Vita Agnetis: VITA SORORIS AGNETIS

CREBRIS sacrarum uirginum sororum ordinis sancte Clare de Praga precibus sum pulsatus ut illustrissime uirginis, sororis Agnetis, filie incliti domini regis Bohemie conscriberem uitam & actus, ne ipsius eximia sanctitas dampnoso reticeretur silencio; cuius eterna memoria merito cum laudibus debet esse, pro eo quod ipsam inscrutabilis dei sapiencia uelud lucernam in candelabro militantis ecclesie posuit, et igne sue gracie clementer accendit, quo feruide arsit in se per uite meritum, aliisque clare luxit salutiferum per exemplum. Cui quidem peticioni racionabili atque pie bonam habui uoluntatem parendi ob spem retribucionis sempiterne. Sed consideracione sollerti ad hoc insufficientem me senciens & indignum, calamum asscribendi continui, pauens imperito sermone fuscare quod claris & magnis laudum preconiis fuerat depromendum.

I have been impelled by the frequent prayers of the sacred virgins, the sisters of the Order of Saint Clare of Prague, to compose the life & acts of the most illustrious virgin, Sister Agnes, daughter of the renowned lord king of Bohemia, lest her exceptional sanctity be kept back in harmful silence; whose eternal memory rightly ought to be with praises, because the inscrutable wisdom of God placed her like a lamp on the candlestick of the Church Militant, and kindly lit her with the fire of His grace, whereby she burned fervently in herself by the merit of life, and shone brightly to others with a health-bringing example. To which reasonable and pious petition I had a good will to obey, on account of the hope of everlasting retribution. But, by careful consideration perceiving myself insufficient & unworthy for this, I stayed the pen from writing, fearing to darken with unskilled speech what ought to be brought forth with clear & great proclamations of praises.

Tandem reuerendi patris mei ministri super hoc obedienciali precepto constrictus, negocium supra uires meas assumpsi, malens sub sarcina tanti laboris humiliter parendo deficere quam uoluntati precipientis pertinaciter contra ire, cum inobediencia quasi peccatum ariolandi uel scelus ydolatrie censeatur. Sed quia non sumus sufficientes cogitare aliquid ex nobis, sed sufficiencia nostra ex deo est, qui miseria sua grata operatur in nobis & uelle & perficere pro bona uoluntate, ideo adiutorii mei totam fiduciam ponens in ipso, de hac eximia uirgine alia scribere non intendo quam ea que habere potui ab hiis personis, que uirtutum eius magnalia conuersando cum ipsa suis oculis conspexerunt, quarum assercioni ob uite ipsarum meritum non facile quis potest refragari; et mira que per ipsius merita tam in uita quam post felicem eius transitum dominus dignanter effecit, aliqua quidem uisa, alia uero ab hiis quibus acciderant narrata & sub fideli asseueracione recepta ad meam noticiam peruenerunt. In processu uero huius hystorie non semper secundum ordinem temporis res gestas descripsi propter confusionem uitandam, sed quecumque alicui materie competebant siue eodem siue diuersis patrata forent temporibus, pro simplicitatis mee modulo sic compendiositer et conuenienciter potui coaptaui, ut breuitate gaudentes materiam fastidiendi non habeant.

T at length, constrained by the obediential precept of my reverend father, the Minister, I undertook a task beyond my powers, choosing rather to fail under the burden of so great a labor by humble obeying than to go pertinaciously against the will of the one commanding, since disobedience is reckoned as the sin of soothsaying or the crime of idolatry. But because we are not sufficient to think anything from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who by his mercy graciously works in us both to will & to perfect for good will, therefore, placing all the confidence of my help in him, concerning this exceptional virgin I do not intend to write other things than those which I was able to have from those persons who, conversing with her, with their own eyes beheld the great deeds of her virtues, whose assertion, on account of the merit of their lives, one can not easily gainsay; and the marvels which through her merits the Lord deigned to effect both in life and after her happy transit—some indeed seen, others narrated by those to whom they had happened and received under faithful asseveration—have come to my knowledge. In the process of this history I have not always described the deeds done according to the order of time, in order to avoid confusion; but whatever things belonged to any subject, whether accomplished at the same or at different times, according to the measure of my simplicity I have thus, as compendiously and conveniently as I could, fitted together, so that those rejoicing in brevity may not have material for weariness.

Et ut affectus fidelium ad imitacionem huius praeclare uirginis ardencius inflammetur, totius uite ipsius decursus tredecim continetur capitulis infra scriptis. In primo enim de ortu ipsius & conuersacione in etate primeua. In secundo de sanctitate uite quam habuit post mortem parentum apud germanum suum degendo.

And so that the affections of the faithful may be inflamed more ardently to the imitation of this most illustrious virgin, the course of her whole life is contained in thirteen chapters written below. In the first, indeed, about her birth and her conduct in earliest youth. In the second, about the holiness of life which she had after the death of her parents, while dwelling with her brother.

In tercio qualiter ordinem sanctissime uirginis Clare intrauit. In quarto de magna eius humilitate & obediencia. In quinto de sancta & uera paupertate ipsius.

In the third, how she entered the Order of the most holy virgin Clare. In the fourth, about her great humility & obedience. In the fifth, about her holy & true poverty.

In sexto de graui maceracione carnis. In septimo de studio oracionis & mira deuocione ipsius circa sacramentum altaris. In octauo de feruentissimo amore crucis Cristi.

In the sixth, on the grave maceration of the flesh. In the seventh, on the study of prayer & her wondrous devotion concerning the sacrament of the altar. In the eighth, on the most fervent love of the cross of Christ.

Nono de multa caritate ipsius erga sorores & afflictos. Decimo de reuelacionibus diuiniter sibi factis. Vndecimo de transitu eius et de hiis que in eo facta sunt.

Ninth on her much charity toward the sisters & the afflicted. Tenth on the revelations divinely made to her. Eleventh on her passing and on the things which were done in it.

Duodecimo de sacri corporis eius sepultura. Postremo de miraculis uirtute diuina patratis.

Twelfth, concerning the sepulture of his sacred body. Lastly, concerning the miracles wrought by divine power.

INCIPIT UITA ILLUSTRISSIME UIRGINIS SORORIS AGNETIS ORDINIS SANCTE CLARE DE PRAGA: & PRIMO DE ORTU IPSIUS ET CONUERSACIONE IN ETATE PRIMEUA.

HERE BEGINS THE LIFE OF THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS VIRGIN SISTER AGNES OF THE ORDER OF SAINT CLARE OF PRAGUE: & FIRST OF HER ORIGIN AND CONVERSATION IN HER PRIMEVAL AGE.

Candor lucis eterne et speculum sine macula dei maiestatis, et ymago bonitatis patris eterni, dominus Jhesus Cristus, cuius miseraciones super omnia opera eius, mundi termino iam uergente, miserie sue liberis recordatus, de excelso habitaculo suo dignatiue prospexit super filios hominum sedentes in tenebris & umbra mortis. Et ut in seculis superuenientbus habundantes diuicias gracie ac bonitatis sue ostenderet, de massa humani generis, quasi de tenebris lucem fecit splendescere mirande sanctitatis, cum Agne[te]m felicissimam hora ista nouissima tamquam luciferum in tempore suo produxit, et uelud uesperum super filios terre consurgere fecit: ut eius conuersacione preclara splendore ueri syderis populus gencium qui ambulabat in tenebris, pedes affeccionum suarum dirigeret in uiam pacis.

The brightness of eternal light and the spotless mirror of God’s majesty, and the image of the goodness of the eternal Father, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose compassions are over all his works, with the end of the world now inclining, having liberally remembered his mercy, from his lofty habitation deigned to look down upon the sons of men sitting in darkness & the shadow of death. And that in the ages to come he might show the abounding riches of his grace and goodness, from the mass of the human race, as it were out of darkness he made a light of wondrous sanctity to shine forth, when he brought forth Agnes most happy in this latest hour as the morning-star in her season, and, as the evening-star, made her arise over the sons of earth: so that by her illustrious conversation, by the splendor of the true star, the people of the nations who walked in darkness might direct the feet of their affections into the way of peace.

Ex inclita namque prosapia, ut pote regie stirpis progenita, quia pater eius Premisserius dictus Otakarus, illustris rex Bohemie; mater uero Constancia, soror domini Andree, regis Vngarie, patris sancte Elyzabet: et tota progenies utroque parente regalis, originem nobilem morum elegancia mirifice uenustauit. Cuius mater, cum adhuc eam gestaret in utero, uidit sompnium euidens presagium fiendorum. Videbatur enim sibi quod intraret cameram in qua uestes sue regie preciose & multe seruabantur.

From a renowned lineage indeed, as being begotten of royal stock, since her father, Premysl called Otakar, was the illustrious king of Bohemia; but her mother Constance, sister of lord Andrew, king of Hungary, father of Saint Elizabeth: and the whole progeny, royal on both sides by parentage, she wondrously embellished her noble origin with the elegance of her manners. Whose mother, while she was still carrying her in the womb, saw a dream, an evident presage of things to be. For it seemed to her that she entered a chamber in which her royal garments, precious & many, were kept.

Quas conspiciens uidit inter eas tunicam & pallium coloris grisei, ac cordam qua sorores ordinis sancte Clare cinguntur. Cumque ualde miraretur quisnam uestem tam rudem & simplicem inter uestimenta eius preciosa posuisset, audiuit uocem dicentem sibi "Noli mirari, quia proles quam portas tali ueste utetur, et erit lumen tocius Bohemie!" Futurorum quoque prescius deus, qui prius uult ostendere uentura quam fiant, ortam in mundum Agnetem paruulam miro quodam instinctu pretendere fecit signis corporeis future ymaginem sanctitatis. Nam iacens in cunis sepe a nutrice sua inueniebatur, habens manus & pedes in modum crucis cancellatos, ad designandum quod is qui pro nobis crucis amara sustinuit intra mentis ipsius ubera, tamquam mirre fasciculus erat continue moraturus & quod uirginitatem florigeram eidem perpetue seruare deberet.

Beholding these, she saw among them a tunic and a pallium of gray color, and a cord with which the sisters of the Order of Saint Clare are girded. And when she marveled greatly who had placed so rough and simple a garment among her precious vestments, she heard a voice saying to her, “Do not marvel, for the offspring that you bear will use such a garment, and she will be the light of all Bohemia!” God also, prescient of the things to come, who wishes first to show the things about to be before they happen, caused the little Agnes, born into the world, by a certain wondrous instinct to present beforehand by bodily signs the future image of sanctity. For, lying in the cradle, she was often found by her nurse having her hands and feet crossed in the manner of a cross, to designate that he who for us endured the bitter cross was to abide continually within the bosom of her mind as a bundle of myrrh, and that she ought to keep for him perpetually a flower-bearing virginity.

Cum autem ad tercium etatis annum peruenisset, parentibus suis eam generose ut decuit maritare uolentibus, desponsata est cuidam duci Polonie, illucque cum nutrice sua & honesto comitatu deducta in monasterio quod Trebnier dicitur honorifice recepta est, vbi primum ex ore filie sancte Hegwidis morum & fidei rudimenta docili corde suscepit, ibi denique manens, quamuis infantula nichil puerile gessit in opere: quin pocius dominabus monasterii ad persoluendas horas canonicas chorum intrantibus, ipsa coram ymaginibus Cristi & uirginis gloriose oracionem dominicam & salutacionem angelicam flexis genibus frequencius iterando Cristo & uirgini matri eius offerebat deuote, socias suas ad simile crebris sermonibus exhortabat.

But when she had reached the third year of age, her parents, wishing to marry her nobly as was fitting, she was betrothed to a certain duke of Poland, and led thither with her nurse and an honorable retinue she was honorably received in the monastery which is called Trebnier, where first from the mouth of the daughter of Saint Hedwig she with a docile heart received the rudiments of morals and of the faith; there, remaining, although a little child, she did nothing childish in deed: rather, when the ladies of the monastery entered the choir to discharge the canonical hours, she herself, before the images of Christ and of the glorious Virgin, on bended knees, again and again repeating the Lord’s Prayer and the angelic salutation, offered them devoutly to Christ and to the Virgin his mother, and she exhorted her companions to the like with frequent words.

Factum est autem, diuina prouidencia pro ea aliquid melius disponente, ut mortuo sponso suo duce predicto iam sexennis patri redderetur; et ab eodem in claustro Doxan in regno Bohemie pro ampliori morum informacione et capescenda litterarum noticia monialibus ibidem domino famulantibus studiosius commendaretur. Et cum per annum integrum proficiens eisdem commansisset, doctor internus spiritus sanctus qui mora non indiget ad docendum, tanta cor eius unccione miserie sue perunxit & docuit, ut quod aliis leccio cottidiana tribuere solet, illi spiritus sanctus suggerebat. Etatem itaque moribus transiens, aliarum puellarum insolencias uitabat & ludos: solus eam sancte oracionis locus, scilicet ecclesia delectabat.

It came to pass, however, with divine providence disposing something better for her, that, her betrothed, the aforesaid duke, having died, already six years old she was returned to her father; and by him in the cloister of Doxan in the kingdom of Bohemia, for a more ample formation of morals and for taking hold of the knowledge of letters, she was more diligently commended to the nuns there serving the Lord. And when, making progress, she had remained with them for a whole year, the internal teacher, the Holy Spirit, who has no need of delay for teaching, anointed and taught her heart with such an unction of his mercy, that what daily reading is wont to bestow on others, the Holy Spirit suggested to her. Therefore, surpassing her age in morals, she avoided the insolences & games of other girls: the place of holy prayer alone, namely the church, delighted her.

Octauo igitur etatis sue anno nobilis Cristi discipula de monasterio ad paternos lares reducitur; ibique propter morum ipsius grauitatem quam in omnibus actibus perferebat, non solum a parentibus, uerum eciam ab omnibus sibi conuiuentibus karissimo uenerabatur affectu. Tempore tandem aliquo interiecto, ab imperatoris Friderici filio perinter nuncios postulatur in coniugem et a parentibus dicto iuueni mediantibus prefatis nunciis desponsatur. In qua desponsacione quoddam contingit non tacendum.

Therefore, in the eighth year of her age, the noble disciple of Christ is brought back from the monastery to her paternal household; and there, on account of the gravity of her morals which she bore in all her acts, she was venerated with most dear affection not only by her parents, but also by all living together with her. After some time had intervened, she is requested in marriage by the son of Emperor Frederick through messengers, and by her parents she is betrothed to the said youth, the aforesaid envoys mediating. In which betrothal something happened that is not to be left unspoken.

Nam nomen uirginis celebre quod pene omnibus erat notum, in ipsa desponsacione nullus astancium ualuit recordari, ut hoc clareret indicio quod non homini mortali sed agno sine macula, in cuius libro nomen eius memoriter scriptum erat Agnes federe perpetuo esset copulanda. Denique ratificatis sponsalibus iuxta desponsacionem imperatoris, cum regalis magnificiencie apparatu per patrem in Austriam mittitur processu temporis per ducem Austrie imperatoris filio in consortem tradendam. Manens autem in curia ducis prefati nulli uoluptati carnis animum dedit, sed per totum aduentum, cum omnes de familia ducis secundum morem patrie carnibus uescerentur, ipsa sola in pane & uino ieiunauit.

For the name of the virgin, renowned and almost known to all, in the very betrothal none of those standing by was able to recall, so that by this sign it might be made clear that not to a mortal man but to the Lamb without blemish, in whose book her name, Agnes, had been written in memory, she was to be joined by a perpetual covenant. Finally, the espousals having been ratified according to the emperor’s desponsation, with the apparatus of royal magnificence she is sent by her father into Austria, in the course of time to be handed over by the duke of Austria to the emperor’s son as consort. Staying, however, in the court of the aforesaid duke, she gave her mind to no pleasure of the flesh; but throughout the whole sojourn, while all in the duke’s household, according to the custom of the country, were eating meats, she alone fasted on bread & wine.

At in quadragesima communi quum pueri prefati ducis lacticiniis utebantur, ipsa tum pane et uino contenta. Nolens tamen ab hominibus uideri ieiunans, totam quadragesimam sic cautissime ieiunando transegit quod preter nutricem suam & quasdam ipsius secretarias uix aliquis alius hoc percipere potuisset. Sic ipsa Jhesu Cristi mortificacionem anhelans circumferre in corpore suo, carnem teneram macerabat, concupiscencias eius loro parsimonie constringendo, ne uiuens in deliciis coram deo mortua censeretur.

But in the common Lent, when the boys of the aforesaid duke were making use of dairy products, she then was content with bread and wine. Not wishing, however, to be seen by people as fasting, she spent the whole Lent thus, by fasting with the utmost caution, such that, apart from her nurse & certain of her own secretaries, ucarcely anyone else could have perceived this. Thus, yearning to carry about the mortification of Jesus Christ in her body, she was macerating her tender flesh, constraining its concupiscences with the thong of parsimony, lest, living in delights, she might be judged dead before God.

Elemosinis denique & oracionibus insistendo, intemerate matri Cristi quam sibi patronam elegit, se suamque pudiciciam commendabat, precando deuote ut digna fore posset imitatrix ac socia eius uirginee puritatis. Vnde & annunciacionem dominicam inter ceteras festiuitates quoad uixit ardentissima deuocione colebat, pia meditacione reuoluens quomodo intacta puella rore sancti spiritus fecundata humani generis conceperit ac germinauerit saluatorem, saluo priui!egio uirginali, sola digna nomine uirginis & matris.

By persevering in almsdeeds & prayers, she commended herself and her pudicity to the immaculate mother of Christ, whom she chose for herself as patron, praying devoutly that she might be worthy to be an imitator and companion of her virginal purity. Whence also she cherished the Lord’s annunciation among the other festivals, as long as she lived, with most ardent devotion, turning over in pious meditation how the untouched maiden, made fruitful by the dew of the Holy Spirit, conceived and brought forth the savior of the human race, with the virginal privilege preserved, she alone worthy of the name of virgin & mother.

Igitur mirabili uirtute dei qui reprobat consilia principum, factum est ut procelato et dissimulato prefato connubio, — dum iam quartum decimum annum attigisset, ad terram natiuitatis sue iterum reducitur. Et ecce non multo post tempore imperatoris & regis Anglorum nuncii ad parentes uirginis uenientes certatim petebant, ut eorum domino in coniugem traderetur. Ipsisque ibidem moram trahentibus, cuidam ex nunciis imperatoris militi utique clare fame digna relacione uisio monstrata est.

Therefore, by the wondrous virtue of God, who reprobates the counsels of princes, it came to pass that, the aforesaid marriage having been protracted and dissimulated, — while she had now reached her fourteenth year, she is brought back again to the land of her nativity. And behold, not long after, envoys of the emperor & of the king of the English, coming to the virgin’s parents, were eagerly and emulously asking that she be delivered to their lord in marriage. And as they themselves were lingering there, to a certain one of the emperor’s envoys—indeed a soldier of clear renown—a vision was shown, worthy of relation.

Videbat namque in sompnis coronam mire magnitudinis super caput uirginis descendere: quam illa deponens, capiti suo superposuit incomparabiliter meliorem. Euigilans autem mane & uisa mente pertractans ac aliis referens, ut animalis homo expers intelligencie spiritalis, interpretabatur legacionem suam finem cupitum sortituram: quod uidelicet Agnes, Anglorum rege despecto, eum qui maioris dignitatis est scilicet imperatorem acciperet in maritum. Sed deus magnus reuelans in celo misteria, hoc sompnio uoluit indicare quod Agnes sponsa Cristi mox futura, pro dyademate regni corruptibilis inmarcessibili corona glorie ad ipso esset perhenniter coronanda.

For he saw in dreams a crown of wondrous magnitude descend upon the head of the virgin; which she, taking off, set upon his own head, incomparably better. But waking in the morning and pondering the sight in his mind and relating it to others, as a natural man devoid of spiritual intelligence, he interpreted that his embassy would obtain the desired end: namely, that Agnes, with the king of the English despised, would take as husband him who is of greater dignity, that is, the emperor. But God—great, revealing mysteries in heaven—wished by this dream to indicate that Agnes, soon to be the bride of Christ, in place of the diadem of a corruptible kingdom, would be crowned perpetually by him with the unfading crown of glory.

DE SANCTA UITA QUAM HABUIT POST MORTEM PARENTUM APUD GERMANUM SUUM DEGENDO.

ON THE HOLY LIFE WHICH SHE LED AFTER THE DEATH OF HER PARENTS, LIVING WITH HER BROTHER.

Cum autem pater eius clare memorie rex Ottakarus ex hac uita migrasset, mansit apud germanum suum, regni successorem dominum inclitum Venzezlaum, et crescens per etatem corporis, crescebat amplius per affectum deuocionis, de uirtute proficiens in uirtutem. Consurgens enim diluculo mutabat habitum & que secretorum eius erant conscie comitabantur; dedicaciones ecclesiarum que multe sunt in Praga deuotissime perlustrabat, et inclusas circa easdem uisitans, illarum se oracionibus instancius commendabat. Sepe uero cum sese [calefaceret] rediens post laborem, propter asperitatem algoris uisi sunt pedes eius sanguine rubricati; eo quod per artam uiam contendens intrare ad uitam, custodiebat uias duras.

But when his father, King Ottakar, of clear memory, had migrated from this life, he remained with his brother, the successor to the kingdom, the illustrious lord Wenceslaus, and, growing in the age of the body, he grew more through the affect of devotion, progressing from virtue to virtue. For rising at daybreak he would change his habit & those who were privy to his secrets knowingly accompanied him; he most devoutly made the rounds of the dedications of churches, which are many in Prague, and, visiting the enclosed women around the same, he commended himself more insistently to their prayers. Often indeed, when he [warmed himself] returning after labor, on account of the harshness of the cold his feet were seen reddened with blood; because, striving to enter by the narrow way unto life, he kept to hard paths.

Die tandem clarius lucescente, ad capellam domus regie [uel] ad ecclesiam kathedralem procedens, nobilium commitatiua stipata non uanis affatibus hominum sed diuinis eloquiis erat intenta; et ecclesiam uel capellam ingrediens, missas plures quas poterat deuotissime audiendo persistebat & nunc psalmos penitenciales cum aliis oracionibus, nunc uigilias pro defunctis, debita domino cum intencione persoluens, indefessum ab oracione spiritum non relaxabat. Cernens autem quia preterit figura huius mundi, moleste iam ferebat terrenam fugacem gloriam; & secularis ornatus decorem proposse deuitans, sub uestibus auro textis ut regiam prolem decebat, ciliciolum clam portabat. Cubiculum suum apparatu magnifico decoratum deuitans, iuxta lectum delicatum super stramentum durum & humile decubabat.

With the day at last shining more brightly, proceeding to the chapel of the royal house [or] to the cathedral church, hemmed in by an accompanying retinue of nobles, she was intent not on vain speeches of men but on divine utterances; and entering the church or the chapel, she persisted most devoutly in hearing as many Masses as she could, and now the penitential psalms with other prayers, now the vigils for the defunct, rendering what was due to the Lord with right intention, she did not relax her indefatigable spirit from prayer. Moreover, perceiving that the form of this world passes by, she now bore with difficulty the earthly, fugitive glory; and, avoiding by deliberate purpose the adornment of secular finery, beneath garments woven with gold, as befitted royal offspring, she secretly wore a little cilice. Shunning her chamber adorned with magnificent apparatus, beside the delicate bed she would lie upon hard & low straw.

Talia fuerunt in domo fraterna eius conuersacionis insignia, talis affectus celestium & contemptus terrenorum. Sed quia tam luminosa lucerna subter modio latere non potuit, uirtutum ac nominis eius fama ad instar olei per adiacentes prouincias circumquaque diffusa, eciam usque ad imperatorem peruenit. Qui sicut prius ad patrem, ita secundo ad fratrem uirginis nuncios destinauit, multis promissionibus interpositis, postulans ut sororem suam eius coniugio non negaret.

Such were in his brother’s house the insignia of his conversation—such an affection for heavenly things and a contempt for earthly things. But because so luminous a lamp could not lie hidden under a bushel, the fame of his virtues and of his name, diffused on every side like oil through the adjacent provinces, even reached to the emperor. He, just as before to the father, so a second time to the brother of the virgin, sent envoys, with many promises interposed, requesting that he not deny his sister to his marriage.

Quo uotis annuente petentis, uirgo Cristi cogitans que sunt domini, ut corpore & spiritu sancta existens, cum lylia continencium uirginum celestem agnum sequi ualeret, nulli se mortalium cuiuscunque status uel prominencie nupturam proponit. Et ut in suo proposito, quod deo inspirante conceperat, securius permaneret, manum mittens ad forcia, nobili Cristi uicario, domino pape Gregorio nono per honestos nuncios & discretos suum ocultum intentum patefecit. Qui felix antistes tam generose uirginis deuocioni congaudens, per eosdem nuncios ipsam graciosis litteris in domino confortauit, propositum eius sanctum commendans pariter & confirmans, adoptatamque in filiam multis spiritalibus donis inuisit, cunctis diebus suis eam prosequens pii patris affectu.

As he assented to the petitioner’s desires, the virgin of Christ, thinking on the things that are the Lord’s, so that, being holy in body & spirit, she might be able to follow the heavenly Lamb with the lilies of continent virgins, proposed to wed none of mortals, of whatever status or prominence. And that she might abide more securely in her resolve, which by God’s inspiring she had conceived, setting her hand to brave deeds, she laid open her hidden intent to the noble vicar of Christ, lord Pope Gregory the Ninth, through honorable & discreet envoys. The happy high‑priest, rejoicing together at the devotion of so high‑born a virgin, through those same envoys strengthened her in the Lord with gracious letters, both commending & confirming her holy purpose, and, having adopted her as a daughter, visited her with many spiritual gifts, attending her with a pious father’s affection all his days.

At Cristi famula, de hiis qui a summo pontifice receperat in responsis multa spiritus consolacione repleta, statim propositum suum germano suo domino regi Venzeslao intrepide propalauit. Quo rex audito non sine magna turbacione ac se contulit excusandum sororisque propositum detegendum imperatori nuncios destinauit. Ad quorum legacionem imperator fertur taliter respondisse, "Si a quocumque homine nobis hec iniuria illata fuisset, tante despeccionis obprobrium uindicare nullatenus cessaremus.

But the handmaid of Christ, filled with much consolation of spirit from the replies which she had received from the Supreme Pontiff concerning these matters, at once fearlessly disclosed her purpose to her own brother, lord King Wenceslaus. When the king heard this, not without great perturbation, he betook himself to making excuses and sent envoys to the emperor to disclose his sister’s purpose. To whose embassy the emperor is reported to have replied thus: "If from any man whatsoever this injury had been inflicted upon us, we would by no means cease to avenge the reproach of so great a despection."

Sed quia nobis maiorem dominum perelegit, hoc despectui nostro nequaquam asscribimus, cum instinctu diuino istud factum esse credamus". Vnde intencionem bonam uirginis magnis extollens laudum preconiis, preciosa ei munera & reliquias multas transmisit, hortans per litteras & inducens ut quod salubriter cepit feliciter consumaret.

But because she has chosen for us a greater Lord, we by no means ascribe this to our disparagement, since we believe this was done by divine instigation." Wherefore, extolling the good intention of the virgin with great proclamations of praise, he sent to her precious gifts & many relics, exhorting by letters & inducing her to consummate happily what she had salutarily begun.

QUALITER ORDINEM SANCTE CLARE INTRAUIT.

HOW SHE ENTERED THE ORDER OF SAINT CLARE.

Uolens igitur felix uirgo quod mente tractauerat cupito effectui mancipare, uocavit fratres minores quos intuitu dei pre ceteris religiosis ampliori prosequebatur affectu, petens ab eis informari de qualitate regule ordinis sancte Clare, que adhuc uiuens pro tunc circa ciuitatem Assisii apud sanctum Damianum inclusa cum sacris uirginibus morabatur, & quasi thus ardens in igne ac redolens in diebus estatis suarum odore uirtutum mundi climata respergebat. Edocta uero a fratribus quod regula memorata intrare uolentibus ordinem supradictum secundum tenorem sacri ewangelii suadet omnia sua uendere et ea pauperibus erogare, Cristoque pauperi in paupertate & humilitate famulari, celesti munditate perfusa "hoc est" ait "quod cupio, hoc est quod totis precordiis concupisco". Mox ergo aurum & argentum, iocalia quoque preciosa ac ornamenta diuersa iussit distrahi & pauperibus dispergi, cupiens facultates suas per eorum manus in celestes thesauros deportari. Denique ad imitacionem beate Elyzabeth consobrine sue, hospitale sollempne pro infirmis in pede pontis ciuitatis Pragensis ad honorem sanctissimi confessoris Francisci construxit, quod redditibus & possessionibus amplis ditauit, Cruciferos cum rubea cruce & stella ibidem collocans, qui predictorum infirmorum curam gererent, et prout unicuique opus esset, de necessariis omnibus sollicite prouiderent.

Wishing therefore, the happy virgin, to hand over to the desired effect what she had handled in mind, she called the Friars Minor, whom, by the intuition of God, before the other religious she pursued with a more ample affection, asking to be informed by them about the quality of the rule of the Order of Saint Clare, who, still living at that time, dwelling enclosed near the city of Assisi at Saint Damian with holy virgins, and, as incense burning in the fire and giving fragrance in the days of her summer, was sprinkling the climes of the world with the odor of her virtues. But instructed by the brothers that the aforesaid rule, to those wishing to enter the above-mentioned order, according to the tenor of the sacred Gospel, advises to sell all their own things and distribute them to the poor, and to serve Christ the poor in poverty & humility, being suffused with celestial purity she said, “this is what I desire, this is what with all my inmost heart I long for.” Forthwith therefore she ordered gold & silver, and also precious jewels and diverse ornaments, to be sold off & dispersed to the poor, desiring her faculties to be conveyed into celestial treasuries through their hands. Finally, in imitation of blessed Elizabeth her cousin, she constructed a solemn hospital for the infirm at the foot of the bridge of the city of Prague, to the honor of the most holy confessor Francis, which she enriched with ample revenues & possessions, placing there the Crossbearers with the red cross & star, that they might take care of the aforesaid infirm, and, as each had need, might diligently provide all things necessary.

Monasterium quoque fratrum minorum in honore prefati confessoris gloriosi intra urbem pragensem propriis sumptibus fieri procurauit, nec non famosum cenobium pro soronibus ordinis sancte Clare in honore saluatoris mundi, quod gloriosis reliquiis sanctorum, uasis ac ornamentis preciosis ad cultum diuinum pertinentibus, utpote diligens decorem domus dei mirabiliter decorauit. Venientes autem quinque sorores ordinis sancte Clare de Terdento, que ad peticionem ipsius de fauore sedis apostolice sibi fuerant destinate, cum magna spiritus exultacione ab ipsa recepte, memoratum cenobium honorifice introducte sunt. Et in proxima festiuitate sancti Martini septem uirgines de regno Bohemie generis ualde clari, sponso uirginum castitatis nexibus uinciri cupientes, habitu & conuictu adiuncte sunt sororibus antedictis.

She also caused a monastery of the Friars Minor, in honor of the aforesaid glorious confessor, to be made within the city of Prague at her own expenses, and likewise a famous cenobium for the sisters of the Order of Saint Clare in honor of the Savior of the world, which she, as one diligent for the decor of the house of God, marvelously adorned with glorious relics of the saints, and with vases and precious ornaments pertaining to the divine cult. Now five sisters of the Order of Saint Clare coming from Trento, who at her petition by the favor of the Apostolic See had been assigned to her, having been received by her with great exultation of spirit, were honorably introduced into the aforesaid cenobium. And at the next festivity of Saint Martin, seven virgins from the kingdom of Bohemia, of very illustrious lineage, desiring to be bound to the Spouse of virgins by the bonds of chastity, were joined to the aforesaid sisters in habit and in common life.

Considerans tandem uirgo prudens quod in naufraga uita presenti continue fluctibus nostre mortalitatis iactamur, nec superna contemplari ualemus propter tumultum mundanarum causarum, amore celestium ardencius inflammata, in Penthecoste proximo sequenti, presentibus septem epyscopis et domino rege fratre suo ac regina cum multis principibus & baronibus, nec non innumera utriusque sexus diuersarum nacionum multitudine, spreto regni fastigio et omni gloria mundana contempta, cum septem nobilissimis regni sui uirginibus, ut columba innocua de diluuio nequam seculi ad archam sacre religionis conuolauit. Cumque in monasterio, crinibus tonsis, uestes regias deposuisset fletibus et luctui, ut Hester altera, apta indumenta suscepit, — quatenus Clare matris sue pauperi se habitu conformaret & gestu. Sic [se] elongauit fugiens a periculosis mundi procellis, [et] salutis sue anchoram supra petram que Cristus est fiducialiter collocauit.

At length considering, the prudent virgin, that in the shipwrecked present life we are continually tossed by the waves of our mortality, nor are we able to contemplate the things above on account of the tumult of worldly causes, being more ardently inflamed with love of heavenly things, at the next approaching Pentecost, with seven bishops present and the lord king her brother and the queen with many princes & barons, and likewise an innumerable multitude of both sexes of diverse nations, the pinnacle of the kingdom spurned and all worldly glory despised, with seven most noble virgins of her kingdom, like an innocent dove from the deluge of the wicked age, flew to the ark of sacred religion. And when in the monastery, her hair having been shorn, she had laid aside her royal garments for weeping and mourning, like another Esther, she received fitting garments,—so that she might conform herself to her mother Clare the poor in habit & in bearing. Thus [she] withdrew herself, fleeing from the perilous storms of the world, [and] she confidently placed the anchor of her salvation upon the rock which is Christ.

Ad hanc religionis solitudinem pennis affeccionis transmigrauit, ut in ea puritatis & pacis interne soliditatem seruando suauitatem eterne dulcedinis palato mentis pregustaret. In hoc antro paupertatis amore pauperis crucifixi et dulcissime matris eius usque ad mortem se recludens, quasi mirra electa suauem diffudit fragranciam sanctitatis. Nam ipsius exemplo plures illustres persone Polonie partibus ceperunt monasteria construere, innumere nobiles uirgines & uidue ad religionem confluere, et in carne preter carnem uiuentes celicam uitam actitare.

To this solitude of religion she transmigrated on the wings of affection, so that in it, by keeping the solidity of purity & inner peace, she might pre-taste with the palate of the mind the suavity of eternal sweetness. In this cave of poverty, shutting herself in until death for love of the poor Crucified and his most sweet mother, like choice myrrh she poured forth the sweet fragrance of sanctity. For by her example many illustrious persons in the parts of Poland began to construct monasteries, innumerable noble virgins & widows to flock to religion, and, living in the flesh beyond the flesh, to practice a celestial life.

DE MAXIMA HUMILITATE IPSIUS & OBEDIENCIA.

ON HIS VERY GREAT HUMILITY & OBEDIENCE.

Qvia uero spirituali fabrice humilitas est necessaria, tamquam ceterarum uirtutum stabile ac solidum fundamentum, quam tocius perfeccionis exemplar dominus Jhesus Cristus uerbo docuit & exemplo, ideo Agnes, ut uera Cristi discipula in oculis suis humilis, de se semper humilia senciebat, omnes superiores se arbitrans in uirtute. Propterea toto tempore uite sue prelacionem sui ordinis declinauit, parere malens humiliter quam aliis imperare, et inter Cristi ancillas minima & abiecta ministrare pocius quam ministrari summi exemplo magistri. Stupam calefacere & coquinam pro conuentu sororum parare uirgo egregia non horrebat, sed & specialia fercula suis mundissimis manibus cum magna deuocione parata infirmis ac debilibus fratribus mittebat, cum Martha ministra Cristi sollicita, dominum in suis pauperibus reficere satagendo.

Because to the spiritual fabric humility is necessary, as the stable and solid fundament of the other virtues, which the Lord Jesus Christ taught by word & example as the exemplar of all perfection, therefore Agnes, as a true disciple of Christ, humble in her own eyes, always thought humble things about herself, reckoning all superior to herself in virtue. For this reason throughout the whole time of her life she declined the prelation of her order, preferring to obey humbly rather than to command others, and among Christ’s handmaids to minister as the least & abject rather than to be ministered unto, by the example of the supreme Master. To heat the warming-room & to prepare the kitchen for the convent of sisters the outstanding virgin did not shrink, but also she sent special dishes, prepared with her most clean hands with great devotion, to sick and weak brothers, being solicitous with Martha, the minister of Christ, by striving to refresh the Lord in his poor.

Scutellas & cetera coquine utensilia cum magna cordis hylaritate lauabat, habitacula quoque sororum & diuersas inmundicias furtim purgabat, omnium facta peripsima propter Cristum. Sed & stupende humilitatis excessu deliciositatem obliuiscens ingenitam, infirmarum sororum ac leprosorum hominum fetentes pannos & sordidos pia sibi cautela procurans afferri teneris manibus abluebat, adeo ut ex frequenti talium locione propter mordacitatem lexiue et smigmatis manus haberet sepius sauciatas. Vestes insuper eorundem laniatas sub noctis silencio consuebat, nolens eorum que gerebat alium quam deum inspectorem habere, a quo solo mercedem piorum expectabat laborum.

She would wash the platters & the other utensils of the kitchen with great hilarity of heart, and she would also stealthily cleanse the sisters’ little habitacula & diverse filths, having been made the offscouring of all for Christ. But also, by an excess of stupendous humility, forgetting her inborn deliciousness (delicacy), procuring with pious carefulness that the stinking & sordid rags of sick sisters and of leprous men be brought to her, she washed them with tender hands, to such a degree that from the frequent washing of such things, on account of the mordacity of lye and of soap, she had her hands often wounded. Moreover, under the silence of night she used to sew up the torn garments of those same persons, not wishing to have any inspector of the things she did other than God, from whom alone she expected the reward of pious labors.

Igitur, ut gemmula carbunculi in ornamento auri, sic et generositas huius preclare uirginis humilitatis decore preradians, ipsam deo amabilem et ceteris imitabilem reddidit, et ad amplorum diuinorum carismatum ubertatem illius uirtute qui ponit humiles in sublimi prouexit. Cum autem sanctitas mirabilis ad aures sanctissime Clare uirginis peruenisset, illa tam nobili prole diuina gracia fecundata gaudens, magnificauit altissimum, eamque crebrius suis graciosis litteris materne reuerenter ac affectuosissime consolans, studiose in sancto proposito confortauit, regulamque suam per bone memorie Innocencium quartum confirmatam ueluti pignus hereditarie successionis eidem transmisit. Quam agna Cristi deuote suscipiens denuo per felicis recordacionis dominum Alexandrum quartum pro se & sororibus sui monasterii perpetuis temporibus obtinuit confirmari.

Therefore, as a little gem of carbuncle in an ornament of gold, so too the nobility of this very illustrious virgin, pre-radiant with the adornment of humility, rendered her lovable to God and imitable by the rest, and by the virtue of Him who sets the humble on high advanced her to the abundance of ample divine charisms. But when her wondrous sanctity had come to the ears of the most holy virgin Clare, she, rejoicing at such a noble progeny made fruitful by divine grace, magnified the Most High, and, consoling her very often with her gracious letters in maternal reverence and with the deepest affection, diligently strengthened her in the holy purpose, and sent to her her Rule, confirmed by Innocent IV of good memory, as a pledge of hereditary succession. Which the lamb of Christ, devoutly receiving, obtained to be confirmed anew by lord Alexander IV of happy memory, for herself & the sisters of her monastery for perpetual times.

Cuius sacre regule professioni se uinciens districcione obediencie que prepollet uictimis, quasi uite hostia pacificorum mactabat assidue propriam uoluntatem. Toto nempe conamine mentis regularis obseruancie intendebat, non iota statutorum uel apicem pretermittens, ut sine offendiculo uiam mandatorum dei percurreret superiorumque iussionibus quoad uixit cum humilitate & reuerencia magna parebat, iugum sancte obediencie ac onus religionis artissime propter amorem domini suaue reputans et leue.

Binding herself to the profession of that sacred rule by the strictness of obedience, which prevails over sacrifices, she assiduously immolated her own will as a peace-offering of life. Indeed, with the whole exertion of mind she aimed at regular observance, not omitting an iota of the statutes nor an apex, so that without a stumbling-block she might run the way of the commandments of God; and to the injunctions of her superiors, as long as she lived, she obeyed with great humility and reverence, reckoning the yoke of holy obedience and the burden of religion—however most strict—on account of the love of the Lord to be sweet and light.

DE SANCTA & UERA PAUPERTATE IPSIUS.

OF HER HOLY & TRUE POVERTY.

Paupertas altissima, qua humiles spiritu mercantur regnum celorum, tanto federe menti ipsius inheserat, quod in rebus transitoriis atque caducis nil proprium uellet habere, nichilque cuperet possidere in terra moriencium, ut porcio eius & hereditas esset dominus in terra uiuencium. Vnde cum uenerabilis dominus Johannes Gayetanus sedis apostolice cardinalis, tempore concilii Lugdunensis sub decimo Gregorio celebrati, per litteras sibi suasisset ut propter maliciam dierum & instancia tempora periculosa possessiones aliquas pro se & suis sororibus compararet, forti restitit animo, magis se uelle astruens omni penuria & egestate deficere quam a Cristi pauperie, qui propter nos egenus factus est, ullatenus declinare. Cumque a germano suo domino rege Venzezlao & aliis principibus large sibi elemosine mitterentur, uolens sibi facere de mammona iniquitatis amicos, unam partem ad decorem reliquiarum uasorum ac ornamentorum ecclesie, cum omnia magna diligencia acquisisset, conuertebat, alteram uero pro necessitatibus suarum sororum, terciam uiduis orphanis leprosis aliisque pauperibus occulte procurabat erogari, ut sic pondere terrenorum tamquam gippo cameli deposito per angustam portam paupertatis in eterna tabernacula & amplissimas celi diuicias foret ydonea introire.

The most high Poverty, by which the humble in spirit purchase the kingdom of heaven, had so adhered to her mind by so great a covenant, that in transitory and caducous things she would will to have nothing of her own, and would desire to possess nothing on the earth of the dying, so that her portion & inheritance might be the Lord in the land of the living. Whence, when the venerable lord John Gaetanus, cardinal of the Apostolic See, at the time of the Council of Lyon celebrated under Gregory 10, had advised her by letters that, because of the malice of the days & the pressing perilous times, she should acquire some possessions for herself & for her sisters, she resisted with a stout spirit, asserting that she would rather fail in every penury & indigence than in any way turn aside from the poverty of Christ, who for us was made needy. And when from her brother, the lord King Wenceslaus, & from other princes alms were sent to her in largess, willing to make for herself friends from the mammon of iniquity, she would turn one part, when she had acquired all with great diligence, to the adornment of the reliquaries, vessels, and ornaments of the church, another indeed for the necessities of her sisters, and the third she took care to have secretly disbursed to widows, orphans, lepers, and other poor, so that thus, the weight of earthly things, as it were the hump of a camel, having been laid aside, through the narrow gate of poverty into the eternal tabernacles & the most ample riches of heaven she might be fit to enter.

Denique annorum plurium labente curriculo post mortem incliti domini regis Premisserii cognomento Ottakari, qui eam non ut amitam sed ut matrem diligens honorabat et omnia necessaria largiter ministrabat, deo permittente qui electos suos in hoc mundo quandoque sinit egere, ut felici commercio pro terrenis celestia & pro perituris recipiant se[m]piterna, tantam incurrit inopiam ut uix alimenta & quibus tegeretur haberet, quod tamen cum maxima paciencia tolerauit. Quadam namque sexta feria cum ad missam sedisset, sorores magnam debilitatem eius cernentes eam de pisciculis reficere cupiebant; sed unde id facerent non habebant, grandi mesticia uexabantur. Quod cernens uirgo deo dilecta, palmas protendens in celum, dulcissime risit & pro tanta penuria dominum omnipotentem benedicens, sororibus dixit: "Laudate, filie, dominum quia pauperem uitam gerimus, & si paupertatem seruauerimus ut debemus, non deseret nos dominus in tempore malo". Et ecce deus tocius consolacionis desiderium pauperum exaudiuit et tante necessitati prodigio dignatiuo succurrit.

Finally, with the course of many years gliding by, after the death of the illustrious lord king Premisserius by the cognomen Ottakar, who, loving, honored her not as an aunt but as a mother and supplied all the necessary things liberally, God permitting—who in this world sometimes allows his elect to be in want, so that by a happy commerce they may receive celestial things for terrestrial & for perishing things they may receive se[m]piternal—she incurred such indigence that she scarcely had aliments & things with which she might be covered, which nevertheless she bore with very great patience. For on a certain Friday, when she had sat for Mass, the sisters, discerning her great debility, wished to refresh her with little fishes; but they did not have whence they might do that, and they were vexed with great sadness. Seeing this, the virgin beloved to God, stretching her palms to heaven, smiled most sweetly and, blessing the omnipotent Lord for so great penury, said to the sisters: "Praise, daughters, the Lord because we conduct a poor life, & if we shall have kept poverty as we ought, the Lord will not desert us in the evil time." And behold, the God of all consolation heard the desire of the poor and to so great a necessity succored by a gracious prodigy.

Nam soror portaria pro quisbusdam negociis uadens ad rotam, per quam res necessarie sororibus immittuntur, inuenit stantes in dicta fenestra pisces fundulos nuncupatos, quibus ancilla Cristi libenter uescebatur, omnino secundum eius placitum preparatos. Quibus repertis pulsans rotaria, interrogans quis nam eos adtulisset, cui ne assignare deberet, nullum inuenit responsorem. Tandem cum magno gaudio eos Cristi famule afferens, modum quo ipsos inuenerat enarrauit.

For the portress sister, going for certain business to the wheel, through which necessary things are sent in to the sisters, found standing in the said window fishes appellated “funduli,” which the handmaid of Christ gladly used to eat, prepared wholly according to her pleasure. Upon finding these, knocking at the wheel and asking who indeed had brought them, to whom she should assign the credit, she found no respondent. At length, with great joy bringing them to Christ’s handmaid, she narrated the manner in which she had found them.

At illa plus de miseracione diuina ex qua sorores in paupertatis proposito firmarentur quam de refeccione sui corporis agens gracias bonorum omnium largitori, in Cristo salutari suo domino exultauit.

But she, dwelling more on the divine mercy by which the sisters might be strengthened in the purpose of poverty than on the refreshment of her own body, giving thanks to the Giver of all good things, exulted in Christ, her Savior and Lord.

Alio tempore, cum fames ualida regnum Bohemie premeret uehementer, die quadam in monasterio sororum diuinis officiis consumatis instabat hora prandendi, et nec unus panis habebatur, unde famis periculo subueniri potuisset. Quo a dispensatrice comperto, fiduciam habens in domino ad oracionem confugit, obsecrans ut misericors dominus qui aperiendo manum suam implet omne animal benediccione, ancillis eciam suis daret escam in tempore opportuno. Interea soror hostiaria pergit ad rotam, fratrem aliquem petitura ut pro sororibus per auxilium panis acquiratur, de quo unaqueque saltem modicum quid accipiat ad malum inopie temperandum.

At another time, when a strong famine was vehemently pressing the kingdom of Bohemia, on a certain day, with the divine offices in the sisters’ monastery completed, the hour of the midday meal was at hand, and not even a single loaf was available by which the peril of hunger could be relieved. When the dispensatrix learned this, having confidence in the Lord she fled to prayer, beseeching that the merciful Lord, who by opening his hand fills every living creature with benediction, would also give food to his handmaids at the opportune time. Meanwhile the sister portress goes to the wheel, intending to seek some brother, that by his help bread might be procured for the sisters, from which each might at least receive a small portion to temper the evil of want.

Et apropinquans rote inuenit eam candidissimis panibus plenam. Quis autem eos attulerit & ibi reposuerit, solus ille nouit qui nichil ignorat. Credendum est sane illius uirtute panes predictos pro inclusis Cristi uirginibus illuc fuisse repositos, cuius miranda potencia Danieli intra lacum leonum incluso prandium ab Abacuc est allatum, cuiusque ineffabili prouidencia iumentis & uolucribus indeficiens exuberat alimentum.

And approaching the wheel she found it filled with the whitest loaves. But who brought them and placed them there, He alone knows who is ignorant of nothing. It is surely to be believed that by His virtue the aforesaid loaves were laid there for the enclosed virgins of Christ, by whose wondrous potency a meal was brought by Habakkuk to Daniel enclosed within the lions’ pit, and by whose ineffable providence unfailing nourishment abounds for beasts of burden & for birds.

DE GRAUI MACERACIONE CARNIS.

ON THE SEVERE MACERATION OF THE FLESH.

Qvanta rigiditate discipline felix hec uirgo castigauerit corpus suum existens in habitu seculari, ex superioribus satis claret. Cum autem gradum regularis perfeccionis conscendisset, ut palmam spiritualis certaminis apprehenderet, primo domesticum hostem gule uidelicet appetitum graui domabat inedia, ut carnalia desideria que militant aduersus animam potestatiue reprimeret et carnem resipiscentem legi spiritus subiugaret. Nam per plures annos in religione nullis leguminibus usa est sed tantum cepe crudo, et aliquos fructus sumebat in cibum, cupiens non uentrem cibo uoluptuoso sed mentem pocius pabulo diuine gracie saginare.

With what rigidity of discipline this happy virgin chastised her body while existing in a secular habit is clear enough from the foregoing. But when she had ascended to the grade of regular perfection, that she might grasp the palm of spiritual contest, first she tamed the domestic enemy—namely the appetite of the gullet—with grievous fasting, so that she might by authoritative power repress the carnal desires which wage war against the soul, and subjugate the flesh, brought back to its senses, to the law of the spirit. For through many years in religion she used no legumes, but took only raw onion, and some fruits for food, desiring to fatten not the belly with pleasurable food, but rather the mind with the fodder of divine grace.

Sanitatis quoque tempore in quadragesima communi & quadragesima sancti Martini quarta & sexta feria & ultimos dies ante quatuor festa uirginis gloriose ac omnium sanctorum per anni circulum in pane & aqua ieiunauit, ut ipsis suffragantibus ad gloriosam ipsorum societatem pertingere mereretur. Sed nec defecto ieiuniis corpusculo indulgebat, quin penas ipsius augeret et graues apponeret cruciatus. Portabat cilicium de pilis equorum nodose confertum quod eciam corda de consimili pilo facta stringebat ad carnem.

Moreover, in time of health during the common Quadragesima and the Quadragesima of Saint Martin, on Wednesday and Friday, and on the last days before the four feasts of the glorious Virgin and of all the saints through the circuit of the year, she fasted on bread and water, so that, with their suffrages aiding, she might merit to attain to their glorious fellowship. Nor, when her little body was weakened by fasts, did she indulge it; rather she increased its pains and laid on heavy torments. She wore a cilice made from the hairs of horses, densely knotted, which she also bound to the flesh with cords made of similar hair.

Teneros quoque artus ac inbecillos flagello nodoso de corrigia facto dure frequencius uerberabat. Non iam uestitu deaurato, ut regina, prefulsit: non amiciebatur mollibus ut olim existens in domo regia, que eciam tunc proposse uitabat; sed ut pauperrima Cristi serua utebatur contempto indumento, non ad ornatum corporis sed ad nuditatis tegumentum, ut omnis gloria filie regis esset ab intus in puritate consciencie & decora uarietate uirtutum. Igitur propter magnam austeritatem diu patratam decor uultus eius deperiit, corporis uigor emarcuit, oculi caligauerunt pre lacrimis et consumptis carnibus ossa pelli coherebant.

She also harshly and more frequently beat her tender and feeble limbs with a knotted scourge made from a strap. No longer did she shine forth in gilded vesture, as a queen: she was not clothed in soft things as once when dwelling in the royal house, which even then she avoided as far as she was able; but as the poorest handmaid of Christ she used a despised garment, not for the adornment of the body but for a covering of nakedness, so that all the glory of the king’s daughter might be from within, in the purity of conscience & the decorous variety of virtues. Therefore, on account of the great austerity long practiced, the comeliness of her face perished, the vigor of the body withered, her eyes grew dim because of tears, and with the flesh consumed the bones clung to the skin.

Sic dominice passionis sectabatur uestigia, sic penalitates multimodas perferebat, cupiens pro temporalis affliccionis amaritudine ad eterne consolacionis brauium peruenire.

Thus she followed the footsteps of the Lord’s Passion, thus she bore penalties of many kinds, desiring, in exchange for the bitterness of temporal affliction, to arrive at the prize of eternal consolation.

DE STUDIO ORACIONIS & MIRA DEUOCIONE IPSIUS ERGA SACRAMENTUM ALTARIS.

ON THE ZEAL OF PRAYER & THE WONDERFUL DEVOTION OF HER TOWARD THE SACRAMENT OF THE ALTAR.

Ignis deleccionis diuine, qui in ara cordis uirginei semper ardebat, sic ipsam per iugem deuocionem sursum agebat ut inter capedinem suum dilectum quereret, a quo pariete mortalitatis seiuncta eidem vniri spiritu gestiebat. Secretum namque oratorium nacta, clauso ipsius hostiolo quasi continue solitaria manebat, illis horis exceptis quibus eam communitati sororum oportebat adesse. Ibi diuinis desideriis inardescens pennis contemplacionis supra se leuabatur.

The fire of divine love, which always burned on the altar of her virginal heart, thus through continual devotion was bearing her upward, so that within her inner chamber she sought her Beloved, and, separated from the wall of mortality, she yearned to be united to him in spirit. For, having found a secret oratory, with its little door shut she remained almost continually solitary, except for those hours in which it behooved her to be present to the community of the sisters. There, inflamed with divine desires, by the wings of contemplation she was lifted above herself.

Ibi lacrimarum fluentis consciencie stratum rigabat, ibi oracioni perseueranter insistens dulce ac familiare colloquium cum dilecto serebat. Contigit enim aliquociens quod sorores, reditum eius ab oracione propter necessitatem aliquam circa oratorium ipsius prestolantes, ipsam ad dominum loquentem audirent, & quasi uirilem uocem ualde suauem eidem perciperent respondentem. Quando uero egrediebatur de oratorio, facies eius multociens sic lucebat quod uix eam aliquis intueri ualeret, quia nimirum eterne lucis radius, qui contemplantis mentem interius celesti claritate perfuderat, mirabili redundancia carnem exterius splendescere faciebat.

There she bedewed the couch of her conscience with streams of tears; there, perseveringly applying herself to oration, she would carry on a sweet and familiar colloquy with her Beloved. For it happened sometimes that the sisters, awaiting her return from oration because of some need concerning her oratory, would hear her speaking to the Lord, and would perceive, as it were, a very sweet manly voice answering her. But when she went out from the oratory, her face many times shone in such a way that scarcely anyone was able to look upon her, because indeed the ray of eternal light, which had inwardly suffused the mind of the contemplative with heavenly brightness, by a marvelous overflowing made the flesh shine outwardly.

Quadam denique sexta feria quodam nobili uiro ex parte regis ad eam directo, una de sororibus nomine Benigna que sibi seruiebat ad oratorium ipsius cicius properavit ut eam ad prefatum nuncium euocaret. Vt autem predictum oratorium latenter intrauit, uidit eam totam mirabili claritate quasi nube lucida circumdatam, propter quam faciem eius nullatenus uideri potuit, sed effigiem tantum humani corporis in ipsa luce utrumque conspexit. Qua uisione nimirum stupefacta silenter egreditur, dicens nuncio memorato quod eam in oracione positam non presumeret impedire.

Finally, on a certain Friday, when a certain noble man, sent to her on the king’s behalf, had been directed to her, one of the sisters by name Benigna, who served her, hastened swiftly to her oratory to summon her to the aforesaid messenger. But when she secretly entered the aforesaid oratory, she saw her wholly surrounded by a wondrous clarity, as if by a lucid cloud, on account of which her face could by no means be seen; but in that very light she perceived only the effigy of a human body. Astonished, to be sure, at that vision, she goes out silently, telling the aforesaid messenger that he should not presume to impede her, as she was set in prayer.

Alio tempore in die ascensionis domini cum duabus sororibus Benigna & Petrusca in orto ultra chorum sororum horas dicendo, in medio earum disparuit. Quibus pre stupore loqui mutuo non audentibus, quasi post unius hore spacium in eodem loco in quo prius steterat iterum repente apparuit. Interrogata uero a sororibus predictis ubi fuisset, dulciter quidem risit, sed ad interrogatum non respondit.

At another time, on the day of the Lord’s Ascension, with two sisters, Benigna & Petrusca, in the garden beyond the sisters’ choir, saying the Hours, she disappeared in their midst. As they, out of stupefaction, did not dare to speak to each other, after, as it were, the space of one hour, in the same place where she had stood before, she suddenly appeared again. Asked, moreover, by the aforesaid sisters where she had been, she did indeed smile sweetly, but did not respond to the question.

Credendum sane est quod ascensiones uirtualium graduum in corde suo disposuerat, & post Cristum ascendentem corde conscenderat; ideo eam diuina uirtus eciam corporaliter uehebat. Quadragesimali eciam tempore misteria redempcionis humane ad memoriam crebrius reuocando, tanto suspendebatur deuocionis excessu ut quasi continue celestibus inhians, magis angelicam quam humanam inter homines ageret uitam. Dum oracione consumata ueniebat aliquando ad sorores, quod tamen erat satis rarum, non ociosum seu uanum aliquid ex eius ore processit, sed flammea & mellica uerba de celestibus pro audiencium edificacione promebat, uix ualens reprimere lacrimas & singultus, cum de domino deo aliquid inter sorores diceret, legeret uel audiret.

It is surely to be believed that she had arranged in her heart the ascensions of the grades of virtues, & after Christ ascending she had ascended in heart; therefore the divine virtue was conveying her even corporally as well. In Quadragesimal time also, by more frequently recalling to memory the mysteries of human redemption, she was suspended by so great an excess of devotion that, as if continually yearning toward celestial things, she lived among human beings a life more angelic than human. When, prayer having been completed, she sometimes came to the sisters—though this was quite rare—no idle or vain thing proceeded from her mouth, but she brought forth fiery & honeyed words about heavenly things for the edification of the hearers, scarcely able to restrain tears & sobs whenever she said, read, or heard anything about the Lord God among the sisters.

Cuius moleste ferens hostis antiquus sanctitatem, cum uice quadam ab oracione de loco in quo circa unam fenestrulam quandoque legebat & orabat per gradus descendere uellet, ipsam per dictos gradus precipitauit sic grauiter, quod cubitus ipsius a iunctura debita separatus magnum ei dolorem pluribus diebus inflixit. Quem diuini amoris medicamine leniens, a sororibus quantum potuit occultauit. Referam unum de multis quod uirtute oracionis eius dominus operari dignatus est.

The ancient enemy, taking ill her sanctity, when on a certain occasion, after prayer, from the place where, near a certain little window, she would sometimes read and pray, she wished to descend by the steps, cast her headlong down the said steps so grievously that her elbow, separated from its due joint, inflicted great pain on her for many days. Soothing it with the medicament of divine love, she concealed it from the sisters as much as she could. I will relate one among many things which the Lord deigned to work by the virtue of her prayer.

Accidit quodam tempore ut filia fratris sui domini regis infantula moreretur et ad monasterium in quo Cristi uirgo degebat causa sepulture deferretur. Cumque uidisset dominam reginam matrem defuncte plorantem, nimia compassione permota procidit in faciem suam iuxta feretrum & orando sub silencio cepit dicere istud responsorium "Qui Lazarum resuscitasti & cetera". Et ecce exanime corpus & frigidum subito cepit calere et uene ut in uiuentibus mouebantur. Anima uero defuncte uirginem Cristi orantem sic allocuta est "Cur me reuocas de gaudio in exilium & miseriam?

It happened at a certain time that the little infant daughter of her brother, the lord king, died and was carried to the monastery in which the virgin of Christ was dwelling for the cause of sepulture. And when she saw the lady queen, the mother of the deceased, weeping, moved by excessive compassion she fell on her face beside the bier & praying in silence began to say this responsory: "Who resuscitated Lazarus & etcetera." And behold, the lifeless body & cold suddenly began to grow warm, and the veins moved as in the living. But the soul of the deceased thus addressed the praying virgin of Christ: "Why do you call me back from joy into exile & misery?"

Scito, si hoc feceris, nec parentibus meis nec ulli uiuenti fieri umquam potero in solamen." Quod audiens uirgo dei orare pro ipsius resuscitacione destitit, et statim corpusculum, quod calore & motu uenarum uiuentem premonstauerat, ad frigiditatem pristinam reuersum est. Et sic in uno eodemque facto uirtus oracionis humilis que nubes penetrauerat & condescensio dei benigna qua se ad suorum uota dignanter inclinat et orantis discrecio claresceret euidenter.

"Know that, if you do this, I shall never be able to become a solace either to my parents or to any living person." Hearing this, the virgin of God ceased to pray for her resuscitation, and at once the little body, which by heat & by the motion of the veins had pre-shown as living, returned to its former frigidity. And thus in one and the same act the virtue of humble prayer, which had penetrated the clouds, & the benign condescension of God, whereby He graciously inclines Himself to the vows of His own, and the discretion of the one praying, shone forth clearly.

Circa sacramentum altaris hec uirgo preclara mira deuocione flagrabat. Quando enim communicare uolebat, ab aliis sororibus sequestrata se oracionibus & meditacionibus deuotissime preparabat. Per unam fenestram sui cubiculi ad hoc paratam corpus Cristi sumebat pluribus annis, nolens palam facere diuine uisitacionis ac sue interne consolacionis secreta.

Concerning the sacrament of the altar this illustrious virgin burned with wondrous devotion. For when she wished to communicate, sequestered from the other sisters, she most devotedly prepared herself with prayers & meditations. Through a certain window of her cell prepared for this, she received the Body of Christ for many years, unwilling to make public the secrets of divine visitation & her own internal consolation.

Ibi enim sciebat ut apicula mel dulcissime diuinitatis de petra & humanitatis oleum de saxo durissimo pregustare. Cum autem semel graui infirmitate detenta de uita corporali desperans, ad degustacionem inmaculati agni secundum morem solitum preparata deuotissime accessisset, auditu mirabili audiuit ad se dicere illud quod sumebat dominicum corpus "Agnes, nequaquam putes te morituram, donec pene omnes caros tuos uideris ex hac uita migrasse". Quam reuelacionem ut audiuerat prouinciali ministro & aliquibus aliis personis sub specie magni secreti reserauit. Et ita factum esse rerum secutarum probauit euentus.

For there she knew, like a little bee, to pre-taste the honey of the sweetest divinity from the rock & the oil of humanity from the hardest stone. But when once, detained by a grave infirmity and despairing of bodily life, she had approached, most devoutly prepared, to the tasting of the Immaculate Lamb according to her accustomed manner, with a marvelous hearing she heard that which she was receiving, the Lord’s body, say to her: “Agnes, by no means think that you are going to die, until you have seen nearly all your dear ones migrate from this life.” Which revelation, when she had heard it, she disclosed to the provincial minister & to some other persons under the guise of a great secret. And the outcome of the things that followed proved it to have been so.

DE FERUIDO AMORE PASSIONIS & CRUCIS CRISTI.

ON THE FERVID LOVE OF THE PASSION & CROSS OF CHRIST.

Passionem et crucem domini Agnes fidelis eius ancilla feruentissime diligebat & singulis sextis feriis circa crucifixionem ipsius occupata, deuocionem suam usque in horam nonam continuabat, stando pedibus affeccionis cum mestra matre Jhesu iuxta crucem et dolorose mortis eius cernendo supplicium, mentis obtutibus pre nimietate compassionis eius oculus in amaritudinibus morabatur. Hanc preciosam crucem baiulare propter Ihesum fidei sue brachiis & uirtutum, quoad uiueret non cessabat. Hec enim erat sue gloriacionis tytulus, hec scala ascensionis in deum, hec lassitudinis eius suaue reclinatorium.

Agnes, the faithful handmaid of the Lord, loved the Passion and the cross of the Lord most fervently, & on each Friday, occupied with his crucifixion, she continued her devotion up to the ninth hour, standing on the feet of affection with Our Lady, the mother of Jesus, beside the cross, and, beholding the torment of his dolorous death, with the gaze of her mind, by reason of the excess of her compassion, her eye lingered in bitternesses. To bear this precious cross for Jesus with the arms of her faith & of virtues, so long as she lived she did not cease. For this was the title of her glorification, this the ladder of ascent into God, this, for her weariness, a sweet recliner.

Hoc ligno salutifero cunctos suos labores & graues infirmitates aduersitatesque multimodas quas innocenter pertulit, uelut aquas Marath dulcorabat. Hoc suco mirifico languidis medelam prestabat et peruicacia demonum propellebat, & ut de aliis taceam, pauca nunc succincte retexam.

With this salutiferous wood she sweetened all her labors & grave infirmities and manifold adversities which she innocently endured, even as the waters of Marah. With this wondrous juice she was providing healing to the languishing and was driving back the pervicacity of demons, & that I may be silent about other things, I will now succinctly recount a few.

Quedam nobilis domina, Sophya nomine, coniunx cuiusdam militis Prage qui Cunradus uocabatur, ante fores monasterii in quo famula dei morabatur residebat. Contigit autem dominam memoratam quadam uice post puerperium in tantum debilitari, quod per plures dies nec cibum nec potum gustans, magis mortui hominis preferret effigiem quam uiuentis. Et ecce quadam die quasi mentis excessum paciens cepit loqui dicens "O si Agnes domina mea unum mihi pomum de manu sua tribueret ad uescendum!" Fuerat temporibus multis uirgini Cristi deuota.

A certain noble lady, by name Sophia, the spouse of a certain miles in Prague who was called Conrad, was sitting before the doors of the monastery in which the handmaid of God was dwelling. It befell, moreover, that the aforesaid lady on a certain occasion after her puerperium was so debilitated that, for several days tasting neither food nor drink, she presented the likeness rather of a dead person than of a living. And behold, on a certain day, as though suffering an excess of mind, she began to speak, saying: "O if my lady Agnes would grant me one apple from her hand to eat!" She had for many years been devoted to the Virgin of Christ.

Conradus uero maritus eius, confidens quod meritis alme uirginis coniunx eius adipisci possit sanitatem optatam, festinauit ad famulam dei, rogando flebiliter ut pro sua coniuge intercedere ad dominum & ei pomum vnum mittere dignaretur, asserens si ista fierent, consors eius cupitam recuperaret sospitatem. At illa que super afflictos miserie uisceribus affluebat, militis merori compaciens ad pomerium monasterii celeriter transiuit; & nichil de pomis tam ipsa quam sorores que eam secute fuerant in arbore ad quam declinauerant cernentes, signo autem mirifice crucis contra arborem facto cum inuocacione beatissime trinitatis, tria poma vni ramisculo coherencia conspexit, eaque festine carpens, memorate domine Sophye misit dicens, "Hec poma tibi a deo miraculose donata secure commedas, quia ex eis prestante domino non tantum corporis sed & anime percipies sanitatem". Reuertitur uir eius gaudens, ferens antidotum salutare, et inuocato Cristi nomine ori coniugis fidenter apposuit. Que uirtutem dei pomis collatam senciens, continuo attollens oculos & poma predicta rapiens, tam auide cepit commedere ac si nunquam infirmata fuisset.

Conrad, indeed her husband, trusting that by the merits of the kindly Virgin his spouse might obtain the desired health, hastened to the handmaid of God, pleading tearfully that she would deign to intercede to the Lord for his wife & to send her one apple, asserting that if these things were done, his consort would recover the longed-for soundness. But she, who overflowed with the bowels of mercy for the afflicted, pitying the soldier’s sorrow, quickly went over to the monastery’s orchard; & neither she nor the sisters who had followed her seeing anything of apples on the tree to which they had turned, however, with the wondrous sign of the Cross made toward the tree, with the invocation of the most blessed Trinity, she beheld three apples adhering to one little twig, and, plucking them in haste, sent them to the aforesaid Lady Sophia, saying, “These apples, miraculously given to you by God, eat with assurance, because from them, the Lord granting, you will receive health not only of the body but & of the soul.” Her husband returns rejoicing, bearing the health-giving antidote, and, the name of Christ invoked, he confidently set it to his wife’s mouth. She, sensing the power of God bestowed upon the apples, immediately lifting up her eyes & seizing the aforesaid apples, began to eat so greedily as if she had never been ill.

Sicque factum est ut uirtute sancte crucis & meritis Agnetis pristine reformaretur sanitati; et aliquibus temporibus interpositis, mortuo marito suo, sub uiduitatis habitu domino seruiens in castitate, cunctorum pauperum per opera miserie mater effecta, uberiorem mentis, ut uirgo dei predixerat, obtinuit santitatem.

And thus it came to pass that by the power of the holy cross & the merits of Agnes she was restored to her pristine health; and, after some time had intervened, her husband having died, serving the Lord in chastity under the habit of widowhood, having been made a mother of all the poor through works of mercy, she obtained a more abundant holiness of mind, as the virgin of God had foretold.

Alio tempore una de soribus monasterii eius, Elyzabeth Azehmkonis nuncupata, ob uehementem dolorem capitis decumbebat, racione cuius nec caput mouere nec sursum respicere nec cibum nec potum per triduum gustare ualebat. Tandem per unam de sororibus ad uirginem Cristi difficulter adducta, cognita ipsius passione, deposito de capite suo albo uelo, infirme sororis caput iussit uelo predicto diligenter uelari & signum crucis saluificum tam capiti quam fronti pacientis inpressit. Quibus gestis illico dolor omnis cessauit.

At another time one of the sisters of her monastery, called Elyzabeth Azehmkonis, was lying ill on account of a vehement pain of the head, by reason of which she was able neither to move her head nor to look upward nor to taste food or drink for three days. At length, with difficulty brought by one of the sisters to the virgin of Christ, her suffering having been recognized, removing from her own head her white veil, she ordered the head of the infirm sister to be carefully veiled with the aforesaid veil & she impressed the salvific sign of the cross upon both the head and the forehead of the sufferer. With these things done, straightway all pain ceased.

Vna uice ad oratorium suum properans uirgo Cristi per sororem Donikam Deszquotz racione debilitatis sustentata est. Cumque ad ostium dicti oratorii peruenisset, uidit cum sorore prefata per fenestram eiusdem oratorii angelum tenebrarum in humana specie horribili & distorta sub quadam arbore stantem, et quasi eidem arbori se appodiantem. Exclamauit autem memorata soror pre timore, sed famula dei ne timeret eam confortans, signum sancte crucis contra demonem edidit in nomine deifice trinitatis.

On one occasion, hastening to her oratory, the virgin of Christ was supported by Sister Donika Deszquotz on account of weakness. And when she had arrived at the door of the said oratory, she saw, with the aforesaid sister, through the window of that same oratory, an angel of darkness in a human form, horrible and distorted, standing beneath a certain tree, and as if leaning himself against that tree. But the aforementioned sister cried out from fear; yet the handmaid of God, encouraging her not to fear, put forth the sign of the holy cross against the demon in the name of the deific Trinity.

Qui uirtutem crucis non ferens, protinus ualde celeriter discessit.

Who, not bearing the virtue of the cross, forthwith departed very swiftly.

Alia uice innixa cognate sue domine sorori Elyzabeth imperatrici ad supradictum oratorium uadens, cum iam ultra limen calcare uellet, hostis malignus in specie bubonis apparens, antedicta sorore uidente, [initum] ipsius cauda sua impedire uisus est. Que facto signo crucis dominice cruentam bestiam mox fugauit. Digne reuera sancte crucis uirtute mira faciebat, que innocentissimi agni in ipsa pro nobis ymolati passionem iugiter in corde portabat

At another time, leaning upon her kinswoman, her lady-sister Elizabeth the empress, going to the aforesaid oratory, when she already wished to tread beyond the threshold, the malignant enemy, appearing in the form of an owl, as the aforementioned sister looked on, seemed to hinder her with his tail the [beginning] itself. She, the sign of the Lord’s cross having been made, soon put the blood-stained beast to flight. Worthily indeed she was doing wondrous things by the virtue of the holy cross, she who unceasingly bore in her heart the passion of the most innocent Lamb immolated for us within herself.

DE MULTA KARITATE IPSIUS ERGA SORORES & ALIOS QUOSCUMQUE AFFLICTOS.

ON HER ABUNDANT CHARITY TOWARD THE SISTERS & ALL OTHER AFFLICTED WHOSOEVER.

Karitatem qua uirgo Cristi proximos prosequebatur effectus apercius declarauit. Deficientibus namque uiribus eius pre nimietate abstinencie, cum de uoluntate domini pape & precepto suorum superiorum oporteret eam licet inuitam necessaria uite plus solito percipere, de illis que sibi pro releuamine debilitatis corpusculi mittebantur, debilibus & infirmis sororibus prouideri faciebat. Ipsasque sepissime personaliter uisitans, de omnibus eorum necessitatibus sollicitam curam gessit.

The effect declared more openly the Charity with which the virgin of Christ pursued her neighbors. For when her strength failed by reason of the excessiveness of abstinence, since by the will of the lord pope & by the precept of her superiors it was necessary that she, though unwilling, receive the necessaries of life more than was customary, from those things which were being sent to her for the alleviation of the debility of her little body, she caused provision to be made for the weak & infirm sisters. And visiting them very often personally, she bore solicitous care for all their needs.

Et quemadmodum gallina pullos suos sub alis, sic amplissimo miseracionis sinu materne eas & dulciter confouebat. Circa uniuersos indigentes misericors & larga, sibi uero nimium parca & rigida. Esuriens pascebat alios, et ore pallente ieiuniis aliena fame torquebatur.

And just as a hen her chicks under her wings, so in the most ample bosom of maternal compassion she also sweetly cherished them. Toward all the indigent, merciful & lavish; toward herself indeed excessively sparing & rigid. Hungry, she fed others, and with a countenance pale from fasts she was tormented by others’ hunger.

Super omnes eciam afflictos, tam in seculo quam in religione degens, compassiuam mentem gerebat et cunctos ad se recurrentes aput deum & homines piis remediis adiuuabat. Nam fugitiuos & incarceratos pristine libertati reddebat, morte pro suis demeritis plectendos uel quibuslibet suppliciis cruciandos liberabat, diffidentes concordabat, omnibusque ad uotum proposse succurrens. Tanta quippe pietate cor eius omnipotens deus repleuerat, ta[n]tam graciam in labiis diffuderat, ut non solum gauderet cum gaudentibus & fleret cum flentibus, sed & si quempiam quacunque ex causa dolor angebat, si urgebat calamitas, si aduersitas quemcunque frangebat, mulcedine dulcis eloquii omnium erat merencium consolatrix.

Over all the afflicted, living both in the world and in religion, she bore a compassionate mind and helped all who ran to her before God & men with pious remedies. For she restored fugitives & the incarcerated to their former liberty, freed those who were to be punished with death for their demerits or to be tortured with any punishments, reconciled the estranged, & succoring all, to their wish, to the best of her ability. For almighty God had filled her heart with such great piety, had poured so great[n] a grace upon her lips, that she not only rejoiced with those who rejoice & wept with those who weep, but also, if anyone was anguished with pain for whatever cause, if calamity pressed, if adversity broke anyone, by the sweetness of her gentle speech she was the comforter of all who mourned.

Si quando sororem aliquam corripiendam censebat de aliquo, nequaquam silencio culpam supprimebat, sed ut amatrix salutis proximorum, cum magna karitate ac maturitate id agebat, illas seuerius arguens quas amplius diligere uidebatur. Cum autem sororem correptam sanctis sermonibus ad bonum erudisset, ad pedes eius humiliter se prosternens dicebat. "Ignosce mihi, soror dilecta, si te in aliquo contristam". Magno quippe cauebat studio, ne sororem aliquam & maxime indebite perturbaret.

If ever she judged that some sister ought to be corrected about something, by no means did she suppress the fault in silence, but, as a lover of the salvation of her neighbors, she did it with great charity and maturity, reproving more severely those whom she seemed to love more. But when she had instructed the corrected sister toward the good by holy discourses, humbly prostrating herself at her feet she would say. "Pardon me, beloved sister, if I have saddened you in anything." Indeed she took great care, lest she disturb any sister & especially undeservedly.

Pro excessibus quoque aliquorum hominum de profundo cordis graues emittebat rugitus, plus eorum lapsum spiritualem quam consanguineorum suorum carorum mortem amaris lacrimis deplorando. Merito gaudio dominus omnium eam dilexit, que tam sincere proximos diligebat.

For the excesses too of certain men she would emit grave groanings from the depth of her heart, lamenting with bitter tears their spiritual lapse more than the death of her own dear kinsfolk. Rightly, with joy, the Lord of all loved her, who so sincerely loved her neighbors.

DE REUELACIONIBUS DIUINIS SIBI FACTIS.

ON THE DIVINE REVELATIONS MADE TO HER.

Nec hoc dignum uidetur silencio contegi, quod occulta & absencia tamquam manifesta et presencia eo docente sciebat, qui revelat abscondita & profunda. Cum enim filius fratris sui dominus rex Premisserius, dictus Ottakarus, ad bellum in Austriam contra Rvdolfum, regem Romanorum processisset, sorores cum ligno sancte crucis & aliis reliquiis ambitum suum processionaliter sepe girantes, psalmos penitenciales pro salute dicti regis domino deuote promebant. Quadam autem die in processione cum aliis sororibus transeundo, uidit memoratum regem grauiter uulneratum et duos uiros statura proceros eum inter se ducentes.

Nor does this seem worthy to be covered by silence, that she knew occult things and absences as though manifest and present, with Him teaching, who reveals things hidden and deep. For when the son of her brother, lord king Premisserius, called Ottakarus, had advanced to war into Austria against Rudolf, king of the Romans, the sisters, with the wood of the holy cross and other relics, often encircling their precinct in procession, were devoutly intoning to the Lord the penitential psalms for the salvation of the said king. But on a certain day, passing in procession with the other sisters, she saw the aforesaid king grievously wounded, and two men of tall stature leading him between them.

Quam uisionem sororibus referens, ludificacionem demonum fore putabat, indignam se asserens ut talia sibi diuinitus panderentur. Eo autem tempore hec uisio erat suis aspectibus presentata, quo prefatus rex ab inimicis uulneratus tentus & interfectus est. Sic rerum series et ueritas & narrancium postea declarauit.

Reporting this vision to the sisters, she supposed it to be a ludification of demons, asserting herself unworthy that such things should be unfolded to her by divinity. But at the very time this vision was presented to her sight, the aforesaid king was wounded, seized, and slain by his enemies. Thus the sequence of events and the truth, and later the accounts of those narrating, made it clear.

Alio tempore ancille domini ex parte cuiusdam secularis persone poma pulcra uisu per unam de sororibus transmissa sunt. At illa concupiscencia oculorum deuicta unum pomum pro se seruauit & tandem, urgente consciencia, iterum reponens omnia ut sibi missa fuerant presentauit. Quam cum deo dilecta uirgo fuisset intuita, pomum quod dicta soror concupierat cum alio tollens porrexit ei dicens "Bene fecisti, filia, pomum reponendo: melius est enim tibi habere duo poma absque scrupulo consciencie quam unum cum peccato". Vtique spiritus Helysei requieuerat in Agnete, que gesta quibus corporaliter aberat, spiritu presens uidebat.

At another time the handmaids of the Lord, on behalf of a certain secular person, had fruits fair to the sight sent through one of the sisters. But she, overcome by the concupiscence of the eyes, kept back one apple for herself, & at length, her conscience urging, putting them back again, presented all as they had been sent to her. When the virgin beloved by God had looked upon her, taking the apple which the said sister had coveted together with another, she extended them to her, saying, "You have done well, daughter, by replacing the apple: for it is better for you to have two apples without a scruple of conscience than one with sin." Truly the spirit of Elisha had rested upon Agnes, who in spirit, as present, saw the deeds at which she was bodily absent.

Alia soror, nomine Ermengardis Parua, pro quodam negocio multas ad dominum occultissime preces fundebat. Quam cum ancilla dei die quadam fuisset intuita, cum aliqua seueritate dixit ei "Preces quas anxie pro tali negocio fundis ad dominum multiplicare desiste, quia id pro quo postulas deo non est acceptum!"

Another sister, by the name Ermengardis the Little, for a certain business was most secretly pouring forth many prayers to the Lord. When the handmaid of God had looked upon her on a certain day, with some severity she said to her, "Cease to multiply the prayers which anxiously you pour out to the Lord for such a business, because that for which you petition is not acceptable to God!"

In obitu quoque sororum quibus conuixit pia miseracione solebat semper adesse, & ibidem pro ipsis diuinam clemenciam suppliciter implorando, penas aliquarum & merita frequenter per spiritum intellexit. Vno enim tempore soror quedam, famula dei absente, uerba contumelie protulerat & sine satisfaccione condigna tempore aliquo interposito ex hac uita migrauit. Cum autem uirgo dei sola in oracione die quadam persisteret, audiuit iuxta oratorium suum animam sororis uociferantem, recognoscendo humiliter culpam suam, et obnixius flagitando ut sibi talem culpam propter deum ignoscere dignaretur, quasi a penis aliter liberari nequiret.

Also at the death of the sisters with whom she had lived, by pious misericordy she was accustomed always to be present, & there in the same place, by humbly imploring divine clemency for them, she frequently understood by the spirit the penalties of some & the merits. For at one time a certain sister, with the handmaid of God absent, had uttered words of contumely, & without condign satisfaction, after some interval interposed, migrated from this life. But when on a certain day the virgin of God was persevering alone in prayer, she heard next to her oratory the soul of the sister crying aloud, humbly acknowledging her fault, and more earnestly beseeching that she would deign, for God’s sake, to forgive her such a fault, as though she could not otherwise be freed from punishments.

Alia soror nomine Brigida, que cum uirgine cristi religionem intrauerat, morum honestate pollebat et erat eidem ualde dilecta. Cumque post plures annos in ordine laudabiliter transactos grauiter egrotaret & tandem ex hac uita migrasset, de infirmitate eius quidem multum doluit, sed pro morte ipsius nullum mesticie signum ostendit. Viderat enim sanctos angelos eidem assistentes, corpus eius thurificare et humanitatem sibi multam exhibere.

Another sister by the name Brigida, who had entered religion with the virgin of Christ, was strong in probity of morals and was to her very dearly beloved. And when, after many years laudably spent in the Order, she fell grievously ill and at length migrated from this life, she indeed grieved much over her infirmity, but for her death she showed no sign of sadness. For she had seen the holy angels standing by her, censing her body and exhibiting much humanity to her.

A multis denique notatum est quod quecunque uentura fore predixit, eciam post magni temporis decursum modo et ordine quo dixerat euenisse certitudinaliter probata sunt, sicut de aliquibus infra patebit. Mens quidem eternitatis repleta spiritu, cui nichil est preteritum, nichil futurum, cuique omnia nuda sunt & aperta, non solum abdita sciebat cordium & actuum, uerum eciam de futuris quasi de presentibus uel de preteritis certissime disserebat.

Finally, it was noted by many that whatever things she predicted would be about to come, even after the lapse of a great time, were proved with certitude to have happened in the very manner and order that she had said, as will be evident below in some cases. A mind indeed filled with the spirit of eternity, to which nothing is past, nothing future, and to which all things are naked and open, knew not only the hidden things of hearts and acts, but also discoursed with utmost certainty about future things as if about present or past ones.

DE TRANSITU EIUS & HIIS QUE IN EO FACTA SUNT.

ON HER PASSING & THE THINGS WHICH WERE DONE THEREIN.

Apropinquante autem termino quo ancillam suam Agnetem ex hoc mundo Cristus uellet assumere & celestem thalamum introductam, propriis laboribus suis corona iusticie premiare, maioris quadragesime tempus instabat, quo non solum a secularium personarum frequencia qui ipsam ob deuocionem uisitabant, sed eciam a sororibus secedere solita erat, exemplo Cristi qui quadraginta dies & noctes in deserto solitarius ieiunauit. Cum autem in dicta quadragesima soli deo uacans in cinere & cilicio ieiunaret, et orando cum lacrimis misericordem deum precaretur ut siquid ei contagii ex allocucione hominum adhesisset, miseracionis sue lauacro expiaret, facta est una dierum manus domini super eam & tocius corporis uigor cepit diminui, languore uehemencius succrescente decubuit. Die uero dominica tercie quadragesimalis ebdomadis adueniente, senciens instare suum felicem transitum ex hoc mundo, quem secrete reuelauit familiaribus suis ualde paucis, iter suum salutari uiatico, corpore scilicet domini nostri Ihesu Cristi, ac sacri olei unccione, presentibus fratribus & sororibus, Cristianissima uirgo fideli deuocione communiuit.

But with the term approaching at which Christ willed to take up his handmaid Agnes from this world & to lead her into the heavenly bridal chamber, to crown her with the crown of justice for her own labors, the time of the Greater Quadragesima was at hand, during which she was accustomed to withdraw not only from the frequency of secular persons who visited her out of devotion, but also from the sisters, after the example of Christ, who for forty days & nights fasted solitary in the desert. But when in the said Quadragesima, giving herself to God alone, she fasted in ash & cilice, and, praying with tears, besought the merciful God that, if any contagion from converse with men had cleaved to her, he would purge it by the laver of his mercy, on one of the days the hand of the Lord was upon her, and the vigor of the whole body began to diminish; as the sickness grew more vehement, she took to her bed. But when the Lord’s Day of the third week of Quadragesima arrived, feeling that her happy transit from this world was at hand, which she secretly revealed to her familiars, very few, she commended her journey with the saving viaticum, namely the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with the anointing of holy oil, her brothers & sisters being present; the most Christian virgin, with faithful devotion, communicated.

Et dum hec agerentur, soror quedam eiusdem monasterii nomine Katherina Erhardi, que plusquam decem annis egritudine corporis et maxime dolore pedum grauata, lecto decumbens non sine magno sororum grauamine de loco ad locum portabatur, audiens famulam Cristi Agnetem, que ipsam speciali affectu fuerat prosecuta, dominici corporis communione percepta oleo sacro perungi, altis clamoribus absencium pulsabat aures sororum. Quibus aduenientibus, instantissime postulabat ut ei preberetur auxilium ad Cristi uirginem ueniendi. Cumque ad eam perducta fuisset, plorabat inconsolabiliter, uerbaque doloris ingeminans dicebat.

And while these things were being done, a certain sister of the same monastery by the name Katherine Erhard, who for more than ten years, burdened with infirmity of the body and especially with pain of the feet, lying in bed was carried from place to place not without great burden to the sisters, hearing that the handmaid of Christ, Agnes—who had attended her with special affection—after the communion of the Lord’s body had been received, was being anointed with sacred oil, with loud cries was striking the ears of the sisters who were absent. When they arrived, she most urgently begged that help be afforded to her to come to the virgin of Christ. And when she had been led to her, she wept inconsolably, and, ingeminating words of grief, she said.

"Heu me, mater karissima, vt quid filias tuas & me specialiter uis derelinquere! Et quis me miseram consolabitur te, uirgo dulcissima, moriente?" At uirgo Cristi miseria mota super eam dixit, "Ne fleueris, Katherina, quia in breui recipies consolacionem a domino!" Et cum infirma, una cum aliis sororibus instantissime postularet, ut eam crucis signaculo consignaret, illa propter humilitatem non assenciente, soror paciens caute manum eius apprehendens loco doloroso applicuit. Quod cum fecisset, tantus dolor ipsam inuasit, quod omnes nerui eius pre doloris uehemencia quasi rumpi uidebantur.

"Alas for me, dearest mother, why do you wish to abandon your daughters & me especially! And who will console me, wretched, with you, sweetest virgin, dying?" But the virgin of Christ, moved by misery over her, said, "Do not weep, Katherine, because in a short time you will receive consolation from the Lord!" And when the infirm one, together with the other sisters, most urgently begged that she would sign her with the sign of the cross, she, not assenting on account of humility, the suffering sister cautiously taking her hand applied it to the painful place. When she had done this, so great a pain seized her that all her sinews, from the vehemence of the pain, seemed almost to burst.

Post modicum autem sudorem resumptis uiribus coram omnibus cepit ambulare, & deinceps usque ad mortem suam optime ambulauit. Nulli dubium quin ad extollenda ancille sue preclara merita dominus hoc operari dignatus est, ut que uiuens fulserat sanctitate uite, eciam moriens redderetur celebris miraculi claritate.

After a little sweating, with her strength resumed, she began to walk before everyone, & thereafter she walked excellently right up to her death. There is no doubt that the Lord deigned to work this to extol the most illustrious merits of his handmaid, so that she who, while living, had shone with sanctity of life might even, in dying, be rendered celebrated by the clarity of a miracle.

Licet autem iam fere nichil in ea corporearum uirium remansisset, spiritu tamen fortis & fervida; nunc orabat deuote, nunc sorores per suum decessum orphanandas irremediabilibus lacrimis flentes benignis sermonibus demulcebat, nunc affectu materno ad apprehendum perfeccionis apicem hortabatur dicens "Filiole mee karissime, karitatem ad deum & proximum toto conamine obseruate, humilitatem & paupertatem quam tenuit Cristus & docuit imitari curate, semper Romane ecclesie pedibus subiacentes, exemplo sanctissimi patris nostri Francisci et alme uirginis Clare qui nobis hanc uiuendi regulam tradiderunt, sciture pro certo quod sicut illos misericors dominus numquam deseruit, sic nec nos eius dulcis clemencia ullatenus derelinquet, si eorum statuta & exempla studiose fueritis imitate". Cum igitur hec & alia salutis monita toto sero & nocte sequenti sororum cordibus inpresisset & uice testamenti perpetui relinqueret inuiolabiliter obseruanda, die altera, secunda uidelicet feria, quadam cepit hylaritate perfundi ac ridentis speciem premonstare, totumque corpus eius in candorem conuerti usque ad horam sextam. Postquam autem fratres dicta nona missam inciperent, circa horam qua saluator humani generis pendens in cruce pro redempcione nostra tradidit spiritum, hec deo gratissima famula in manus patris celestis animam suam commendans, anno gracie millesimo ducentessimo octogesimo primo, sexto nonas Marcii in domino feliciter obdormiuit & angelicis fulta presidiis ad eterna gaudia letanter intrauit.

Although by now scarcely anything of bodily strengths had remained in her, yet in spirit she was strong & fervid; now she prayed devoutly, now she soothed with kindly speeches the sisters who, through her decease about to orphan them, were weeping with irremediable tears, now with maternal affection she exhorted them to apprehend the apex of perfection, saying, "My most dear little daughters, observe charity toward God & neighbor with your whole endeavor, take care to imitate the humility & poverty which Christ held and taught, always lying at the feet of the Roman Church, after the example of our most holy father Francis and the kindly virgin Clare who handed down to us this rule of living, knowing for certain that just as the merciful Lord never deserted them, so neither will his sweet clemency in any way abandon us, if you shall have studiously imitated their statutes & examples." Therefore when through the whole evening & the night following she had imprinted these and other admonitions of salvation upon the hearts of the sisters and, in the stead of a perpetual testament, had left them to be observed inviolably, on the next day, namely Monday, she began to be suffused with a certain hilarity and to display the appearance of one smiling, and her whole body was turned into candor up to the sixth hour. But after the brothers, None having been said, began the Mass, around the hour at which the Savior of the human race, hanging on the cross for our redemption, gave up the spirit, this handmaid most pleasing to God, commending her soul into the hands of the heavenly Father, in the year of grace 1281, on the sixth day before the Nones of March, happily fell asleep in the Lord &—being supported by angelic protections—gladly entered into eternal joys.

O felix uirgo, que per quadraginta & sex annos in religione passionibus Cristi communicans, mortis eius horam seruauit, et depressa mortalitatis caligine deum deorum in sancta Syon irreue[r]beratis obtutibus limpide contemplatur! O acceptissima deo anima, que carcere terreno soluta, libera petens celum choris ymnidicis sociatur et inebriata torrente deifico uoluptatis perpetue festiuitatis et graciarum accionis, melliflua carmina pro euasione mundani studii ad laudem regis glorie suaui personat armonia!

O happy virgin, who for forty & six years in religion, communicating in the passions of Christ, kept the hour of his death, and, the gloom of mortality being pressed down, with unobstructed gazes limpidly contemplates the God of gods in holy Zion! O soul most acceptable to God, who, released from the earthly prison, freely seeking heaven, is joined to hymn-singing choirs and, made drunk by the divine torrent of perpetual delight—of festivity and thanksgiving—sweetly resounds with honey-flowing songs, for the escape from worldly pursuit, to the praise of the King of glory!

DE SANCTI CORPORIS EIUS SEPULTURA.

OF THE BURIAL OF HER HOLY BODY.

Sorores igitur & filie tante matris solacio destitute, monasterium replebant gemitibus & uirginales uultus uberrime lacrimis irrigabant. Accipientes autem sanctum corpus ad chorum deportauerunt, ubi duabus septimanis stans inhumatum tam mirificum spirabat odorem, quod omnes ad ipsum accedentes suauitate insolita replebantur. Manus quoque illius innoxie non rigide seu dure ut mortui, sed molles ac ductiles ut uiuentis omni se prebebant palpanti.

Therefore the sisters and daughters, bereft of the consolation of so great a mother, filled the monastery with groans and most abundantly irrigated their virginal faces with tears. And taking up the holy body, they carried it to the choir, where, remaining unburied for two weeks, it breathed forth so wondrous an odor that all who approached it were filled with an unwonted suavity. Her innocent hands, moreover, not rigid or hard like those of a dead person, but soft and pliant like those of one living, offered themselves so to everyone who touched them.

Infra predictos autem quatuordecim dies fratres minores cottidie claustrum sororum intrantes, missarum & uigiliarum celebracionibus sacro funeri honorem debitum impendebant. Sed et tota pene ciuitas cum multitudine populorum adueniencium omni die iuxta monasterium confluebat, instantissime postulantes, ut felicem illum thesaurum larga dei pietate donatum saltem per cratem intueri ualerent. Cum uero estuanti populo corpus frequencius monstraretur, multi anulis & cingulis aliisque rebus ipsum cum magna deuocione contingebant, sperantes se per gloriose uirginis merita ex rerum predictarum contactu optata remedia percepturos, sicut factum esse postmodum diuina opitulante clemencia sepius expertum est.

Within the aforesaid fourteen days, the Friars Minor, entering the sisters’ cloister daily, were expending the due honor to the sacred funeral by the celebrations of masses & vigils. But almost the whole city, with a multitude of peoples arriving, was every day flowing together near the monastery, most urgently petitioning that they might be able at least to gaze upon that blessed treasure, endowed by the bountiful piety of God, through the lattice. And when, indeed, to the seething populace the body was shown more frequently, many were touching it with rings & belts & other things with great devotion, hoping that, through the merits of the glorious virgin, from the contact of the aforesaid things they would receive the desired remedies—just as afterward, with divine clemency assisting, it was often experienced to have been so.

Tandem sorores importunitatem hominum assidue inpulsancium ferre ulterius non ualentes, corpus in archam nouam ligneam cum reuerencia posuerunt & ostium eiusdem tenaculis ferreis appendentes, clauo ferreo magno firmiter concluserunt.

At length the sisters, no longer able to bear the importunity of the people continually pressing, placed the body with reverence into a new wooden ark, and, attaching the door of the same with iron clasps, they firmly shut it with a great iron nail.

Denique fama de transitu preclare uirginis per regionem ocius longe lateque procedens, ad dominam quandam nomine Scolasticam de Sternberch, moribus & genere nobilem, que uirginem Cristi tenere dilexerat & deuote famulabatur eidem ueredico relatu peruenit. At illa cum omni qua poterat festinacione ad ciuitatem Pragensem perueniens, rogabat cum maximo fletu sorores, quatenus eam utpote licenciam ab apostolica sede habentem, monasterium sinerent introire & corpus domine sue predilecte uidere. Quibus asserentibus contra morem dicti monasterii fore quod aliqua secularis persona, quamquam habens licenciam, quadragesimali tempore intromittatur, et adiungentes quod eciam si intraret, corpus eius uidere nequeret, importunis precibus uicte peticioni ipsius annuerunt.

Finally, the report about the passing of the illustrious virgin, going quickly far and wide through the region, came by a truthful relation to a certain lady by the name Scholastica of Sternberch, noble in morals & lineage, who had dearly loved the virgin of Christ for a long time and devoutly served her. But she, arriving at the city of Prague with all the haste she could, was begging with the greatest weeping the sisters, that, inasmuch as she had license from the Apostolic See, they would allow her to enter the monastery & to see the body of her beloved lady. They, asserting that it would be against the custom of the said monastery for any secular person, although having license, to be admitted in quadragesimal time, and adding that even if she entered, she could not see her body, overcome by importunate prayers assented to her petition.

Qua monasterium intrante, et iuxta archam in qua prefatum corpus erat reconditum se cum amaris lacrimis prosternente, una de sororibus arche appropians cum murmure utrum aperiri deberet ingeminans, quia hoc ei laboriosum & difficile uidebatur, statim ad archam accessit, clauus qui cum uiolencia inpulsus fuerat, uidentibus qui aderant & stupentibus, per se exiliens super pauimentum strepitum fecit, aperta est archa, corpus patuit ad cernendum. Quod non nisi manu excelsi, qui habet clauem Dauid, ob merita eximie uirginis ad consolacionem amatricis eius factum esse censendum est.

As she entered the monastery, and, with bitter tears, prostrated herself near the ark in which the aforesaid body had been laid, one of the sisters, approaching the ark and murmuring, repeatedly asking whether it ought to be opened, because this seemed to her toilsome & difficult, straightway went to the ark; the nail, which had been driven in with violence, with those present seeing & astonished, sprang out of its own accord and, leaping onto the pavement, made a clatter; the ark was opened, the body lay open to be beheld. Which must be judged to have been done by none other than the hand of the Most High, who has the key of David, on account of the merits of the eximious virgin, for the consolation of her devotee.

Interea nuncii a fratribus & sororibus ad honorabilem uirum, dominum Thobiam Pragensem epyscopum et postmodum ad uiciniores abbates destinantur, instancius postulantes ut aliquis ipsorum ueniens, corpus sanctum cum reuerencia congrua tumularet. Quibus propter occupaciones diuersas, secretiori dei consilio aliud ordinante, uenire recusantibus — paulo enim ante mortem suam inclita uirgo predixerat quod nec epyscopus nec aliquis alterius religionis prelatus quam frater minor, et talis frater qui prius numquam uisus est in terra Bohemie, corpus eius sepelire deberet — adueniens uenerabilis pater, frater Bonagracia, generalis minister quartadecima die a transitu eius, in sequenti die, uidelicet in dominica de passione, preciosum illud pignus cum multis qui tunc aderant fratribus deuote ac honorifice in capella sacratissime uirginis Marie, in qua tempore debilitatis audiebat missarum sollempnia, sicut ipsa petiuerat, sepeliuit. Vbi miri odoris fragrancia sorores causa oracionis intrantes diebus pluribus respergebat.

Meanwhile messengers from the brothers & sisters are dispatched to the honorable man, Lord Tobias, bishop of Prague, and afterward to the nearer abbots, more insistently requesting that some one of them, coming, might inter the holy body with fitting reverence. As they refused to come on account of various occupations, with the more secret counsel of God ordaining otherwise — for a little before her death the renowned virgin had foretold that neither the bishop nor any prelate of another religion than a Lesser Brother, and such a brother as had never before been seen in the land of Bohemia, ought to bury her body — the venerable father, brother Bonagracia, General Minister, arriving on the fourteenth day from her passing, on the following day, namely on Passion Sunday, buried that precious pledge with many brothers who were then present, devoutly and honorably, in the chapel of the most most-sacred Virgin Mary, in which during the time of debility she used to hear the solemnities of the masses, as she herself had requested. Where the fragrance of a wondrous odor for many days bedewed the sisters entering for the sake of prayer.

Accidit autem die quadam ut una de sororibus predictam capellam ingrediens ad orandum, sompno grauata uirginem Cristi uideret, cur tantus odor ex eius tumba manaret sollicite perquereret; que respondit hoc fieri propter sanctorum frequenciam angelorum, qui corpus ipsius uisitabant. Erat re uera condignum ut corpus eius suauiter post mortem oleret, que, ut areola aromatum a celesti consita pigmentario, uirtutum floribus dum uiueret delectabiliter fragrauit & nunc inter flores celicos transplantata, quasi flos rosarum in diebus eterne felicitatis gloria reflorescens, omnium aromatum suauitatem transcendit.

It happened, moreover, on a certain day that one of the sisters, entering the aforesaid chapel to pray, being weighed down with sleep, saw the virgin of Christ, and would anxiously inquire why so great an odor was issuing from her tomb; who replied that this was happening on account of the frequent presence of the holy angels, who were visiting her body. It was in very truth condign that her body should smell sweetly after death, she who, like a little garden-bed of aromatics planted by the heavenly perfumer, while she lived fragranced delectably with the flowers of virtues & now, transplanted among the celestial flowers, as a rose-blossom in the days of eternal felicity, reflowering in glory, surpasses the sweetness of all aromatics.

EPYLOGUS.

EPILOGUE.

Iam nempe a dilecto suo candido & rubicundo, pro cuius amore sponsum spreuit mortalem, castis in celo amplexibus stringitur. Iam ab eo in ethereis mansionibus corona glorie pro cinere et oleo eterni gaudii pro luctu temporali humilis ancilla premiatur. Iam pro extrema pauperie thesauris felicitatis eterne ditata, in pascuis uberrimis ac iuxta fluenta plenissima residet, deliciis diuine dulcedinis affluens pro parsimonia.

Now indeed she is clasped in chaste embraces in heaven by her Beloved, fair and rubicund, for whose love she spurned a mortal bridegroom. Now by him, in the ethereal mansions, the crown of glory instead of ashes, and the oil of eternal joy instead of temporal mourning, is bestowed upon the humble handmaid. Now, in exchange for extreme poverty, enriched with the treasures of eternal felicity, she abides in most luxuriant pastures and beside the most replete streams, overflowing with the delights of divine sweetness in place of parsimony.

Iam sacro concisso ueste iocunditatis induta, et tamquam sponsa monilibus dotum ornata, ueri cubiculum intrauit Asueri, nexibus precordialis amoris eidem prehenniter copulanda. Vbi cum filiabus syon exultans in rege suo faciem eius uidet in iubilo, et saciatur infastidibiliter manifestacione glorie dei. Cuius glorie nos participes faciat per interuentum & merita huius inclite uirginis salvator piissimus Jhesus Cristus, cui cum patre & spiritu sancto sit omnis honor & gloria per interminabilia secula seculorum.

Now, with the sackcloth torn asunder, clothed with the garment of gladness, and as a bride adorned with the necklaces of dowries, she entered the true bedchamber of Ahasuerus, to be coupled to him perennially by the bonds of inmost love. There, exulting with the daughters of Sion in her king, she beholds his face in jubilation, and is satisfied without satiety by the manifestation of the glory of God. May the most pious Savior Jesus Christ, by the intervention & merits of this renowned virgin, make us sharers of whose glory, to whom with the Father & the Holy Spirit be all honor & glory through the interminable ages of ages.

Amen.

DE MIRACULIS DIUINA UIRTUTE PATRATIS PER EAM.

ON THE MIRACLES ACCOMPLISHED BY DIVINE POWER THROUGH HER.

Omnipotens deus, qui magno sue pietatis munere mirificat sanctos suos, Agnetem felicem uirginem in regno Bohemie sanctissime Clare plantulam generosam, non solum precelse uite meritis sed multis miraculorum prodigiis clarius illustrauit, ad inuocacionem nominis eius in necessitatibus & periculis eius uirtute sue dextere misericorditer sucurrendo. Vt gloriosus ipse deus in sanctis suis predicetur copiosius & laudetur, ac fidelium deuocio ad ueneracionem huius illustrissime uirginis augeatur, aliqua de ipsis miraculis, pauca tamen, sub breuitate censui perstringenda.

The omnipotent God, who by the great gift of his piety makes his saints wondrous, has illuminated Agnes, the happy virgin, a noble little shoot of most holy Clare in the kingdom of Bohemia, more brightly not only by the merits of a preeminent life but also by many prodigies of miracles, mercifully succoring at the invocation of her name in necessities & dangers by the virtue of his right hand. That this same glorious God may be preached more copiously & praised in his saints, and that the devotion of the faithful to the veneration of this most illustrious virgin may be increased, I have judged that certain of those miracles—few, however—should be briefly sketched.

MIRACULUM.

MIRACLE.

Regina Bohemie, domina Guta coniunx domini Venzezlai, filiam suam Margaretam iam pene morientem, presumens de meritis preclare uirginis Agnetis, ad monasterium in Praga fecit deferri et super sepulchrum predicte uirginis poni, casulamque preciosam ad honorem dei & uirginis memorate super ipsius tumbam offerri. Que cum facta fuissent, ilico puerulus super tumbam iacens ster[nu]tauit, et lacte nutricis refocillata delata est ad matrem omnino sana & pluribus postmodum annis superuixit.

The queen of Bohemia, Lady Guta, consort of lord Wenceslas, having confidence in the merits of the illustrious virgin Agnes, had her daughter Margaret, now almost dying, carried to the monastery in Prague and placed upon the sepulcher of the aforesaid virgin, and she had a precious chasuble, to the honor of God & the aforesaid virgin, offered upon her tomb. When these things had been done, immediately the little one, lying upon the tomb, sneezed, and, refreshed with a nurse’s milk, she was borne back to her mother entirely sound & thereafter survived for many years.

Domina Elyzabet, regina Bohemie, consors illustris domini Iohannis regis regni prefati, filium suum primogenitum adhuc tenellum & unicum unice diligebat. Cum autem uice quadam ea in ciuitate regia que Praga dicitur existente, filius eius prefatus in castro quod Cubitus nuncupatur a dicta ciuitate plus quam duas dietas distante cum suis nutritoribus moraretur, vna nocte subita & grauissima infirmitate correptus usque ad extrema perductus est, domina matre ipsius que circa eum agerentur penitus ignorante. Et cum nocte eadem memorata domina regina se sopori dedisset, audiuit in sompnis uocem dicentem sibi "Numquid dormis?" Qua in sompnis respondente "non," iterata uox ad eam sonuit dicens "Cum petere soleas multos bonos homines & deuotos, ut pro te ad dominum intercedant, cur non supplicas auie tue sancte Agneti, ut eciam pro te dominum interpellet, cum per ipsius merita omnium uotorum tuorum cupitum consequi possis effectum?" Domina uero requerente ubi eam posset inuenire cum sit mortua, denuo uox ad eam "Non est" inquid "mortua, sed manet in monasterio sancti Francisci et habet se ualde bene." Ad que uerba regina, ut sibi uidebatur, surgens de lecto ad prefatum monasterium celerius festinauit.

Lady Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia, consort of the illustrious lord John, king of the aforesaid realm, uniquely loved her firstborn son, still tender and her only one. But when on a certain occasion she was in the royal city which is called Prague, that aforesaid son of hers was staying with his nurturers in the castle which is named Cubitus, more than two day-journeys distant from the said city, and one night, seized by a sudden and most grave infirmity, he was brought to the last extremities, his lady mother being entirely ignorant of what was happening about him. And when on that same night the aforesaid lady queen had given herself to sleep, she heard in a dream a voice saying to her, “Are you asleep?” She answering in the dream “No,” the voice sounded to her again, saying, “Since you are wont to ask many good and devout men to intercede with the Lord for you, why do you not supplicate your grandmother Saint Agnes, that she also interpel the Lord for you, since through her merits you can obtain the desired effect of all your vows?” But when the lady asked where she could find her, since she is dead, the voice again said to her, “She is not dead, but remains in the monastery of Saint Francis and is doing very well.” At these words the queen, as it seemed to her, rising from the bed, hastened with all speed to the aforesaid monastery.

Et appropians crati, hoc est fenestre, ad quam sorores locuntur, dictam fenestram pulsibus cepit impetere & dicere "Est ne hic aliqua de sororibus?" At una de intus respondente quid sit, interrogauit eam "Numquid est hic in monasterio auia mea sancta Agnes?" Denique sorore hoc affirmante, dicit ei domina memorata "Vade" inquid "& dic ei quia ego sum Elyzabet, regina Bohemie, filia regis Vencezlai et supplices ei ex parte mei ut ad me uelit huc uenire". Qua tandem, ut ei uidebatur, ad predictam fenestram accedente, uultum eius omnino in eadem disposicione quam ante uiuens habuerat conspexit, excepto quod decore mirabili & nimio candore uernabat. Quam cum fuisset intuita, flexis genibus contra cratem dixit ei "Ora pro me, karissima auia, quia uehementem cordis angustiam pacior, licet causam caute ignorem, et scio quod quidquid a domino pecieris impetrabis". Que auertens ab ea faciem dixit ei "Cur pro te orabo?" At regina nimium contristata corruit ante cratem dicens "Auia, ora pro me, quia de loco isto non recedam, sed pocius hic iacebo & in cordis angustia moriar, nisi pro me ad dominum intercedas!" Tunc uirgo Cristi conuersa ait "Vade in pace, quia orabo pro te!" Die uero sequenti nuncius de familia filii sui ueniens dixit ei "Domina regina, date mihi mercedem pro nuncio, quia filius uester de cuius salute desperauimus, deo auxiliante, conualuit". Que cum audis set, de infirmitate quidem ipsius perterrita, sed de conualencia nimium hylarata, sompnium quod uiderat per rei euidenciam intellexit, statimque sororibus monasterii in quo uirgo Cristi sepulta est pulchrum cereum & pannum preciosum ad ornatum sepulcri nec non elemosinam notabilem destinauit, eas affectuose flagitans quatenus deo qui habet uite et mortis potestatem ac uirgini gloriose Agneti graciarum debitas referant acciones, asserens unicum filium suum per eius interuentum & merita a mortis faucibus liberatum.

And approaching the grate, that is, the window, at which the sisters converse, she began to assail the said window with knocks & to say, "Is there any of the sisters here?" But when one from within answered what it was, she asked her, "Is my grandmother Saint Agnes here in the monastery?" Finally, the sister affirming this, the aforesaid lady says to her, "Go," she said, "& tell her that I am Elizabeth, queen of Bohemia, daughter of King Wenceslaus, and beseech her on my behalf that she be willing to come here to me." When she at length, as it seemed to her, came up to the aforesaid window, she beheld her countenance altogether in the same disposition which she had had while living before, except that it was blossoming with marvelous beauty & exceeding whiteness. Which when she had gazed upon, with knees bent before the grate she said to her, "Pray for me, dearest grandmother, because I suffer a vehement straitness of heart, although I cautiously do not know the cause, and I know that whatever you shall request from the Lord you will obtain." She, turning her face away from her, said to her, "Why shall I pray for you?" But the queen, exceedingly saddened, fell before the grate, saying, "Grandmother, pray for me, for I will not depart from this place, but rather I will lie here & die in a straitness of heart, unless you intercede to the Lord for me!" Then the virgin of Christ, turned, said, "Go in peace, for I will pray for you!" On the following day a messenger from the household of her son came, and said to her, "Lady queen, give me a reward for the message, for your son, for whose health we despaired, with God helping, has recovered." Which when she had heard, frightened indeed at his illness, but very gladdened at the recovery, she understood the dream which she had seen by the evidence of the reality, and at once she sent to the sisters of the monastery in which the virgin of Christ is buried a beautiful wax candle & a precious cloth for the adornment of the sepulcher, and also a notable alms, affectionately entreating them that they render the due acts of thanks to God who has the power of life and death, & to the glorious virgin Agnes, asserting that her only son was delivered from the jaws of death through her intervention & merits.

Alio tempore eadem domina Elyzabet, regina Bohemie, post partum secundi geniti nocte tercia infirmitate grauissima repente cepit urgeri, in tantum ut pre doloris uehemencia eos quos prius nouerat tunc minime agnoscebat. Et cunctis qui aderant tam medicis quam aliis de eius uita diffidentibus, ad alme uirginis patrocinium modo quo poterat se conuertit, corde uouens & ore coram omnibus protestans, quod si per merita eius gloriosa tam grauem languorem euaderet, pro canonizacione ipsius totis uiribus & omnibus quibus posset conatibus uellet fideliter laborare. Quod ut factum est, diuina opitulante uirtute, incensi doloris ilico sensit iuuamen, et optatam deinde recuperauit sospitatem.

At another time the same Lady Elyzabet, queen of Bohemia, after the birth of her second-born, on the third night suddenly began to be pressed by a most grievous infirmity, to such a degree that, by reason of the vehemence of the pain, she then in no way recognized those whom previously she knew. And while all who were present, as well physicians as others, despaired of her life, she turned herself, in whatever way she could, to the patronage of the kindly Virgin, vowing in her heart & with her mouth protesting before all, that if through her glorious merits she should escape so grave a languor, she would faithfully labor for her canonization with all her forces & with all the efforts by which she could. And when this came to pass, with divine virtue assisting, she immediately felt relief of the inflamed pain, and thereafter recovered the desired health.

Puer quidam, Martinus nomine, filius domine Margarete de ciuitate Pragensi, infirmitate graui correptus, in tantum defecit quod nec uox nec sensus nec motus alicuius uene in ipso perpendi ualeret. Quem auia sua nomine Kvnegundis accipiens, utrum uiuum uel mortuum penitus ignoratur, intrauit monasterium sororum, secundum graciam ab apostolica sede sibi concessam, et posuit eum super sepulcrum sancte Agnetis & facto uoto pro puero, cum omnes sorores alme uirginis auxilium implorarent, continuo puer quasi ab inferis suscitatus, tantum a deo corporis recepit uigorem quod nutrici traditus sic uiuide ubera mox sugebat, quasi nullam infirmitatem pertulisset.

Puer a certain boy, by name Martinus, the son of Lady Margaret of the city of Prague, seized by a grave infirmity, failed to such a degree that neither voice nor sense nor movement of any vein could be discerned in him. Whom his grandmother, named Kvnegundis, taking up—being utterly ignorant whether he was alive or dead—entered the monastery of the sisters, according to the grace granted to her by the Apostolic See, and placed him upon the sepulchre of St. Agnes & a vow having been made for the boy, while all the sisters were imploring the aid of the kindly virgin, immediately the boy, as if roused from the dead, received from God such vigor of body that, handed over to the nurse, he at once sucked the breasts so lively, as if he had endured no infirmity at all.

Soror quedam nomine Donika, filia domini Domazlai Dezquotz, degens in monasterio uirginis Cristi Prage, quatuor acutas habuit successiue. Cumque iam omnino deficere putaretur, communione dominici corporis & sacri olei unccione procurata est. Deinde consobrina eius, soror Junka de Lisnik, pallio beate Agnetis eam mox ut credebatur morituram contexit.

A certain sister named Donika, daughter of lord Domazlai Dezquotz, dwelling in the monastery of the Virgin of Christ at Prague, had four acute fevers in succession. And when she was now thought utterly to be failing, the communion of the Lord’s body & the unction of sacred oil was procured for her. Then her cousin, Sister Junka of Lisnik, covered her with the pallium of blessed Agnes, as she was soon believed to be dying.

Que iacens sub pallio memorato, uidens lucem magnam, ridere cepit, ita quod a sororibus astantibus putabatur omnino racionem amisisse. Tantus autem odor de pallio predicto manabat, quod ipso confortata sudare cepit & Cristi uirtute conualuit.

Who, lying beneath the aforesaid pall, seeing a great light, began to laugh, so that by the sisters standing by she was thought to have entirely lost reason. But so great an odor was emanating from the aforementioned pall that, strengthened by it, she began to sweat & by Christ’s virtue convalesced.

Alia soror eiusdem monasterii, nomine Wratzka de Ygezd, passione quadam ualde grauata usque ad extrema perducta est. Cumque, ut moris est, conductus eidem legeretur & ab aliquibus mortua putaretur, iacens in agone opem Agnetis sanctissime uirginis implorabat, ut ei pro signo sanitatis saltem unam guttulam sudoris a domino impetraret, uotum faciens de tribus missis ad honorem ipsius pocius quam ad suffragium anime procurandis. Quo emisso, uirtute adiutricis sue curata, uoti non inmemor missas legi procurauit; sed per incuriam sacerdotis non fuerunt consum[m]ate.

Another sister of the same monastery, by name Wratzka of Ygezd, oppressed by a certain passion and brought even to the last extremities, when, as is the custom, the conductus was being read to her and she was by some thought dead, lying in the agony implored the aid of Agnes, the most holy virgin, that for a sign of health she might obtain from the Lord for herself at least one little droplet of sweat, making a vow that three Masses should be provided in her honor rather than for the suffrage of the soul. This uttered, cured by the virtue of her helper, not unmindful of her vow she took care to have the Masses read; but through the negligence of the priest they were not consummated.

Adueniente autem anniuersario uirginis Cristi, cum ceteris sororibus ad dicendas uigilias circa tumulum eius properauit. Cumque ibi consisteret, a priori passione inuasa, cum magna difficultate peruenit ad lectum. Intelligens tandem uotum suum non esse conpletum, ad ipsum denuo renouauit & perfici sollicite procurauit.

However, with the anniversary of the virgin of Christ arriving, she hastened with the other sisters to say the vigils around her tomb. And when she was standing there, assailed by her prior passion, she reached her bed with great difficulty. At length understanding that her vow was not completed, she renewed it to the same again & carefully procured that it be perfected.

Tandemque per merita sancte Agnetis perfecte curacionis munus accepit.

And at length, through the merits of Saint Agnes, she received the gift of perfect healing.

Alia soror eiusdem monasterii, nomine Ludka de Tornow, cardiaca passione uehementer afflicta, laborare uidebatur in extremis. Sorores uero accipientes uinum, in quo felicia ossa sancte Agnetis lota fuerunt, ei dederunt ad bibendum. Cumque de ipso aliquantulum gustasset, uirtute dei conualescere cepit.

Another sister of the same monastery, by the name Ludka of Tornow, grievously afflicted by a cardiac passion, seemed to be laboring in extremis. But the sisters, taking wine in which the blessed bones of Saint Agnes had been washed, gave it to her to drink. And when she had tasted a little of it, by the power of God she began to convalesce.

Vir quidam, nomine Psribko, famulus domini Cunssonis de Hermanitz, Pragensis diocesis, in die secundo Pasce cum ceteris fidelibus ad ecclesiam properauit. Cumque missa de resurreccione domini cantaretur, stans in populo subito corruit, coloreque faciei mutato protinus agonizare cepit. Et ecce uir nobilis nomine Nycolaus de Nazitz dixit astantibus "Cito ad dominam coniungem meam properate, et capillos Sancte Agnetis quos habet celerius apportate". Qui cum allati fuissent & de aqua perfusi, aperientes os pacientis cum uiolencia, predictam aquam ori ac gutturi eius inmiserunt.

A certain man, by the name Psribko, servant of lord Cunsson of Hermanitz, of the Prague diocese, on the second day of Easter hastened to the church with the other faithful. And when the Mass of the Lord’s Resurrection was being sung, standing among the people he suddenly collapsed, and the color of his face having changed, he straightway began to agonize. And behold, a noble man by the name Nicholas of Nazitz said to those standing by, "Quickly hasten to my lady spouse, and bring more swiftly the hair of Saint Agnes which she has." Which, when they had been brought and drenched with water, opening the patient’s mouth with force, they poured the aforesaid water into his mouth and throat.

Qua gustata statim surrexit, & gracias agens deo ac inclite uirgini Agneti, uidentibus cunctis et stupentibus, omnino sanus ab ecclesia remeauit.

Which, having been tasted, he immediately rose, & giving thanks to God and to the illustrious Virgin Agnes, as all looked on and were astonished, he returned from the church altogether sound.

Uirgo quedam, nomine Wanka Praga parua a multis apellata, cum uice quadam Uulkanum fluuium transfretaret, habens secum aliquantulum de capillis Agnetis, casu de naui lapsa in fluuium, infra modici temporis tractum harenis in magna quantitate cooperta est. Sub quibus iacens pie uirginis Agnetis subsidium inuocabat. Et nautis tandem superuenientibus, de harenis quasi de loco sepulcri incolumis est extracta.

A certain virgin, named Wanka, by many called “of Lesser Prague,” when on a certain occasion she was crossing over the river Vulkanus, having with her a small amount of the hair of Saint Agnes, by chance slipped from the boat into the river, and within the span of a short time was covered by sands in great quantity. Lying beneath these, she invoked the aid of the pious virgin Agnes. And, the sailors at length supervening, she was drawn out from the sands, as from a sepulchral place, unharmed.

Alia uirgo, nomine Cristina, filia Gotfridi procuratoris fratrum minorum de Praga, uice quadam infirmitate grauata totum corpus habebat ceruleo siue croceo colore perfusum, ita quod omnes qui [e]am intuebantur propter tam horrendam inmutacionem coloris de uita ipsius desperabant. Illa quoque, de humana ope desperans, ad Agnetis suffragia se conuertit, rogitando cum lacrimis, ut eam suis sacris meritis ex hac egritudine liberaret, firma sponsione se constringens, si uiueret, in castitate transageret dies suos. Mira res!

Another virgin, named Cristina, daughter of Gotfrid, procurator of the Friars Minor of Prague, on one occasion weighed down by an infirmity, had her whole body suffused with a cerulean or saffron color, so that all who looked upon h[e]r despaired of her life because of so horrid a mutation of color. She too, despairing of human help, turned herself to the suffrages of Agnes, entreating with tears that by her sacred merits she might free her from this sickness, binding herself with a firm sponsion that, if she should live, she would pass her days in chastity. Wonderful thing!

Virgo a uirgine inuocata deuote celerem obtinet remedii salutaris effectum, eamque regine uirginum sectatricem. Mox enim ab infirmitate sanata, religiosum habitum suscepit, & quod ore uouerat opere solerter impleuit.

A maiden, having devoutly invoked the Virgin, swiftly obtains the effect of a salutary remedy, and becomes a follower of the Queen of Virgins. For soon, healed from infirmity, she assumed the religious habit, & what she had vowed with her mouth she diligently fulfilled by deed.

Mulier quedam coniunx Martini ciuis Pragensis dicti de Egra, diebus pluribus in puerperio laborando, fetum euadere non ualebat. Et mittens ad fratres minores, quibus erat amore Cristi deuota, suppliciter flagitabat ut aliquam rem qua uenerabilis virgo Cristi usa fuit sibi a sororibus impetrarent, quam apud se absque scrupulo consciencie infra tempus egritudinis gestare ualeret. Obtinent dicti fratres unum cingulum, de quo corpus illius post mortem tactum fuit.

A certain woman, the wife of Martin, a citizen of Prague bynamed “de Egra,” for many days laboring in puerperium, was not able to have the fetus come forth. And sending to the Friars Minor, to whom she was devoted for love of Christ, she humbly entreated that they impetrate for her from the sisters some thing which the venerable virgin of Christ had used, which she might be able to wear upon herself without scruple of conscience during the time of her sickness. The said brothers obtain one girdle, with which her body after death had been touched.

Quo cum paciens cincta fuisset, inuocando uirginis piissime suffragium, eius interuenientibus meritis ilico infantem peperit, salua prolis & proprii corporis sospitate.

When the patient had been girded with this, invoking the most pious Virgin’s suffrage, with her intervening merits she immediately bore the infant, with the safety of the offspring and of her own body preserved.

Una quedam, nomine Dobroslana, de contrata Slauensi, Pragensis dyocesis, magna matricis infirmitate grauata, & iam pene deficiens pre dolore, diebus & noctibus lamentabiles dabat uoces. Tandem de consilio fratrum minorum misit in Pragam ad sorores, instanter petendo ut sibi de uino in quo propter infirmos assidue rogantes tincte fuerant reliquie uirginis Agnetis, aliquantulum mitterent propter deum. Quod allatum postquam gustasset, recepit omnimodam sanitatem.

A certain woman, by name Dobroslana, from the Slavic quarter, of the diocese of Prague, weighed down by a great infirmity of the matrix, & now almost failing from pain, by days & nights was uttering lamentable cries. At length, by the counsel of the Friars Minor, she sent to Prague to the sisters, urgently requesting that for God’s sake they would send her a little of the wine in which, on behalf of the sick continually entreating, the relics of the virgin Agnes had been dipped. Which, when it had been brought, after she had tasted it, she received complete health.

Nobilis quidam regni Bohemie, nomine Tatzo, habens intra guttur quoddam apostema, petiuit humiliter fratres minores in Praga, ut eum aliquibus reliquiis Sancte Agnetis consignarent. Fratres uero capillos ipsius uirginis in uino intingentes, collum pacientis uino predicto linierunt & residuum bibere suaserunt, consulentes nichilominus quod uotum aliquod ad honorem dei sueque ancille Agnetis uoueret, & pauperibus elemosinas largiretur. Qui cum non solum ea que sibi suasa fuerunt deuote fecisset, sed eciam plura hiis super[erog]asset, perfecte curacionis munus adeptus est.

A certain noble of the kingdom of Bohemia, named Tatzo, having within his throat a certain aposteme, humbly petitioned the Friars Minor in Prague that they would sign him with some relics of Saint Agnes. But the brothers, dipping the hairs of the virgin herself in wine, smeared the patient’s neck with the aforesaid wine & urged him to drink the remainder, advising nonetheless that he should vow some vow to the honor of God and of His handmaid Agnes, & should bestow alms upon the poor. And when he had not only devoutly done the things that had been suggested to him, but had also super[erog]ated more beyond these, he obtained the gift of perfect healing.

Alius multum nobilis dominus Linko de Duba passione squinancie frequenter uexabatur, tam grauiter quod propter doloris uehemenciam linguam supra pectus turpiter exponebat. Cumque nullo medicine remedio eidem posset subueniri, de consilio sororum ordinis Sancte Clare in Praga consanguinearum suarum vinum in quo ossa beate Agnetis lota fuerunt cum deuocione potauit, & nunquam deinceps memoratam pertulit passionem.

Another very noble lord, Linko of Duba, was frequently vexed by the passion of quinsy, so gravely that, on account of the vehemence of the pain, he shamefully exposed his tongue over his chest. And since by no remedy of medicine could aid be brought to him, by the counsel of the sisters of the Order of Saint Clare in Prague, his kinswomen, he drank with devotion the wine in which the bones of blessed Agnes had been washed, & never thereafter did he endure the aforesaid passion.

Iuuenis quidam, nomine Vencezlaus, notarius cuiusdam militis nomine Protywerzonis in Bohemia, grandem in gutture paciebatur dolorem, racione cuius nec unum uerbum proferre ualebat. Perductus tandem per dominum suum ad fratres minores in Praga, nutibus cepit exposcere quod cum reliquiis signaretur. Dominus autem ipsius nutus eius non intelligentibus dixit "Ipse innuit & ego instanter peto, ut de reliquiis beate Agnetis si quas habetis dolorem ipsius tangatis, quia per hoc sperat se totaliter liberari". Properat subito unus de fratribus et capillos uirginis quos ob deuocionem seruabat attulit reuerenter, & intingens in aquam collum eius liniuit, terque cruce signauit in honore deifice trinitatis, et quidquid de aqua remanserat ebibere iussit.

A certain youth, by name Vencezlaus, the notary of a certain knight named Protywerzo in Bohemia, was suffering a great pain in his throat, by reason of which he was not able to utter even a single word. At length, led by his lord to the Friars Minor in Prague, by nods he began to beg that he be signed with the relics. His lord, however, as they did not understand his nods, said, "He signals & I urgently ask, that from the relics of blessed Agnes, if you have any, you touch his pain, because by this he hopes to be wholly freed." Straightway one of the brothers hastens and reverently brought the hair of the virgin which he was keeping out of devotion, and, dipping it in water, he anointed his neck, and thrice he signed with the cross in honor of the deific Trinity, and he ordered him to drink up whatever of the water had remained.

Qua difficulter potata, aliquod enim diebus cibum non sumpserat neque potum, statim uocem emisit ad modum ouis balantis. Quam cum tercio emisisset, debilitari cepit & sudare, et post modicam quietem in uerba exultacionis prorupit dicens "Benedictus sit dominus noster Jhesus Cristus, qui me peccatorem per sanctam Agnetem uirginem liberauit," Statimque equo ascenso cum domino suo incolumis & letus abscessit.

Which, having with difficulty been drunk—for for some days he had taken neither food nor drink—immediately he emitted a voice in the manner of a bleating sheep. When he had emitted it a third time, he began to grow weak & to sweat, and after a short rest he burst forth into words of exultation, saying, "Blessed be our Lord Jesus Christ, who has freed me, a sinner, through Saint Agnes the virgin," and immediately, a horse having been mounted, with his lord he departed safe & joyful.

Simili modo quidam uir Marzitus, nomine Hoholitz, Pragensis dyocesis, per octo dierum spacium propter grauissimam gutturis passionem nec unum uerbum proferre ualebat, sed lamenta[bi]les rugitus doloris expressiuos. Cumque de capillis sancte Agnetis bibisset, nocte sequenti apparuit ei uirgo predicta in habitu sororum ordinis sancte Clare, et dixit se esse sanctam Agnetem, et duobus digitis in os eius usque ad locum doloris inmissis, omnem dolorem tactu manus sue propulsauit.

In a similar manner, a certain man Marzitus, named Hoholitz, of the Prague diocese, for the space of eight days, on account of a most grievous passion of the throat, was not able to utter a single word, but [only] lamenta[bi]le roars expressive of pain. And when he had drunk from the hairs of Saint Agnes, on the following night the aforesaid virgin appeared to him in the habit of the sisters of the Order of Saint Clare, and said that she was Saint Agnes, and, with two fingers sent into his mouth as far as the place of the pain, she drove away all the pain by the touch of her hand.

Quodam tempore fluuio nomine Uulcana supra quem situm est monasterium sororum in Praga nimium inundante, aqua predictarum sororum monasterium ingrediens, eciam locum sepulture uirginis Cristi repleuit. Cessante inundacione soror Margareta, filia Jacobi ciuis Pragensis, aquam de sepulcro hauriens, multo tempore seruauit incorruptam, que multis extitit remedium salutare contra multimodas passiones. Quidam namque uir Albertus nomine & soror eius Elyzabet in ciuitate Pragensi in morte decumbentes, haustu aque predicte totaliter a periculo mortis liberati sunt.

At a certain time, the river by the name Vulcana, upon which the monastery of the sisters in Prague is situated, overflowing excessively, the water, entering the monastery of the aforesaid sisters, even filled the place of the sepulture of the Virgin of Christ. With the flooding ceasing, Sister Margaret, daughter of Jacob, a citizen of Prague, drawing water from the tomb, kept it uncorrupted for a long time, which proved a salutary remedy for many against manifold sufferings. For a certain man, Albert by name, & his sister Elizabeth, in the city of Prague, lying in death, by a draught of the aforesaid water were wholly freed from the peril of death.

Et multi alii a diuersis egritudinibus liberati. Propter tales autem inundaciones que frequenter ibi contingunt timentes sorores omnes reliquias uirginis incinerari debere, ossa ipsius de sepulcro leuantes lota in uino per manus fratrum sacerdotum cum magna reuerencia in archa lignea condiderunt. Predictum autem uinum per annum in cina conseruatum nec colorem nec saporem mutauit, & multis egris bibentibus prestitit medelam salutis, sicut de aliquibus superius est expressum.

And many others were freed from diverse sicknesses. Because of such inundations which frequently happen there, the sisters, fearing that all the relics of the Virgin would be incinerated, lifted her bones from the sepulcher, and, washed in wine through the hands of the brother priests, with great reverence laid them up in a wooden ark. The aforesaid wine, however, conserved for a year in a tun, changed neither color nor savor, and to many sick persons drinking it it granted the remedy of health, as has been set forth above concerning some.

Nobilis quidam de Bohemia, dictus Marquardus de Wlassym, habitis capillis Agnetis uirginis a quadam sorore ordinis Sancte Clare de Praga, in ciuitate sua Wlassym multos febricitantes reperiens, aliquos quidem de predictis capillis bibere fecit, alios autem tantummodo eisdem capillis benedixit et quindecim ex illis meritis famule Cristi a vi febrium liberati sunt.

A certain nobleman from Bohemia, called Marquardus de Wlassym, having obtained hairs of the virgin Agnes from a certain sister of the Order of Saint Clare of Prague, finding many feverish persons in his city Wlassym, had some indeed drink of the aforesaid hairs, but others he only blessed with the same hairs, and fifteen of them, by the merits of the handmaid of Christ, were freed from the force of fevers.

Soror Constancia que post mortem sancte Agnetis pluribus annis excursis monasterii ipsius extitit abbatissa, ante mortem prefate uirginis gloriose pluribus accessionibus febrilibus grauata, in die tandem defunccionis ipsius plus solito cepit uexari, ita quod quasi tenebrescebat ante oculos eius, et totum corpus ipsius nimium erat ponderosum. Cumque sorores dixissent gracias in choro post prandium, illa ueniens procidit iuxta feretrum in quo corpus uirginis Cristi iacebat, ipsius merita inuocando, ut cum aliis sororibus pro anima eius nocte sequenti legere psalterium posset. Surgens autem ab oracione nullum dolorem sensit, nullumque grauamen, & quod facere decreuerat, effectui mancipauit.

Sister Constance, who, after the death of Saint Agnes, with several years having elapsed, was abbess of her monastery, before the death of the aforesaid glorious virgin, being burdened by many febrile attacks, on the day at last of her decease began to be vexed more than usual, such that it was as if it grew dark before her eyes, and her whole body was exceedingly heavy. And when the sisters had said thanks in choir after dinner, she, coming, fell prostrate beside the bier in which the body of the virgin of Christ lay, invoking her merits, so that she might be able, with the other sisters, for her soul, on the following night to read the Psalter. But rising from prayer she felt no pain and no burden, & what she had resolved to do, she carried into effect.

Alia soror, nomine Agnes de Sberzkowitz, que eciam post mortem alme uirginis sororum monasterii eius fuit abbatissa pluribus annis, ante quam gereret dictum officium, grauissimam paralisim in cubito manus dextere perpessa est, in tantum quod eadem manu nichil poterat operari, sed continue portabat alligatam in sinu cum corda. Die autem quadam inueniens archam ligneam in qua corpus uirginis iacuerat, petiuit unam de sororibus ut eam iuuaret exponere manum dolorosam de sinu, quia nunquam inponi poterat uel exponi sine magno pacientis dolore pariter et clamore. Cumque dictam manum prefate arche ut poterat applicuisset, omni dolore semoto, restituta est usui & pristine sanitati.

Another sister, by the name Agnes of Sberzkowitz, who also after the death of the kindly virgin was abbess of the sisters’ monastery for many years, before she bore the said office, suffered a most grave paralysis in the elbow of the right hand, to such an extent that with that same hand she could accomplish nothing, but continually carried it bound to her bosom with a cord. But on a certain day, finding the wooden chest in which the body of the virgin had lain, she asked one of the sisters to help her put forth the painful hand from her bosom, because it could never be put in or taken out without great pain of the patient and likewise a cry. And when she had applied the said hand to the aforesaid chest as she was able, with all pain removed, it was restored to use & to its pristine health.

Qvedam nobilis domina, nomine Scolastica, consors domini Habhardi de Zyrotin in Bohemia, dum adhuc Agnes felicissima in carne degeret, massam quandam in latere sinistro diu pertulit ex malorum coadunacione humorum. Quam per diuersa medicorum remedia euadere non ualens, cum auia sua, domina Scolastica de Sternberk que licenciam habebat monasterium sororum intrandi, claustrum in quo uirgo Cristi degebat ingrediens pia calliditate temptabat latus suum morbidum lateri uirginali iungere, sperans se ipsius contactu cupitam recipere sanitatem. Quod & factum est.

A certain noble lady, named Scholastica, the consort of Lord Habhard of Zyrotin in Bohemia, while Agnes most felicitous was still dwelling in the flesh, for a long time bore a certain mass on her left side from a coadunation of ill humors. Being unable to escape it through diverse remedies of physicians, she entered, with her grandmother, Lady Scholastica of Sternberk, who had license to enter the sisters’ monastery, the cloister in which the Virgin of Christ dwelt, and with pious cleverness tried to join her diseased side to the virginal side, hoping to receive by its contact the longed-for health. And so it was done.

Volens enim ab ancilla Cristi licenciari recedendo, fuit eam amplexata, in quo amplexu passionatum latus lateri eius ut potuit coniunxit, & quam nec herba nec malagina sanauerat, antequam de monasterio exisset sensit se omnino mirifica dei uirtute sanatam. Et ut accepti beneficii gratitudinem demonstraret, egrediens de monasterio statim audientibus pluribus hominibus fide dignis uiue uocis oraculo fatebatur per merita eximie uirginis se a morbo grauissimo liberatam.

For, wishing to be licensed to depart from the handmaid of Christ, she embraced her; and in that embrace she joined, as she could, her afflicted side to her side; and that which neither herb nor poultice had healed, before she had gone out of the monastery she felt herself altogether healed by the wondrous power of God. And in order to demonstrate gratitude for the benefit received, going out from the monastery at once, with many men worthy of faith listening, by the oracle of a living voice she avowed that through the merits of the exceptional virgin she had been freed from a most grievous disease.

Alia domina clari generis, Ostyrhildis nomine, coniunx domini Iobozlai de Sternberk, morbum qui fistula dicitur pluribus annis perpessa est. Audiens autem per merita beate Agnetis homines a diuersis egritudinibus liberari, totam se contulit ad eius suffragia, ieiuniis & oracionibus et elemosinis imploranda deum ob reuerencia ancille Cristi uotum emittens, ab omni dolore quem assidue passa fuerat sensit se immunem: sed aperturam fistule cernens omnino sanata[m], deo & gloriose uirgini Agneti gracias agens copiosas, uotum suum exsoluit.

Another lady of illustrious lineage, by the name Ostyrhildis, the spouse of Lord Iobozlai of Sternberk, endured for many years the disease which is called a fistula. But hearing that through the merits of blessed Agnes people are liberated from diverse sicknesses, she wholly committed herself to her suffrages, with fasts & prayers and alms, imploring God, and, out of reverence for the handmaid of Christ, making a vow; she felt herself free from all pain which she had continually suffered: but, seeing the opening of the fistula altogether healed, giving abundant thanks to God & to the glorious virgin Agnes, she fulfilled her vow.

Quedam alia domina, consors domini Inladote de territorio Luchomericensi, annis pluribus fluxu sanguinis fatigata, in exaltacione sancte crucis ad monasterium in quo corpus sancte Agnetis requiescit peruenit; et cum multe uirtutes et curaciones uariarum infirmitatum ad inuocacionem uirginis Cristi patrate, coram multitudine que tunc confluxerat recitarentur, ad eius suffragia cuius audiebat magnalia se conuertit. Cum ad honorem eius uotum in corde suo fecisset, continuo a profluuio sanguinis liberata, miraculum in se gestum ibidem protestans, multos audientes ad benedicendum & laudandum in sanctis suis dominum incitauit.

A certain other lady, the consort of lord Inladota from the Luchomeric territory, for many years wearied by a flow of blood, on the Exaltation of the Holy Cross came to the monastery in which the body of Saint Agnes rests; and when many miracles and cures of various infirmities, wrought at the invocation of the Virgin of Christ, were being recited before the multitude that had then flowed together, she turned to her for intercession, of whom she was hearing mighty works. When she had made a vow in her heart in her honor, immediately freed from the outflow of blood, there proclaiming the miracle wrought in herself, she incited many hearers to bless & to praise the Lord in his saints.

Soror Donika, ordinis sancte Clare de Praga, filia Domaslai Desquotz, quadam uice sororem que in coquina pro ceteris sororibus cibos parabat quantum poterat adiuuabat. Cumque uellet aquam fundere in cacabum qui super ignem pendebat, casu in ignem corruit secundum longum, et cadendo simulque in igne iacendo clamabat, "Sancta Agnes, adiuua me!" Surgens autem de voracibus flammis, nullum adustionis uestigium in uestimentis suis habuit, nec in corpore aliquam pertulit lesionem.

Sister Donika, of the Order of Saint Clare of Prague, daughter of Domaslai Desquotz, on a certain occasion was helping as much as she could a sister who in the kitchen was preparing food for the other sisters. And when she wished to pour water into the cauldron which was hanging over the fire, by chance she fell into the fire at full length, and while falling and at the same time lying in the fire she cried, "Saint Agnes, help me!" But rising from the voracious flames, she had no vestige of adustion on her garments, nor did she suffer any lesion on her body.

Sedes supra quam uirgo Cristi sederat frequenter, ardente quadam vice domo in qua tunc stabat sedes predicta, modicum quidem in una sui parte adusta in medio magnarum flamarum mansit inconbusta, que usque hodie in memoriam huius facti conseruatur.

The seat upon which the virgin of Christ had frequently sat, when on a certain occasion the house in which the aforesaid seat then stood was burning, though indeed slightly singed on one part of itself, remained incombust in the midst of great flames, which up to this day is preserved in memory of this deed.

Quadam uice fluuius que circa monasterium sororum in Praga in tantum inundauerat, quod magnam partem monasterii & capellam in qua corpus sancte Agnetis fuerat tumulatum pro magna sui parte repleuit. Cumque una de sororibus nomine Elyzabet, filia domini Alberti de Lubressitz ad prefatam capellam cicius peruenisset, uolens extrahere de sepulcro casulam ligneam in qua erant ossa uirginis recondita, casu in aquam lapsa, totaliter cooperta est aquis. Vna autem de sororibus, nomine Sdinka Paulitonis, corda eidem porrecta ipsam de aquis exire adiuuit.

On a certain occasion the river which ran around the monastery of the sisters in Prague had so inundated that it filled a great part of the monastery & the chapel in which the body of Saint Agnes had been entombed, for a great part of it. And when one of the sisters named Elyzabet, daughter of lord Albert of Lubressitz, had quickly come to the aforesaid chapel, wishing to draw out from the sepulchre a little wooden casket in which the bones of the virgin had been laid away, by chance she slipped into the water and was totally covered by the waters. But one of the sisters, named Sdinka Paulitonis, having extended a rope to her, helped her to go out from the waters.

Cumque egressa fuisset nullum humiditatis uestigium apparuit in corpore eius uel in ueste, quod utique meritis sancte Agnetis factum esse credendum est.

And when she had gone out, no vestige of moisture appeared on her body or on her garment, which surely is to be believed to have been done by the merits of Sainte Agnes.

Alia soror, nomine Iunka de Bessan, cum sancta Agnetis adhuc staret insepultum, de pollice pedis ipsius, sororibus absentibus unguem precidere uoluit et causa deuocionis seruare. Quod cum facere cepisset, sanguis fortissime cepit manare. Que nimium perterrita, sanguinem panno lineo abstergebat, ita quod magnam partem ipsius dicto sanguine rubricauit, qui postea meritis eximie uirginis multis infirmitatibus extitit remedium salutare.

Another sister, by name Iunka de Bessan, while Saint Agnes was still lying unburied, wished—while the sisters were absent—to cut off a nail from the big toe of her foot and to keep it for a cause of devotion. When she began to do this, blood began to flow very strongly. She, exceedingly terrified, was wiping away the blood with a linen cloth, so that she rubricated a great part of it with the said blood, which afterwards, by the merits of the exceptional virgin, proved a health-giving remedy for many infirmities.

Timens autem predicta soror de prefato fluxu sanguinis nimium reprehendi & turbari, procidit cum alia sorore iuxta feretrum, orans misericordem dominum et uirginem piam ut predictum fluxum sistere dignaretur, quod et factum est.

However, the aforesaid sister, fearing that she might be excessively reproved and disturbed on account of the aforesaid flow of blood, fell down with another sister beside the bier, praying the merciful Lord and the pious virgin that she would deign to stop the aforesaid flow, which also was done.

Sunt quidem & alia multa signa que per huius gloriose uirginis merita dominus operari dignatus est, non solum in infirmantibus sed eciam in rebus perditis ut recuperentur adiuuando, et cunctis ad se clamantibus misericorditer sucurrendo. Predicta uero idcirco a me pauca sub compendio sunt transcursa, ut digniores & periciores laudatores occasionem habeant plura si uoluerint ad laudem dei ac huius illustrissime uirginis apponendi.

There are indeed also many other signs which through the merits of this glorious virgin the Lord has deigned to work, not only in those who are infirm but also in lost things, aiding that they be recovered, and mercifully succoring all who cry to him. The aforesaid, however, have therefore by me been briefly run through in a few points, so that more worthy & more expert praisers may have the occasion to add more, if they should wish, to the praise of God and of this most illustrious virgin.

PRECACIO.

PRAYER.

Eya, uirgo benigna, que in littore celestis patrie secura in stacione letaris, intue minimum ac uilissimum seruorum dei, qui gesta tua gloriosa balbuciendo utrumque depromsi, oculis miseracionis intendas cum ceteris tibi deuotis, ut qui adhuc miseri in mari turbulento uersamur et procellosas eius uoragines corporis ratem trahentes ignoramus an ad soliditatem littoris peruenire possimus, tuis sanctissimis precibus de lacu miserie et de luto fecis educas, ne nos demergat tempestas aque multimoda scilicet tribulacio, neque dampnacionis eterne absorbeat nos profundum. Ora regem maiestatis, cuius nunc iocundissima frueris uisione, ut in fluctibus huius pelagi potenti sua dextera nos gubernare dignetur, quatenus inter Caribdim & Scillam per medium sic tendamus, ut utroque periculo euitato salua naui & mercibus ad portum felicitatis perpetue securi pertingere ualeamus. Quod tuis sacris meritis & precibus ipse nobis prestare dignetur, qui est deus benedictus laudabilis & gloriosus in secula seculorum.

Ah, benign virgin, who on the shore of the heavenly fatherland, secure, rejoice in anchorage, look upon the least and most worthless of the servants of God, who, stammering, have set forth both your glorious deeds, that you would direct eyes of mercy upon me together with the others devoted to you, so that we who, still wretched, are tossed in the turbulent sea and, dragging the raft of the body through its stormy whirlpools, do not know whether we can reach the solidity of the shore, you may lead us out by your most holy prayers from the lake of misery and from the mire of dregs, lest the manifold tempest of waters—that is, tribulation—sink us, nor the deep of eternal damnation swallow us. Pray to the king of majesty, whose most joyful vision you now enjoy, that in the waves of this sea he may deign to govern us with his mighty right hand, to the end that between Charybdis & Scylla we may so hold our course through the midst that, both dangers avoided, with ship and cargo safe, we may be able securely to reach the harbor of perpetual felicity. Which he himself may deign to grant to us by your sacred merits & prayers, who is God blessed, praiseworthy & glorious unto the ages of ages.

Amen.

Cristo deuota uirgo domina Agnes, soror Vencezlai quarti regis Bohemie, suscepit ordinem sancti Francisci: ad cuius imitacionem, sicut pater sanctus Franciscus sub typo trium ordinum tres ecclesias erexit, ita ipsa tres sollempnes ecclesias construxit in Praga. Primam uidelicet in honore saluatoris omnium, in qua se cum sororibus suis recollegit. Secundam in honore sancte dei genitricis Marie et beati Francisci pro fratribus minoribus iuxta se diuina sibi & sororibus ordinis Sancte Clare ministrantibus.

Christ-devoted virgin lady Agnes, sister of Wenceslaus the Fourth, king of Bohemia, received the Order of Saint Francis: in imitation of whom, just as Father Saint Francis, under the type of three orders, erected three churches, so she herself constructed three solemn churches in Prague. The first, namely, in honor of the Savior of all, in which she gathered herself with her sisters. The second in honor of the holy God-bearer Mary and blessed Francis, for the Friars Minor next to her, ministering the divine offices to herself & to the sisters of the Order of Saint Clare.

Terciam in hospitali suo eciam in honore sancti Francisci pro ordine cruciferorum tunc de nouo per fratres minores de mandato ipsius domine Agnetis creato, uidelicet cruciferis stelliferis quibus ipsum hospitale copiosissime de propriis bonis regalibus dotatum conmisit, ut ipsi debilibus & infirmis & omnibus miseris personis ibi receptis, tam in temporalibus quam in spiritualibus, fideliter necessaria ministrarent.

The third in her hospital also in honor of Saint Francis, for the Order of the Crucifers, then newly created by the Minor Brothers at the mandate of that lady Agnes, namely for the star-bearing Crucifers, to whom she entrusted that hospital endowed most copiously from her own royal goods, so that they might faithfully minister the necessary things to the weak & the infirm & all wretched persons received there, both in temporals and in spirituals.