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Home > Catholic Encyclopedia > J > Blessed Jacopo de Voragine


BLESSED JACOPO DE VORAGINE

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(Also DI VIRAGGIO).

Archbishop of Genoa and medieval hagiologist, born at Viraggio (now Varazze),
near Genoa, about 1230; died 13 July, about 1298. In 1244 he entered the Order
of St. Dominic, and soon became famous for his piety, learning, and zeal in the
care of souls. His fame as a preacher spread throughout Italy, and he was called
upon to preach from the most celebrated pulpits of Lombardy. After teaching Holy
Scripture and theology in various houses of his order in Northern Italy, he was
elected provincial of Lombardy in 1267, holding this office until 1286, in which
year he become definitor of the Lombard province of Dominicans. In the latter
capacity he attended a chapter at Lucca in 1288, and another at Ferrara, in
1290. In 1288 he was commissioned by Pope Nicholas IV to free the Genoese from
the ban of the Church, which they had incurred for assisting the Sicilians in
their revolt against the King of Naples. When Archbishop Charles Bernard of
Genoa died, in 1286, the metropolitan chapter of Genoa proposed Jacopo de
Voragine as his successor. Upon his refusal to accept the dignity, Obizzo
Fieschi, the Patriarch of Antioch whom the Saracens had driven from the see, was
transferred to the archiepiscopal See of Genoa by Nicholas IV in 1288.



When Obizzo Fieschi died, in 1292, the chapter of Genoa unanimously elected
Jacopo de Voragine as his successor. He again endeavoured to evade the
archiepiscopal dignity, but was finally obliged to yield to the combined prayers
of the clergy, the Senate, and the people of Genoa. Nicholas IV wished to
consecrate him bishop personally, and called him to Rome for that purpose; but
shortly after the arrival of de Voragine the pope died, and the new bishop was
consecrated at Rome during the succeeding interregnum, on 13 April, 1292. The
episcopate of Jacopo de Voragine fell in a time when Genoa was a scene of
continuous warfare between the Rampini and the Mascarati, the former of whom
were Guelphs, the latter Ghibellines. The archbishop, indeed, effected an
apparent reconciliation between the two hostile parties in 1295; but the
dissensions broke out anew, and all his efforts to restore peace were useless.
In 1292 he held a provincial synod at Genoa, chiefly for the purpose of
identifying the relics of St. Syrus, one of the earliest bishops of Genoa
(324?). The cult of Jacopo de Voragine, which seems to have begun soon after his
death, was ratified by Pius VII in 1816. The same pope permitted the clergy of
Genoa and Savona, and the whole Order of St. Dominic, to celebrate his feast as
that of a saint.

Jacopo de Voragine is best known as the author of a collection of legendary
lives of the saints, which was entitled "Legenda Sanctorum" by the author, but
soon became universally known as "Legenda Aurea" (Golden Legend), because the
people of those times considered it worth its weight in gold. In some of the
earlier editions it is styled "Lombardica Historia", which title gave rise to
the false opinion that this was a different work from the "Golden Legend". The
title "Lombardica Historia" originated in the fact that in the life of Pope
Pelagius, which forms the second last chapter of the "Golden Legend", is
contained an abstract of the history of the Lombards down to 1250 (Mon. Germ.
Hist.: Script., XXIV, 167 sq.). In the preface to the "Golden Legend" the author
divides the ecclesiastical year into four periods, which he compared to four
epochs in the history of the world, viz. a time of deviation, renovation,
reconciliation, and pilgrimage. The body of the work, which contains 177
chapters (according to others, 182), is divided into five sections, viz. from
Advent to Christmas, from Christmas to Septuagesima, from Septuagesima to
Easter, from Easter to Octave of Pentecost, and from the Octave of Pentecost to
Advent. If we are to judge the "Golden Legend" from an historical standpoint, we
must condemn it as entirely uncritical and hence of no value, except in so far
as it teaches us that the people of those times were an extremely naive and
thoroughly religious people, permeated with an unshakable belief in God's
omnipotence and His fatherly care for those who lead a saintly life.

If, on the other hand, we view the "Golden Legend" as an artistically composed
book of devotion, we must admit that it is a complete success. It is admirably
adapted to enhance our love and respect towards God, to foster our devotion
towards His saints, and to animate us with a holy zeal to follow their example.
The chief object of Jacopo de Voragine and of other medieval hagiologists was
not to compose reliable biographies or to write scientific treatises for the
learned, but to write books of devotion that were adapted to the simple manners
of the common people. It is due to a wrong conception of the purpose of the
"Golden Legend" that Luis Vives (De causis corruptarum artium, c. ii), Melchior
Canus (De locis theologicis, xi, 6), and others have severely denounced it; and
to a true conception that the Bollandists (Acts SS., January, I, 19) and many
recent hagiologists have highly praised it. That the work made a deep impression
on the people is evident from its immense popularity, and from the great
influence it had on the prose and poetic literature of many nations. It became
the basis of many passionals of the Middle Ages and religious poems of later
times. Longfellow's "Golden Legend", which, with two other poems, forms the
trilogy entitled "Christus", owes its name and many of its ideas to the "Golden
Legend" of de Voragine.



Bernard Guidonis (d. 1331), also a Dominican, made a vain attempt to supplant it
by a more reliable work of the same character, which he entitled "Speculum
Sanctorum". In 1500 as many as seventy-four Latin editions of the "Legenda
Aurea" had been published, not counting the three translations into English,
five French, eight Italian, fourteen Low German, and three Bohemian. The first
printed edition was in Latin, and was produced at Basle in 1470. Many succeeding
editions contain additions of the lives of later saints or of feasts introduced
after the thirteenth century. The best Latin edition was prepared by Graesse
(Dresden and Leipzig, 1846, 1850, and Breslau, 1890). The first English edition
was printed by William Caxton at London in 1483 from a version made about 1450.
It was inscribed:

> The Golden Legend. Fynysshed at Westmere the twenty day of Novembre/ the yere
> of our Lord M/CCCC/LXXXIII/. By me Wyllyam Caxton.

In this edition some of the less credible legends of the original are omitted.
The publication was made at the instance of the Earl of Arundel, who agreed to
take "a reasonable number of copies", and to pay as an annuity "a buck in summer
and a doe in winter" (see Putnam, "Books and their Makers in the Middle Ages",
New York and London, II, 1897, 118). Caxton's edition was re-edited and
modernized by Ellis (London and New York, 1900). The first French version that
appeared in print was made by Jean Batallier, and printed at Lyons in 1476. A
French translation, made by Jean Belet de Vigny in the fourteenth century, was
first printed at Paris in 1488. Recent French editions were prepared by Brunet,
signed M. G. B. (Paris, 1843 and 1908); by de Wyzewa (Paris, 1902); and by Roze
(Paris, 1902). an Italian translation by Nicolas Manerbi was printed in 1475,
probably at Venice; a Bohemian one was printed at Pilsen between 1475 and 1479,
and another at Prague in 1495; a Low German one at Delft in 1472, and at Gouda
in 1478. A German reproduction in poetry was made by Kralik (Munich, 1902).

Another important work of Jacopo de Voragine is his so-called "Chronicon
Genuense", a chronicle of Genoa reaching to 1296. Part of this chronicle, which
is a valuable source of Genoese history, was published by Muratori in "Rerum
Italicarum Scriptores" (Milan, 1723-51), IX, 5-56. Concerning it see Mannucci,
"La cronaca di Jacopo da Viraggio" (Geneva, 1904). He is also the author of a
collection of 307 sermons, "Sermones de sanctis, de tempore, quadragesimales, de
Beata Maria Virgine". They have been repeatedly printed, both separately and
collectively. The earliest edition of the whole collection was printed in 1484,
probably at Venice, where they were published a second time in 1497 and
repeatedly thereafter. His remaining literary productions are "Defensorium
contra impugnantes Fratres Praedicatores" (Venice, 1504), which is a defence of
the Dominicans against some who accused them of not leading an Apostolic life;
"Summarium virtutum et vitiorum" (Basle, 1497), which is an epitome of a work of
the same title, written by William Peraldus, a Dominican who died about thirty
years before Jacopo de Voragine. A theological work, entitled "De operibus et
opusculis Sancti Augustini", is also generally ascribed to him, but its
authenticity has not yet been sufficiently established. It is known that he was
a close student of St. Augustine. Some, relying on the authority of Sixtus of
Siena, ascribe to him also an Italian translation of the Bible, but no
manuscript or print of it has ever been found.




ABOUT THIS PAGE

APA citation. Ott, M. (1910). Blessed Jacopo de Voragine. In The Catholic
Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08262b.htm

MLA citation. Ott, Michael. "Blessed Jacopo de Voragine." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910.
<http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08262b.htm>.

Transcription. This article was transcribed for New Advent by David Joyce.

Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D.,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.

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