razzi's
conjecture falls, [and he lived in the 13th century.] by which he says he flourished about the year 1100. But
if you attend to the examples brought forward by Razzi of an exemplary life, which
Guido instituted for the use of his age; you will rightly suspect
that by a typographical error 1 crept in for 3, and that he wished to note
the year 1300. Certainly B. Lucchesius first in the year 1221
took the habit, and died in 1260. I wish it left in the middle,
whether Guido assumed the Rule of any Order:
and until some older notice be produced, among
the simple Solitaries I leave him, without prejudice to anyone.
Especially since concerning his age nothing can be said, except
by mere conjecture; and he could have preceded by many years
the institution of the Minorite Order itself, much more of its Tertiaries.
