.... To our Holy and Most Clement
Lord, Pope Leo X.
.... Holy
Father:
.... Humbly
prostrate at the feet of Your Holiness, I beg to kiss them with the
utmost respect.
.... Since
we arrived in Belgium we have repeatedly heard everywhere the praises
of the glorious virgin Colette, so famous for her purity of soul, for
her simplicity and innocence of life, but above all for her admirable
zeal and her active charity. We have become convinced that like, as
it were, a diligent bee that gathers exquisite honey from the precious
flowers of the most rare virtues, she has put all her efforts in to
reproducing numerous hives of her gatherings. For it is she who has
enriched not only Belgium, but France, Burgundy, Savoy and other countries
as well, by those many monasteries she had founded and erected - always
under the guidance of the Holy Spirit - by her efforts and her industry,
which monasteries she had filled with chaste virgins who unceasingly
offer up to Almighty God their songs and sacrifices of praises.
.... Also,
God has not permitted that this his servant rests entombed in obscurity,
but has been pleased to glorify this virgin by remarkable miracles,
both when her soul was still bound in the chains of her body, but still
more yet since she has been permitted to enjoy immortal glory that she
has so well merited by her works and her manifold sufferings.
.... Numerous
gatherings of the faithful can be seen daily at her tomb, where they
all find comfort in their troubles and tribulations near those precious
relics and they also find there answer to their petitions.
.... That
is why it has seemed to us quite astonishing that this blessed virgin,
who in the judgment of your Holy See has been recognised worthy to receive
in this world the honours due her, has so far not yet been inscribed
in the number of saints!
.... Therefore,
We, too, come to deposit at the feet of Your Holiness our most fervent
prayers. We, therefore, come to you to supplicate you in the most insistent
manner that you inscribe this blessed Colette where the vote of the
people has already placed her - in the number of saints! All
this, though of course, only after Your Holiness will have duly examined
into, and pronounced upon, the authenticity of the virtues and miracles
attributed to her. Such a solemn Act will not fail to contribute to
the aggrandisement of our holy Religion and honour of Colette, but to
the greater glory of Almighty God, who never leaves his own Church without
fruitfttlness. Also, such an act of canonisation will mightily contribute
to the immortality of the name of Your Holiness.
.... May
the All-Highest accord to Your Holiness a perfect health and the fulfilment
of all Your wishes.
.... Your
very devoted and very obedient Son, Henry.
Given in Our City of Tournai,
September 15, 1513.