HERE BEGIN SOME OF THE MIRACLES SHOWN
AFTER HIS DEATH

Chapter I
IN THE FIRST PLACE
THE POWER OF THE SACRED STIGMATA

¹To the honor of almighty God
and the glory of our Blessed Father Francis,
as I begin to write down
some of the approved miracles
worked by our Blessed Father
after his glorification in heaven,
it seems to me that I ought to begin by that one
which manifests most clearly the power of Jesus' cross
and by which its glory is newly shown forth.
For the new man, ^{Eph 4:24} Francis,
became famous for a new and stupendous miracle.
By a singular privilege, not granted in previous ages,
he appeared marked,
adorned with the sacred stigmata,
and conformed in this body of death
to the body of the Crucified.
Whatever human speech can say about this will be less than the
praise it deserves.
Indeed, all the striving of the man of God, ^{1 Sm 9:6}
whether in public or in private,
revolved around the cross of the Lord.
So that the mark of the cross
stamped on his heart at the beginning of his conversion
might mark his body externally
he enclosed himself in the cross itself
when he put on the habit of a penitent,
bearing the image of the cross.
Just as, internally, his mind had put on ^{Gal 3:27} the crucified Lord,
so, externally, his body also put on the arms of the cross;
and, in the sign by which God had vanquished the
powers of the air
his army would battle for the Lord.^a

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Incipiunt quaedam de miraculis ipsius
post mortem ostensis.

I Et primo
de virtutibus sacrorum stigmatum.

1 ¹Ad omnipotentis Dei honorem,
et gloriam Beati Patris Francisci
post glorificationem ipsius in caelis,
aliqua ex approbatis
conscripturus miracula,
ab illo praecipue
censui sumendum fore initium,
in quo crucis Iesu virtus ostenditur
et gloria innovatur.
²Novus igitur homo Franciscus
novo et stupendo miraculo claruit,
cum singulari privilegio retroactis saeculis non concesso,
insignitus apparuit,
sacris videlicet stigmatibus decoratus
et configuratus in corpore mortis huius
corpori Crucifixi.
³De quo quidquid humana lingua dicatur, minus erit
a laude condigna.
⁴Totum quidem viri Dei studium,
tam publicum quam privatum,
circa crucem Domini versabatur;
⁵et ut crucis signaculo
cordi eius a principio suae conversionis impresso
corpus consignaret exterius,
in ipsa se cruce recludens,
habitum poenitentiae sumpsit
crucis imaginem praeferentem,
⁶quatenus, sicut mens eius intus Dominum crucifixum induerat,
sic et corpus eius indueret arma crucis,
et in quo signo Deus
potestates aëreas debellarat,
in eodem suus exercitus Domino militaret.