July
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
ALTHOUGH we are not commanded to follow the saints to the extremities where their heroic virtue leads them, nevertheless, from their inaccessible heights, they still guide us along the easier paths of the plain. As the eagle upon the orb of day, they fixed their unflinching gaze upon the Sun of Justice; and, irresistibly attracted by His divine splendour, they poised their flight far above the cloudy region where we are glad to screen our feeble eyes. But however varied be the degrees of brightness for them and for us, the light itself is unchangeable, provided that, like them, we draw it from the authentic source. When the weakness of our sight would lead us to mistake false glimmerings for the truth, let us think of these friends of God; if we have not courage enough to imitate them, where the commandments leave us free to do so or not, let us at least conform our judgments and appreciations to theirs: their view is more trustworthy, because farther reaching; their sanctity is nothing but the rectitude wherewith they follow up unflinchingly, even to its central focus, the heavenly ray, whereof we can scarcely bear a tempered reflection. Above all, let us not be led so far astray by the will-o’-the-wisps of this world of darkness as to wish to direct, by their false light, the actions of the saints: can the owl judge better of the light than the eagle?
Descending from the pure firmament of the holy liturgy even to the humblest conditions of Christian life, the light which led Alexius to the highest point of detachment is thus subdued by the apostle to the capacity of all: ‘If any man take a wife, he hath not sinned, nor the virgin whom he marrieth; nevertheless, such shall have tribulation of the flesh, which I would fain spare you. This, therefore, I say, brethren: the time is short; it remaineth, therefore, that they also who have wives, be as if they had none; and they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as if they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; and they that use this world, as if they used it not; for the fashion of this world passeth away.’[1]
Yet it passes not too quickly for our Lord to show that His words never pass away. Five centuries after the glorious death of Alexius, the eternal God, to whom distance and time are as nothing, gave him a hundredfold the posterity he had renounced for the love of Him. The monastery on the Aventine, which still bears his name together with that of the martyr Boniface, had become the common patrimony of East and West in the Eternal City; the two great monastic families of Basil and Benedict united under the roof of Alexius, and the seed taken from the tomb by the monk-bishop St. Adalbert brought forth the fruit of faith among the Northern nations. The Church gives us the following very short notice of our hero:
Alexius Romanorum nobilissimus, propter eximium Jesu Christi amorem prima nocte nuptiarum peculiari Dei monitu relinquens intactam sponsam, illustrium orbis terræ ecclesiarum peregrinationem suscepit. Quibus in itineribus cum ignotus septemdecim annos fuisset, aliquando apud Edessam, Syriæ urbem, per imaginem sanctissimæ Mariæ Virginis, ejus nomine divulgato, inde navi discessit. Ad portum Romanum appulsus, a patre suo tamquam alienus pauper hospitio accipitur: apud quem omnibus incognitus, cum decem et septem annos vixisset, relicto scripto sui nominis, sanguinis, ac totius vital cursu, migravit in cœlum, lnnocentio Primo Summo Pontifice.
Alexius was the son of one of Rome’s noblest families. Through his exceeding love for Jesus Christ, he, by a special inspiration from God, left his wife still a virgin on the first night of the marriage, and undertook a pilgrimage to the most illustrious churches all over the world. For seventeen years he remained unknown, while performing these pilgrimages, and then his name was revealed at Edessa, a town of Syria, by an image of the most holy Virgin Mary. He therefore left Syria by sea and sailed to the port of Rome, where he was received as a guest by his own father, who took him for a poor stranger. He lived in his father's house, unknown to all, for seventeen years, and then passed to heaven, leaving a written paper which revealed his name, his family, and the story of his whole life. His death occurred in the Pontificate of Innocent I.
Man of God! Such is the name given thee, O Alexius, by heaven; the name whereby thou art known in the East, and which Rome sanctions by her choice of the Epistle to be read in this day's Mass.[2] The apostle there applies this beautiful title to his disciple Timothy, while recommending to him the very virtues thou didst practise in so eminent a degree. This sublime designation, which shows us the dignity of heaven within the reach of men, thou didst prefer to the proudest titles earth could bestow. These latter were, indeed, offered thee, together with all the honours permitted by God to those who are satisfied with merely not offending Him; but thy great soul despised the transitory gifts of the world. In the midst of the splendours of thy marriage-feast, thou didst hear a music which charms the soul from earth-that music which, two centuries before, the noble Cecily, too, had heard in another palace of the queen city. The hidden God, who left the joys of the heavenly Jerusalem and on earth had not where to lay His head, discovered Himself to thy pure heart; and being filled with His love, thou hadst also the mind which was in Christ Jesus.[3] With the freedom, which yet remained to thee, of choosing between the perfect life, and the consummation of an earthly union, thou didst resolve to be a pilgrim and a stranger on the earth,[4] that thou mightest merit to possess eternal Wisdom in thy heavenly fatherland. O wonderful paths! O unsearchable ways whereby that Wisdom of the Father guides all those who are won by love! The Queen of heaven, as if applauding this spectacle worthy of angels, revealed to the East the illustrious name thou wouldst fain conceal under the garb of holy poverty. A second flight brought thee back, after seventeen years’ absence, to the land of thy birth, and even there thou wert able, by thy valiant faith, to dwell as in a strangle land. Under that staircase of thy home, now held in loving veneration, thou wert exposed to the insults of thy own slaves, being but an unknown beggar in the eyes of thy father and mother, and of the bride who still mourned for thee. There didst thou spend, without ever betraying thyself, another seventeen years, awaiting thy happy passage to thy true home in heaven. God Himself made it an honour to be called thy God, when at the moment of thy precious death a mighty voice resounded through Rome, bidding all seek the ‘man of God.’ Remember, O Alexius, what the voice added concerning that man of God: ‘He shall pray for Rome, and shall be heard.’ Pray, then, for the illustrious city of thy birth, which owed to thee its safety under the assault of the barbarians, and which now surrounds thee with far greater honours than it would have done hadst thou but upheld within its walls the traditions of thy noble ancestors. Hell boasts of having snatched that city from the successors of Peter and of Innocent: pray, and may heaven hear thee once more, against the modern successors of Alaric. Guided by the light of thy sublime actions, may the Christian people rise more and more above the earth; lead us all safely by the narrow way to the home of our heavenly Father!
[1] Cf. 1 Cor. vil. 28-31.
[2] 1 Tim. vi. 11.
[3] Phil. ii. 5.
[4] Heb. xi. 13.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
THE Holy Spirit, who desires to raise our souls above this earth, does not therefore despise our bodies. The whole man is His creature and His temple, and it is the whole man He must lead to eternal happiness. The Body of the Man-God was His masterpiece in material creation; the divine delight He takes in that perfect Body He extends in a measure to ours; for that same Body, framed by Him in the womb of the most pure Virgin, was from the very beginning the model on which ours are formed. In the re-creation which followed the Fall, the Body of the Man-God was the means of the world’s redemption; and the economy of our salvation requires that the virtue of His saving Blood should not reach the soul except through the body, the divine sacraments being all applied to the soul through the medium of the senses. Admirable is the harmony of nature and grace; the latter so honours the material part of our being that she will not draw the soul without it to the light and to heaven. For in the unfathomable mystery of sanctification, the senses do not merely serve as a passage; they themselves experience the power of the sacraments, like the higher faculities of which they are the channels; and the sanctified soul finds the humble companion of her pilgrimage already associated with her in the dignity of divine adoption, which will cause the glorification of our bodies after the resurrection. Hence the care given to the very body of our neighbour is raised to the nobleness of holy charity; for being inspired by this charity, such acts partake of the love wherewith our heavenly Father surrounds even the members of His beloved children. I was sick, and ye visited Me,[1] our Lord will say on the last day, showing that even the infirmities of our fallen state in this land of exile, the bodies of those whom He deigns to call His brethren, share in the dignity belonging by right to the eternal. only-begotten Son of the Father. The Holy Spirit, too, whose office it is to recall to the Church all the words of our Saviour, has certainly not forgotten this one; the seed, falling into the good earth of chosen souls, has produced a hundredfold the fruits of grace and heroic self-devotion. Camillus of Lellis received it lovingly, and the mustard-seed became a great tree offering its shade to the birds of the air. The Order of Regular Clerks, Servants of the Sick, or of Happy Death, deserves the gratitude of mankind; as a sign of heaven's approbation, angels have more than once been seen assisting its members at the bedside of the dying.
The liturgical account of St. Camillus' life is so full that we need add nothing to it.
Camillus Bucclanici Theatinre diœcesis oppido ex nobili Lelliorum familia natus est matre sexagenaria, cui gravidæ visum est per quietem, puerulum Crucis signo in pectore munitum, et agmini puerorum idem signum gestantium præeuntem, se peperisse. Adolescens rem militarem secutus, sæculi vitiis aliquamdiu indulsit, donec vigesimum quantum agens ætatis annum, tanto supernæ gratiæ lumine, divinæque offensæ dolore correptus fuit, ut uberrimo lacrymarum imbre illico perfusus, anteactæ vitæ sordes indesinenter abstergere, novumque induere hominem firmiter decreverit. Quare ipso, quo id contigit. Purificationis beatissimæ Virginis festo die, ad Fratres Minores, quos Capuccinos vocant, convolans, ut eorum numero adscriberetur, summis precibus exoravit. Voti compos semel atque iterum factus est; sed fœdo ulcere, quo aliquando laboraverat, in ejus tibia iterato recrudescente, divinæ providentiæ majora de eo disponentis consilio humiliter se subjecit, suique victor, illius religionis bis expetitum, et susceptum habitum bis dimisit.
Romam profectus, in nosocomium, quod Insanabilium dicitur, receptus est: cujus etiam administrationem, ob perspectas ejus virtutes sibi demandatam, summa integritate ac sollicitudine vere paterna peregit. Omnium ægrorum servum se reputans, eorum sternere lectulos, sordes tergere, ulceribus mederi, agonique extremo piis precibus et cohortationibus opem ferre solemne habuit; quibus in muneribus præclara præbuit admirabilis patientiæ, invictæ fortitudinis, et heroicæ charitatis exempla. Verum cum animarum in extremis periclitantium, quod unice intendebat, levamini subsidium litterarum plurimum conferre intelligeret, triginta duos annos natus, in primis grammaticæ elementis tirocinium inter pueros iterum subire non erubuit. Sacerdotio postea rite initiatus, nonnullis sibi adjunctis sociis, prima jecit Congregationis Clericorum Regularium infirmis ministrantium fundamenta, irrito conatu obnitente humani generis hoste, nam Camillus cœlesti voce e Christi crucifixi, manus etiam de ligno avulsas admirando prodigio protendentis, simulacro emissa mirabiliter confirmatus, ordinem suum a Sede Apostolica approbari obtinuit; sodalibus quarto obstrictis maxime arduo voto, infirmis, quos etiam pestis infecerit, ministrandi. Quod institutum, quam foret Deo acceptum, et animarum saluti proficuum, sanctus Philippus Nerius, qui Camillo a sacris confessionibus erat, comprobavit, dum ejus alumnis decedentium agoni opem ferentibus angelos suggerentes verba sæpius se vidisse testatus est.
Arctioribus hisce vinculis ægrotantium ministerio mancipatus, mirum est qua alacritate, nullis fractus laboribus, nullis deterritus vitæ periculis, diu noctuque ad supremum usque spiritum, eorum commodis vigilaverit. Omnibus omnia factus, vilissima quæque officia demississimo obsequio, flexisque plerumque genibus, veluti Christum ipsum cerneret in infirmis, hilari promptoque animo arripiebat; utque omnium indigentiis præsto esset, generalem ordinis præfecturam, cœlique delicias, quibus in contemplatione defixus affluebat, sponte dimisit. Paternus vero illius erga miseros amor tum maxime effulsit, dum et Urbs contagioso morbo primum, deinde extrema annonæ laboraret inopia et Nolæ in Campania dira pestis grassaretur. Tanta denique in Deum et proximum charitate exarsit ut angelus nuncupari, et angelorum opem in vario itinerum discrimine experiri promereretur. Prophetiæ dono, et gratia sanitatum præditus, arcana quoque cordium inspexit; ejusque precibus nunc cibaria multiplicata sunt, nunc aqua in vinum conversa. Tandem vigiliis, jejuniis, et assiduis attritus laboribus, cum pelle tantum et ossibus constare videretur, quinque molestis æque ac diutinis morbis, quos misericordias Domini appellabat, fortiter toleratis, sacramentis munitus, Romæ inter suavissima Jesu et Mariæ nomina, ad ea verba: Mitis atque festivus Christi Jesu tibi adspectus appareat: qua prædixerat hora, obdormivit in Domino, pridie Idus Julii, anno salutis millesimo sexcentesimo decimo quarto, ætatis suæ sexagesimo quinto: quem pluribus illustrem miraculis Benedictus decimusquartus solemni ritu sanctorum fastis adscripsit; et Leo decimus tertius, ex sacrorum Catholici orbis antistitum voto, ac Rituum Congregationis Consulto cœlestem omnium hospitalium et infirmorum ubique degentium patronum declaravit, ipsiusque nomen in agonizantium Litaniis invocari præcepit.
Camillus was born at Bacchianico, a town of the diocese of Chieti. He was descended from the noble family of the Lelli, and his mother was sixty years old at the time of his birth. While she was with child with him, she dreamt that she gave birth to a little boy, who was signed on the breast with the cross, and was the leader of a band of children, wearing the same sign. As a young man he followed the career of arms. and gave himself up for a time to worldly vices, but in his twenty-sixth year he was so enlightened by heavenly grace, and seized with so great a sorrow for having offended God, that on the spot, shedding a flood of tears, he firmly resolved un ceasingly to wash away the stains of his past life, and to put on the new man. Therefore on the very day of his conversion, which happened to be the feast of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin, he hastened to the Friars Minor, who are called Capuchins, and begged most earnestly to be admitted into their number. His request was granted on this and on a subsequent occasion, but each time a horrible ulcer, from which he had suffered before, broke out again upon his leg; wherefore he humbly submitted himself to the designs of Divine Providence, which was preparing him for greater things, and conquering himself he twice laid aside the Franciscan habit, which he had twice asked for and obtained.
He set out for Rome and was received into the hospital called that of the Incurables. His virtues became so well known that the management of the institution was entrusted to him, and he discharged it with the greatest integrity and a truly paternal solicitude. He esteemed himself the servant of all the sick, and was accustomed to make their beds, to wash them, to heal their sores, and to aid them in their last agony with his prayers and pious exhortations. In discharging these offices he gave striking proofs of his wonderful patience, unconquered fortitude, and heroic charity. But when he perceived how great an advantage the knowledge of letters would be to him in assisting those in danger of death, to whose service he had devoted his life, he was not ashamed at the age of thirty-two to return again to school and to learn the first elements of grammar among children. Being afterwards promoted in due order to the priesthood, he was joined by several companions, and in spite of the opposition attempted by the enemy of the human race, laid the foundations of the Congregation of Regular Clerks, Servants of the Sick. In this work Camillus was wonderfully strengthened by a heavenly voice coming from an image of Christ crucified, which, by an admirable miracle loosing the hands from the wood, stretched them out towards him. He obtained the approbation of his order from the Apostolic See. Its members bind themselves by a fourth and very arduous vow—namely, to minister to the sick, even those infected with the plague. St. Philip Neri, who was his confessor, attested how pleasing this institution was to God, and how greatly it contributed toward the salvation of souls; for he declared that he often saw angels suggesting words to disciples of Camillus, when they were assisting those in their agony.
When he had thus bound himself more strictly than before to the service of the sick, he devoted himself with marvellous ardour to watching over their interests, by night and by day, till his last breath. No labour could tire him, no peril of his life could affright him. He became all to all, and claimed for himself the lowest offices, which he discharged promptly and joyfully, in the humblest manner, often on bended knees, as though he saw Christ Himself present in the sick. In order to be more at the command of all in need, he of his own accord laid aside the general government of the order, and deprived himself of the heavenly delights with which he was inundated during contemplation. His fatherly love for the unfortunate shone out with greatest brilliancy when Rome was suffering first from a contagious distemper, and then from a great scarcity of provisions; and also when a dreadful plague was ravaging Nola in Campania. In a word, he was consumed with so great a love of God and his neighbour that he was called an angel, and merited to be helped by the angels in different dangers which threatened him on his journeys. He was endowed with the gift of prophecy and the grace of healing, and he could read the secrets of hearts. By his prayers he at one time multiplied food, and at another changed water into wine. At length, worn out by watching, fasting, and ceaseless labour, he seemed to be nothing but skin and bone. He endured courageously five long and troublesome sicknesses, which he used to call the “Mercies of the Lord"; and, strengthened by the sacraments, with the sweet names of Jesus and Mary on his lips, he fell asleepin our Lord, while these words were being said: “May Christ Jesus appear to thee with a sweet and gracious countenance.” He died at Rome, at the hour he had foretold, on the day before the Ides of July, in the year of salvation 1614, the sixty-fifth of his age. He was made illustrious by many miracles, and Benedict XIV solemnly enrolled him upon the calendar of the saints. Leo XIII, at the desire of the bishops of the Catholic world, and with the advice of the Congregation of Rites, declared him the heavenly patron of all nurses and of the sick in all places, and ordered his name to be invoked in the Litanies for the Dying.
Angel of charity, by what wonderful paths did the Divine Spirit lead thee! The vision of thy pious mother remained long unrealized; before taking on thee the holy Cross and enlisting comrades under that sacred sign, thou didst serve the odious tyrant, who will have none but slaves under his standard, and the passion of gambling was wellnigh thy ruin. O Camillus, remembering the danger thou didst incur, have pity on the unhappy slaves of passion; free them from the madness wherewith they risk, to the caprice of chance, their goods, their honour, and their peace in this world and in the next. Thy history proves the power of grace to break the strongest ties and alter the most inveterate habits: may these men, like thee, turn their bent towards God, and change their rashness into love of the dangers to which holy charity may expose them! For charity, too, has its risks, even the peril of life, as the Lord of charity laid down His life for us: a heavenly game of chance, which thou didst play so well that the very angels applauded thee. But what is the hazarding of earthly life compared with the prize reserved for the winner?
According to the commandment of the Gospel read by the Church in thy honour, may we all, like thee, love our brethren as Christ has loved us! Few, says St. Augustine, love one another to this end, that God may be all in all.[2] Thou, O Camillus, having this love, didst exercise it by preference towards those suffering members of Christ's mystic Body, in whom our Lord revealed Himself more clearly to thee, and in whom His kingdom was nearer at hand. Therefore has the Church in gratitude chosen thee, together with John of God, to be guardian of those homes for the suffering which she has founded with a mother’s thoughtful care. Do honour to that Mother’s confidence. Protect the hospitals against the attempts of an odious and incapable secularization, which, in its eagerness to lose the souls, sacrifices even the corporal well-being of the unhappy mortals committed to the care of its evil philanthropy. In order to meet our increasing miseries, multiply thy sons, and make them worthy to be assisted by angels. Wherever we may be in this valley of exile when the hour of our last struggle sounds, make use of thy precious prerogative which the holy liturgy honours to-day; help us, by the spirit of holy love, to vanquish the enemy and attain unto the heavenly crown!
[1] St. Matt. xxv. 36.
[2] Homily on the Gospel of the day. In Joann. Tract. lxxxiii.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
FOR the second time in July a constellation of seven stars shines in the heavens. More fortunate than Felicitas, Symphorosa preceded in the arena the seven sons she was offering to God. From the throne where he was already reigning crowned with the martyr’s diadem, Getulius the tribune, father of this illustrious family, applauded the combat whereby his race earned a far greater nobility than that of patrician blood, and gave to Rome a grander glory than was ever dreamed of by her heroes and poets. The Emperor Adrian, corrupt yet brilliant, sceptical yet superstitious, like the society around him, presided in person at the defeat of his gods. Threatening to bum the valiant woman in sacrifice to the idols, he received this courageous answer: ‘Thy gods cannot receive me in sacrifice; but if thou bum me and my sons for the name of Christ, my God, I shall cause thy demons to bum with more cruel flames!’ The execution of the mother and her sons was, indeed, the signal for a period of peace, during which the Kingdom of our Lord was considerably extended. Jerusalem, having under the leadership of a last false Messias revolted against Rome, was punished by being deprived of her very name; but the Church received the glory which the Synagogue once possessed when she produced the mother of the Machabees.
Another glory was reserved for this eighteenth day of July, in the year 1870: the (Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, presided over by the immortal Pius IX, defined in its constitution, Pastor Æternus, the full, supreme, and immediate power of the Roman Pontiff over all the Churches, and pronounced anathema against all who should refuse to recognize the personal infallibility of the same Roman Pontiff, speaking ex cathedra—i.e., defining, as universal pastor, any doctrine concerning faith or morals. We may also remark that during these same days—viz., on a Sunday in the middle of July—the Greeks make a commemoration of the first six general councils: Nicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon, and the second and third of Constantinople. Thus, during these midsummer days, we are in the midst of feasts of heavenly light; and let us not forget that it is martyrdom, the supreme act of faith, that merits and produces light. Doubtless, Divine Wisdom, who plays in the world with number, weight, and measure, planned the beautiful coincidence which unites these two days, July 18, 136, and July 18, 1870. If in these latter days the word of God has been set free, it is owing to the bloodshed by our fathers in its defence. The liturgy gives but a very short account of the immortal combat which glorifies this day:
Symphorosa Tiburtina, Getulii martyris uxor, ex eo septem filios peperit, Crescentium, Julianum, Nemesium, Primitivum, Justinum, Stacteum, et Eugeniura: qui omnes propter Christianæ fidei professionem una cum matre, Adriano imperatore comprehensi sunt. Quorum pietas multis variisque tentata suppliciis, cum stabilis permaneret mater, quæ filiis fidei magistra fuerat, dux eisdem ad martyrium exstitit. Nam saxo ad collum alligato in profluentem dejicitur: cujus corpus conquisitum a fratre ejus Eugenio sepelitur. Postridie ejus diei, qui fuit decimoquinto calendas Augusti, septem fratres singuli ad palum alligati, varie sunt interfecti. Crescentio guttur ferro transfigitur: Juliano pectus confoditur: Nemesio cor transverberatur: Primitivo trajicitur umbilicus: Justinus mcmbratim secatur: Stacteus telis configitur: Eugenius a pectore in duas partes dividitur. Ita octo hostiæ Deo gratissimæ sunt immolatæ. Corpora in altissimam foveam projecta sunt via Tiburtina, nono ab Urbe lapide: quæ postea Romam translata, condita sunt in Ecclesia Sancti Angeli in piscina.
Symphorosa, a native of Tivoli, was the wife of the martyr Getulius. She bore him seven sons, Crescentius, Julian, Nemesius, Primitivus, Justin, Stacteus, and Eugenius. Under the Emperor Adrian, they were all arrested, together with her, on account of their profession of the Christian faith. Their piety was tried by many different tortures, and, on their remaining constant, the mother, who had taught her sons, led the way to martyrdom. She was thrown into the river, with a huge stone tied round her neck. Her brother Eugenius searched for her body and gave it burial. The next day, which was the fifteenth of the Calends of August, the seven brothers were tied to stakes and put to death in different ways. Crescentius had his throat transfixed; Julian was wounded in the breast; Nemesius was pierced in the heart, and Primitivus in the stomach; Justin was cut to pieces, limb by limb; Stacteus was pierced with darts, and Eugenius was cut in two from the breast. Thus eight victims most pleasing to God were immolated. Their bodies were thrown into a deep pit on the Tiburtian Way, nine miles from Rome; but they were afterwards translated into the city and buried in the Church of the Holy Angel in the Fish Market.
O Symphorosa, thou wife, sister, and mother of martyrs, thy desires are amply fulfilled; followed by thy seven children, thou rejoinest in the court of the Eternal King thy husband Getulius and his brother Amantius, brave combatants in the imperial army, but far more valiant soldiers of Christ. The words of our Lord: A man's enemies shall be they of his own household,[1] are abrogated in heaven; nor can this other sentence be there applied: He that loveth father and mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me; he that loveth son or daughter more than Me, is not worthy of Me.[2] There, the love of Christ our King predominates over all other loves; yet, far from extinguishing them, it makes them ten times stronger by putting its own energy into them; and, far from having to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother,[3] it sets a divine seal upon the family and rivets its bonds for all eternity.
What nobility, O heroes, have ye conferred upon the world! Men may look up with more confidence towards heaven, for the angels will not despise a race that can produce such valiant combatants. The perfume of your holocaust accompanied your souls to the throne of God, and an effusion of grace was poured down in return. From the luminous track left by your martyrdom have sprung forth new splendours in our own days. With joyful gratitude we hail the providential reappearance, immediately after the Vatican Council, of the tomb which first received your sacred relics on the morrow of your triumph. Soldiers of Christ! preserve in us the gifts ye have bestowed on us; convince the many Christians who have forgotten it, that faith is the most precious possession of the just.
[1] St. Matt. x. 36.
[2] Ibid. 37.
[3] Ibid. 35.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
VINCENT was a man of faith that worketh by charity[1] At the time he came into the world—viz., at the close of the same century in which Calvin was born—the Church was mourning over many nations separated from the faith; the Turks were harassing all the coasts of the Mediterranean. France, worn out by forty years of religious strife, was shaking off the yoke of heresy from within, while by a foolish stroke of policy she gave it external liberty. The Eastern and Northern frontiers were suffering the most terrible devastations, and the West and centre were the scene of civil strife and anarchy. In this state of confusion, the condition of souls was still more lamentable. In the towns alone was there any sort of quiet, any possibility of prayer. The country people, forgotten, sacrificed, subject to the utmost miseries, had none to support and direct them but a clergy too often abandoned by their bishops, unworthy of the ministry, and wellnigh as ignorant as their flocks. Vincent was raised up by the Holy Spirit to obviate all these evils. The world admires the works of the humble shepherd of Buglose, but it knows not the secret of their vitality. Philanthropy would imitate them; but its establishments of to-day are destroyed to-morrow, like castles built by children in the sand, while the institution it would fain supersede remains strong and unchanged, the only one capable of meeting the necessities of suffering humanity. The reason of this is not far to seek: faith alone can understand the mystery of suffering, having penetrated its secret in the Passion of our Lord; and charity that would be stable must be founded on faith. Vincent loved the poor because he loved the God whom his faith beheld in them. ‘O God!’ he used to say, ‘ it does us good to see the poor, if we look at them in the light of God, and think of the high esteem in which Jesus Christ holds them. Often enough they have scarcely the appearance or the intelligence of reasonable beings, so rude and so earthly are they. But look at them by the light of faith, and you will see that they represent the Son of God, who chose to be poor; He in His Passion had scarcely the appearance of a man; He seemed to the Gentiles to be a fool, and to the Jews a stumbling-block, moreover He calls Himself the evangelist of the poor: evangelizare pauperibus misit me.’[2] This title of evangelist of the poor is the one that Vincent desired for himself, the starting-point and the explanation of all that he did in the Church. His one aim was to labour for the poor and the outcast; all the rest, he said, was but secondary. And he added, speaking to his sons of St. Lazare: ‘We should never have laboured for the candidates for priesthood, nor in the ecclesiastical seminaries, had we not deemed it necessary, in order to keep the people in good condition, to preserve in them the fruits of the missions, and to procure them good priests.’ That he might be able to consolidate his work in all its aspects, our Lord inspired Anne of Austria to make him a member of the Council of Conscience, and to place in his hands the office of extirpating the abuses among the higher clergy and of appointing pastors to the churches of France. We cannot here relate the history of a man in whom universal charity was, as it were, personified. But from the bagnio of Tunis, where he was a slave, to the ruined provinces for which he found millions of money, all the labours he underwent for the relief of every physical suffering were inspired by his zeal for the apostolate: by caring for the body, he strove to reach and succour the soul. At a time when men rejected the Gospel while striving to retain its benefits, certain wise men attributed Vincent's charity to philosophy. Nowadays they go further still, and in order logically to deny the author of the works they deny the works themselves. But if any there be who still hold the former opinion, let them listen to his own words, and then judge of his principles: ‘What is done for charity’s sake is done for God. It is not enough for us that we love God ourselves; our neighbour also must love him; neither can we love our neighbour as ourselves unless we procure for him the good we are bound to desire for ourselves—viz., divine love, which unites us to our Sovereign Good. We must love our neighbour as the image of God and the object of His love, and must try to make men love their Creator in return, and love one another also with mutual charity for the love of God, who so loved them as to deliver His own Son to death for them. But let us, I beg of you, look upon this Divine Saviour as a perfect pattern of the charity we must bear to our neighbour.’
The theophilanthropy of a century ago had no more right than had an atheist or a deist philosophy to rank Vincent, as it did, among the great men of its Calendar. Not nature, nor the pretended divinities of false science, but the God of Christians, the God who became Man to save us by taking our miseries upon Himself, was the sole inspirer of the greatest modern benefactor of the human race, whose favourite saying was: 'Nothing pleases me except in Jesus Christ.’ He observed the right order of charity, striving for the reign of his Divine Master, first in his own soul, then in others; and, far from acting of his own accord by the dictates of reason alone, he would rather have remained hidden for ever in the face of the Lord, and have left but an unknown name behind him.
‘Let us honour,’ he wrote, ‘the hidden state of the Son of God. There is our centre; there is what He requires of us for the present, for the future, for ever; unless His Divine Majesty makes known in His own unmistakable way that He demands something else of us. Let us especially honour this divine Master’s moderation in action. He would not always do all that He could do, in order to teach us to be satisfied when it is not expedient to do all that we are able, but only as much as is seasonable to charity and conformable to the Will of God. How royally do those honour our Lord who follow His holy Providence, and do not try to be beforehand with it! Do you not, and rightly, wish your servant to do nothing without your orders? and if this is reasonable between man and man, how much more so between the Creator and the creature!' Vincent, then, was anxious, according to his own expression, to ‘keep alongside of Providence,’ and not to outstep it. Thus he waited seven years before accepting the offers of the General de Gondi's wife, and founding his establishment of the Missions. Thus, too, when his faithful coadjutrix, Mademoiselle Le Gras, felt called to devote herself to the spiritual service of the Daughters of Charity, then living without any bond or common life, as simple assistants to the ladies of quality whom the man of God assembled in his Confraternities, he first tried her for a very long time. ‘As to this occupation,’ he wrote, in answer to her repeated petitions, ‘I beg of you, once for all, not to think of it until our Lord makes known His will. You wish to become the servant of these poor girls, and God wants you to be His servant. For God’s sake, Mademoiselle, let your heart imitate the tranquillity of our Lord’s heart, and then it will be fit to serve Him. The Kingdom of God is peace in the Holy Ghost; He will reign in you if you are in peace. Be so, then, if you please, and do honour to the God of peace and love.’
What a lesson given to the feverish zeal of an age like ours by a man whose life was so full! How often, in what we can call good works, do human pretensions sterilize grace by contradicting the Holy Ghost! Whereas Vincent de Paul, who considered himself ‘ a poor worm creeping on the earth, not knowing where he goes, but only seeking to be hidden in Thee, my God, who art all his desire,’—the humble Vincent saw his work prosper far more than a thousand others, and almost without his being aware of it. Towards the end of his long life he said to his daughters: ‘It is Divine Providence that set your congregation on its present footing. Who else was it, I ask you? I can find no other. We never had such an intention. I was thinking of it only yesterday, and I said to myself: Is it you who had the thought of founding a Congregation of Daughters of Charity? Oh! certainly not. Is it Mademoiselle Le Gras? Not at all. O my daughters, I never thought of it, your “sœur servante” never thought of it, neither did M. Portail (Vincent’s first and most faithful companion in the Mission). Then it is God who thought of it for you; Him, therefore, we must call the Founder of your Congregation, for truly we cannot recognize any other.’
Although with delicate docility, Vincent could no more forestall the action of God than an instrument the hand that uses it, nevertheless, once the divine impulse was given, he could not endure the least delay in following it, nor suffer any other sentiment in his soul but the most absolute confidence. He wrote again, with his charming simplicity, to the helpmate given him by God: 'You are always giving way a little to human feelings, thinking that everything is going to ruin as soon as you see me ill. O woman of little faith, why have you not more confidence and more submission to the guidance and example of Jesus Christ? This Saviour of the world entrusted the well-being of the whole Church to God His Father; and you, for a handful of young women, evidently raised up and gathered together by His providence, you fear that He will fail you! Come, come, Mademoiselle, you must humble yourself before God.’
No wonder that faith, the only possible guide of such a life, the imperishable foundation of all that he was for his neighbour and in himself, was, in the eyes of Vincent de Paul, the greatest of treasures. He who had pity for every suffering, even though well deserved; who, by an heroic fraud, took the place of a galley-slave in chains, was a pitiless foe to heresy, and could not rest till he had obtained either the banishment or the chastisement of its votaries. Clement XII, in the Bull of canonization, bears witness to this, in speaking of the pernicious error of Jansenism, which our saint was one of the first to denounce and prosecute. Never, perhaps, were these words of Holy Writ better verified: The simplicity of the just shall guide them: and the deceitfulness of the wicked shall destroy them.[3] Though this sect expressed, later on, a supreme disdain for Monsieur Vincent, it had not always been of that mind. ‘I am,’ he said to a friend, ‘most particularly obliged to bless and thank God, for not having suffered the first and principal professors of that doctrine, men of my acquaintance and friendship, to be able to draw me to their opinions. I cannot tell you what pains they took, and what reasons they propounded to me; I objected to them, amongst other things, the authority of the Council of Trent, which is clearly opposed to them; and seeing that they still continued, I, instead of answering them, quietly recited my Credo; and that is how I have remained firm in the Catholic faith.’
But it is time to give the full account which Holy Church reads to-day in her liturgy. We will only remind our readers that in the year 1883, the fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the St. Vincent de Paul Conferences at Paris, the Sovereign Pontiff Leo XIII proclaimed our saint the patron of the societies of charity in France.
Vincentius a Paulo, natione Gallus, Podii non procul ab Aquis Tarbellis in Aquitania natus, jam tum a puero eximiam in pauperes charitatem præ se tulit. A custodia paterni gregis ad litteras evocatus, humanas Aquis, divinas cum Tolosæ, tum Cæsaraugustæ didicit. Sacerdotio initiatus ac theologiæ laurea insignitus, in Turcas incidit, qui captivum in Africam adduxerunt. Sed in captivitate positus herum ipsum Christo rursus lucrifecit. Cum eo igitur ex barbaris oris, opitulante Deipara, sese proripiens, ad apostolica limina iter instituit. Unde in Galliam reversus, Clippiaci primum, mox Castellionis parœcias sanctissime rexit. Kenuntiatus a rege primarius sacrorum minister in Galliæ triremibus, mirum quo zelo et ducum et remigum saluti operam posuerit. Monialibus Visitationis a sancto Francisco Salesio præpositus, tanta prudentia per annos circiter quadraginta eam curam sustinuit, ut maxime comprobaverit judicium sanctissimi præsulis, qui sacerdotem Vincentio digniorem nullum se nosse fatebatur.
Evangelizandis pauperibus, præsertim ruricolis, ad decrepitam usque ætatem indefessus incubuft, eique apostolico operi tum se, tum alumnos Congregationis, quam sub nomine Presbyterorum sæcularium Missionis instituit, perpetuo voto a sancta Sede confirmato, speciatim obstrinxit. Quantum autem augendæ cleri discipline allaboraverit, testantur erecta majorum clericorum seminaria, collationum de divinis inter sacerdotes frequentia, et sacræ ordinationi præmittenda exercitia, ad quæ, sicut et ad pios laicorum secessus, instituti sui domicilia libenter patere voluit. Insuper ad amplificandam fidem et pietatem, evangelicos misit operarios, non in solas Galliæ provincias, sed et in Italiam, Poloniam, Scotiam, Hiberniam, atque ad Barbaros et Indos. Ipse vero, vita functo Ludovico decimotertio, cui morienti hortator adstitit, a regina Anna Austriaca, matre Ludovici decimiquarti, in sanctius consilium accitus, studiosissime egit, ut non nisi digniores ecclesiis ac monasteriis præficerentur; civiles discordiæ, singularia certamina, serpentes errores, quos simul sensit et exhorruit, amputarentur; debitaque judiciis apostolicis obedientia præstaretur ab omnibus.
Nullum fuit calamitatis genus, cui paterne non occurrerit. Fideles sub Turcarum jugo gementes, infantes expositos, juvenes dyscolos, virginespericlitantes, moniales dispersas, mulieres lapsas, ad triremes damnatos, peregrinos infirmos, artifices invalidos, ipsosque mente captos, ac innumeros mendicos subsidiis et hospitiis etiamnum superstitibus excepit ac pie fovit. Lotharingiam, Campaniam, Picardiam, aliasque regiones peste, fame, belloque vastatas, prolixe refecit. Plurima ad perquirendos et sublevandos miseros sodalitia fundavit, inter quæ celebris matronarum cœtus, et late diffusa sub nomine Charitatis puellarum societas. Puellas quoque tum de Cruce, tum de Providentia ac Sanctæ Genovefæ ad sequioris sexus educationem erigendas curavit. Hæc inter et alia gravissima negotia, Deo jugiter intentus, cunctis affabilis, ac sibi semper constans, simplex, rectus, humilis, ab honoribus, divitiis ac deliciis semper abhorruit; auditus dicere:rem nullam sibi placere præterquam in Christo Jesu, quem in omnibus studebat imitari. Corporis demum afflictatione laboribus senioque attritus, die vigesima septima Septembris, anno salutis supra millesimum sexcentesimo sexagesimo, ætatis suæ octogesimo quinto, Parisiis, in domo Sancti Lazari, quæ caput est Congregationis Missionis, placide obdormivit. Quem virtutibus meritis ac miraculis clarum Clemens tiuodecimus inter sanctos retulit, ipsius celebritati die decima nona mensis Julii quotannis assignata. Hunc autem caritatis eximium heroem, de unoquoque hominum genere optime meritum, Leo tertius decimus, instantibus pluribus sacrorum antistitibus, omnium societatum caritatis in toto catholico orbe existentium, et ab eo quomodocumque promanantium, peculiarem apud Deum Patronum declaravit et constituit.
Vincent de Paul, a Frenchman, was born at Pouy, near Dax, in Aquitaine, and from his boyhood was remarkable for his exceeding charity towards the poor. As a child he fed his father’s flock, but afterwards pursued the study of the humanities at Dax, and of divinity first at Toulouse, then at Saragossa. Having been ordained priest, he took his degree as Bachelor of Theology; but falling into the hands of the Turks was led captive by them into Africa. While in captivity he won his master back to Christ, by the help of the Mother of God, and escaped together with him from that land of barbarians, and undertook a journey to the shrines of the apostles. On his return to France he governed in a most saintly manner the parishes first of Clichy and then of Châtillon. The king next appointed him chaplain of the French galleys, and his zeal in striving for the salvation of both officers and convicts was marvellous. St. Francis de Sales gave him as superior to his nuns of the Visitation, whom he ruled for forty years, with such prudence as amply to justify the opinion the holy bishop had expressed of him, that Vincent was the most worthy priest he knew.
He devoted himself with unwearying zeal, even in extreme old age, to preaching to the poor, especially to country people; and to this apostolic work he bound both himself and the members of the Congregation which he founded, called the Secular Priests of the Mission, by a special vow which the Holy See confirmed. He laboured greatly in promoting regular discipline among the clergy, as is proved by the seminaries for clerics which he built, and by the establishment, through his care, of frequent conferences for priests, and of exercises preparatory to Holy Orders. It was his wish that the houses of his institution should always lend themselves to these good works, as also to the giving of pious retreats for laymen. Moreover, with the object of extending the reign of faith and love, he sent evangelical labourers not only into the French provinces, but also into Italy, Poland, Scotland, Ireland, and even to Barbary and to the Indies. On the demise of Louis XIII, whom he had assisted on his deathbed, he was made a member of the Council of Conscience, by Queen Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIV. In this capacity he was most careful that only worthy men should be appointed to ecclesiastical and monastic benefices, and strove to put an end to civil discord and duels, and to the errors then creeping in, which had alarmed him as soon as he knew of their existence; moreover, he endeavoured to enforce upon all a due obedience to the judgments of the Apostolic See.
His paternal love brought relief to every kind of misfortune. The faithful groaning under the Turkish yoke, destitute children, incorrigible young men, virgins exposed to danger, nuns driven from their monasteries, fallen women, convicts, sick strangers, invalided workmen, even madmen, and innumerablebeggars. All these he aided and received with tender charity into his hospitable institutions which still exist. When Lorraine, Champagne, Picardy, and other districts were devastated by pestilence, famine, and war, he supplied their necessities with open hand. He founded other associations for seeking out and aiding the unfortunate; amongst others the celebrated Society of Ladies, and the now widespread institution of the Sisters of Charity. To him also is due the foundation of the Daughters of the Cross, of Providence, and of St. Genevieve, who are devoted to the education of girls. Amid all these and other important undertakings his heart was always fixed on God; he was affable to everyone, and always true to himself, simple, upright, humble. He ever shunned riches and honours, and was heard to say that nothing gave him any pleasure, except in Christ Jesus, whom he strove to imitate in all things. Worn out at length, by mortification of the body, labours, and old age, on September 27, in the year of salvation 1660, the eightyfifth of his age, he peacefully fell asleep, at Paris, at Saint Lazare, the mother-house of the Congregation of the Mission. His virtues, merits, and miracles having made his name celebrated, Clement XII enrolled him among the saints, assigning for his annual feast July 19. Leo XIII, at the request of several bishops, declared and appointed this great hero of charity, who has deserved so well of the human race, the peculiar patron before God of all the charitable societies existing throughout the Catholic world, and of all such as may hereafter be established.
How full a sheaf dost thou bear, O Vincent, as thou ascendest laden with blessings from earth to thy true country! O thou, the most simple of men, though living in an age of splendours, thy renown far surpasses the brilliant reputation which fascinated thy contemporaries. The true glory of that century, and the only one that will remain to it when time shall be no more, is to have seen, in its earlier part, saints powerful alike in faith and love, stemming the tide of Satan's conquests, and restoring to the soil of France, made barren by heresy, the fruitfulness of its brightest days. And now, two centuries and more after thy labours, the work of the harvest is still being carried on by thy sons and daughters, aided by new assistants who also acknowledge thee for their inspirer and father. Thou art now in the kingdom of heaven where grief and tears are no more, yet day by day thou still receivest the grateful thanks of the suffering and the sorrowful.
Reward our confidence in thee by fresh benefits. No name so much as thine inspires respect for the Church in our days of blasphemy. And yet those who deny Christ now go so far as to endeavour to stifle the testimony which the poor have always rendered to Him on thy account. Wield, against these ministers of hell, the two-edged sword, wherewith it is given to the saints to avenge God in the midst of the nations: treat them as thou didst the heretics of thy day; make them either deserve pardon or suffer punishment, be converted or be reduced by heaven to the impossibility of doing harm. Above all, take care of the unhappy beings whom these satanic men deprive of spiritual help in their last moments. Elevate thy daughters to the high level required by the present sad circumstances, when men would have their devotedness to deny its divine origin and cast off the guise of religion. If the enemies of the poor man can snatch from his death-bed the sacred sign of salvation, no rule, no law, no power of this world or the next, can cast out Jesus from the soul of the Sister of Charity, or prevent his name from passing from her heart to her lips: neither death nor hell, neither fire nor flood can stay him, says the Canticle of Canticles.
Thy sons, too, are carrying on thy work of evangelization; and even in our days their apostolate is crowned with the diadem of sanctity and martyrdom. Uphold their zeal; develop in them thy own spirit of unchanging devotedness to the Church and submission to the supreme Pastor. Forward all the new works of charity springing out of thy own, and placed by Rome to thy credit and under thy patronage. May they gather their heat from the divine fire which thou didst kindle on the earth; may they ever seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, never deviating, in the choice of means, from the principle thou didst lay down for them of 'judging, speaking, and acting, exactly as the Eternal Wisdom of God, clothed in our weak flesh, judged, spoke, and acted.’
[1] Gal. v.6.
[2] St. Luke, iv. 18.
[3] Prov. xi. 3.
From Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year.
SPRUNG from the powerful aristocracy which won for Venice twelve centuries of splendour, Jerome came into the world when that city had reached the height of its glory. At fifteen years of age he became a soldier, and was one of the heroes in that formidable struggle wherein his country withstood the united powers of almost all Europe in the League of Cambrai. The golden city, crushed for a moment, but soon restored to her former condition, offered her honours to the defender of Castelnovo, who, like herself, had fallen bravely and risen again. But our Lady of Treviso had delivered him from his German prison, only to make him her own captive; she brought him back to the city of St. Mark, there to fulfil a higher mission than the proud republic could have entrusted to him. The descendant of the Æmiliani, captivated, as was Lawrence Justinian a century before, by Eternal Beauty, would now live only for the humility which leads to heaven, and for the lofty deeds of charity. His title of nobility will be derived from the obscure village of Somascha, where he will gather his newly recruited army; and his conquests will be the bringing of little children to God. He will no more frequent the palaces of his patrician friends, for he now belongs to a higher rank: they serve the world, he serves heaven; his rivals are the angels, whose ambition, like his own, is to preserve unsullied for the Father the service of those innocent souls whom the greatest in heaven must resemble.
‘The soul of the child,’ as the Church tells us to-day by the golden mouth of St. John Chrysostom, ‘is free from all passions. He bears no ill-will towards them that have done him harm, but goes to them as friends, just as if they had done nothing. And though he be often beaten by his mother, yet he always seeks her and loves her more than anyone else. If you show him a queen in her royal crown, he prefers his mother clad in rags, and would rather see her unadorned than the queen in magnificent attire; for he does not appreciate according to riches or poverty, but by love. He seeks not for more than is necessary, and as soon as he has had sufficient milk he quits the breast. He is not oppressed with the same sorrows as we, nor troubled with care for money and the like; neither is he rejoiced by our transitory pleasures, nor affected by corporal beauty. Therefore our Lord said: Of such is the kingdom of heaven, wishing us to do of our own free will what children do by nature.’[1]
Their guardian angels, as our Lord Himself said, gazing into those pure souls, are not distracted from the contemplation of their heavenly Father: for He rests in them as on the wings of Cherubim, since baptism has made them His children. Happy was our saint to have been chosen by God to share the loving cares of the angels here below, before partaking of their bliss in heaven. The following detailed account is given by Holy Church:
Hieronymus, e gente patricia Æmiliana Venetiis ortus, a prima adolescentia militiæ addictus, difficillimis Reipublicæ temporibus Castro Novo ad Quarum in montibus Tarvisinis præficitur. Arce ab hostibus capta, ipse in teterrimum carcerem detruditur, manibus ac pedibus vinctus; cui omni humana ope destitute beatissima Virgo ejus precibus exorata, clemens adest, vincula solvit, et per medios hostes, qui vias omnes obsederant, in Tarvisii conspectum incolumem ducit. Urbem ingressus, ad Deiparæ aram, cui se voverat, manicas, compedes, catenas, quas secum detulerat, in accepti beneficii testimonium suspendit. Reversus Venetias, cœpit pietatis studia impensius colere, in pauperes mire effusus, sed puerorum præsertim misertus, qui parentibus orbati, egeni et sordidi per urbem vagabantur, quos in ædes a se conductas recepit de suo alendos, et Christianis moribus imbuendos.
Per eos dies Venetias appulerant beatus Cajetanus, et Petrus Caraffa postmodum Paulus quartus, qui Hieronymi spiritu, novoque instituto colligendi orphanos probato, illum in incurabilium hospitale adduxerunt, in quo orphanos simul educaret, atque ægrotis pari charitate inserviret. Mox eorumdem hortatu in proximam continentem profectus, Brixiæ primum, deinde Bergomi, atque Novocomi orphanotrophia erexit: Bergomi præsertim, ubi præter duo, pro pueris unum, et pro puellis alterum, domum excipiendis, novo in illis regionibus exemplo mulieribus a turpi vita ad pœnitentiam conversis, aperuit. Somaschæ demum subsistens, in humili pago agri Bergomensis ad Venetæ ditionis fines, sibi, ac suis ibi sedem constituit, formamque induxit congregationis, cui propterea a Somascha nomen factum: quam subinde auctam et propagatam, nedum orphanorum regimini, et Ecclesiarum cultui, sed ad majorem Christianæ reipublicæ utilitatem, adolescentium in litteris et bonis moribus institutioni in collegiis, academiis, et semlnariis addictam sanctus Pius Quintus inter Religiosos Ordines adscripsit, cæterique pontifices privilegiis ornarunt.
Orphanis colligendis intentus Mediolanum proficiscitur atque Ticinum; et utrobique collectis agminibus puerorum tectum, victum, vestem, magistros, nobilibus viris faventibus, provide constituit. IndeSomascham redux, omnibus omnia factus, a nullo abhorrebat opere, quod in proximi bonum cedere prævideret. Agricolis immixtus per agros sparsis, dum se illis adjutorem in metendis frugibus præbet, mysteria fidei explicabat, puerorum capita porrigine fœda abstergens, et patienter tractans curabat; putridis rusticorum vulneribus medebatur eo successu, ut gratia curationum donatus censeretur. In monte, qui Somaschæ imminet, reperta specu, in illam se abdidit, ubi se flagellis cædens, dies integros jejunus transigens, oration in plurimam noctem protracta, super nurlo saxo brevem somnum carpens, sui aliorumque noxarum prenas luebat. In hujus spec us in teriori recess ex arido silice exstillat aqua, precibus servi Dei, ut constans traditio est, impetrata, quæ usque in hodiernam diem jugiter manans, et In varias regions delata ægris sanitatem plerumque conciliat. Tandem ex contagione, quæ per omnem vallem serpebat, dum ægrotantibus inservit, et vita functos propriis humeris ad sepulturam defert, contracto morbo, annos natus sex et quinquaginta, quam paulo ante prædixerat, pretiosam mortem obiit anno millesimo quingentesimo trigesimo septimo: quem pluribus in vita, et post mortem miraculis illustrem Benedictus decimus quartus Beatorum, Clemens vero decimus tertius Sanctorum fastis solemniter adscripsit.
Jerome was born at Venice, of the patrician family of the Æmiliani, and from his boyhood embraced a military life. At a time when the Republic was in great difficulty, he was placed in command of Castelnovo, in the territory of Quero, in the mountains of Treviso. The fortress was taken by the enemy, and Jerome was thrown, bound hand and foot, into a horrible dungeon. When he found himself thus destitute of all human aid, he prayed most earnestly to the Blessed Virgin, who mercifully came to his assistance. She loosed his bonds, and led him safely through the midst of his enemies, who had possession of every road, till he was within sight of Treviso. He entered the town; and, in testimony of the favour he had received, he hung up at the altar of our Lady, to whose service he had vowed himself, the manacles, shackles, and chains which he had brought with him. On his return to Venice he gave himself with the utmost zeal to exercises of piety. His charity towards the poor was wonderful; but he was particularly moved to pity for the orphan children who wandered poor and dirty about the town; he received them into houses which he hired, where he fed them at his own expense and trained them to lead Christian lives.
At this time Blessed Cajetan and Peter Caraffa, who was afterwards Paul IV, disembarked at Venice. They commended Jerome’s spirit and his new institution for gathering orphans together. They also introduced him into the hospital for incurables, where he would be able to devote himself with equal charity to the education of orphans and to the service of the sick. Soon, at their suggestion, he crossed over to the continent and founded orphanages, first at Brescia, then at Bergamo and Como. At Bergamo his zeal was specially prolific, for there, besides two orphanages, one for boys and one for girls, he opened a house, an unprecedented thing in those parts, for the reception of fallen women who had been converted. Finally he took up his abode at Somascha, a small village in the territory of Bergamo, near to the Venetian border, and this he made his headquarters; here, too, he definitely established his congregation, which for this reason received the name of Somaschan. In course of time it spread and increased, and for the greater benefit of the Christian republic it undertook, besides the ruling and guiding of orphans and the taking care of sacred buildings, the education, both liberal and moral, of young men in colleges, academies, and seminaries. Pius V enrolled it among religious Orders, and other Roman Pontiffs have honoured it with privileges.
Entirely devoted to his work of rescuing orphans, Jerome journeyed to Milan and Pavia, and in both cities he collected numbers of children and provided them, through the assistance given him by noble personages, with a home, food, clothing, and education. He returned to Somascha, and, making himself all to all, he refused no labour which he saw might turn to the good of his neighbour. He associated himself with the peasants scattered over the fields, and while helping them with their work of harvesting, he would explain to them the mysteries of faith. He used to take care of children with the greatest patience, even going so far as to cleanse their heads, and he dressed the corrupt wounds of the village folk with such success that it was thought he had received the gift of healing. On the mountain which overhangs Somascha he found a cave in which he hid himself, and there scourging himself, spending whole days fasting, passing the greater part of thenight in prayer, and snatching only a short sleep on the bare rock, he expiated his own sins and those of others. In the interior of this grotto, water trickles from the dry rock, obtained, as constant tradition says, by the prayers of the servant of God. It still flows, even to the present day, and being taken into different countries, it often gives health to the sick. At length, when a contagious distemper was spreading over the whole valley, and he was serving the sick and carrying the dead to the grave on his own shoulders, he caught the infection, and died at the age of fifty-six. His precious death, which he had foretold a short time before, occurred in the year 1537. He was illustrious both in life and death for many miracles. Benedict XIV enrolled him among the Blessed, and Clement XIII solemnly inscribed his name on the catalogue of the Saints.
With Vincent de Paul and Camillus of Lellis, thou, O Jerome Æmilian, completest the triumvirate of charity. Thus does the Holy Spirit mark His reign with traces of the Blessed Trinity; moreover, he would show that the love of God which He kindles on earth, can never be without the love of our neighbour. At the very time when He gave thee to the world as a demonstration of this truth, the spirit of evil made it evident that true love of our neighbour cannot exist without love of God, and that this latter soon disappears in its turn when faith is extinct. Thus, between the ruins of the pretended reform and the ever-new fecundity of the Spirit of holiness, mankind was free to choose. The choice made was, alas! far from being always conformable to man’s interest, either temporal or eternal.
With what good reason may we repeat the prayer thou didst teach thy little orphans: 'Lord Jesus Christ, our loving Father, we beseech Thee, by Thine infinite goodness, raise up Christendom once more, and bring it back to that upright holiness which flourished in the apostolic age.’
Thou didst labour strenuously at this great work of restoration. The Mother of Divine Grace, when she broke thy prison chains, set thy soul free from a more cruel captivity to continue the flight begun at baptism and in thy early years. Thy youth was renewed as the eagle’s; and the valour which won thee thy spurs in earthly battles, being now strengthened tenfold in the service of the all-powerful Prince, carried the day over death and hell. Who could count thy victories in this new militia? Jesus, the King of the warfare of salvation, inspired thee with His own predilection for little children; countless numbers, saved by thee from perishing, and brought in their innocence to His divine caresses, owe to thee their crown in heaven. From thy throne, where thou art surrounded by this lovely company, multiply thy sons; uphold those who continue thy work on earth; may thy spirit spread more and more in these days, when Satan’s jealousy strives more than ever to snatch the little ones from our Lord. Happy shall they be in their last hour who have accomplished the work of mercy pre-eminent in our days: saved the faith of children, and preserved their baptismal innocence! Should they have formerly merited God’s anger, they may with all confidence repeat the words thou didst love so well: ‘O sweetest Jesus, be not unto me a Judge, but a Saviour!’
[1] Chrys. in Matt. Hom. lxii. al. lxiii.