On my leaving Rome, Olivieri, the Father-General of the Dominicans, and head commissioner of the Inquisition, had deputed me to go to Mugnano, in the diocese of Nola, where the celebrated new saint, Philomena, the pretended worker of so many recent miracles, is held in great veneration. The Inquisition was not quite satisfied with the manner in which the priest Don Francesco di Lucia had exhibited these miracles to the public. This priest, it seems, was in possession of certain reliques, fragments of bones, which he had brought away from Rome in the year 1802, and subsequently enclosed within a little image of _papier maché_, originally a figure of Christ, such as are sold at Naples, to which he added a female mask and suitable garments, disposing the image in a sleeping attitude. Thus metamorphosed into a female, the worthy priest soon found a name for his saint, although no one could tell whether the bones had belonged to a male or a female.[76] Be that as it may, he was the first to celebrate their fame, and set up a sanctuary, in which such astonishing prodigies were soon said to be performed, that ignorant peasants came from all the neighbouring parts, to worship the new idol, bringing their offerings with them, and inducing other devout idolaters to do the same. I was therefore authorized by the commissioner to reprove the priest, on account of the numerous tales he had spread abroad, respecting the life, death, and miracles of his wonderful saint. I was directed to inform him that not one of his boasted prodigies could be believed, since there was no evidence whatever of their having actually occurred; and that the Roman Inquisition entirely disapproved of his conduct, and was on the point of condemning all the books he had published on the subject. I undertook this office with considerable satisfaction, as I had for a long time been disgusted with all the fabulous stories of saints and miracles that inundated Italy and Europe, and were even introduced into the sermons of the missionaries of the Propaganda. Accordingly, during the Holy week, when I had no duty to perform, I took upon me to go to Mugnano, accompanied by Monsignor Angustoni, a preacher in the collegiate church of Santa Maria. Our arrival was hailed with great pleasure by Don Francesco, who, at the sight of us, flattered himself that two preachers from Capua had actually become followers of his saint. He accordingly began in his usual style to vaunt her perfections, and the wonders she had performed.