JAMES OF VARAZZE (Jacobus a Voragine), Blessed. - Born at Varazze around 1230, he took the Dominican habit in 1244; he taught theology and preached in Genoa, Viterbo and other cities of Italy from 1252 to 1267, the most fertile years of his intellectual production; he was provincial of Lombardy from 1267 to 1286, except for the interval 1278-81, in which, as a simple friar, he was able to resume his beloved life of prayer and study, to which he also returned between '86 and '88. In that year he refused the archbishopric of Genoa, but had to accept it in 1292 by command of Nicholas IV, and he governed it for six years with prudence, self-denial and courage. In 1295 he obtained peace between the "mascherati" and the "rampini" (Guelphs and Ghibellines of Genoa), but only briefly. Soon the struggles boiled over again to the point of causing a fire in the Cathedral. In 1296 he recovered in Genoa relics of saints brought from the East. He died on the night between 13 and 14 July 1298, after having settled his episcopal administration by notarial acts. An artist and mystic, he disciplined himself heroically to the duties of the militant apostolate. His cult was confirmed by Pius VII in 1816; his feast falls on 13 July.
Between 1253 and 1279 he composed the Legenda sanctorum or Legenda aurea, which is not merely a hagiographic collection in chronological order. G. had the genius to set forth plainly, in a Latin tending toward the vernacular, the circulum anni temporale and sanctoral, explaining the meaning of the liturgical periods and of ecclesiastical customs (vigils, octaves, fasts, Ember days), illustrating as a charming narrator the life of Jesus Christ and of the saints according to their feast days, commenting on them and drawing from them moral applications. The Legenda aurea could serve as meditation on solemnities, as daily reading both edifying and at the same time interesting for the wonderful adventures of the heroes of Christ, which it recounts with an ingenuous faith, but not a childish one. In fact it adheres to the Latin sources, excluding the romantic episodes added by the jongleurs, pays more attention to the miraculous than to the adventurous, doubts anachronistic dates and improbable events. The Legenda immediately had an immense diffusion, constituted the breviary of laypeople of average culture, the source of preaching and of hagiographic art from the 13th to the 15th century, was interpolated by other "Lives" so that the 182 chapters of the oldest manuscript (1288 Einsiedeln) rise to 440 in the 15th century. The first edition is that of 1479; among modern ones the good one is that edited by Graesse, Regensburg 1890. First edition in the vernacular, Venice 1474, according to the poor translation by N. Manerbi, which was reprinted down to the 17th century. In the 18th and 19th centuries partial editions of 14th-century versions; finally a complete and good 14th-century translation published by A. Levasti, Florence 1924. G. also composed Sermones de sanctis and Sermones dominicales (1277-81), Sermones quadragesimales (1285-92), Liber Marialis (1295). These are outlines of sermons collected at the invitation of his confreres, which reveal talent, culture, psychological finesse, holiness. They were published under the title: Sermones super Evangelia dominicarum, festa sanctorum totius anni per quadragesimum integrum cum sermonibus de planctu B. M. V. et Mariale aureum in 160 sermones distributum (1st ed., Brescia 1483, then Venice 1497 and 1545). His love for his flock made him find the time to write a chronicle of Genoa from its origin to 1297, based on documents and above all on local traditions: the part concerning his own times is important. (1st partial ed.: Chronicon Iannense, in RIS, IX, Venice 1726; 2nd complete ed.: G. da Varagine e la sua Cronaca di Genova dalle origini al 1297. Studio introduttivo e testo critico commentato di G. Monleone [Fonti per la storia d'Italia], Rome 1941).
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Maria Sticco