Parte I - Confederazione dell'Oratorio di San Filippo Neri

U.M. Lang, The miracle of St. Philip Neri in the Palazzo Massimo103Ex narratis Paulum vere fuisse mortuum etiam a principio, et non symptomate,seu quopiam accidente correptum, quod mortuo similem reddiderit,nemo est qui iure dubitare possit. 56The first reason for this assessment is the high credibility of the testimoniesgiven by those present, especially the parish priest who made thecommendation of the soul. As an experienced pastor, Vittori argues, he wouldhardly have done so if he had felt any doubt about the boy’s state. Secondly,the nature of the illness, a violent fever, suggests that Paolo was dead andthat he did not just suffer from symptoms that made him appear dead. Thedecisive point for Vittori is the fact that when the boy came to life again, thefever had disappeared and he seemed in perfect health:hilaris cum motu, et sensu corporis valido, voce clara, et sana mente respondens.57This would have been different if the boy had suffered from a conditionthat would simply have made him unconscious. Further support for the miracle’sauthenticity is provided by the ‘causa revocationis ad vitam’, that is,Paolo’s confession, and by his most edifying second death. 58Raising the DeadThose who witnessed what happened in the Palazzo Massimo on that remarkableday had no doubt that Paolo had been raised to life at the intercessionof St Philip. Fabrizio Massimo gives the impression that he immediatelybroke the news far and wide, though the knowledge of the astonishingevent was at first confined to the Massimo household and to the inner circleat the Chiesa Nuova. 59 It seems that Fabrizio began to tell others about themiracle only after Philip’s death, when he gave his first deposition in the canonizationinquiry on 13 September 1595. 60 One would expect the tidings of56 Vittori (1640), XCV: 411.57 Vittori (1640), XCV: 412.58 Vittori (1640), XCV: 412-3.59 See his deposition of 30 September 1609; Processo, II, 354. Among the few people whoknew about the miracle during Philip’s lifetime was the Jesuit Father Francesco Benci, who arrivedat the Palazzo Massimo soon after the event. Benci died in 1594, without making public whathad happened on that day. As related by Fabrizio, the episode involving Cardinal Anselmo Marzatioccurred shortly before the latter’s death on 17 August 1607.60 Processo, I, 202-3.