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 fruitfulness. 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