Life of St. Benedict surnamed "The Moor" : the son of a slave, canonized by Pope Pius VII, May 24th, 1807

JOHN M. KELLY LIBRARY

Donated by

The Redemptorists of
the Toronto Province

from the Library Collection of
Holy Redeemer College, Windsor

University of
St. Michael s College, Toronto

NVCT KEQttMER UWWRY. WIN

LIFE

ST. BENEDICT

SURNAMED

"THE MOOR,"

a

CANONIZED BY POPE PIUS VIL, MAY 24th, 1807.

TRANSLATED FEOM THE FRENCH OF M. ALLIBERT.
Canon of the Primatial Church of Lyons.

P. J. KENEDY & SONS

$tabltal?mi to life IMg Apoatoltr 9r
".4 BARCLAY STREET, NEW YORK

,/

CONTENTS.

VAOB.

DEDICATION. 5

APPROBATIONS 9

OHAPTBB.

L COUNTRY, PARENTS, AND BIRTH OF ST.

BENEDICT, II

n. ST. BENEDICT S CHILDHOOD, 17

HI. ST. BENEDICT IN THE HERMITAGE, 23

IV. ST. BENEDICT ON MOUNT PELLEGRINO, ... 35

LV. HE ENTERS THE REFORMED MINOR OB-

SERVANTINS, 44

VI. BROTHER BENEDICT IS EMPLOYED IN THE

KITCHEN OF THE CONVENT, 59

VII. ST. BENEDICT IS MADE GUARDIAN, .... 68

VIII. ST. BENEDICT IS ELECTED VICAR AND MAS
TER OF NOVICES, 8O

a. ST. BENEDICT S DOCTRINE, 87

4 Contents.

CHAPTER. *JLO

X. THE GIFT OF PROPHECY BESTOWED ON

OUR SAINT, 97

XI. ST. BENEDICT RETURNS TO THE KITCHEN, III

XH. MIRACLES WROUGHT BY THE SAINT DUR
ING HIS LIFE, 124

xiii. ST. BENEDICT S ILLNESS AND DEATH, . . 135

XIV. MIRACLES OPERATED AFTER HIS DEATH, 147
XV. THE DEVOTION TO ST. BENEDICT, ..... 164

xvi. PROOFS OF BENEDICT S VIRTUES, 176

XVII. OF THE FRUIT THAT MAY BE DRAWN

FROM THIS LIFE, 193

LITANY OF ST. BENEDICT, 211

TO THE SERAPHIC PATRIARCH.

ST. FRA.NOIS.

CANNOT do better, O holy Patriarch,
than dedicate to thee this Abridgment
of the Life of St. Benedict, thy Son,
who now enjoys eternal happiness in
the arms of his Father. I do this the
more readily, since I need not recall thy
glory, which shines from age to age, al
though we may celebrate it without incur
ring the reproach of flattery, which may
usually be made against dedicatory epis
tles. It is true, nevertheless, that the

6 (Dedication.

merits of children who walk in their
father s footsteps, and the glory they win,
always redound to the father s greater
honor. Our Saint is a striking proof of
this. When we read that the countenance
of St Benedict of Sanfratello became
bright and shining when he was in prayer,
during the night, we are immediately
reminded of the wonderful brightness thou
didst shed around thee, in so much, that
the cell in which thou wast praying seemed
all on fire, and the deceived beholders ran
in haste to extinguish the flames. The
same may be said of those fundamental
virtues, by which our Saint walked in thy
blessed footsteps, tinged with the blood of
those seraphic wounds which had pierced
his heart also. Thou wast accustomed,
during prayer, to take refuge under the
wings of St. Michael the Archangel. St
Benedict was faithful to the same practice.

(Dedication. J

That we may not make too many compari
sons, we shall content ourselves with recall
ing his veneration for the ecclesiastical
hierarchy which he had drawn from thy
Testament, in which thou dost say, speak*
ing of the sacerdotal order: "// is my
desire to fear the priests, to love and honor
them as my superiors. I am unwilling to
see any sin in them> because in each I con
sider the Son of God, and regard them as
my masters"

What may render this Abridgment still
more agreeable to thee, O venerable
Father, is, that thy son Benedict zealously
applied himself to imitate and honor thee
perfectly; I, then, enter into his views by
dedicating to thee this short account of his
life, composed on the occasion of his
canonization. There is, then, reason to
hope that it will be agreeable to both
father and child; happy shall I be, if I

8 (Dedication.

obtain hereby, from either, that protection
which I, with all the reformed religious,
implore, prostrate at thy feet

F. JACQUES.
Postulator-Gewal*

APPROBATION

BY the order of the most reverend Mas
ter of the Sacred Apostolic Palace, I have
read the Life of St. Benedict of Sanfratello,
surnamed the Moor: not only have I
found therein nothing contrary to the holy
Catholic faith or to good morals, but I
have been led to admire the order and
clearness with which the author has drawn
the picture of the heroic virtues and excel
lent gifts which our Lord had so generous
ly poured out on the soul of his servant
Consequently, I judge the publication of
this work conducive to the spiritual good
of the faithful.

Convent of the Minerva, the 3d of
August, 1805.

FR. THOMAS M. MANCINI,

Of the Order of Preachers, Professor of Theology, and Con-
suitor of the Sacred Congregation of Rites.

9

PERMISSION OF THE ORDINARY.

WE, Vicar-General of his Grace the
Archbishop of Amasia, Apostolic Admin
istrator of the Diocese of Lyons, having
read the manuscript entitled "Life of St.
Benedict of Sanfratello," translated liter
ally from the Italian by M. Allibert, Canon
of Lyons; having seen the very respecta
ble approbations already given the work ;
after the testimony of a theologian as pious
as enlightened, who has read this transla
tion, and has judged its publication useful
to the faithful, do permit the Life of St.
Benedict of Sanfratello to be given for
publication.

CHOLLETON, Vicar- General.

LYONS, January 30, 1835,

IO

LIFE OF

ST. BENEDICT OF SANFRATELLO,

SURNAMED THE NEGRO.

CHAPTER L

COUNTRY, PARENTS, AND BIRTH OF ST. BENEDICT.

UR Saint was born at Sanfratello, in
Sicily, on the northern coast near the
Tyrrhene Sea, which place was for
merly known under the name of Chateau
de St. Philadelphia. We think this name
dates back to the translation into that place
of the relics of three holy martyrs, Alpheus,
Philadelphia and Cirinus. By an idio
matic change, the name St. Philadelphia

II

1 2 Life of St. (Benedict.

has become Sanfratello. Christopher, our
Saint s father, and Diana, his mother, were
descended from negro slaves; they were
themselves negroes and born at Sanfratello;
both were Christians, adorned with evan
gelical virtues. According to the Chronicle
of the Reformed Friars Minor, the mother
was free; this benefit she doubtless owed
to the Chevalier de Lanca, whose slave she
had been. After her marriage with Chris
topher, she took with him the name of
Manasseri, their master, according to the
custom of the slaves. Vincent Manasseri,
who was rich, entrusted to Christopher the
cultivation of his fields and the care of his
flocks, and the slave s fidelity found its
recompense in the affection and confidence
of his grateful master.

Although Christopher was endowed with
many good qualities, he excelled in love of
the poor; following the example of the

Country, (Parents, jnd (Birth. 13

saints, he never refused alms to any one,
and he gave so much the more generously,
as he attached to the merit of charity the
benediction which our Lord deigned to
shed on the goods confided to his care.
But his companions, animated by a contrary
spirit, not content with turning his alms to
ridicule, and blaming them as more injuri
ous than advantageous to Manasseri s inter
ests, denounced Christopher as a waster of
the goods he administered. That prudence
which examines accusations by the light of
judgment and wisdom is very rarely found
in the world. The jealousy of the accusers
seemed to their master a well-founded zeal;
and he deprived the slave of his office of
superintendent But far from increasing
his revenues by this means, as he had
hoped, he found them diminish ng day by
day; his flocks decreased, his out-houses
became in a ruinous condition; the pro-

14 Life of St. (Benedict.

ducts of his fields, formerly so plentiful,
grew visibly less, and his revenues far
below what they had formerly been. It is
but just to say that Manasseri was not one
of those, who, disdaining to occupy them
selves with the primary cause of events,
attribute them always to secondary causes.
Being a true disciple of the Gospel, he
recognized his error, reinstated Christopher
in his office, and, consequently, in the posi
tion of giving his alms; from that time
abundance and the blessing of Heaven
returned to him.

Among other moral virtues, our Saint s
parents possessed chastity in an eminent
degree; this virtue, always admirable, is
much more so in persons of their class.
To their love of purity was joined a repug
nance to having children in their state of
servitude; hence, by mutual consent, they
lived separate. Their master hearing this.

Country, (Parents, and (Birth. 15

and being assured of it by themselves,
wished to remove one of the causes, and
promised that he would declare free the
first fruit of their marriage. Influenced by
this promise, the pious couple consented to
live together. God blessed their resolu
tion; Diana conceived; and, during the
time of her pregnancy, she incessantly
recommended her child to God and also to
the Blessed Virgin, to whom she, as well
as her husband, had a great devotion.

According to the opinion of several
writers, the child was born in 1524; he
was baptized in the Church of Sanfratello,
and received the name of Benedict. Man-
asseri gave him for god-father William
Pontremoli, one of his relations, and the
child being black, like his parents, he
became commonly called by the name of
Benedict the Negro. But under this dark
exterior he possessed gifts which won him

1 6 Life of St. (Benedict.

everybody s love, so that, observing his
happy natural disposition, every one applied
to him the words of the Spouse of the Can
ticles: I am black, but beautiful. Manasseri
kept his promise, and immediately declared
the child free ; happy presage of that child s
future consecration to God alone, who had
chosen him for Himself, and had destined
him solely for His service*

CHAPTER IL

ST. BENEDICT S CHILDHOOD.

BEAUTIFUL flower exposed to the
rays of a sweet and beneficent light,
and carefully cultivated, develops its
charms from day to day, and sheds around
it a delicious perfume ; thus it was with the
youthful Benedict. We may easily under
stand what was his education, in his tender-
est years, if we consider the piety of his
parents, and even of their master, and the
assiduous care they bestowed on this child
of benediction. His beautiful soul, the
object of the special predilection of the
Most High, cultivated by holy instructions
and virtuous examples, developed itself day

by day, and formed itself upon the model
a*

1 8 Life of St. (Benedict.

of his father and mother, and according to
the heart of God. The devotion, recol
lected deportment, and obedience of the
little negro excited general admiration;
again we are told that he, from his earliest
years, advanced in the spiritual life, and
that he was regarded as one already
enlightened in the ways of God, and emi
nently virtuous.

The inhabitants of Sanfratello beheld with
emotion, the good Christopher and his
pious wife conducting their child regularly
to the foot of the Holy Virgin s altar, where
he, with as much fervor as innocence,
offered himself and the homage of his lib
erty, and supplicated the Queen of Angels
not to permit him to fall into the horrible
slavery of the demon. Benedict, with as
much ardor as humility, united in the
prayers of his parents; with his whole heart
be repeated the tender aspirations sug-

(Benedict s Childhood. 19

gested by his mother. At this touching
spectacle, Manasseri could not restrain his
tears, remembering that he had contributed
to this work from which God, it seemed,
would draw so much glory. Manasseri was
not the only admirer of Benedict ; whoever
attentively regarded his gravity and con
duct, conceived the hope that, ia him, the
heavenly city should have one more inhabi
tant. The result showed that they were
not deceived.

Our Saint, like .nother Tobias, gave,
even in his tenderest years, no sign of
childishness or levity; like his virtuous
parents, he advanced with joy and courage,
in the evangelical way; like them, he
practised fasts and mortifications, and
frequently approached the sacraments;
consequently, the purity of his morals con
demned libertines and covered them with
confusion, while it animated the good and

2O Life of Si. (Benedict.

fervent. Neither public praises nor felicita
tions, nor the caresses of Manasseri himself,
could inspire the holy youth with thoughts
of vanity. Another in his place, would have
wished to profit by the general esteem, and,
above all, by the benevolence of the wealthy
master, who had given him his liberty, to
improve his condition. This would have
been only natural, for we daily see shep
herds, workmen, and servants setting great
value OP )eing the first, and having power
over others ; but the young Benedict, free
from ambition, kept his flocks, contented
himself with frugal fare, employed his hours
of rest in pious exercises, and had no other
guides but the law of God and the wishes
of his parents. What does greater honor
to the young negro is, that, with his ready
mind and lively imagination, he thought so
little of advancing himself, and engaging in
a less painful state, that, having attained

(Benedict s Childhood. 21

his eighteenth year, and being possessed of
the necessary strength and vigor for the
most laborious occupations of a farmer, he
esteemed himself happy in that condition.
Being master of his own wages, he pur
chased a pair of oxen, and engaged in
agriculture ; thus he became, in the super
natural order, another protector of that
honorable and useful profession. Worthy
rival of St. Isidore in his birth, he imitated
him, also, by glorifying God in the same
condition. If the holy Spaniard, while guid
ing the plough in the fields watered by the
Tagus, always kept his heart elevated to
God, our saintly Sicilian, while cultivating
the lands of Valdemone, ceased not to bless
the all-powerful hand which draws man s
food from nothingness, and preserves, in a
manner so constant and admirable, the
fruits of the earth, for the benefit of his
creatures. Hence, when the rain moist-

22 Life of St. ^Benedict.

ened the earth, when the rays of the sun
caused the seed to sprout, or when a gentle
wind dried the furrows of the fields, Bene
dict always returned thanks to the Author
of nature.

In the short intervals of rest, he used to
raise his eyes towards heaven, and in those
moments of delight, he appeared to enjoy
a foretaste of the blessed life ; the peace of
his soul was reflected on his countenance,
and amidst his poverty, he found all he
wished of worldly goods, and possessed in
a high degree that true happiness which
worldlings neither know nor desire. The
hard bread he eat, the wild fruits he found
in the fields, were more savory to him than
would have been the delicious viands that
loaded the sumptuous tables of Lucullus
and Vetellius,

CHAPTER IIL

ST. BENEDICT IN THE HEJLMITAG1.

T the time of which we speak, Father
Jerome Lanza, originally of St. Mark s,
occupied, with several of his brethren,
the hermitage of St. Dominic, a short dis
tance from Sanfratello. This father was a
knight allied on the maternal side to Cardi
nal Rebiba, a Sicilian. With the consent of
his wife, he had retired into a monastery,
had sold his rich patrimony, and abandoning
his country, had finally established himself
in the hermitage, where he imitated the an
gelic life of the ancient solitaries of Egypt.
One day, as he was walking in the country,
he cast his eyes upon some reapers who were
resting, and amusing themselves, in the

23

24 Life of St. (Benedict.

meantime, at Benedict s expense ; they were
even indecently mocking him. Lanza, hav
ing for a few moments attentively regarded
the negro, who was then about twenty-
one years old, discovered under that black
exterior a soul of extraordinary purity, and
said to the reapers: "You are ridiculing
this poor workman, but in a few years you
will hear something of him." Those uncul
tivated laborers listened with astonishment
to the words of such a venerable personage ;
those words remained deeply engraven on
Benedict s heart, although he did not com
prehend their meaning : not so his master,
who understood it perfectly, especially when
the good hermit added to him : " I recom
mend the young Benedict to you, for he will
first come to live with us, and afterwards
become a religious."

Some time later, Lanza, meeting Bene
dict in the fields, said to him: "Benedict;

St. (Benedict in the Hermitage 25

what are you doing there ? Sell your oxen
and come to my hermitage." The young
man obeyed, and although he was fond of
his little team, which he had purchased at
the price of his sweat, he heard the hermit s
voice as that of Jesus Christ, sojd his oxen,
and gave the price to the poor. Then he
asked his parents for the required permis
sion, which they gave with their benediction,
weeping, meanwhile, with joy and emotion,
and Benedict set out immediately for St.
Dominic s hermitage ; there, consumed with
zeal, he placed himself under the guidance
of his master. Thus Benedict gave an
earnest of his future sanctity by his prompt
obedience and ready correspondence to
grace.

Scarcely had the good hermits beheld

Benedict at the feet of Father Jerome, ere

they conceived the most happy hopes of

him. The Holy See had permitted them

a

26 Life of St. Benedict.

to profess the rule of St Francis, and add
thereto a fourth vow of perpetual Lenten
abstinence, and three days fast every week.
Hence they had obtained the faculty of
receiving novices, giving them the habit,
and admitting them to profession, after a
year s novitiate. Thus commenced that
new and rigorous institute. Certainly,
those rules were calculated to lead them
to an eminent perfection; everything in
them was conformable to the most austere
penitence; their food was confined to hard
and coarse bread, begged in the country;
sometimes they added thereto a few herbs
and vegetables badly prepared ; they drank
only water; their cells were small, badly
built, and incommodious; their clothing
was suited to the poverty they professed,
and was insufficient to preserve them from
the inclemency of the weather ; they spent
the greater part of the day and night in

St. (Benedict in the Hermitage. 27

prayer ; they enjoyed no agreeable society,
and to all this, they added manual labor.
A life so austere, rendered them objects
of holy astonishment to the inhabitants.

The novice Benedict, although among
the last, was the first to attain the end.
He learned from each of his brethren les
sons of sublime virtue, and like a river,
which in its course receives one brook,
then another, until, enriched by so many
streams, it overflows its banks and ferti
lizes the fields, he surpassed all his com
panions in solitude ; they respected him as
an angel on account of his truly angelic
virtues ; thus he became their chief and
their model. Even this extraordinary kind
of life could not satisfy his exalted views,
and his inexpressible ardor for acquiring
those heavenly treasures inaccessible to
moths and thieves. In his laudable ambi
tion, he ran in spirit over the deserts of

28 Life of St. (Benedict.

Nitria, Syria, and the Thebaide, to learn
the wonderful penances of the most aus
tere anchorets. He discovered that St.
Paul, the first hermit, had worn only a
tunic of palm leaves, which St. Anthony
afterwards inherited. Benedict would make
such a garment for himself, to which he
added a woollen capouche ; he thought this
would be a sufficient precaution against
the rigors of winter, but the intensity of
the cold obliged him to add another gar
ment to his dear tunic, which he never cast
away.

In virtue of the apostolic brief, our Saint,
after a year s novitiate, made his profes
sion in this austere institute. From that
time, he redoubled his macerations, morti-
cation of the senses, prayers, and above
all, his love for God, which wonderfully
inflamed him. To a profound humility
and contempt of himself, which he opposed

Si. (Benedict in the Hermitage. 29

to his superior s delight and his compan
ion s praises, he added blind obedience and
rigorous observance of the rule. His fasts
became continual, and the ground was his
only bed. His countenance bore the im
print of candor, modesty, and penance. He
frequently chastised his body, even to
blood. His quest of the hard bread, which,
with some herbs, constituted his food,
caused him to acquire abundant treasures
of patience, by the affronts he received
from some persons, who regarded the
voluntary poor of Jesus Christ as vaga
bonds and idlers, and who were not able to
distinguish between vice and virtue

St Anthony, Abbot, and other anchorets
were accustomed to change their residence,
as much to go courageously to combat with
the enemy of their salvation, as to triumph
the more readily over him by the continual
oains of long journeys over rough and diffi-

3*

30 Life of St. (Benedict.

cult ways. They also found therein matter
for sacrifice, by leaving their country and
renouncing the conveniences they had
acquired even in their solitudes. In imita
tion of this example, St. Benedict and his
companions, under the conduct of Father
Jerome Lanza, their superior, quitted the
Hermitage of St. Dominic in the province
of Val Demone, and passing into that of
Val di Mazzara, traversed Sicily from north
to south, since the river which bears the
name of Sanfratello discharges its waters
into the Tyrrhene Sea, and the rivers of
Platano and Rifesio, near which our hermits
arrived, flows into the African Sea. Our
solitaries took up their abode in a hermit
age near Cattolica, where they lived for
eight years, as our Saint himself told his
friend, John Dominic Rubbiano. Among
other inconveniences presented by this soli
tude, the roads were almost impassable,

Si. (Benedict in the Hermitage. 31

when they wished to go in quest of neces
sary nourishment for their bodies, enfeebled
by fasting, or to walk or take some recrea
tion. Father Jerome and his religious were
laymen ; in this they imitated those ancient
solitaries, who, before the year 385, in
which Pope Siricus sat in the Chair of St
Peter, were not ecclesiastics, although they
were superiors and abbots. In their new
retreat, the hermits were deprived of the
advantages they had enjoyed in their first
desert, which took its name from the Church
of St. Dominic, near which it was situated.

After eight years, those servants of God,
returned from the southern coast to that
of the Tyrrhene Sea, but at great distance
from the place in which they had first dwelt
This hermitage, twenty-six leagues from
Sanfratello, was called Mancusa in Parte-
nica, near Carini, five leagues from Palermo.
Thither our Saint retired with his brethren,

32 Life of St. (Benedict.

into caves that had been inhabited by wild
beasts, to apply themselves to prayer, and
conceal, at the same time, their long vigils,
their fasts and penances, not less severe
than continual. But the shadows of night
were dissipated and gave place to the
aurora. It was said that the famished
wolves, which are very numerous in that
desert, respected the negro s grotto, al
though it was in the most exposed place;
the people of Carini began to speak of him
with veneration as of a saint Drawn by
confidence in his merits, they began to visit
his retreat and implore his succor in their
maladies. God, who wished to be known
in His servant, blessed the people s faith
by operating a thousand cures, and bestow
ing many graces. The sanctity of our saint
began to shine abroad. Once, when,
through obedience, he went to Carini, he
met a poor woman long afflicted with

(Benedict in the Hermitage. 33

cancer in the breast, which all human reme
dies had failed to cure. Knowing Bene
dict s virtue, she said: "O servant of God,
in thy charity, make the sign of the cross
on my disease, which is incurable." Com
passion did violence to our Saint s humility;
he elevated his mind and heart to heaven,
made the sign of the cross, as the sick
woman had requested, and she was healed.
The fame of this miracle recalled other
graces obtained by the prayers of Brother
Benedict; the whole country resounded
with his name, and the concourse to the
grotto increased so much, that the prayers
and retirement of the good hermits were
interrupted. Hence, after having fulfilled
the obligations of patience and charity in
regard to the inhabitants of Carini, the her
mits, seeing that they abused it, judged
proper, in concert with their superior, to
abandon that spot, and seek elsewhere that

34

Life of St. (Benedict.

cherished solitude which was the basis of
their institute. The choice of a new her
mitage was speedily made, on account of
the proximity of Mount Pellegrino, which
seemed to invite our solitaries to conceal,
in its wild thickets, the virtues and austere
penances by which those servants of God
adorned their souls, and rendered them
more agreeable to their Divine Master.

CHAPTER IV.

ST. BENEDICT ON MOUNT PELLEGRIMO.

BOUT a league from the celebrated city
of Palermo, rises, majestically, Mount
Pellegrino, formerly known under the
name of Ereta or Erta. At the foot of the
mountain there is excellent water, the
medicinal virtues of which are attributed to
the mines through which it flows. But
what renders it most distinguished is that
there is the tomb of St. Rosalia; this fact
was not known at the time of which we
speak ; it was discovered one hundred years
after the birth of our Saint, on the I5th of
July, 1624, while the pestilence was raging
in Palermo. Its devastations ceased through
the invocation of the Saint The people of

35

36 Life of St. ^Benedict.

Palermo, in gratitude, erected a statue of
St. Rosalia on the summit of the mountain
facing the sea; this statue is so immense
that the sailors can perceive it from the sea,
and they salute it as that of their patroness.
In the time of our Saint, it was only known
by tradition where the holy virgin had
retired, and in particular, the grotto in
which she had dwelt; all Sicily held this
sanctuary in veneration. According to the
Roman Martyrology, Saint Rosalia was
descended from Charlemagne; she lived
towards the end of the twelfth century, in
solitude, on Mount Pellegrino, hiding her
virtues and penance from the eyes of the
world. Our Saint and his companions fol
lowed their Superior along this venerated
mountain, and stopped on a plain covered
with shrubs, which formed a thicket, directly
opposite St. Rosalia s grotto, which was
then uninhabitable and entirely closed. The

. (Benedict on Mi Pellegrino. 37

holy hermits built for themselves, on a rock
near the holy grotto, little cells like those
of the first solitaries of Egypt They were
very anxious to have also a small chapel for
divine service,* such as the disciples of
Pachomius and Hilarion had, but whence
were to come the means? From Divine
Providence, which, watching over those
poor ones of Jesus Christ, wished to realize
their just desires. The Duke of Medina-
Caeli, then Viceroy of Sicily, and his pious
consort, won by the sanctity of those good
hermits, and especially by the well-estab
lished reputation of Brother Benedict s vir
tues, caused a little chapel to be erected at
their expense, contiguous to the venerated
grotto, in which they placed a picture of
Saint Rosalia, that the solitaries might con
template the image of their holy patroness.
They then caused little separate cells to be
constructed all around the chapel, for the

4

38 Life of St. Benedict.

servants of God. The ruins of these are
still to be seen; they show the cell of
Father Lanza and that of our Saint, which
are on the western side of the hill, opposite
the grotto of the holy penitent. In confer
ences with his Superior and brethren, Bene
dict learned that the Apostle St. Paul, being
at the house of Aquila and Priscilla, made
tents for the soldiers; whence he says in
the Second Epistle to the Thessalonians :
Neither did we eat any man s bread for
nothing^ but in labor and in toil we worked
night and day, lest we should be chargeable to
any of you. He also learned that we read
in St. Epiphanius that the monks were like
bees ; they put their hand to the wax, and
their mouth to the honey, by singing the
praises of God ; that St. Jerome wrote to
the monk Rusticus : " In the monasteries of
Egypt they have the laudable custom of
subsisting only bv the fruits of their labor,

Si. (Benedict on Mt. (Pellegrino. 39

not so much because of their want of
resources, as for the salvation of their souls,
for fear of giving entrance to bad thoughts ;
and to escape idleness, that formidable
enemy so much detested by the Fathers of
the Church, and which the very pagans held
in horror." Also that St. Chrysostom says,
in the twenty-ninth homily on St Matthew:
" Youth which has leisure to satisfy its curi
osity in games and festivities, is accustomed
to rebel, and becomes more ferocious than
the beasts ;" and finally, that St Bernard
says, in the Second book of Considerations :
" One cannot be too much on one s guard
against idleness ; we must fly from it as being
the source of vanity and the tomb of virtues?
Penetrated with these holy maxims, our
Saint, after the example of his Seraphic
Father, divided his time between interior
exercises of piety and manual labor. Like
the rest of his brethren, he made baskets

4O Life of St. (Benedict.

and brooms, without ever relenting from his
ardor for prayer, passing, like the Apostle,
from exterior occupations to recollection,
and the most perfect exercises of the spirit
and the heart.

Our Lord having called to himself Father
Jerome Lanza, the Superior of those holy
solitaries, our Saint was immediately elected
in his place, with as much satisfaction to the
community as pain to Benedict s humility.
The prudence of his government was pro
portionate to the eminence of his virtue.
He gave the habit to a man named Gar-
gano, originally of Paula in Calabria, who
took the name of Brother Francis ; he was
a man of pure morals and solid virtue.
The new Superior spent some time with
him, in the convent of Diana, in Marinco
near Montreal, and then returned to his
dear solitude at Mount Pellegrino. There
they dwelt until Pope Julius III, in 1550, the

. (Benedict on Mt. (Pellegrino. 41

first year of his pontificate, desired them to
leave their particular cells, to live together
in a monastery that had been built for them
near the church, by some pious souls ; of
this monastery some vestiges still remain.
Things remained in this condition under
the pontificates of Marcellus II and Paul IV.
Pius IV, being seated on the chair of St
Peter in 1559, was informed of the austeri
ties practised by those hermits; he dis
pensed them from the fourth vow of per
petual Lenten abstinence and then of the
three days weekly fast. Afterwards think
ing, perhaps, that the waters, by prolonging
their course, are sometimes troubled, he
ordered that each of those solitaries might
accomplish his vows in any convent he
should choose. The first cause of Pius IV s
wish is to be attributed to the will of the
Almighty, who wished to draw Benedict s
virtue forth from obscurity, to place it on a

4*

42 Life of St. (Benedict.

candlestick, that it might shine over all the
world. Our Saint knew not, at first, which
of the Franciscan orders to choose. His
first idea was to enter among the order of
the Capuchins, which he thought resembled
most his manner of life; but being on his
knees in the metropolitan church of Palermo,
before the altar of the Blessed Virgin s
chapel, he prayed for light from God and
the prompt succor of his most holy Mother.
He then felt himself inspired to enter the
order of the reformed Minor Observantins.
Through motives of prudence, and for fear
of being deceived, or yielding, perhaps, to
human complaisance and self-satisfaction by
being among the first members of that
laudable reform, he resisted the first and
second inspirations of his holy protectress.
Finally, as he persevered in prayer for the
success of an affair on which depended his
eternal salvation, he felt himself inspired,

St. (Benedict on Mt. (Pellegrino. 43

for the third time, and having no longer
any doubt, he returned thanks to the Holy
Spirit, the source of light, and to his divine
Mother; then he arose, full of courage, and
going to the convent of the reformed Minors
in Palermo, he asked for the Father Guar
dian, and cast himself at his feet

CHAPTER V.

ENTERS THE ORDER OP THE REFORMED MINOR OBSE*.

VANTINS.

MAN of such extraordinary virtue,
whose sanctity, confirmed by prodi
gies, was celebrated throughout Sicily,
could not but be received with as much
veneration as joy, when he presented him
self at the convent of St. Mary of Jesus,
near Palermo, and begged to be admitted
to the habit Benedict s arrival seemed to
those holy religious a striking proof of the
divine protection over their new-born
reform, since the Lord sent them at the
same time, one of his most beloved ser
vants, and a man long skilled in the diffi
cult paths of retreat and penance. Hence

44

(Reformed Minor Observantins. 45

the religious joyfully hastened to greet
Benedict, and Father Archangel of Scicli,
then Guardian, embraced him. This good
Superior and his community recognized the
finger of God and His paternal providence,
in the entrance of that hermit, already well
known to inmates of the convent

Our Saint brought with him Brother
Francis of Calabria, to whom, while guar
dian of the hermits, he had given the habit
on Mount Pellegrino. Both were admitted
to the new habit, without again taking vows,
because, in virtue of the authorization of the
Holy See, those they had made in the her
mitage, were valid and sufficient ; they had,
then, only to submit to their new superiors.
Some days after Benedict had been invested
with the habit, he was sent, without further
novitiate, to the convent of St Anne-
Julienne, where he passed three years in
celestial delights, because he there found

46 L>ife of St. (Benedict.

that solitude so dear to his heart. There,
without hindrance, he gave himself up to
the contemplation of eternal happiness, and
the numberless benefits that God bestows
upon men. Everything in that desert re
minded him of the Divine Omnipotence ;
the plants, herbs, flowers, the beautiful
jasper that abounded in the neighboring
mountains, the precious agate which was
dug up near the convent, and which has
been thus called, because the first was
found on the borders of the river Achates.
After three years, Benedict was recalled
to the convent of St. Mary of Jesus, in
Palermo, where he spent the rest of his
life; for the community was very careful
not to lose so good a model. Benedict
there practised virtues and corporal austeri
ties, as rigorously as he had done in his
hermitage. Always full of the love of holy
poverty, he put on over his tunic of palm-

(Reformed Minor Observanttns. 47

leaves, which he always wore, the coarsest
and most threadbare habit, made of that
wool called by the Sicilians Arbaxo, and he
never changed this garment except by his
Superior s order. He went barefoot, as he
had done in his desert, however severe the
cold might be. He called his cell his
palace; its furniture consisted in a coarse
coverlet spread on a board, which served
him for a bed, a few pictures of his patron
saints, and a cross drawn on the wall with
charcoal.

This extreme poverty, which Benedict
loved so ardently, and kept so faithfully
from his entrance into religion, being the
firm support of virtues, and the best remedy
for the ordinary defects of our corrupt
nature, reigned sovereignly in his heart
After the example of his seraphic Father,
he wished neither to possess nor appropri
ate the least thtog, and he continually urged

48 Life of St.

his brethren, both by word and example, to
the practice of this beautiful virtue. So
strict was he on this point, that he feared
he would fail in the perfection of religious
poverty, if he made use of the condiments
served in the refectory, to stimulate the
appetite.

But while he so heroically practised
universal detachment, the Lord showed by
evident proofs, how agreeable it was to
Him. St. Benedict was going one day from
St. Anne-Julienne to Palermo with a brother
clerk named Anthony of ConigHone. When
they arrived at St. Agatha, the clerk, who
was fasting and much fatigued by the length
of the journey, declared that it was impossi
ble for him to proceed further. Through
love of poverty, our Saint had not brought
any provisions with him, and there was no
opportunity of getting any where they were.
Benedict then encouraged his companion

(Reformed Minor Observantins. 49

to make a few steps more, and exhorted
him to have confidence in our Heavenly
Father, who feeds the very insects. He
had scarcely finished speaking, when a
handsome young man presented himself
before them ; he seemed to know the wants
of the two religious, offered them a loaf of
warm bread, and disappeared. The clerk,
overwhelmed with astonishment, tasted the
miraculous bread; a little sufficed to restore
his strength, and he carried the rest to the
convent at Palermo, and distributed it
among the religious, who, informed of the
prodigy, carefully preserved those precious
fragments for a better occasion.

The same thing happened to our Saint
when travelling with three religious of his
order. In the midst of the journey, becom
ing fatigued and exhausted, they complained
of having nothing to refresh themselves,
but our hero of poverty unhesitatingly

5o Life of St. (Benedict.

assured them that Divine Providence would
provide. At that moment a traveller gave
them bread and wine without having been
asked for it, and while the religious were
refreshing themselves, he conversed with
Benedict, who knew him perfectly. The
three religious having eaten and drunk
sufficient, returned the remainder to their
benefactor; the bottle was full, and the loaf
entire, as if they had never been touched !
All were astonished at this, except the good
negro. These prodigies increased his repu
tation for sanctity, as well as the respect
for the poverty of the reformed Minors.

A similar occurrence took place in a
journey which the Saint made from Palermo
to Girgenti, with three religious, who were
almost dead with hunger and fatigue. Vito
Polizzi, an inhabitant of Palermo, was return
ing thither from Girgenti, and seeing their
sad condition, he alighted from his horse,

(Reformed Minor Obs&rvantins. 51

and gave them a package of biscuits and
a bottle of wine. The religious accepted a
succor which came so opportunely, and tfiey
made such good use of the provision, that
scarcely anything remained. They thanked
the charitable cavalier, who, when he arrived
at the barony of Fontaine, again alighted
from his horse to partake of what had been
left by the religious. To his great surprise,
he found the packet full of biscuits and
the bottle replenished with wine. Amazed
at the sight of this miraculous multiplica
tion, he published it everywhere, and swore
to it, at the process instituted at Palermo
in 1595, on the virtues and miracles of our
Saint

The wonder we are about to relate, will
prove, still more clearly, St. Benedict s love
for poverty, and his zeal for its perfect
observance. We may also see by it, how
God loves the voluntary poor, whom the

52 Life of St. (Benedict.

incredulous affect to despise and insult.
The Saint, while watching over the lowest
employments of the convent, perceived that
the religious clerks, in washing the dishes,
as usual, after dinner, threw in the water
the remnants of bread and other food,
which the sobriety of the religious had
made them leave in the refectory. At this
sight, Benedict s zeal for poverty was in
flamed; he approached the clerks and said:
"My brothers, for charity s sake, do not
throw away those fragments. Let us give
them to the poor, for it is the blood of those
who have given them to us for the love of
God." Those young men would not listen
to him ; they even laughed at him, treating
what he had said as the tiresome scrupu
losity of an ignorant lay-brother. The
Saint then took up one of those little
brushes used for cleaning the vessels, and
pressing it in his right hand, said ; " Look,

(Reformed Minor Observantins. 53

children;" at the same moment, blood
flowed abundantly from the brush under
his pressure, and all were penetrated with
terror at the sight of such a prodigy. The
clerics, much confused, repented of and
corrected their fault; the news of the
prodigy was spread abroad, and made a
profound impression on the minds of those
who heard it After the death of our hero,
the Apostolic Inquisitor, coming from Spain
to Sicily, caused a picture of the memora
ble occurrence to be painted. This may
still be seen in Portugal in a chapel erected
by the negroes in that kingdom, in honor
of blessed Benedict, and also in other
places* Several witnesses, heard at Rome
during the process of his Canonization in
1715, averred that, in America, they had
often seen litde pictures representing this
marvellous occurrence.

To his heroic love of poverty, our Saint
$

54 Life of St. (Benedict.

joined an angelic chastity, which he pre
served unspotted from his cradle to his
entrance into religion, and from his religious
vocation until his death. For this end, he
employed the most severe penances. He
was too well aware of the fragility of the
vessel in which is preserved our baptismal
innocence, to neglect the care of such a
precious treasure ; he fortified his spirit by
enfeebling the flesh; he preserved it from
every stain by continual austerities; he
watched rigorously over his senses, princi
pally over his eyes, thinking, with reason,
that it is by them that sin and corruption
penetrate most surely into our souls.
Hence, when he went to meet in his con
vent those who desired to speak to him, or
when he begged in Pajermo, he never fixed
his eyes on persons of the other sex, not
even the most modest. The Duchess
Louise di Montalto, who had often held

(Reformed Minor Observantins. 55

long conferences with him, for the strength
and consolation of her soul, could never
boast of having seen the color of his eyes.
This singular modesty, which he showed to
all in general, united to a sincere charity
which made him always ready to render a
service, far from repelling others, or making
him appear rude, won him everybody s
affection and respect

He was not less reserved in his words
than in his looks. Far from allowing him
self to say anything improper, he was care
ful to avoid the least raillery, the slightest
levity. A tongue wholly consecrated to
the honor of God, and the good of the
neighbor, could be employed only for those
two ends, and not in idle words. The ser
vant of God was equally careful in the
custody of his ears, and we shall find him
speaking against the abuse of the sense of
smell. When people wished, according to

56 Life of St. (Benedict,.

the custom of the country, to kiss his hand,
he would adroitly withdraw it, and humbly
present his habit, to avoid the dangers of
the touch. We have already seen his mor
tification in his food. This purity, so care
fully guarded, won him singular homage
from the city of Palermo, which, when tak
ing him for its protector, gave him in its
public acts, the glorious title of Virgin; he
is named therein: temple of the Holy Spirit
and of virginity; yet more, he is repre
sented in an old picture in the sacristy of
his convent, with a lily in his hand, an
emblem reserved to the heroes of chastity.
His obedience was so universal, that he
sought the will of his Superior, even in the
least things. A sign was as much to him
as an express command, and was sufficient
to make him leave even prayer, which was,
nevertheless, his delight It would be
impossible to know the number of those

Reformed, Minor Observantins. 57

who came to him to implore favors, coun
sels, or consolation. His superiors decided
that he should be called by three strokes
of the bell; those sounds, which, to him,
were the voice of obedience, were so fre
quent that scarcely would he have reached
his cell, or gone to his employment after
having dismissed a visitor at the convent
door, when he would be called again; yet,
without the least dissatisfaction, he would
return to the door, through obedience.

This religious virtue was crowned by a
singular prodigy. Don Laurence Galletti,
Count of Gagliardi, fell so dangerously ill
at Palermo, that the doctors were in mo
mentary expectation of his death. The
parents hastened to recommend the dying
man to the prayers of the servant of God,
and engaged his superiors to command
him to pray for him. Benedict, ever ready
to obey, went to the church, and, prostrate

58 Life of St. (Benedict.

before the altar of the blessed Virgin,
begged her to intercede for the sick man s
cure. As he prayed, he beheld the Mother
of God coming forth from her niche, and,
at the same time, a tomb open near the
altar, while he heard Mary utter the follow
ing words: Laurence Galletti dead ahd
risen again. After thanking the Mother
of mercy, Benedict returned to the Guar
dian, and related his vision. The sick
man s parents, hearing it, returned home
full of joy, where they found their son per
fectly cured. Every voice attributed this
miracle to our saint s obedience.

CHAPTER VL

BROTHER BENEDICT IS EMPLOYED IN THE KITCHEN OF THB

CONVENT.

HE lowest and most painful employ
ments were always Benedict s choice.
Obedience imposed on him that of
cook. Certainly there could be found no
one better suited to this function, or more
proper for the interest of the house, since
he brought to it, not only that active charity
which animated all his actions, but also the
power of obtaining from God the succors
rendered necessary by religious poverty,
and even prodigies, when occasion required.
Hence we are not surprised to find him
twenty-seven years in this employment,
from which he wa? drawn at intervals, only
to fill the most important places.

59

60 Life of St.

That kitchen was sanctified by the prayers
of Benedict, and the favors of God, We
read in the acts of his canonization, that one
day, the holy cook made the soup out of salt
pork or bacon, because the meat had not
come in time; when it was brought, Bene
dict put it on the fire immediately. A few
moments later, some religious, obliged to
go to Palermo, asked Brother Benedict for
some meat. The Saint replied that it had
not been on the fire longer than one might
be in saying the Miserere, but that they
might look at it The religious, knowing
the cook s virtue, went boldly to the hearth,
and, to their great astonishment, found the
meat thoroughly cooked

On one occasion, when the Provincial
Chapter was being held in that convent,
the number of strange religious greatly
increased the labor and the amount of Len
ten provisions needed, as the chapter was

In the Convent Kitchen. 61

held in Advent But the snow was falling
heavily, and not even the ordinary provi
sions could be obtained. In this extremity,
Benedict, calling his companion, took with
him some of the kitchen vessels, filled them
with water, and retired, as if to sleep. But
the Saint, full of confidence in Divine Pro
vidence, spent the whole night in prayer.
Next morning, when he and his companion
returned to the kitchen, they found in those
vessels a quantity of fish sufficient for all
the religious.

A still more admirable prodigy took place
In that kitchen, once on Christmas Day.
The Inquisitor of the kingdom, Don Diego
de Ahedo, who was also Archbishop of
Palermo, wished to be present at the Offices
and Solemn Mass, celebrated in the house
of the Deformed Minors, and for his conso
lation, desired also to dine there, that he
might taste the cooking of Messire> a sou-

6

62 Life of St. ^Benedict.

briquet given to St. Benedict. Anxious, at
the same time, to regale the poor commu
nity, and to be no charge to it, he sent to
the kitchen a sufficient quantity of provi
sions, which the cook was to prepare. The
day was far advanced, and High Mass had
already been commenced, yet though they
sought Benedict all over the convent, to
urge him to hasten with the dinner, they
could not find him. The Father- Vicar, Dom
Ambrose de Polichi, complained of this so
much the more bitterly, as he found there
was not even any fire in the kitchen. The
Gospel of the Mass had just been sung,
when the thurifer, while moving the censer,
felt a little resistance at one side; he turned
and beheld Benedict kneeling behind a cur
tain, which hung from the tribune.

The clerk shook him, and told him that
the vicar was looking for him everywhere.
The saint made a sign r or him to be silent,

In the Convent Kitchen. 63

and continued his meditation until the end
of Mass. Then he arose, took a candle,
and went to light the fire in the kitchen.
Father Ambrose, hastening thither, found
Benedict on his knees and immovable, with
the light in his hand. The father scolded,
and the other religious joined in his
reproaches. Benedict, rising, bade them
give the signal for dinner and go to the
refectory, because everything was ready.
The religious looked at one another; the
Father Vicar asked how it could be possi
ble ; Benedict replied that the Lord would
provide. At that moment, in presence of
them all, and of the Inquisitor himself, who
had entered, there appeared two young
men, clothed in white from head to foot,
who, rolling up their sleeves, began to pre
pare the meal. Again the Saint begged
his brethren to go to the refectory, because
everything was ready to be served. They

64 Life of St. (Benedict.

sat down to table, the dishes were served,

but what were the viands? Those

/lands prepared by angelic hands! The
religious dined, full of surprise at a prodigy
of which they had been eye-witnesses.
What a lesson of confidence in God! Our
Lord showed clearly by this miracle, that
the confidence of His servants is not the
arrogance of presumption, and that they are
faithfully accompanied and assisted by His
angels, whom the greater number of Chris
tians honor but slightly, or not at all.

We have, then, good reason to believe
that the angels aided Benedict on many
other occasions, and supplied by their aid
for human weakness. This must have been
the case, when they were building a new
dormitory in the same convent. On that
occasion, the masons, on account of the
poverty of the Friars, and in virtue of a
special permission, went there to work

In the Convent Kitchen. 65

gratuitously on holidays, asking only their
dinner. Once, when they were expecting
them on an approaching feast, the overseer
of the work informed Father Peter of Tra-
pani, then Guardian, that the masons could
not come on that day. Consequently, no
provision was made for them. But on the
morning of the festival, thirty men came to
work at the dormitory. When the Guar
dian learned the fact, it was too late to pro
vide for them, and he went to the kitchen
in the greatest anxiety. Our Saint, who
was not the least troubled, seeing the
Superior s uneasiness, told him to be calm
and trust to Divine Providence; the Guar
dian shrugged his shoulders, and went
away. The dinner hour being arrived, the
cook repeated that the workmen might go
to table, adding that the grace of God was
there in abundance for all. The thirty
masons dined, and never had they gone

66 Life of St. (Benedict.

away better regaled or more satisfied; they
even left much food after them. In such
circumstances, the liberality of heaven is
always to be admired. The religious who
beheld these marvels, knew, from that time,
the value of Benedict s confidence in God,
who aided him so efficaciously in every
necessity.

But inasmuch as our Saint was anxious
to provide for the nourishment of others,
so much was he neglectful of his own. He
persevered in his primitive abstinence; he
would scarcely taste of his portion, and
gave the larger share to the poor. Obliged
by his employment to taste the food, he
took very little, through a motive of morti
fication. The following instance proves
how advanced he was in the practice of that
virtue. Brother William having abstained
from the first cherries of the season, the
Saint told him that true abstinence con*

In the Convent Kitchen. 67

sisted, not in leaving a thing entirely, but in
only tasting it, and that by this means one
deprives one s self of sensible pleasure, and
mortifies the appetite which has tasted it
On account of this interior light, he tasted,
without difficulty, whatever was brought as
an alms to the refectory, either in testi
mony of his gratitude, or for the consola
tion of the donors ; but out of the refectory,
his abstinence was rigorous. A gentleman
of Palermo having offered him an early wal
nut to eat, he refused it, saying that a
religious should never swerve from the
common life ; an excellent maxim, which he
faithfully kept throughout his life.

CHAPTER VIL

W. BENEDICT IS MADK GUAEMAH.

O remarkable were the virtues of
Brother Benedict, that the reformed
Minors, although very fervent reli
gious, could not see among them one more
proper to govern than he, although he was
but a lay-brother. When Benedict found
he had been elected Guardian of the con
vent in which he was cook, it may be
imagined what a contest arose in his heart
between humility and obedience. He
addressed himself to the Superiors of the
Observantins in the province of Sicily, and
full of sadness and humility, he, like another
Moses on the mountain, exaggerated his
imperfections and incapacity. He was sin-
68

(Benedict is made Guardian. 69

gularly eloquent in exposing before the
chapter of the religious, the meanness of
his birth, his condition as a lay-brother, the
weakness of his mind, and, finally, his igno
rance, which was so great that he knew not
how either to read or write, qualifications
which he said were indispensable to a
Superior. He added, that although he had,
for a short time, governed the hermits of
Mount Pellegrino, it was by an error, excu
sable on the part of lay-brothers, whose
government did not require great capacity.
Finally, he strongly opposed to his defects,
the merits of so many religious in the
monastery, more capable than he.

But his representations were useless;
while he was humbling himself as much as
possible, the religious recalled his virtues,
his extraordinary reputation, the graces and
prodigies obtained through his prayers, and
above all, his well known prudence. They

70 Life of St. (Benedict.

knew that no one is more proper to com
mand than he who knows how to obey, and
hence they justly concluded that Benedict,
being a model of obedience, would become
the model of wise and prudent Superiors.
They considered that, in a rising reform, in
which the austerities of the Seraphical
Father were followed so exactly, no one
could make them more loved or better
observed than he who so perfectly prac
tised them. Consequently, they paid no
attention to his pleadings.

The election being maintained, Benedict
yielded through obedience; he implored
the help of God, and placed himself at the
head of the convent, by giving to his infe
riors the rarest examples of religious vir
tues. He was always the first in serving
the sick, in washing the feet of strange
religious, at the prayers of the community,
at holy ceremonies, mortifications, arid pub-

St. (Benedict is made Guardian.

lie penances. Notwithstanding his numer
ous occupations, no one could ever arrive
before him in the church or the choir. The
sacristan, however diligent he might be,
always found him there. This good Supe
rior employed himself in all the labors of
the house, and in the lowest employments.
He made his rest and recreation consist
in helping in the kitchen, washing the
dishes, drawing water, carrying wood,
sweeping the house, digging in the garden,
and begging in the city. The principal
fruit which his subjects drew from such
beautiful examples, was a continual encour
agement to the exact practice of their
rigorous reform, and particularly of holy
humility, that virtue so dear to Benedict,
and so often forgotten by Superiors ; as if,
in order to govern well, it were necessary
to affect dignity and show contempt for
inferiors.

72 Life of St. (Benedict.

Our excellent Guardian, humble in his
demeanor, poor in his whole exterior, ex
tenuated by penance, bore a sovereign
respect towards the priests, showed him
self full of charity to the lay-brothers, and
employed admirable discretion in directing
the novices; his patience was unalterable
towards the inferiors and brothers of the
house, and was affable towards everybody ;
hence all respected, loved, and punctually
obeyed him. No one abused his humility.
On the contrary, he having on one occasion
corrected a novice, whom he thought guilty
of a grave fault, and being afterwards
assured that he was innocent, or at least
less guilty than he had supposed, he knelt
before him and begged his pardon; this
course, far from drawing on him any con
tempt, caused him to be the more admired;
and everybody only esteemed the more the
good Superior and master. Hence it was

St. (Benedict is made Guardian. 73

that that community partook so much of
the spirit of the Patriarch of Assisium.
Therein was to be seen neither hatred nor
coldness; the religious promptly acknow
ledged their failings, and mutually asked
and granted pardon. That holy spot was,
we may say, a mirror most clear and well-
calculated to reflect the brilliancy of Bene
dict s virtues, and particularly of his humil-
llity, since those good religious had elected
a negro lay-brother as their Superior, so
far were they strangers to ambition and
human respect.

Benedict s humility was revealed not only
amidst mortifications, penances, and trials ;
it shone also amidst honors, applause, and
success. The more God, who exalts the
humble, wished to glorify him, the more did
His servant abase himself in his abjection.
The provincial chapter being held in the
ancient city of Girgenti, formerly so cele-
f

74 Life of St. (Benedict.

brated, Benedict, in his quality of Guardian,
was obliged to assist thereat. As soon as
his arrival became known, the whole city
was in a tumult of joy. Nothing was
spoken of but Benedict and his sanctity,
and at the news of his approach, the clergy
of the cathedral, accompanied by many of
the inhabitants, went to meet him. What a
beautiful spectacle it was, to see the humble
Benedict surrounded by the most respecta
ble ecclesiastics, the most distinguished
inhabitants, and by crowds of people, who
disputed for the happiness of kissing his
habit, or, at least, of touching it! The
more confused and mortified the Saint
became, the more he vainly sought to fly
this applause, the more did they cry aloud:
Behold the Saint. Some recommended
themselves to his prayers, others wept for
joy; they never grew weary of contempla
ting his modesty and humility amidst so

St. (Benedict is made Guardian. 75

peaceful and glorious a triumph. The like
happened at Bivona, where the people s
joy was so excessive, and the crowd so
great, that he hid himself, and fled to escape
such indiscreet honors.

Pliny the Younger relates that a Spaniard,
electrified by the reputation of the cele
brated historian Titus Livius, made a voy
age from Cadiz to Rome to behold him, and
after accomplishing his purpose, returned
home without trying to see anything, al
though Rome possessed many objects of
legitimate curiosity. We read that the like
thing happened to Benedict. A Portuguese
came from the banks of the Tagus to see
him and throw himself at his feet; then he
returned, proud of having beheld the ser
vant of God and conversed familiarly with
him, so much was his reputation for sanctity
spread throughout the west of Europe, and
so great was the glory given him by our

76 Life of St. (Benedict.

Lord, even in this world! But the Most
High discovered in Benedict s heart a pro
found contempt for perishable honors, a
horror of the least sentiment of vanity, and
a continual abnegation of self before God
and men.

This privileged soul found his delight in
prayer; in it he united himself with God, in
it he applied himself to heavenly things,
during all the time he could spare from his
employment, and the works of piety and
charity, in which he was constantly en
gaged. During those precious moments,
the use of his senses was suspended. Two
religious, on their return to the convent,
hastened to his cell to ask blessing, he
being Guardian, but they received no re
sponse. They repeated the Benedicite
several times in a loud voice, but to no pur
pose. Finally they opened the door, and
beheld Benedict on his knees in prayer.

(Benedict is made Guardian. 77

They went up to him, making a great
noise, but he heard them not Then the
religious, who really wished to receive his
blessing, made so much noise that the Saint,
returning to himself, and drawn from his
delightful contemplation, said in a plaintive
tone: A h! may God forgive you ! God bless
you!

Although Benedict s charity for his neigh
bor was always remarkable, it, nevertheless,
shone more brilliantly while he was Supe
rior. Not content with being always the
first to visit the sick, he also rendered them
the lowest offices, watched over their health,
and by holy words encouraged them to
patience; when they grew worse he would
spend whole nights with them. He gave
orders to the porter never to send the poor
away fasting; they knowing this, failed not
to profit thereby. One day, several poor
persons and some Spanish soldiers pre-

7*

78 Life of St. (Benedict.

sented themselves at the gate. Brother
Vito of Girgenti, then porter, according to
his orders, distributed all the bread that he
had. After these had gone, more presented
themselves. Brother Vito told them he
had no more bread. They were going
away, very sad, when the good Guardian
arrived; he called them back, and asked
the porter why he had refused to give
them alms. " Father Guardian/ answered
Brother Vito, " I have counted the portions,
and there is scarcely enough for the reli
gious." "No matter," replied the charita
ble Superior; "give alms to these poor
people; God will provide for us." The
porter obeyed; he distributed ten loaves>
and when he counted what remained, found
there was more than enough for the reli
gious; this was a prodigy of frequent
occurrence in our Saint s time.

Prudence no less than charity is essen-

St. (Benedict is made Guardian. 79

tial to good government It causes us to
adopt means most proper to a good end,
and at the same time, the most conforma
ble to the love and characters of our fellow-
beings. Benedict followed this rule most
exactly. He, on a certain occasion, gave a
private gentle admonition to a novice, for
a fault which others imprudently wished to
have punished publicly; the good result
proved that the Guardian had chosen the
better means. He exercised the like pru
dence in regard of some young religious
who were accustomed to talk near a large
window in the dormitory, during the time
of strict silence. Complaint of this being
carried to the Superior, he went to that
place at the time they were accustomed to
, break silence, and by remaining there a
long time, led them to perceive their fault
without his saying a word, and the disorder
from that time ceased.

CHAPTER VIIL

ST. BENEDICT IS ELECTED VICAR AND MASTER OF NOVICES.

HILE the excellent Guardian rejoiced
to see the end of his triennial term
of office drawing nigh, his subjects
were deeply afflicted thereat He desired
to have more time for contemplation; and
the religious, although running the same
course, felt themselves far from the end,
and knew of no one who could worthily fill
the place of Father Benedict, or give so
much splendor to the rising reform, as had
been given by the servant of God. We
have seen that when he left his hermitage to
enter the convent in Palermo, he embraced
the reform then in full vigor in that institute,
but that new reform had great need of the

help brought to it by our Saint Although
80

Elected Vicar and Master. 81

not the father of that rigorous institute, he
was certainly its foster-father, which excuses
the contempt of those who date the rise of
the reform in that monastery from Bene
dict s entrance, and call him its father.

At the end of his term, our Saint was
elected Vicar, and afterwards Master of the
clerks and lay-novices. We shall not
retrace the picture of the virtues which he
practised, since they were the same as had
adorned his term of guardianship. Enter
ing on his new employments, he was already
full of vigilance, and attentive to guide
those young men, whether clerks or lay-
novices, in the narrow and severe path
traced by the Seraphical Patriarch. It was
not necessary to urge them by many words
to advance courageously in penance and
mortification ; the example of the holy Mas
ter was sufficient, for, according to St
Chrysostom, teaching by example is the

82 Life of St. (Benedict.

rule of doctrine, that of the voice is the
science; but the doctrine of example is
virtue, Now, they saw in our Saint an
inviolable fidelity to the rule, an exact
obedience to the slightest wish of the new
Superior, heroic patience under trial and
suffering, ardent love for his neighbor, and
constant readiness to render him the least
service, a wise temperance which repressed
every inordinate interior and exterior mo
tion; rigorous mortification of the senses
and the rebellious flesh, which he afflicted
by fasts and bloody disciplines, and humbled
by frequent consideration of the nothing
ness of self. Illumined by such a light, the
young men confided to Benedict s care
never wandered from the path traced out
for them. If, through human frailty, some
seemed to become neglectful, then the voice
of the Master was heard, and no more \v cvs
needed to make them return to the right

Elected Vicar and Master. 83

way. Benedict was aware of what Isidore
of Damietta teaches, viz: that the Master
does not correct his disciples by severity
or chastisements, but by the ingenious
address of charity, which must direct good
education.

The charity of the holy Master of Novices
was conformable to what St. Chrysostom,
in his Twenty-seventh Homily on the Corin
thians, recommends to masters, when he
says: "The master s principal function is to
share from the bottom of his heart in the
pains and sorrows of his inferiors." This
our Saint practised to the letter. The
necessities of his novices were his own ; he
felt all their pains. In him they found not
only a master, but a physician, a counsellor,
a father, a superior, a friend, a sure guide,
and a happy asylum, where they found
peace of soul, after their combats against
the passions. They came from him filled

84 Life of St. (Benedict.

with courage to recommence that spiritual
war under the auspices of a chief accus
tomed to victory, who never recoiled from
the combat, and who always met his ene
mies, the passions, with the arms of absti
nence and patience, which he had inherited
from the Patriarch St. Francis; hence, his
disciples, accustomed to conquer in their
turn, became the firm supports of the
reform, which shone even beyond Sicily.

The Saint paid such particular attention
to his novices, that he often read their very
thoughts, and warned them when they had
reason to fear bad effects. The good
Master s tender solicitude was marvellously
seconded by the gift of the penetration of
hearts, bestowed on him by Almighty God,
of which we shall speak in the following
chapter. The effect of this was to keep
the novices always on their guard, not only
in their exterior actions, but also in their

Elected Vicar and Master. 85

interior. They knew, by experience, that
Father Benedict clearly read the depths of
their hearts, and they became assured of it
by the two following facts:

While Father Louis d* Alcamo was a
novice in that convent, he, on one occa
sion, repented of his good resolution, and
resolved to return to the world. He was
reflecting on it, when Father Benedict
called him. The novice obeyed and listened
to the Saint, who exposed vividly the misfor
tune of looking back, when there is no good
reason for doing so, and he proved it by
the strongest reasons, adding, finally: And
you, my son, why do you allow yourself to be
seduced, why do you think of returning to the
world? The astonished novice replied:
And how do you know my intention? A
little bird told me, answered the Saint. The
novice bowed his head, acknowledged the
evil thought, became convinced by what he

8

86 Life of St. (Benedict.

had heard, and absolutely renounced the
bad design.

Two religious, Gregory of Licata and
Jerome of Palermo, while in the novitiate,
formed the design of secretly leaving the
convent. About seven o clock in the even
ing of a day in January, they scaled the
enclosure, and were already on the road,
but the Saint came suddenly to the spot,
reproved them gently, and led them again
within the enclosure. But as they did not
surmount the Jtemptation, it, a short time
afterwards, became even more violent, and
they took flight a second time. They had
reached the same spot when they met the
Saint, who knew their secret determination.
Like a good shepherd, he, with his accus
tomed sweetness, led the two wandering
sheep back to the fold. This time they
remained faithful; Benedict s exalted virtue
forever banished from their minds the evil
design to which they had twice yielded.

CHAPTER IX.
ST. BENEDICT S DOCTRINE.

T may appear surprising that we should
speak of the doctrine of our Saint,
after the avowal made by himself, as
we have already seen, that he was ignorant,
and could neither read nor write. With
much greater reason will learned men, to
whom science has cost so much labor, laugh
at finding in their ranks, a lay-brother,
drawn from the plough and his labor in the
fields. But it is not the first time that, in
order to confound the wise ones of the
world, the sovereign Majesty of God has
given knowledge to the simple, to women
and children. Hence the community was
not surprised to hear St. Benedict speak of

87

88 Life of St. (Benedict.

the most sublime mysteries of faith, like
one perfectly skilled in the deepest and
most abstruse studies. When Guardian,
he often spoke in public, and his discourses
were full of holy erudition and divine
science. The minds and hearts of his audi
tors were deeply penetrated, so that his
words, like the seed that fell upon good
earth, produced abundant fruit.

When Vicar and Master of Novices, he
was accustomed to explain to them, after
Matins, the lessons of the Holy Scripture
which they had recited in choir. Such
explanations would have required in an
other long study and profound meditation ;
but our Saint, who could not even read the
lessons, developed their hidden sense with
marvellous facility. If any one proposed to
him some doubt or difficulty, however sub
tle it might be, he would not only solve it
in the most precise manner, and in the

(Benedict s (Doctrine. 89

technical terms of theology, but would also
be able to give lengthy and faithful quota
tions from the Sacred Writings, as if he had
them daily in his hands. Wise and learned
men could not witness this without confu
sion, or without recalling with surprise the
Catherines, the Fabiolas, the Marcellas and
the learned Eustochium, so much com
mended by St. Jerome.

People were amazed to see men grown
gray in study, men honored with the public
esteem, often seeking, without shame, a
favorable opportunity of receiving instruc
tion from Benedict, sometimes on one diffi
culty, sometimes on another, and leaving
him satisfied with his responses. The fruit
of the holy man s instructions was not con
fined to giving simple lights, or to solving
a few difficulties ; those who consulted him,
reaped from their communicatoins a still
more important advantage, that of humbling

90 Life of St. (Benedict.

themselves in the depths of their hearts
before the infinite wisdom of God, who
desires, by such extraordinary favors, to
confound human pride.

It would be impossible in a simple abridg
ment, to expose all the doubts proposed
and cleared up by our Saint, or to name
all those who addressed themselves to him,
and went away perfectly satisfied. We
skall cite only a few instances, which will
be sufficient to convince the reader.

Three celebrated Franciscans, Father
Joseph of Syracuse, Professor of Sacred
Scripture, Father Paul of Mezzara, a dis
tinguished religious of the province of
Sicily, and Father Vincent of Messina,
theologian at the Council of Trent, affirmed
upon oath, that they had, on several occa
sions, asked Father Benedict to explain
difficult passages of the Scripture, which
to them seemad very obscure, and that he

Si. Benedict s (Doctrine. 91

had, on the instant, interpreted them with
astonishing facility; they acknowledged
that their science was infinitely inferior to
that of the good lay-brother. This is an
avowal of great weight, for, in the republic
of letters, it is very rare to find one admit
ting the superiority of another. But in
recognizing that of our Saint, they paid
tribute to God Himself, who directed his
words.

Father Vincent Magis, a learned Domini
can of that time, having vainly endeavored
to penetrate the meaning of a sentence in
Scripture, laid aside his books, and went to
the Convent of St. Mary of Jesus to see
Benedict, to whom he was bound by ties
of friendship. While he was asking for
him, the servant of God entered the apart
ment, and even before saluting him, said:
"Father, do not be uneasy at not com
prehending that sentence of Scripture; I

92 Life of St. (Benedict.

will explain it to you with the help of
GoA"

Father Magis was stupefied at seeing the
motive of his visit discovered ere he had
spoken of it, nor was he less astonished to
hear Benedict solve his doubt, and give
him a more perfect explanation than he
could have expected to receive from a con
summate theologian. At his departure, he
paid a compliment to the reformed Fathers,
saying: "My Fathers, you have here a
great servant of God, for not only has he
predicted what I came to ask him, but has
explained to me the sense of a passage in
Scripture* which, up till now, I could never
understand."

Our Saint s doctrine was, then, accom
panied by the gift of penetrating the most
hidden things, and we have seen him exer
cising this gift in regard to fugitive novices.
He had possessed it even in the hermitage.

. (Benedict s (Doctrine. 93

A husbandman, who loved him and his
brother hermits very much, presented him
one day with a basket of fresh grapes.
The Saint, while accepting them, divided
them into two parts, and said to his bene
factor: " I willingly accept this part for my
brethren, because it comes from your own
vine, but I return you the other, because
you have taken it from another s vine."
This was true : the ignorant man had stolen
from his neighbor, in order to make his
present more considerable. It was also by
means of this penetration that the Saint
replied to the letter of a Sister of Pope
Sixtus V, without having received it, for he
said to Father Ambrose of Polichi, then
Guardian: "I already know what that lady
desires to say; I will pray for her." The
like happened to Dominic Vito, to whom
he predicted his cure, and also told him
what had happened between him and hi*

94 Life of St. (Benedict.

confessor; and again to Francis Ficcheto,
whom the Saint reproved for not having
fulfilled the paschal duty.

The happy city of Palermo also enjoyed
the benefits of his supernatural science.
Miss Agatha Bianchi, whose conscience
was much troubled, was one of those who
profited by it. She came with her mother
to visit Father Benedict, who, as soon as
he had seen her, exclaimed: "Temptation,
temptation! Why are you surprised at it?
The Mother of God was the only one who
was not tempted; we must all suffer it."*

The young lady was comforted, and the
mother then learned that her daughter had

* The holy Fathers distinguish two sorts of temptations : the
temptations in which God sees we will yield ; our Lord bids us
pray to be delivered from such: And If ad us not into temptati <m,
and those in which we shall triumph, and which increase the
merits of the saints. Certainly the Blessed Virgin having con
tracted no stain of sin, was exempt from the first kind of temp-
fation*. Our Saint told the exact truth.

St. (Benedict s (Doctrine. 95

been tormented by a temptation which she
had not had the courage to discover. In
the following chapter we shall relate some
other revelations, because they are joined
to a knowledge of the future, which the
Sun of Justice was pleased to bestow upon
our Saint, by reflecting on him some rays
of His divine wisdom. Benedict s know
ledge was not confined within the limits of
religion and its dependencies ; it extended
also to the domain of secular prudence, and
was most useful to the government It
was known throughout Sicily, that the
Count d Alba, then viceroy, went to the
convent to confer with the Saint on the
affairs of his administration and in difficult
circumstances of state policy. The Arch
bishop of Palermo, as well as other bishops
and prelates, consulted Benedict on the
most important affairs. The most highly
educated gentlemen and ladies often asked

Life of Si. (Benedict.

his advice, and everywhere people testified
the highest esteem for him, even in courts,
where we generally find only flattery, self-
interest and imposture.

CHAPTER X.

THK GIFT OP PROPHECY BESTOWED ON OUR SAINT.

HE ray of heavenly light which dis
covered to Benedict present things
unknown to men, gave him also a
knowledge of the future. On one occasion,
a lady named Jane had scarcely made her
appearance before him, when he said : " You
desire to know about your ton ; go in the
peace of the Lord; you shall soon have
tidings of him, and, before very long, will
see him." All this came to pass. The
Saint said to Octavius Panittera : " Follow
up your law-suit; in a few days you will
gain it," which really happened. When
Father Benedict was Guardian, he went one

day, accompanied Brother Vito, to beg at a
9 97

98 Life of St. (Benedict.

warehouse of Salanto. In the evening he
said to his companion : " Let us pray that
God will this night preserve, from the hands
of the Turks, those persons in that ware
house who have been so kind to us." " But,"
replied the astonished Vito, "how do you
know that the Turks will come precisely to
night?" Father Benedict replied: "It is
enough that it will be so." Both began to
pray for their benefactors. Now, about
the middle of the night, two Turkish gal
leys and a galiot attacked the warehouse,
but those who lived there, had, through a
particular Providence of God, being in dread
of an attack, left the depot, so that they
escaped the danger, and through the Saint s
prayers, the place, although entirely aban
doned, was not injured.

One day, Benedict was at the door of the
convent addressing words of consolation
to some afflicted persons; for when unable

The Gift of (Prophecy. 99

to do more, he testified his compassion for
their misfortunes. While he was speaking,
he saw a carriage coming in great haste to
the convent, and he said to the assistants:
" Some one has robbed that lady of a large
sum of money." The carriage drove up to
the convent door, but before the lady had
time to speak, the Saint said : " Do not be
distressed; your money is found; it is
already in your house." The lady returned
home with joy, and found the prophecy fully
verified. Feeling that the restitution had
been obtained by him who had predicted it,
she, in gratitude, sent to the convent a
present of wax- tapers to be burned in the
church of the Reformed Minors, where they,
at the same time, manifested the grace
obtained by the merits of the servant of
God, and the accomplishment of the pro
phecy.

Anthony Vignes, a Catalonian merchant.

loo Life of St. (Benedict.

much afflicted because a ship laden with
cloth and other merchandise from Barce
lona, which he was expecting, had not been
heard of forty days after its departure, was
led to fear it had been captured by pirates
or been shipwrecked. In his anxiety, he
had recourse to Father Benedict, who
assured him the vessel would arrive.
Vignes was reassured by this response, but
after some days, his disquiet returned, and
he again went to the Saint, who told him
that the vessel was delayed on account of
bad weather and the danger it had run, and
that it had been forced to remain, for fif
teen days, in the port of Sardaigne. The
convent being situated on a hill, whence
there was an extensive view of the sea,
they perceived a vessel about twelve miles
distance, sailing towards Palermo. Vignes,
full of joy, thought it was his. "No,"
answered Benedict, "that ship is coming

The Gift of (Prophecy. 101

from Majorca, but it will be speedily fol
lowed by yours." The result confirmed
the prediction. The grateful merchant
wished to make a present to the convent,
without it being known beforehand, because
the Saint would not accept anything for
himself. At the time that the religious
usually went to the refectory, Father Bene
dict told them to wait, saying that Vignes
was bringing a fish, and he ordered the
porter to wait his arrival. A few moments
later, the merchant came with the fish, and
finding that the porter was expecting him,
was much amazed.

The wife of Don Vincent Platamone
being in the pains of childbirth, was in
imminent danger of death. Father Bene
dict, by inspiration, and without being
invited, went to the palace. No sooner
was he perceived, than sadness fled the
house; everybody ran to him as to an angel
7*

IO2 Life of St. (Benedict.

sent by heaven for the consolation of the
family, and recommended the sick woman
to his prayers. The Saint asked permission
to retire to the domestic chapel to recite
the Rosary, clearly foretelling to Vincent
that before he should have finished his
prayer, his wife would have brought forth a
son who should become a good religious,
but should live only a short time afterwards.
A few moments later, a son was born, who,
when he grew up, became doctor of laws.
Turning his talents in another direction, he
entered the Society of Jesus, where he was
employed in preaching, and finally, at the
entreaties of the Fathers of Syracuse, he
was sent to Palermo. The pestilence
breaking out at that time, the good religious
was attacked by it while generously assist
ing the sick in the public hospital, and died
there, regretted by everybody, but especi
ally by his father. In the examination insti-

The Gift of (Prophecy. 103

tuted in Palermo, in 1625, that good knight
deposed, that he had bitterly mourned his
son s death, but had been consoled in see
ing blessed Benedict s prophecy so fully
accomplished.

According to an evil report spread in
Palermo, a felucca from Girgenti had been
pursued by several Turkish brigan tines, and
it was justly feared that it had been cap
tured. Madame Ginepra Luparini, who
knew that her son, Father Thomas, a Capu
chin, was in the felucca, hastened, all in
tears, to Father Benedict. The Saint told
her, smiling, that Father Thomas had ar
rived safe in Rome, and that, either on that
day or the next, she would receive his
letters. The lady, fully reassured, returned
home, where she found that a young man
fcom Rome had brought a letter from
Father Thomas, but that having been told
to give it only into his mother s hands, he

IO4 Life of St. (Benedict.

had been unwilling to leave it, but had pro
mised to return on the morrow. Thus was
the prediction exactly accomplished in every
circumstance.

Don Peter Barreri had set out for Genoa
with the intention of marrying a relation
of the Doge, being determined by the hope
of a rich dowry. His parents were ex
tremely afflicted thereat, as it was an alli
ance unsuitable to their condition, against
which they had often spoken very strongly,
but they had no longer any hope of avoid
ing it, as the young knight had set out
The mother, in default of any other conso
lation, went to the convent, and revealed
to Benedict the cause of her grief, adding
that she could see no remedy. But the
Saint, having a clear knowledge of the
future, said to her: "Be consoled; is there
no sickness in the world ?" The prophecy
was not understood at that time, but, after

The Gift of (Prophecy. 105

some days, they learned that Don Peter
had been dangerously ill in Rome, that his
disobedience had inspired him with a just
fear, and that, upon his recovery, he had
resolved to return home. In fact, he
returned to Palermo, and thus fulfilled the
words of Benedict, who had not only pre
dicted his illness, but that it would result
in his changing his design and returning to
Palermo to take care of his parents. Every
body believed that both the prediction and
its accomplishment were due to the prayers
of our Saint.

But let us listen to an account given by
the Lady Petronilla Alesi at the juridicial
examinations. She was then sixty years old.
"I was first married," said she, "to Csesar
Russo, with whom I lived several years. I
was much disquieted and troubled about
his irregular habits. Not knowing what
to do, I told my anxiety to everybody, in

io6 Life of St. (Benedict.

hopes of finding a remedy. I had recourse
to a magician, who gave me a certain kind
of powder in a paper, telling me to give it
to him to drink, or, at least, to throw it
down his back. I retired with the intention
of obeying him, but remorse took posses
sion of me, and returning to myself, I re
solved not to do it. A better thought
entered my mind. I learned that, in the
convent of St. Mary of Jesus, there dwelt
a holy religious called Benedict of Sanfra-
tello, who wrought many miracles. I re
solved to seek from him some consolation
in my grief, and especially a remedy for my
disquiet of mind. I went to him, and
exposed my husband s state. Go/ said
he, go and throw away the demon you
have with you, and then return/ Failing
to understand him, I told the Saint I did
not know what he wished me to do, but he
repeated the words more forcibly, and left

The Gift of Prophecy. 107

me. As I was reflecting on the meaning
of what I had just heard, my mother, who
was present, but who is now dead, reminded
me of the magician s powder, and asked
me if I had it about me. Remembering
that it was in my pocket, I threw it away,
and even shook out my pocket, that no
vestige of it might remain. Then I recalled
Father Benedict, who came to me smiling,
and, before I had spoken, said: * Now that
you have thrown away the demon tha. you
had with you, go home in peace ; your hus
band expects you, and henceforth you will
live peaceably with him. Encouraged by
this good news, I returned home, where my
husband was really awaiting me, and from
that moment we lived happily together. He
became wholly changed, and seemed like an
other man, which lasted until his death; and
I have never forgotten the perfect accom
plishment of Father Benedict s prediction."

io8 Ufe of St. Benedict.

Our Saint s prophecies were so numer
ous, that, in order not to interrupt the
thread of this history, we shall content our
selves with briefly noticing a few of them.
He told two mothers who were deeply
afflicted at their sons disorders, that they
should soon perish, which really came to
pass. Augustin Benaccolto recommended
the prayer of Father Benedict for his son,
who was ill in Spain; the Saint predicted
his recovery and the speedy arrival of the
good news, five days previous to their
receiving intelligence of the fact. He
assured the family of Nicholas Precori that
he had died out of the kingdom. He
affirmed to Lucretia Navaretti that her
husband was painting the royal palace
at Madrid, and that he would soon return
to his own country, which was verified by
the event He announced die death of
Bianca, sister of the Princess of Calatanis-

The Gift of Prophecy. 109

seta, and also that of Madame Diana of
Arragon and the cure of her husband,
which was fully verified.

Hence, so certain were they in Palermo
of St. Benedict s prophecies, that when any
one went to consult him on some important
affair, particularly the cure or death of the
sick, he was very careful to notice the
Saint s manner of answering. If he said
not to fear, or bade him to hope or to pray
to God, or something of that kind, the sick
person would certainly recover. But if he
bade him submit to God, or resign himself
to the Divine will, no one doubted that the
person recommended would die. Vignes,
of whom we have spoken at the beginning
of this chapter, deposed under oath, in the
examination instituted at Palermo, that
Francis Almanara, a Catalonian, having fal
len sick at his house, he sent word to Bene
dict to pray for the patient, telling the mes-

10

no Life of St. (Benedict.

senger to pay particular attention to the
Saint s words. The answer was, "Tell Don
Antonio to be patient and resign himself
to our Lord s will." When Vignes heard
this, he knew that his friend would die,
which really happened in a few days. The
Saint made many other prophecies, which
were literally verified; we shall speak of
more, when we come to his death. Let the
reader here share our pity for those who
take such trouble to learn the most trifling
things, future and present, and who, after
so many efforts to discover the truth, find
it elude their search, while the true servants
of God know every thing by casting a
glance on the heavenly books.

CHAPTER XL

ST. BENEDICT RETURNS TO THE KITCHEH.

FTER having perfectly filled, both by
word and example, the offices of Vicar
and Master of Novices, charges which,
moreover, he had exercised only through
obedience and not through ambition, bri
bery, or desire of domination, Benedict
joyfully returned to his employment in the
kitchen, and gave himself entirely to it.
That office was agreeable to his humility ;
it also gave him more opportunities for
prayer and extraordinary penitential exer
cises. He believed he could live more
hidden there, and in truth, we know not
the heavenly gifts and favors he received in
that humble retreat Being no longer

III

1 1 a Life of St. (Benedict.

obliged to attend to the house, or occupy
himself with the care of the young subjects,
he could be more easily recollected and
united with God. While the fire prepared
the food, or the angels accomplished his
humble duties, he persevered in prayer, and
therein received those real and solid advan
tages, of which no idea can be formed by
the wise ones of the age, who dwell in dark
ness in the midst of light

At the door of that humble kitchen were
to be seen the nobles of Palermo, who sought
to honor the Saint and recommend them
selves to his prayers, the learned who came
for advice, the afflicted who desired consola
tion, the sick who hoped for the recovery
of their health, and the indigent who desired
assistance. A lady, whose eyes were so
badly diseased that she had almost lost her
sight, went to the convent, and asked to
speak with Saint Benedict He was just

(Returns to the Kitchen. 113

then occupied in salting a fish, but as soon
as called he went, without thinking to wash
his hands. The noble lady showed him
her infirmity, and begged him to cure her;
he made the sign of the cross on her eyes
with his hands covered with salt; the dis
ease immediately disappeared, and she per
fectly recovered her sight What were her
surprise and joy? what the sentiments
of those who had witnessed the prodigy?
They may be more easily imagined than
described.

People extolled the sanctity of the holy
religious, recalling all the graces which the
Most High had deigned to shed on the
faithful through his intercession. The fame
of his heroic virtues was not confined to
the city of Palermo no more than that of
his gifts and miracles; it was spread far
and wide. What effect had this on our
Saint? He humbled himself profoundly

10*

H4 Life of St. (Benedict.

before God, and, prostrate on the earth,
confessed before the Divine Majesty and
before all men, that he was the vilest and
most miserable of sinners; and this he
repeated whenever any one asked his
prayers. This sincere humility made him
seek the most solitary places in the con
vent. When he went abroad, he chose the
most unfrequented roads; if obliged to go
to Palermo, he would wrap himself in his
cloak, and cover his head with the capouche,
that he might not be known. He often
asked the religious to recommend him to
God in their general and private prayers,
that he might acquire the virtue of humility.
He used to say to them, "I am a mis
erable sinner, and full of pride; pray God
to make me humble." Amidst the uni
versal esteem and veneration with which
he was surrounded, and while his praises
were in every one s mouth, he abased him-

(Returns to the Kitchen. 115

self before God, and, prostrate on the earth,
he cried out, "O Lord! can it be that such
honor is paid to me, who am only a worm
of the earth, who am but dust and corrup
tion!"

But those honors were precisely a favor
from heaven. Our Saint being one day at
the convent gate, occupied in consoling the
afflicted, for he was accustomed to make
the nourishment of the soul succeed that
of the body, a blind man, led by a dog,
came up and asked an alms. Benedict,
touched by compassion and a secret inspira
tion, made the sign of the cross on the eyes
of the blind man, who cried aloud: I see!
A miracle ! a miracle! Drawn by his cries
of joy, the religious ran to the spot, and a
crowd gathered around him to assure them
selves that he was cured. Then the hum
ble Benedict withdrew, and hid himself in
a thicket, where he remained for some time.

n6 Life of St. (Benedict.

On his return to the kitchen, he was asked
why he had fled away after the blind man s
cure. He answered that the Blessed Vir
gin had wrought that prodigy, and that he
had concealed himself, lest it might be
inconsiderately attributed to him, who was
only a poor, miserable sinner. He, in truth,
believed himself to be such, and it was that
conviction which caused him to perform
such severe penances, to take such bloody
disciplines, to fast so rigorously, to give so
much time to prayer, and to prostrate him
self both day and night before his Creator,
to beg pardon for his offences. God took
delight in honoring His servant s profound
humility, by giving him striking proofs of
His love. During prayer, Benedict s face
often became luminous with heavenly light.
It is known that St. Francis of Assisium
also possessed this gift. On one occasion,
at Assisium, while he was speaking to the

(Returns to the Kitchen. 117

religious, in the refectory, of heavenly
things, his whole figure became so luminous
that the light shone all over the house, so
that people ran there, thinking it was on
fire. Father Michael of Girgenti was
invited by another religious to go to the
choir, and see St. Benedict in the like state,
while he was praying during the night.
The rays of light darting from his counte
nance illumined the whole choir, although
there was no other light there at the time.
Father Jerome of Drepano, at the invitation
of his brethren, enjoyed the same spectacle,
and admired the like prodigy; he after
wards affirmed that everybody regarded
that light as extraordinary. St. Benedict s
face became more radiant at the time of
Holy Communion. He approached that
ineffable Sacrament with inexpressible devo
tion and tenderness. The Reformed reli
gious were, according to custom, to assist at

n8 Life of St. (Benedict^

the Corpus Christi procession at Palermo.
Father Severinus de la Ficarra, then Supe
rior, ordered Father Benedict to carry the
cross. The Saint immediately obeyed, and
walked, during the whole procession, with
his eyes fixed on the crucifix; he was as if
ravished out of himself; his face beamed
with supernatural light; people remarked
it to one another, and everybody was much
moved. The Saint s gaze was fixed on the
crucifix, and his heart attached to the Divine
Sacrament. But the light of the august
Sacrament, invisible to the eyes of men,
was reflected on Benedict s face, who, in
that moment, was wholly absorbed in the
consideration of the adorable Mystery, in
which God Himself becomes our nourish
ment. That contemplation was a continual
ecstasy, which lasted the whole time of the
procession. In order to distinguish between
the diabolical ecstasies of the Montanists

(Returns to the Kitchen. 119

and the divine ecstasies of the true prophets
of the New Testament, the first are called
parestases, that is to say, furious and fanati
cal transports of the soul, and the second
simply ecstasies. Tertullian, after he had
become an heretical Montanist, went so far
as to call ecstasy folly. We say that ecstasy
is, properly speaking, an extraordinary
movement of the soul, which has but short
duration. It is sometimes confounded with
enthusiasm, which inflames and transports
the soul animated by the spirit of God, so
that it expresses singular and supernatural
things; it was this enthusiasm with which
the ancient prophets and many other holy
souls were seized. Hence it comes that
the gift of prophecy is often united with
ecstasy, and sacred history frequently shows
them united in the early ages of the Church.
But the ecstasies with which the saints, and
among them our Benedict, were favored,

1 20 Life of St. (Benedict.

were distinct from the prophecies, being In
him only a ravishing of spirit, in the great
fervor of prayer, by which he was raised to
the vision of heavenly things; and that
elevation of spirit was sometimes so vehe
ment that it drew the body itself, which
might be seen elevated from the ground
more or less, and following the soul tending
to its centre, which is God.

We have already spoken of the ecstasies
and visions which he frequently had, in
which the body did not follow the spirit by
rising in the air, when he prayed in his cell,
in the convent garden, or in the kitchen on
Christmas day, and particularly in the pro
cession of which we have just spoken. We
have no other monument of the ecstasies
in which our Saint s body was raised from
the ground, than the attestation, under oath,
of the servant of God, Sister Francis
Locitraro, who beheld Father Benedict

(Returns to the Kitchen.

raised in the air before the altar of the
Blessed Virgin, as she declared to her
spiritual father, and afterwards in the juridi
cal examination. The facility with which
the Saint could hide himself in the woods
contiguous to the convent, and the pro
found silence of the night, the faithful
witness of his prayers and vigils, prevented
others from seeing him thus raised in the
air, which must, nevertheless, have fre
quently happened, according to the opinion
of many. Father Dominic Gravina, in the
twenty-second chapter of the second book
of The Voice of the Turtle Dove, speaks as
follows: "Father Benedict of Sanfratello
was adorned with purity, simplicity, and the
spirit of prophecy, and favored with the
gift of ecstasy." Let us then be content
with seeing him elevated in spirit, according
to the words of Pope St. Gregory in the
Third Homily of the first book OH the

ii

122 Life of St. (Benedict.

Prophet Ezechiel: "We are in some sort
elevated in the air by contemplation, which
raises us above ourselves."

The Saint acquitted himself so well, and
so much to the satisfaction of his superiors,
of his employment as cook, that they
willingly allowed him to retain it for the
rest of his life. In truth, it would have
been difficult for them to find a cook so
charitable, so useful, and so suitable to their
wants. They knew, by experience, how
favored he was by Heaven; they were
daily indebted to him for celestial favors
and human succors, in virtue of which, that
community, then in all the rigor of the
reform, was sustained by the help of the
extraordinary favors procured by Benedict,
so that the convent could flatter itself with
having everything while it had its holy
cook.

The religio is had an opportunity of

Returns to the Kitchen. 123

recognizing the particular succors granted
by Heaven to our Saint, when, on one
occasion, there was no wood for the kitchen.
St. Benedict, going out, perceived that a
tree had been thrown down by a storm ; it
was so large that six robust men could
scarcely have moved it, much less carried
it away. The holy cook, no way embar
rassed, lifted it on those shoulders which he
so severely scourged, with as much ease as
if it had been a cane or a little branch.
Astonished at the sight, the religious asked
him how he could bear such an enormous
weight. The Saint merely replied that he
had brought it for the use of the kitchen,
as there was no wood; but everybody was
convinced that an invisible hand had assisted
him in bearing the burden.

CHAPTER XII.

MIRACLES WROUGHT BY THE SAINT DURING HIS LIFE.

ESIDES the miracles we have already
recorded, the authentic memoirs we
have in our possession give many
others, but as neither time nor place are
designated, we have chosen only a few, the
recital of which will suffice to prove our
Lord s predilection for His servant Bene
dict We shall first relate what happened
to a carpenter of Palermo, named Libert
de Nicholas, originally from Genoa. While
he was engaged, with some other workmen,
in the convent, he perceived some fir cones
hanging on a very high tree. Anxious to
have them, he climbed up some branches
which served as a ladder, but when he had

Miracles. 125

reached a great height, while trying to
grasp at another branch, that on which he
stood failed him, and he fell to the ground,
striking against a stone at the foot of the
tree, where he lay without breath or
motion. The religious, pale and trembling,
ran to the wounded man, who lay uncon
scious and apparently dead. Father Bene
dict reanimated their faith, passed his
hands over the head and limbs of the car
penter, who rose up, feeling no pain, and
returned to work.

A poor cripple coming to the convent,
cast himself at Benedict s feet, and with
tears, begged his cure; the Saint made the
sign of the cross upon the afflicted mem
bers ; the man immediately cast away his
crutches, and ran through the cloister, cry
ing out, A miracle! A miracle! By the
sign of the cross, Benedict also restored
sight to several blind persons, among whom

n

126 Life of St. (Benedict.

we may mention M. Vincent, and the
daughter of Francis Pagliesi, who had both
been deprived of their sight by cataract.
The daughter of Laurence Catania, and a
religious of an abbey in Palermo, who had
become blind by an accident, recovered
their sight by the Saint s prayers.

Francis Mary Masciulla of Palermo, had
been vainly seeking, for two years, a
remedy for a strange disease which afflicted
his daughter, who was not ten years old.
She grew worse from day to day, and
seemed only skin and bone, but the physi
cians understood nothing about her case.
After having tried every remedy, the father
thought of having recourse to Benedict,
and, that he might obtain his request, made
the convent a present of thirty pounds of
oil, which was the weight of the sick child.
Going to the convent with his wife and
child, he asked for Father Benedict, and

Miracles. 127

recommended their daughter to his prayers.
The Saint placed his hand on the little girl s
head, recited some prayers, and taking
some oil from the lamp of the Blessed
Virgin, he told the mother to anoint her
with it. From that moment she began to
recover, and was soon perfectly cured.

Two sons of a teacher in Palermo began
to quarrel in a garden near Benedict s con
vent; they went so far, that the stronger
of the two threw his brother on the ground,
and struck him on the breast with a heavy
stone, so violently, that he vomited a great
quantity of blood, and lay without any signs
of life or respiration. The father and other
relations knew not what to do, but Bene
dict coming at that moment, no one knew
how, he raised their courage, and inspired
them with hope. Casting themselves at
his feet, they begged him to cure the
wounded boy. The Saint, as was his cus-

r 28 Life of St. (Benedict;

torn, exhorted them to have a lively confi
dence in God; then, going up to the young
man, he made the sign of the cro$s with
saliva on the injured and bloody parts, and
went away. But scarcely had he turned
his back, when the boy began to breathe,
and rose to his feet; his parents wished
him to rest, but he refused, and returned
to the garden to walk and amuse himself,
feeling not the slightest trace of his wound.
Vincent and Philip Vassalli came to the
convent to ask an orange for their nephew,
who was sick. The sacristan to whom
they addressed themselves, told them
politely that it was impossible to oblige
them, as the winter had stripped the orange
trees of their fruit and even their leaves;
to remove all their doubts he took them to
the orangery, and examined the trees, to
see if any might be on the branches, but
the search was fruitless. A man named

Miracles. 129

Andrew Bertucci of Palermo, who was
known to Benedict, assisted them in the
search. When they had convinced them
selves that there was not an orange there,
the Saint entered, and they told him of
their disappointment, but he bade Andrew
look more closely. Bertucci promptly
obeyed, but with the same result. "What!"
said Father Benedict, "are not those
oranges that are hanging over your head ?"
Andrew raised his eyes, and beheld, just
above him, a branch laden with five beau
tiful oranges. Everybody was convinced
that they were miraculous, as they were in
such a conspicuous place, and they after
wards contributed to the cure of the sick
boy.

Here again we are compelled to abridge,
by recording only a few of our Saint s mira
cles, or by confining ourselves to merely
mentioning the names of some of the per-

130 Life of St. (Benedict.

sons favored. Frances Fidalia had seven
ulcers in her treast; our Saint cured her
instantly by the sign of the cross; he, in
the same manner, cured the Marchioness
Julian na of a mortal inflammation of the
chest. By the same sign, with the invoca
tion of Jesus, Mary, and Francis, he healed
Euphrosyne Ferreri of the scrofula, also
Mme. Laura Montaperto, sister of the
Baron of Reufadali, a son of John James
Cantarin, and Roch Imbarbera. In the
like manner, he cured the daughter of Vin
cent Lucidi, whose arm was contracted by
an imposthume, and a man recovered the
use of his arm by Benedict s simply touch
ing it. By a short prayer, he cured a lady
afflicted with the dropsy. Some hairs of
his beard, taken secretly when the Saint
was shaving, being applied by Anthony
Luparelli of Girgenti to a mortal wound
which Georland his son had received in the

Miracles. 131

region of the heart, the young man was
healed on the instant. One visit which our
Saint, by his Superior s order, paid to the
wife of the Viceroy of Sicily, sufficed to
restore her health,

Laurence Bonaparte being reduced to
extremity, and given over by his physicians,
had recourse to the prayers of our Saint,
and was immediately cured. The Saint,
by the sign of the cross, restored sight to
two little girls, Pierrette Bianca and Lucre-
tia Catania, cured a little boy of hernia,
and restored health .o Frances Matassa.
But among the cures he wrought during
his life, the following is most remarkable.
The son of George Russo, who had been
killed, was brought to the church to be
buried. Father Benedict, moved with com
passion, offered a short prayer; then going
to uie dead child, he made the sign of the
cross over him, and recalled him to life;

132 Ufe of St. (Benedict.

restoring him to those who had brought
him to the tomb, he changed their tears of
grief into tears of joy, and to their first
emotions of surprise succeeded general
applause.

The prodigies wrought by Benedict ex
tended even ,o the animals, fields, and
gardens. The mule belonging to the con
vent-physician being lame, on account of a
broken foot having been badly set, the
Saint said the Lord s Prayer, and the
animal was cured. At his prayers, destruc
tive insects fled from the fields they had
infected; he had but to raise his hand, and
ravaging worms fell dead, and the pious
gardeners beheld with surprise the plants
that had been destroyed, restored again,
the leaves renewed, and the fruits multi
plied. It was, in truth, eminently proper,
that he who, in his youth, had watered the
earth with his sweat, and opened it with

Miracles. 133

the plough, should be able to preserve and
augment its fruits by the power received
from its Creator. Hence, the wisest culti
vators called on Benedict, as on another
Isidore, to repair the losses of bad seasons
and adverse winds, by extending his hand
over the fields.

We shall conclude this chapter by the
reflection of a learned historian, in recalling
the miracles of St. Benedict " Our blessed
Saint received from God the power of heal
ing the sick, especially those afflicted with
hernia, sciatica, catarrh, and headache.
Throughout his life, sick persons came
daily to the convent, and they rarely failed
to obtain through the Saint the desired
cure." After this useful reflection, let us
resume the thread of our history; the pru
dent reader will not need our counsels ; he
has been too well taught by experience the
uncertainty, and, frequently, the inutility of

12

134 Life of St. (Benedict.

human remedies. Our Saint s altar will
appear to them, then, a most certain refuge
in their diseases, or in those of their fellow-
beings.

CHAPTER XIII.
ST. BENEDICT S ILLNESS AND DEATH.

FTER having spent twenty-seven years
in the kitchen of the convent, (which
he had never wholly abandoned, not
even when he held the office of Guardian or
of Master of Novices and Vicar, because he
could there more continually mortify his
body, and find the delights of the soul;)
after he had so long mingled his sweat with
the blood of his macerations ; after so many
prodigies wrought in that kitchen, in favor
of his neighbor, and to the glory of God,
our Saint fell ill in January, 1589. From
the very hour of his birth, he had prepared

135

136 Life of St. (Benedict.

himself for his blessed death. The news of
his illness was sent immediately to John
Dominic Rubiani, a rich lawyer of Palermo,
who had always venerated Benedict as a
saint. He was not slow in visiting him,
and as he seemed deeply afflicted, thinking
that sickness the sign of his approaching
death, the servant of God said to him:
"This time it is our Lord s will that I
recover from the malady, but the next time
I shall die; this will be bqfore long, because
I have finished my career." This really
happened. Benedict recovered, but only
for a short time. On the 4th of the follow
ing March he was attacked by a continual
and violent fever.

The literal accomplishment of the first
part of his prediction caused the second to
be considered infallibly certain. The com
munity was plunged in grief at seeing itself
about to lose a member so holy, sc venera-

Illness and (beath. 137

ble, so useful. Nor was this sadness con
fined within the limits of the cloister; the
poor, the sick, those friends, those noblemen,
those learned men who had sought from him
succor, health, advice, or who loved to visit
him through devotion or in the hope of pro
fiting by his knowledge, all were over
whelmed with sorrow on learning his sick
ness and his prediction. And although the
mortal malady slowly wore away the thread
of his beautiful life, and the Saint calmly
suffered during a whole month, yet no ray
of hope ever softened the universal regret,
because Benedict s prophecies had never
failed to be accomplished.

It is impossible to describe the assiduous
and tender care bestowed on him by the
sorrow-stricken religious, who surrounded
his bed. Gratitude, fraternal charity, and
their own spiritual interest led them to
this service, which they never interrupted.

1 38 Life of St. (Benedict.

From Benedict s life, they judged clearly
what would be his death, and the recom
pense of his heroic actions ; and each hoped
to have him for his protector in heaven.
Hence, everybody recommended himself to
him, and this was their only consolation.
The Saint, filled with celestial joy, thanked
them affectionately, and begged them not
to fatigue themselves, as all their attentions
would be useless. Nevertheless, although
he accepted their care with gratitude, the
holy desire of suffering which had possessed
him during life, grew more vehement in his
last moments, and caused the attentions of
his brethren to be more a pain than a con
solation to him. When they gave him a
drink to calm the burning thirst produced
by fever, he used to say: "Why show so
much delicacy for the body? What good
are so many remedies? The Saviour of
the world, my Love, endured so many tor-

Illness and (Death. 139

merits in His cruel passion! why is so much
attention paid to me?"

The Saint s fervor, and his ardent wish
to suffer, so as to be more conformable to
his Master in his death, increased in pro
portion as his last moments approached.
He gave a striking proof of this when,
being asked if he suffered from thirst, he,
not to fail in the truth, replied that he had
thirst, and even a burning thirst, but that
it seemed as nothing when he thought of
our Redeemer s thirst on the cross; hence
he endured it with admirable joy and
patience. And as Jesus on Calvary did
not refuse the drink offered Him, so Bene
dict, faithful to the last to obedience, took
whatever was presented by the physicians
and infirmarians. Hence, on the very day
of his death, he took, at the physician s
order, the yolks of two eggs, which to him,
as well as to others, must have seemed

1 40 Life of St. (Benedict.

very heavy, and unsuitable to his com
plaint

During the course of his last illness, St
Benedict had several times received the
sacraments of Penance and the Holy
Eucharist, but in his last moments, before
he received the Holy Viaticum, he raised
himself a little in his poor bed, and having
put his cord around his neck, he, with all
his strength, begged the pardon of his faults,
and he did it with so much submission and
so many tears, that he deeply moved all
the assistants. Knowing well his inno
cence and sanctity, they admired him while
he confessed that he was the most misera
ble sinner on earth. It is not difficult to
imagine the sweet transports of that pure
soul in receiving the Holy Viaticum, and
his recollection when Extreme Unction was
administered to him.

But suddenly, in the midst of his repose,

Illness and (Death. 141

he said to his infirmarians, Father Francis
of Genoa, and Fathers Paul and William of
Piazza: "Place some chairs for thoee holy
ladies who come to visit me ;" and as the
religious replied that they saw none, he
said: "What! do you not see St. Ursula,
who has brought her holy company to visit
me ? There are so many that they would
fill a large monastery." While he spoke,
his face became so radiant that it illumi
nated the whole cell. St. Benedict was
very devout to those holy virgins ; it was
not, then, surprising that God permitted
them to bear him to the glory of heaven.
Some moments later the sick man added:
Show courtesy to Father Anthony of Calla-
girone. This religious had died several
years previous in the odor of sanctity.
The Saint added: Do you not see him here
present? Father William, to whom the
Saint had thus spoken, seeing the moment

142 Life of St. (Benedict.

of his precious death drawing nigh, was
about to light the blessed candles, but
Benedict said: "No, my son; the hour is
not yet come; when it arrives, I will tell
you." Then he again recollected himself;
his face became resplendent, and in a few
moments, he made a sign for the candles
to be lit. Then crossing his hands on his
breast, and interrupting the recommenda
tion of the soul, he, with perfect presence
of mind, said fervently: Into thy hands, O
Lord, I commend my spirit, and calmly gave
up his soul, he being sixty-five years old.
No one remarked any movement or change
in his body, and they scarcely perceived
that he had expired. His death took place
on the 4th of April, 1589, about eleven
o clock in the morning.

Benedicta Nastasi, his niece, a very vir
tuous young person, being at home weep
ing over the approaching death of her dear

Illness and (Death. 143

uncle, thought she beheld a dove rising in
the air; at the same moment she heard the
words: "You do not ask me anything,
Benedicta?" Remembering her blessed
uncle, she asked him whither he was
going? To heaven, was the reply. Bene
dicta immediately reported what had hap
pened to Rubiani; he went to the con
vent, and ascertained that the vision had
occurred precisely at the moment of Bene
dict s death.

The Viceroy was informed of the deatn,
as he had desired, and on the following day
he went to the convent. They could not
refuse to open the tomb of the servant of
God, but when they entered the cave with a
torch to show him the body, the light was
extinguished. As this happened three times,
they piously concluded that it was the good
pleasure of God to reserve another kind of
glory for that venerated body ; we may also

144 Life of St. (Benedict.

reflect that the humility ot that tomb was
incompatible with the splendor of a throne.
Mgr. Louis Torres, Archbishop of Mon
treal, and Mgr. Baraona, Inquisitor of the
kingdom of Naples, followed by a crowd
of most distinguished persons, visited the
tomb, to implore the intercession of the ser
vant of God, and each spoke of some of his
brilliant actions, and especially of the graces
bestowed by the hand of the Almighty,
through St. Benedict s prayers, on the happy
Sicilians. But what shall we say of the con
course of people ?

The news of Benedict s death being
spread abroad, the inhabitants of Palermo
flocked in crowds to the church of St. Mary
of Jesus. Persons of every, age, sex, and
condition were attracted by the delightful
odor which came from the virginal body.
He was universally regretted, and the people
wept at not being able to behold the gen-

Illness and (Death. 145

eral benefactor; they reproacheJ the reli
gious with having so soon withdrawn the
holy remains from public veneration. The
whole city of Palermo reproached itself for
having been ignorant of the day of Bene
dict s death, although the occasion of it was
pious and laudable; it being the custom
of the inhabitants to visit, on that day, the
Church of the Holy Ghost, a circumstance
predicted by Benedict

To soothe the pious regrets of the people,
and, at the same time, satisfy their devotion,
the friars cut into a thousand pieces the
garments of the saint, but what were they
among so vast a concourse of residents and
strangers, who pressed to the venerated
tomb? Such was their importunity that
they asked for and obtained the distribution
of small pieces of the habits of those, at
least, who had served St. Benedict in his
last illness, and they hoped to receive

146 Life of St. (Benedict

through them grace and consolation, as we
read was the effect of the shadow of the
Prince of the Apostles. From all parts of
Sicily, people came to visit the holy tomb;
as for the inhabitants of Sanfratello, they
continually flocked to it, during upwards of

CHAPTER XIV.

MIRACLES OPERATED AFTER HIS DEATH.

HE inhabitants of Sicily doubted not
that the Most High, after having so
brilliantly displayed His power by the
works of the Saint during life, would be
pleased to give more glorious evidence of
his sanctity after He had placed him among
the blessed, and they, very justly, hoped
that the Saint, whose prayers and compas
sion had been so useful to the afflicted,
would, now in heaven, obtain graces and
prodigies for those who should invoke him.
We would present to our readers a longer
series of miracles operated by our Saint
after death, were it not for the limits we

H7

148 Life of St. (Benedict.

have prescribed ourselves in this history,
and for the distance also which separates
us from those nations imbued with devotion
to Benedict, in whose midst those wonders
were operated. Hence, from the volumi
nous collection of the process, we choose
only a few, which will suffice to excite the
readers to confidence when oppressed by
those evils that afflict human nature. This,
in truth, is one of the motives which cause
the lives of the heroes of Christianity to
be written.

Matthew Baldi, an inhabitant of Sanfra-
tello, had been subject, for five years, to a
singular malady, which the Romans and
Sicilians called lupomania. This is a fright
ful madness, which, in its paroxysms,
deprives the patient of the use of reason,
particularly during the month of February.
Then, like a madman, he leaves his house
at night, and with an air of ferocity, roams

Miracles operated after (Death. 149

around cemeteries and tombs; this has
been testified on oath by many witnesses,
though some will not believe it The
unfortunate Matthew Baldi ran at night
along the high roads, howling like a fam
ished wolf, tearing himself in a cruel man
ner, and terrifying those who heard him
even at a distance. His parents, who, from
certain signs, could judge of the approach
of the paroxysm, tried several times, but in
vain, to bind him with strong ropes. The
violence of the fit burst the strongest bonds,
and the patient worked in spasms for
several hours, after which he was so weak
and exhausted as to be unable, for several
days, to do anything at all. He had been,
as we have already said, in that condition
for five years, when some one brought from
Sanfratello a relic of St. Benedict, for the
consolation of his country. Amidst the
general concourse, came Baldi with his

13*

1 50 Life of St. (Benedict.

mother and wife, and with many tears they
prayed at the foot of the altar for his cure.
St. Benedict, propitious to their vows, pre
sented them at the throne of the Almighty,
and the man was radically healed, as he
himself affirmed in the juridical information,
nine years after his cure.

Melchior Biondo, a goldsmith of Palermo,
had been afflicted with a tedious malignant
fever, from which time he suffered extreme
pain in the lower members of his body, par
ticularly his legs and feet, so that he could
neither walk about nor remain at ease.
For four months he vainly tried all human
remedies. Then he had recourse to Heaven,
and fervently invoked St. Francis. One
night as he lay awake, (for he had long
been deprived of sleep,) he seemed to him
self to be on his bed in the church of St.
Mary of Jesus, near the sacristy, standing
in the door of which was a religious, whom

Miracles operated after (Death. 151

he easily recognized as Father Benedict, to
whom, when alive, he had spoken several
times. Rejoiced at the sight, the sick man
tried to rise, but finding himself unable to
do so, he cried: "O, Father Benedict, pray
to God and St. Francis that I may receive
my health." The Saint replied: "My son,
be content. Our Lord will grant you that
grace. 1 At these words, Melchior fell
asleep, and when he awoke, four hours
afterwards, he again had the same vision.
Repeating his petition, he met the same
response, but he added : "And what token
do you give me, Father, that God has
granted me this grace?" St. Benedict
immediately blessed him three times and
disappeared, when the sick man found
he was cured, and arose in perfect health,
to the astonishment and joy of his friends.
In 1624, Palermo was ravaged by pesti
lence. Dorninic Grimaldi, a boy of four-

152 Life of St. (Benedict.

teen, was attacked by it. A violent head
ache, fever, vomiting, and, above all, a
tumor in the thigh, were his symptoms at
the end of three days. Sister Paula Nas-
tasi, niece of St. Benedict, and aunt of the
patient, having no confidence in human
remedies, laid a picture of the Saint on the
boy, and fervently recommended him to
her blessed uncle. Scarcely had the pic
ture touched him ere the symptoms were
abated; he fell asleep, and when he awoke,
no trace of the distemper remained.

Anthony Forti, son of a resident of
Palermo, had a tumor in his right thigh,
which caused him the greatest agony. The
art of the first surgeon having failed, a con
sultation was called, in which it was decided,
that on account of the malignity and depth
of the tumor, fire and the knife were the
only remedies, and the surgeons agreed to
perform the operation on the following day.

Miracles operated after (Death. 153

The child s mother, terrified at the thought
of such a painful remedy, procured that
evening a piece of blessed Benedict s habit,
which she placed on the tumor. The boy
fell asleep, and on awaking, felt neither
pain nor inflammation ; he arose and went
to work. When the surgeon came, at the
appointed hour, to perform the operation,
and found the patient in perfect health,
he shared in the general astonishment, and
acknowledged the prodigy.

Sister Catherine Torongi, a professed
religious of the monastery of St Mary of
Mt. Olivet, in Palermo, suffered violent
pain for several months, and all the reme
dies she tried failed to bring her any
relief. She had recourse to the power from
on high, and knowing that our Lord had
operated many miracles through the inter
cession of St. Benedict, she invoked him,
and made a vow to daily recite five Pater*

154 Life of Si. (Benedict.

and Avesm his honor, if she were delivered
from her suffering. Scarcely had she pro
nounced her vow, when she passed a stone
of considerable size, and her pain ceased.
This state of health lasted seven months,
and as the account of Benedict s miracles
and virtues was being then taken in Paler
mo, some one advised her to render juridi
cal testimony of the favor she had received,
and thus contribute to the glory of God
and blessed Benedict. She replied, with an
air of indifference, that he had performed
many miracles, and that the relation of that
which concerned her was unnecessary.
At that very moment, she was attacked
by her former pain, which seemed more
violent than ever. Recognizing her ingrati
tude, she renewed her vow, adding thereto
that she would annually offer four wax
tapers at the Saint s tomb, on the day of
his decease, and she promised to publish

Miracles operated after (Death. 155

the miracle, all which she faithfully accom
plished. The pain again ceased and re
turned no more, as is proved by the testi
mony of the same religious, who, twelve
years later, confirmed her first account by
testifying to the permanency of her cure.
Augustin Foresta, silk manufacturer in
Palermo, having broken a leg, had em
ployed the best surgeons for his cure, but
at the end of forty-five days, he was so
lame as to be obliged to use crutches.
Thus he remained from May until Novem
ber, when, despairing of his cure, he caused
himself to be taken to our Saint s tomb,
where he, with no less fervor than confi
dence, implored his cure. His prayer was
immediately answered; he rose up per
fectly well, and returned home full of joy,
and without any crutch, publishing, as he
went, the favor he had received less by
his words than by tears of gratitude. In

1 56 Life of St. (Benedict.

memory of the prodigy, he sent to the
Saint s tomb, a leg made of silver, and
valued at ten piastres.

Madame Catherine Valesia was going in
her carriage to the church of St. Mary of
Jesus, accompanied by her son, five years
of age ; the child fell, and the wheel, pass
ing over him, broke his thigh. The
mother, deeply afflicted, yet at the same
time full of courage and confidence, con
tinued her route. On arriving at the
church, she perceived that the case that
contained St Benedict s body was being
opened, to satisfy the devotion of some
strangers. She gave her child to two
religious, that they might touch the Saint s
body with the affected member. No sooner
was this done than the child, ceasing his
cries and groans, began to walk, and even
to jump with joy, as if to testify his share in
his mother s gratitude.

Miracles operated after <Death. 157

Those who read the lives of the heroes
of our holy religion, love to find therein the
recital of those marvels which surpass the
laws of nature, and are operated by their
merits. Many such are to be found in the
acts of our Saint, but we shall merely run
over a few, lest we exceed our prescribed
limits. Sister Bernardine Corelli, a pro
fessed religious of the third order oi St.
Francis, who suffered severely from hernia,
was perfectly cured by a fragment of St
Benedict s habit, and the like relic wrought
the same effect on a nephew of Bernard
Biggio, when he was reduced to the last
extremity by small-pox. Eleanor Mattioli,
being attacked by a complication of diseases,
and having at the same time a dangerous
sore in her neck, was given over by the
physicians, but she was instantly cured by
drinking some water, in which had been
steeped a piece of our Saint s tunic. Her
14

158 Life of St. (Benedict.

sister had been cured in the same way, a
short time previous.

The son of Mark Anthony Millici, when
afflicted with incurable dropsy, was cured
by the application of a relic of the Saint.
Francis Musanti was cured of the same
disease, by touching his coffin. Dorothea
Xava, being in danger of losing one of her
eyes, applied it to the coffin; it became
perfectly clear, and remained so throughout
her life. Vincent Buratini was instantly
healed of scrofula, and Vincent Candela of
lameness. Brigitta Bellocero, being lame
in both her limbs, applied to them a piece
of the Saint s tunic, and she received full
power of them.

Two dead children were restored to life
through the Saint s intercession. The first,
a son of John Mendes and Isabella Strada,
named Charles Benedict, aged two years,
jreturned to life miraculously, on being

Miracles operated after (Death. 159

blessed with a relic of the Saint. The
second, whose parents were Marcian Cata
lan and his wife Susanna of Sanfratello,
was still-born, but came to life as soon as
his mother had made a vow that, in case he
lived, she would consecrate him to God in
the order of St. Francis.

Octavius Pantaleon, struck with apoplexy,
gave no sign of life, despite all the efforts
of the physicians, who then pronounced
him dead. His mother made a vow to
visit the relics of the Saint, and he began
to revive. Elizabeth Pirnelta was cured
of a like attack on making a vow to give
a cloth to St Benedict s altar. He also
heard the vows of Magdeline Vasa, who
promtsed to give a waxen statue, if her
child were cured of rupture. Laurentia
Vasa, on promising to venerate his relics
during fifteen days, was cured of an invete
rate ulcer in the leg. Rosalia Reitano, on

160 Life of St. Benedict.

making a vow to enter the third order of
St Francis, was healed of a tumor. Bai-
tholomew Craci had an ox that was lame
and no good for work ; he made a vow to
employ it in the construction of the convent
of Sanfratello, which the religious were
then building, and the animal was cured.
A man named Rocchi, deeply grieved at
the death of a mule, went to our Saint s
altar, and told his misfortune. On return-
Ing home, he found the animal alive. But
passing over in silence many like prodigies,
let us only speak of two miracles chosen
for blessed Benedict s canonization.

Saviour Centini Capizzi, of Sanfratello,
angry because some pigs had devastated
his garden, took a gun to kill one of them,
or, at least, to put them to flight He
loaded and discharged it, but was terrified
to hear the cries of his wife and the groans
of his son. Pale and affrighted, he ran to

Miracles operated after (Death. 161

the spot, and found his son Francis mortally
wounded by a ball which had pierced his
neck from side to side. The surgeons of
Sanfratello and the neighborhood hastened
to the spot, but all decided that the injury
was mortal, the wound being large enough
to allow passage to respiration, food and
drink. Who could express the father s
grief and agony at such a catastrophe?
Happily he thought of having recourse to
the Father Guardian of St Francis Con
vent, who, inspired by Heaven, took the
relic of St. Benedict, blessed the dying man,
and touched him with it. Immediately a
great quantity of blood flowed from the
wound, it closed, and no vestige of it
remained, save a slight scar to give proof
of the prodigy.

Philip Scalione, another Inhabitant of
Sanfratello, was born lame in both legs;
being wholly unable to walk, if he wished

1 62 Life of St. (Benedict.

to move, he was obliged to crawl on his
hands and knees, and even this he was not
always able to do. He remained in that
condition up to the age of fourteen. One
day he heard the chant of the Reformed
Franciscan Fathers at the translation of the
relics of Blessed Benedict to their new
church, and was filled with a vehement
desire to see it. He begged his sister to
carry him to the window, where, with his
eyes fixed on the sacred relics, he invoked
him of whose miracles he had heard so
much. While praying, be suddenly beheld
at his side a Franciscan friar, who said:
Walk, you are cured! Recognizing the
servant of God, the young man, animated
with lively faith, tried to wall;, and found
he could do so, without any difficulty.
With a loud voice he published the instanta
neous miracle wrought for the glory of
God and blessed Benedict; he went to the

Miracles operated after (Death. 163

road and showed himself to the assistants;
never was there a more beautiful mingling
of tears and acclamations of joy, than those
addressed to the precious relics and the
boy so miraculously cured. He related all
the circumstances of the prodigy, and, by
his tender acts of gratitude, retarded the
procession, which had become a veritable
triumphal march. We can easily imagine
how much the devotion to the Saint must
have been augmented. We shall terminate
this chapter by recommending ourselves to
the Saint, as those unfortunates of whom it
is written: They have feet, and they do not
walk, because they know not how to walk
in the path of virtue and justice.

CHAPTER XV

THE DEVOTION TO ST. BENEDICT*

LTHOUGH the body of our Saint had
been placed in the common burial-
ground of the religious, as was re
quired by submission to the holy rites of
the Church, nevertheless, the concourse, the
homage and prayers at his tomb, as we have
already seen, lasted during four months.
Three years after his death, when the tomb
was opened, the precious body was found
intact and having an agreeable odor. On
the feast of the Ascension, which fell on
the 6th of May in the year 1592, it was
removed to a little niche in the sacristy, on
which was placed the following inscription :
164

(Devotion to St. (Benedict. 165

This man was really blessed (benedictus)
Before God, both in his life and by his name.
He died on the eve of the Nones of April, 1589.

But as the devotion, which was greatly
augmented on that occasion, permitted the
sacristy to be closed only as much as the
people wished, they began to think of
removing the holy body to the church.
The reputation of Father Benedict s mira
cles and sanctity had spread into Spain, and
they there heard of the intended transla
tion. King Philip III encouraged by his
letters the execution of the project, and
gave fifteen hundred piastres for the silver
shrine to enclose the venerable body, which
was removed on the 3d of October, 1611,
and placed in the monument in the chapel
of the Blessed Virgin, where, for the public
satisfaction, it was left visible, yet, at the
same time, protected by a covering of
crystal.

1 66 Life of St. (Benedict.

Our Lord, by new graces, deigned to
manifest how pleasing to Him was the
honor rendered His servant. This was
proved not only by the pictures, tapers, ex
votos and crutches left there by those who
were cured, but more by the continual
prodigies which he operated, and the joyful
cries of those who had been the subjects
of them; in the church and around it, and
throughout the city of Palermo resounded
the praises and benedictions of the Saint.

The long road which leads from the city
to that church was sometimes so obstructed
by the crowds of the faithful going to
implore the Saint s intercession, or thank
him for it, that it was difficult to pass. All
Palermo was joyful; and its people felici
tated themselves on having been the first to
honor Saint Benedict, and to see devotion
to him authorized; for scarcely had he died,
ere the city was filled with his images

(Devotion to St. (Benedict. 167

crowned with the aureola, the symbol of
sanctity; they were to be found in the
cabins of the poor, in the shops, drawing-
rooms, cabinets, oratories, churches, and
even on altars. In every house his pic
ture was venerated; lamps were lit before
it, tapers burned, flowers were placed in
chambers or cells which served as particu
lar oratories, and at the foot of his statues
and images they placed his name with the
epithet of Saint or Blessed.

On the 24th of April, 1652, the city of
Palermo, having honored Benedict with the
title of Blessed in a public act, wished to
choose him formally as its protector. It
was decided that, on the anniversary of his
death, the senate should go in state to the
church of St. Mary of Jesus, and offer at
the Saint s tomb fourteen torches of white
wax, each weighing six pounds. His coun
try also honored him as blessed: and the

1 68 Life of St. (Benedict.

people of Sanfratello went in procession
before his statue and relics, which were
brought with great pomp from Palermo for
the consolation of his native place. Mes
sina, Trepani, Piazza, Girgenti, Melazzo,
and nearly the whole of Sicily, joined in
those honors, before the Holy Roman
Church had spoken of that inhabitant of
heaven. This devotion passed from Sicily
into Spain, when John Dominic Rubiano,
a friend of our Saint, sent a relic to the
Duchess of Modica in 1607. The graces
obtained by this means, engaged the cities
of Granada, Cadiz, Cordova, Arces, and
Valladolid to honor St. Benedict. Their
example was followed by other important
town and villages in the kingdom. They
venerated the pictures of the Servant of
God, erected altars under his name, ap
pointed festivals and lauded his virtues in
the pulpit; the most zealous and learned

^Devotion to St. (Benedict. 169

bishops, far from making any opposition,
extended and propagated the devotion.

His fame speedily passed from Spain to
Portugal, where he was designated as the
holy black. The Christian negroes of Lis
bon established a confraternity under his
name, and they celebrated his feast every
year with great devotion. Thirty years
after our Saint s death, the truly Catholic
King Philip III, assisted at their procession,
being then at Lisbon, in quality of heir of
Philip II, his father, and the claims of the
Empress Elizabeth, his mother, to the crown
of Portugal, left vacant in 1578 by the
death of Don Sebastian, on the coast of
Africa. In the West Indies, no saint is so
greatly honored as St Benedict.

An Indian of the town of St. Joseph in

New Spain, in the diocese of Mexico,

deposed under oath to what we have said

above, and added : " The devotion of those

5

1 70 Life of St. (Benedict.

people is shown, not only in erecting altars
and chapels under his name, in instituting
processions in his honor, in singing his
praises, causing masses to be celebrated
and bells to be rung; in sumptuously illu
minating the church, and in other prac
tices customary in honoring the saints ; but
I have particularly remarked that in New
Spain, when they celebrated the feasts of
St. Benedict of Palermo, they had music of
three kinds, that is, Spanish, Indian, and
Ethiopian, so that the Christian Ethiopians
of those parts, who, although far from their
country, might say, like the captive Jews in
Babylon : How can we sing in a foreign
land? testified their joy in America by
singing and playing their national music,
as if they were in Ethiopia. Yet more, on
the Saint s feast, there were discourses,
sermons and panegyrics in his honor; I
myself have made them in the port and

(Devotion to St. (Benedict. 171

city of Vera Cruz. Finally, those Ethio
pians, although poor, manifest their devo
tion by contributing to the expenses of the
festivals and public devotion to St. Bene
dict." What would those poor blacks say
of our economy regarding such things?

This beautiful testimony is corroborated
by many others, given in the processes;
hence it is proved that in Mexico, in the
city of Vera Cruz, and again in Brazil at
the Bay of All Saints, at its metropolis, in
Peru, Lima and other parts of Southern
and Central America, our holy negro is
solemnly honored. But however great
may be the devotion of the whites, that of
the blacks far surpasses it. They regard
St. Benedict as being of their nation, and,
according to their expression, of their kind.
Now, in reflecting on the devotion which is
continually rendered to him in that part
of the world, one can but admire Divine

172 Life of St. (Benedict*

Providence crowning the zeal of his ser
vant, who on being questioned by the reli
gious as to the subject of his prayers,
replied : I pray to God, and I make suppli
cation for the Indies.

Let, then, those pretended strong minds
who laugh at the judgments of the people,
regarding them as destitute of judgment
and common sense, as fickle and inconstant,
who treat their zeal as folly, and their sen
timents as crude and perverted ideas, let
them dare to propose to us the honors
rendered to the dissolute Emperor Claudius,
and with them compare not our apotheoses,
but the declarations of the Church which
assures us that the heroes of the Catholic
faith enjoy the beatitude which God has
promised to His servants. Let them, then,
find in those pious pomps only error, incon
stancy, confusion, disorder and vice; let
them, if they will, count the nations that

(Devotion to St. (Benedict. 173

venerate the holy negro, and let them
admire how peoples, separated by vast
distances, and living in different climes, are
united in one sentiment; let them remark
that it has continued and increased through
out two cemuries. Let them weigh the
deeds, the virtues, the indisputable prodi
gies on which the Church has based her
decision, and examine the rigorous pro
cesses, the searching examinations, the
objections urged and answered. Let them
behold the distinguished personages who
figure in the crowds that honor the Saint,
or among those who gave their testimony
under oath in the process of the Saint s
canonization.

The apotheoses ol the pagans were the
privilege only of a noble and formidable
race, of military talents, or benefits bestowed
on the people. They were the fruit of
policy or ambition, as Pliny remarked in

1 7 A Life of St. (Benedict.

Trajan s panegyric ; they took place under
the auspices of divinities impure, vicious,
and deceitful. But what other support than
that of heroic virtue, and the guardianship
of Heaven could be that of an humble lay-
brother, of low birth, first a farmer, after
wards a hermit, and finally occupied as
cook in a poor convent, in which he had no
other prerogatives than profound abjection
and absolute poverty? The pagan cere
mony required only one witness who should
attest he had seen the candidate fly up to
heaven. St. Justin, martyr, assures us of
this in his discourse to Antoninus Pius.
We know that the apotheosis of Romulus
was performed on the sole testimony of
Julius Proculus, according to Plutarch. Now
let us enumerate the processes instituted
for the beatification of our Saint. In that
of Palermo, in 1594, they examined on his
heroic virtues, ninety-seven witnesses, who

(Devotion to St. (Benedict. 175

had nearly all seen what they testified; and
In the second, which was made in 1620, they
heard sixty-eight witnesses : five years later
there was another examination on the vir
tues of the Saint, in which one hundred and
twenty witnesses were heard. In the year
1626, another process was instituted at
Sanfratello, the Saint s native place, and
although it was not a large place, seventy-
seven rendered testimony in his favor. But
were one to collect the irrefutable testimo
nies of the vices and follies of those
emperors and empresses whom the pagans
exalted to the rank of gods and goddesses-
the proofs would be numberless.

CHAPTER XVL

VIOOFS OF BENEDICT S VIRTUES.

HE first distinguishing characteristic of
the Christian, is his practising the
three theological virtues, which are so
intimately connected, that one is not perfect
without the others. St. Paul says, that
"faith without charity is dead," and St
Augustin, speaking of hope, adds, "How
can one hope who does not believe ?" St.
Benedict s faith shone on his countenance
when he approached the Holy Eucharist,
that mystery in which virtue inflamed by
love triumphs, according to the Angelic
Doctor. To consider these three virtues
united in Benedict, it suffices to recall those
marvellous multiplications of bread and
176

(proofs of (Benedict s Virtues. 177

wine, in favor of the poor and hungry, that
food prepared by the hands of angels, and
that blood squeezed from the little brush
that had cleansed the vessels ; what more
calculated to renew our admiration?

If we contemplate his faith in particular,
without taking into consideration the mira
culous production of fishes before men
tioned, we have another proof of it in the
following example.

Once, when passing along the banks of
the River Oreto, St. Benedict met a poor
fisherman, the father of seven children.
This man, who lived by the sale of his fish,
had labored all day and caught nothing.
Moved by the father s distress, Benedict,
with lively faith, blessed the net, and it
immediately became so full that they could
not draw it up. Thus was renewed the
miracle wrought by our Lord at the Sea of
Tiberias; thus were verified the divine

178 Life of St. (Benedict.

promises of the Saviour, who said that faith
should have His power on earth.

Let us here add, for our own advantage,
what the Saint said to a professor of the
ology, who had recourse to him to be
delivered from temptations against faith:
Father > you are a theologian and professor,
but I answer you in charity, when you are
assailed by that temptation, make on your
heart the sign of the Cross, and say the
Credo ; God will deliver you from it. The
religious followed his advice, and was freed
from trouble.

The virtue of hope holds the middle
place. Two extremes are opposed to it,
viz., presumption and despair. Let us here
give an example of both, since we have had
in his prophecies and promises many
proofs of Benedict s heroic hope. A noble
man recommended to the Saint a very
pressing affair, having great confidence in

(Proofs of (Benedict s Virtues. 179

the power of his intercession before God.
Inspired by heaven, Benedict thus ques
tioned him: What is the state of your soul
before God? The nobleman was offend
ed, and excusing his presumption on the
grounds of human frailty and the goodness
of God, was not disposed to moderate it.
The saint reproached him, and added a
salutary correction, counseling him to pro
portion his hopes to his merits, and sending
him away thus humbled, promised to recom
mend his affair to God.

On the contrary, when a poor country
woman once came disconsolate about a theft
she had committed, and said: "Alas, my

Father, my sins deserve hell! I fear

for my salvation Ah! there is no

mercy for me. ... If you but knew" here
the Saint interrupted her and encouraged
her to put her confidence in the goodness
of God; then he led her to the church,

1 80 Life of St. Benedict.

begged a confessor to hear her, and that
soul recovered the virtue of hope. Thus it
was that our Saint knew how, by banishing
presumption and despair, to show the sure
path that avoids both extremes.

We have already remarked, in all his
actions, the marvellous effects of his ardent
charity towards God and the neighbor.
Love, either divine or human, is always
distinguished by the same characteristics.
To speak frequently of the object beloved,
to change color, to be inflamed, to mourn,
to be offended when it is offended, to seek
after it with anxiety, such are its indubita
ble signs. We find all these in St. Benedict
with regard to God; everything in him
manifested the fire which inflamed his heart
for the Divine Majesty; he spoke only of
God, and his countenance often became so
inflamed, that its radiance illuminated the
darkness of the night. He sought God in

Proofs of (Benedict s Virtues. 181

everything, and resented the offences com
mitted against Him. This interior fire was
so ardent, that it sometimes deprived the
Saint of the use of his senses. On one
occasion, some persons came to the convent
to enjoy a little innocent recreation, and
wishing to prepare some food they had
brought with them from the city, they sent
a young man, one of their company, to the
kitchen to ask for some live coals. The
Saint, whose heart was inflamed with fire
of a very different kind, put his hands into
the grate, and took therefrom as much fire
as filled a vessel which he presented to the
young man. It is easy to imagine the
astonishment of those who beheld the action,
and of those, also, who heard of it.

His charity for the neighbor led him to be
ever occupied in favor of the unfortunate
and the distressed. He gave salutary advice,
distributed alms, often taken from his own

16

1 82 Life of St. (Benedict.

scanty nourishment; he gave instructions;
the learned themselves received light from
him ; he consoled the unfortunate, served
prisoners and the sick in hospitals ; he
blessed the fields, dispersed insects, cured
the sick, and his love for his fellow beings
led him even to recall the dead to life, by
his efficacious prayers. Among a thousand
spiritual maladies healed by him, we may
speak of a young debauchee, who was the
sorrow of his parents, the disgrace of his
family, the scandal of his friends, and a
scourge to society. Although one so deeply
wounded generally complains of the sur
geon, and impatiently rejects the cure of
his wounds, nevertheless, Father Benedict
acted with so much tact and delicacy, that
he stopped the young man on the brink of
the precipice; the sinner acknowledged
himself vanquished, conceived a horror of
libertinism, abandoned balls and dances,

<Proofs oj (Benedict s Virtues. 183

and became a good son and a useful citi
zen; he always protested that he should
owe his salvation, under God, to the good
religious, Father Benedict.

We shall say but a word about the car
dinal virtues, which our Saint possessed in
perfection. On account of his prudence he
was first appointed Guardian, and after-
terwards, Vicar and Master of Novices.
This virtue directed his words, his designs,
his deliberations. He exercised it more
especially in conversation, and when there
was question of correcting or preventing
disorders. Being one day in company with
a person of distinction, who was addicted
to detraction, and finding that he was
speaking ill of another, Benedict inter
rupted him, saying, "Excuse me, Sir,
excuse me if I go now, for were I to
remain here longer, I should not be able to
prevent an evil which might happen." It

1 84 Life of St. (Benedict.

was easy to know what he meant, namely,
that the evil he dreaded was the detrac
tion already begun, and the bad habit was
corrected.

Benedict s justice was not less heroic.
This it was that cast him on his knees,
when vicar, before a novice whom he had
severely reproved, when he afterwards
learned that the fault had not been such
as he had been informed. But the greatest
proof of his heroism in this virtue, was given
when his brother Mark, having committed
a homicide, was in prison awaiting the
death due to his crime. Among the many
persons who felt deep sorrow on this
account, not the least were the Reformed
Religious. It may be easily understood
that it would be no slight pain to them to
see a person, who, although a secular, was
brother to one of their members, led to
execution.

Proofs of (Benedict s Virtues. 185

As Mark Anthony Colonna, then Viceroy
of Sicily, was very fond of Benedict, the
Guardian commanded him to go and
recommend the condemned Mark to his
mercy, and beg the favor of his protection.
Benedict obeyed and went to the palace
of the Viceroy, who asked what he thought
he ought to do. The Saint replied : My lord,
although Mark is my brother, I tell you to do
justice. The Guardian having reproved
him for this answer, Benedict calmly re
plied, that one should never ask anything
contrary to justice. The Saint s companion,
who had heard all, assured him that the
Viceroy, much edified at recognizing in Bene
dict a prof ound sincerity and great zeal for
justice, granted Mark his pardon.

Our Saviour has depicted justice to us
in the following sentence: Render to Casar
the things that are Casals, and to God the
things are God s. These divine words

1 86 Life of St. (Benedict.

condemn those, who, like the unprofitable
servant, having received talents, do not
employ them for God, and live in useless-
ness; so that, of such a one it might be
said at his death : He had not a long life, but
he existed a long time. It was not so with
St. Benedict; he lived for everybody, he
made everybody a sharer in his heavenly
gifts of healing, knowledge, prophecy, pene
tration of hearts, tears and prayers.

Justice inspired his exhortations to respect
and obedience towards legitimate superiors.
He felt great pain at hearing any serious
complaint against the sovereign and his
ministers, he closed his ears against unjust
complaints, sustained authority by his dis
courses, showed that the imputations were,
perhaps, uncertain and without foundation,
or, at least, excusable through some un
known motive, and that, consequently, the
allegation was unjust.

(Proofs of (Benedict s Virtues. 187

Temperance, so familiar to St. Benedict,
is, according to the holy Fathers, the pre
server of all virtues; and according to this
sentiment, the ancient philosophers said,
The temperate man conceives nothing evil,
We have seen this in our Saint s life; but
what gives a better idea of his perfection in
this virtue, is the gentle reproach which he,
one day, made to a religious cleric, who, in
placing on the altar some vases of fresh
and odoriferous flowers, was continually
smelling them, and with such a passion that
he evidently failed in temperance. St.
Benedict reproved him, and showed him
how easy it is to pass from an innocent
enjoyment to a vicious sensibility. He
afterwards confirmed this, when two of the
religious disputed whether one could sin
grievously by the sense of smell. Although
this does not always happen, one may,
nevertheless, say with St. Augustin: // is a

1 88 Life of St.

little thing, but he who despises small things,
says the Scripture, shall fall by little and
little. Now, temperance prevents that fall.
St. Benedict practised fortitude from the
time that he sold his oxen, distributed the
price among the poor, bade adieu to his
parents, and withdrew into the desert
How surprising it was to behold his joyous
appearance, not only amidst fatigue, fasts
and penances, but also when overwhelmed
by tribulations, injuries, and ill-treatment!
The sacristan, weary at having to call him
so often by the bell to attend to the
demands of the afflicted, finally began to
insult our Saint, and load him with injuries.
On the first occasion, which was not long
in presenting itself, the same sacristan,
more indignant than ever, dared to call
him, in the presence of several persons, a
dog of a slave. But Benedict always pre
served a serene countenance whether he

(proofs of (Benedict s Virtues. 189

called him an ass or slammed the door in
his face with a thousand affronts; he did
even more; although he was the injured
party, he humbly asked the sacristan s
pardon for the trouble he had unwillingly
given him. The Saint was not of a cold
and insensible temperament, and if he bore
everything, it was only through his heroic
humility. On one occasion, a young liber
tine, passing from insolence to affronts,
loaded our Saint with insults, which the
modesty of the historians would not allow
them to set down in detail; such was the
violence our Saint did himself to repress
his just indignation, that his eyes became
inflamed, he was seized with trembling, and
blood burst from his nostrils, but he kept
silence.

But it was from the demons that he
endured the worst assaults. Their attacks
dated from his entrance into the hermitage,

190 Life of St. (Benedick

and the most dangerous proceeded from
the public eulogiums and homages which
were drawn upon Benedict by the prodigies
which Heaven operated by his hand, and
the singular gifts and favors bestowed on
him by God. But his profound humility, sus
tained by the virtue of fortitude, was always
victorious over the enemies of his salvation.
He himself acknowledged to some religious
that the infernal spirits discharged their
rage by injuring his body, appearing to him
in time of prayer, and cruelly ill-treating
him. Far from being troubled, he con
quered them and covered them with shame.
Sometimes, he was seen, when in prayer, to
stretch out his hands, to resist violently,
and to spit in contempt: when asked his
reason for doing so, he replied: It is
against the demons who tempt us. Such was
the empire he obtained over them, that
several times, during his life, he expelled

(Proofs of (Benedict s Virtues. 191

them from the bodies of the possessed.
He exercised the same power after death,
according to the testimony of two excellent
writers: Father Tognoletto, and Father
John Alphonsus of Mandrisio, Definitor
General. " Not only," say they, " was this
servant of God the scourge of the demons
after his death (for it would take too long
to relate how many possessed he has
delivered, and does still deliver) but during
life he operated those cures, in proof of
the victory he had won over the infernal
spirits." That virtue of fortitude, the
mother of eleven millions of martyrs, as the
Church counts, according to Genebrard s
calculation, is founded on that NO which
the martyrs uttered when tyrants urged
them to idolatry. That NO which the mar
tyrs expressed by a negative gesture,
according to Seneca, Benedict also said
without opening his lips. His life, so just

192 Life of St. Benedict.

and regular, closed the entrance to every
unlawful demand. To him might be
applied Cicero s eulogy on Cato : O happy
mortal, of whom no one may demand that
which is evil

CHAPTER XVII.

OF THE FRUIT THAT MAY BE DRAWN FROM THIS LIFE.

I

HE first object we should propose to
ourselves in reading the Lives of the
Saints, is to render glory to God, and
procure our own spiritual advantage. To
obtain this second end, for the first is evi
dent, it is necessary to compare our actions
with those of St. Benedict, and to correct
the great difference we find between them ;
but such a comparison would lead us far
beyond the limits we have prescribed our
selves. Let us, then, confine ourselves to
one single product of the evangelical seed:
it is that, the want of which makes itself
most deeply felt in our age, it is Faith.
We do not speak now to those who wholly
?

194 Life of St. (Benedict.

abstain from this necessary nourishment
of the faithful, but to those who, through
their own fault, have allowed it to become
weak. We speak to those who should
hear us, in this time when that virtue is
most necessary.

Let us now imitate the holy apostles in
that point in which we fail to resemble
them. Their bark was assailed by a violent
tempest, yet Jesus slept tranquilly at the
stern; greatly troubled, they awoke Him,
and with pallid countenances and terrified
hearts, they crowded round their Master,
crying: Lord, save us; we perish. The
Lord awoke, and before appeasing the fury
of the winds and waves, addressed them a
reproach, upon which St. Basil, Bishop of
Seleucia, comments in the following beauti-
tiful terms: What then is that terror which
casts you down, which reduces you to the
extremity in which I behold you? Your fear

Fruits (Drawn from this Life, 195

accuses the want of faith which produces it.
Troubled interiorly and exteriorly by the
agitation of the sea, you liken yourselves
to inanimate things which surrender them
selves to the first occupant. Your bark is
still on the waters ; she is still intact, yet
your faith has already suffered shipwreck,
it is already submerged! Hence you only
think where you are, and not with whom
you are. O ! why is not your faith strong
enough to render you intrepid in the midst
of the waves, and firm as a rock in the
midst of the waters? O words worthy of
the Sovereign Master! concludes the holy
bishop, He desires that faith be stronger than
all created things, and that in the presence of
faith the soul never gives way to despair.
When we read and reflect on sacred, and
even on profane history, we clearly dis
cover, in the ocean of human revolutions,
that God presides over all, as a Pilot sove-

196 Life of St. (Benedict.

reignly qualified, who makes the partial
disorder conduce to the general order.
But very few persons comprehend this.
Our mind is so feeble, says St Chrysostom,
the evils that trouble us are so great, that,
instead of placing our confidence in the
infinite wisdom of God, we, under His
very eyes, regard ourselves as lost and
swallowed up, although, frequently, it hap
pens that a turn of the helm brings us into
port. Have faith, said our Saint. The
Saviour sometimes seems to sleep, but He
never sleeps; He beholds the tempest,
and, at the proper time, will dissipate its
fury. He desires that, in the meantime,
the sailors disburden themselves, and cast
into the sea whatever might submerge the
vessel. It is true that our faith must not
be separated from hope and charity. Con
fidence should animate our prayers, divine
love must accompany our thanksgiving for

Fruits <firawn from this Life. 197

the benefits we have received. According
to the explanation of St. Chrysostom in
the Sixth Homily on the Philippians, Saint
Paul does not wish that in our prayers ive
confine ourselves to a single demand; but he
also recommends that we add thereto thanks
and acknowledgments for the favors we have,
already received; for how can one make new
requests^ when he has not acknowledged
graces already conferred?

This virtue, the first among those called
theological, should always, but particularly
in our days, be accompanied by the virtue
of fortitude. To obtain this fortitude, St.
Benedict, after the example of the Patri
arch St. Francis, especially invoked the
Archangel St. Michael. And as this arch
angel, in warring against the powers of
earth and hell, incessantly repeats, Who is
like to Godf Quis est Deus? so should we
constantly confess our faith in God, fly

1 98 Life of St. (Benedict.

from the impious, from the assemblies of
vanity, from pestilential discourses and con
versations. If we be faithful to do this,
with the help of grace, we shall merit to
have applied to us that oracle of our Divine
Redeemer: Whoever shall confess me before
men, I will confess him before my Father
who is in heaven.

To obtain from the divine goodness,
these virtues and all others, our Saint
implored the protection of the most holy
Virgin, through whom, he acknowledged,
he had received all graces. He attributed
to the merits of Mary the prodigies which
God operated through his means, and gave
her all the glory of them; he referred to
her all those who desired to obtain favors;
to relieve the afflicted he used the oil
from the lamp lit before her image. But it
would be doing an injury to our readers to
engage them, by Benedict s example, to

Fruits (Drawn from this Life. 199

have recourse, in their necessities, to the
Mother of God. Who is it, among the
faithful, who does not take refuge in the
bosom of his Mother?

We may recommend the invocation of
the Prince of the Apostles, to whom our
Saint had a particular devotion, because
the Church was founded on him, and our
Lord Himself prayed that Peter s faith
should never fail.

To devotion to those powerful interces
sors to obtain that firmness which we have
admired in our Saint s life, and his perse
verance in flying the venemous bite of the
declared enemies of religion, let us add
devotion to St. Benedict himself, to gain
this precious gift. He continually implored
God that His holy law might be spread
throughout the Indies; certainly, he will
not refuse his intercession for what we
desire. We will then invoke him in tempta-

aoo Life of St. (Benedict.

tions, doubts, trials of mind, and dangers
to which we may be exposed through the
frailty of our flesh.

And as our misery makes us sometimes
(God grant it be not always) have recourse
to the saints, only in our temporal necessi
ties, making little account of those that are
spiritual, it is well to recall to our minds
what we have seen in this history. St.
Benedict s first occupation was agriculture.
Afterwards, when invested with the habit
of St. Francis, we have seen him bless the
fields and the fruits of the earth, with great
advantage to those who had asked that
benediction. In him, then, we behold an
other protector of cultivated fields, who
will banish therefrom whatever might be
hurtful to the fruits that are for our nour
ishment.

But that St. Benedict may hear the fer
vent prayers we address him before the

Fruits (Drawn from this Life. 201

altar, let us frequently remind him of his
good father, who brought such a blessing
on the goods confided by Manasseri to his
care. In the Memoirs, there is no mention
of the death of our Saint s father and
mother; the blamable negligence of those
times has deprived us of much knowledge
on this and many other points relating to
our Saint. Nevertheless, prudence leads
us to hope that those good parents, so
pious and so virtuous, are enjoying the
sight of God with their son ; and what fully
persuades us of this is, that, if the Saint
prayed daily for sinners and for distant
countries, with how much greater ardor
would he have prayed for those to whom
he owed his life and holy education ! He
will hear more willingly the prayers ad
dressed to him in public and particular
necessities, if we remind him how his father
lost his employment through the malice of

202 Life of St. (Benedict.

others, and how, when reinstated, he caused
the renewal of those divine blessings that
had been suspended. Let us learn, thence,
to suffer patiently the effects of men s malice,
and not to doubt that we shall receive the
crown of our patience: let us also hope
that we shall see dissipated, even in this
life, the clouds that obscure virtuous actions.
We have already seen, that when St.
Benedict threw holy water over the gardens
and vines attacked by destructive insects,
which threatened their total ruin, not only
were those insects killed or dispersed, but
the farmers beheld the ruined plants
revive and bear fruit. To augment the
confidence of the faithful in our Saint s
intercession, for a benefit as important as
the fruitfulness of the ground, we shall
prove from the processes what we have
said, and shall choose for this end, the testi
mony of a lay-brother, also called Brother

Fruits (Drawn from this Life. 203

Benedict. In his deposition he says: "I
know that many proprietors of gardens,
contiguous to the Convent of St. Mary of
Jesus, suffered, according to the seasons,
much loss in the fruits and vegetables
injured by the worms; those persons came
to the convent and begged the superiors to
send Father Benedict to bless their gardens.
I accompanied him several times, and was
witness to the welcome that both masters
and laborers gave him. Father Benedict
went everywhere sprinkling holy water; I
heard the thanks that were rendered him.
They gratefully acknowledged, that, thanks
to his blessing, not only were the worms
destroyed, but the productiveness of the
ground was increased and the harvests
were more abundant." We may also
remark, that the animals obeyed and re
spected our Saint, and when he dwelt in
the hermitage, the wild beasts fled from it,

2O4 Life of St. (Benedict.

leaving the field free to the demons, who
tormented him during his whole life.

Those persons, then, who possess prop
erty subject to the irregularities of the
seasons, and the ravages of insects, would
do well to place their lands under St.
Benedict s protection. Thus may they
hope to obtain, by his merits, the benedic
tion of Heaven; but that they may be the
more certain of gaining it, let them imitate
his excellent father, who never refused alms
to any one, and who, by this means, multi
plied the goods confided to his care, which
goods also diminished when he ceased to
give alms. From this fact, spoken of in
the beginning of this work, we may draw
another fruit, which is, after the example of
the pious Christopher, our Saint s father,
to suffer the attacks of envy and malignity,
and to count securely on the just recom
pense of our Christian actions, especially

Fruits (Drawn from this Life. 205

of our effective compassion for the poor, as
also to hope that calumnies shall be cleared
up, even in this life.

The sick persons healed by this servant
of God, during his life, were innumerable,
as we have already shown. But as God,
in His goodness, grants to some of His
elect a special virtue for curing certain
diseases belonging to this vale of tears, as
we see in Sts. Anthony, Blaise, Andrew
Avellino and many others, so He was
pleased to attach the cure of certain mala
dies to the particular intercession of St.
Benedict the Negro. These are sciatica,
catarrh, hernia, and headache, which the
Saint healed by prayer and the sign of the
cross. To justify and increase the confi
dence of those thus afflicted, we shall quote
the testimony of Father Andrew of Calta-
girone, who deposed in the process at

Palermo in 1594, in the following terms:
ti

2o6 Life of St. (Benedick

"Father Benedict laid his hand upon them,
and they were instantly cured, particularly
those who had hernia, sciatica, catarrh,
headache, etc. Those sick persons begged
Father Benedict to recite a prayer over
them ; he did so, and their cure was effected
on the instant."

To engage our Saint to aid us, and obtain
the graces we need, we must follow the
advice he gave to all the afflicted: Have
faith in the Blessed Virgin ; she will cure
you; doubt not but she will console you.
Thus it was, that, as we have already
remarked, he attributed to the Mother of
God all his marvellous cures, and concealed
himself from the sight of those who were
witness of the most striking wonders, lest
they should refer the honor thereof to him.

Finally, we should imitate, as far as in
our power, the virtues of this Christian
hero. To this end let us propose to

Fruits <Drawn from this Life. 207

strengthen solidly our faith, at this time
when Lucifer redoubles his efforts for the
destruction of the only true faith, which,
despite, all his endeavors, shall subsist for
ever. Let us also, like St. Benedict, pray
for infidels. Alas! in order to find them,
it is not necessary to go to the Indies; they
are around us, and may be easily recog
nized by their exterior : hence the gift of
penetrating hearts, which our Saint pos
sessed, would be almost useless now, since
the fool says not in his heart alone that
there is no God, but says it with uplifted
head, as he looks for applause from his
blinded proselytes.

Addressing ourselves to them, yet from
a distance, so as to avoid their poisonous
breath, let us ask them for those social
goods so vaunted by the delightful system
of nature, and in which they place man s
happiness; let us compare them with the

208 Life of St. (Benedict.

benefits produced by the piety of one ser
vant of God, of that God, whom the philo
sophers of our day, so plunged in the mire
of materialism as to be like almost to the
brutes, dare to treat as a cruel and
malevolent spirit. In fact, refusing all
relations with the infinite goodness of God,
they are not ashamed to rank themselves
with the brutes, either by raising these to
their material sphere, or by debasing
themselves to the animal sphere. But,
since they make themselves equal only to
dogs or cows, how can they judge of the
miracles which God, by means of His ser
vants, operates for the good of the neigh
bor ? In the system of matter, or, what is
just the same, of men-brutes, those miracles
would be esteemed only the effects of
nature, still unknown. We may say to
those materialistic philosophers : Your zeal
is directed only to the advantage of

Fruits (Drawn from this Life. 209

humanity. You attribute to nature all
those precious advantages, which we Chris
tians call miracles, but you are not con
cerned about your ignorance of their causes.
In our human nature there is no lack of
evils and necessities, which your zeal should
made it your province to remedy. Why,
then, in the wish to soothe those sorrows,
why do you not seek to acquire the know
ledge of which, according to your own
avowal, you are destitute ? why do you not
employ for the public good those means,
which, according to you, nature indicates?
Let us come to detail. If our Saint, either
by the sign of the cross or by the imposi
tion of hands, restored sight to the blind
and cured the lame, why do not you do
the like, through those happy combinations
which you are pleased to call natural?
Why do not you go through cities and
hospitals, contradicting St. Benedict s mira-

18*

2io Life of St. (Benedict.

cles by setting nature at work ? If, inde
pendently of the sign of the cross and the
imposition of hands, it is necessary also to
be Christians, for reasons of which you are
ignorant, you should become such, in view
of the public good, the object of your zeal.
But remark that there are no true Chris
tian materialists. Consequently, instead of
restoring sight to the blind, through those
causes which are concealed from you, you
would lose your own. Most certainly you
will not deign to reply to an historian, who
is not a philosopher like yourselves. There
fore, with my equals, I go to ask of St.
Benedict a miracle more striking than those
he has effected, which is to give you all
reasonable minds and right sense, such as
God restored to Nabuchodonozor ; and cer
tainly the doing so will not be an effect of
nature,

BND.

LITANY

OF

ST. BENEDICT OF SANFRATELLO.

Lord, have mercy on us.

Christ, have mercy on us.

Lord, have mercy on us.

O Father, who art the God of heaven,

O Son, Redeemer of the world,

O Holy Spirit, who art God,

Holy Trinity, one God,

Holy Mary, Mother of God,

^s^

St Benedict of Sanfratello,

St Benedict, who wast consecrated to

God in thy youth,
St Benedict, model of sweetness,

211

g

212 Litany of St. (Benedict.

St Benedict, who didst despise all
temporal goods,

St Benedict, devoted to the cross of
Jesus Christ,

St. Benedict, ravished in Jesus cruci
fied,

St Benedict, endowed with discern
ment of spirits.

St Benedict, who, in the name of God,
and by thy faith, didst heal all mala
dies,

St Benedict, faithful observer ot pov- ~
erty of heart,

St. Benedict, victim most agreeable
to God,

St Benedict, ever devoted to fasting
and mortification,

St. Benedict, patron of farmers,

St. Benedict, ever attentive to those
who invoke thee in their pressing
necessities.

,2

Litany of St. (Benedict. 21$

St Benedict, perfect lover of silence,
solitude and retreat,

St Benedict endowed with the sci
ence of the saints,

St Benedict, burning with charity for
thy neighbor,

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of
the world, spare us, Lord.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of
the world, hear us, O Lord.

Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of
the world, have mercy on us.

PRAYER.

O Lord, who hast rendered St. Benedict
of Sanfratello illustrious by the admirable
penance he practised, and by the favors
thou hast bestowed upon him, grant us,
by his mediation, that, imitating his exam*
pie, and mortifying ourselves for love of
thee, we may, through thy mercy, participate
in the glory he now enjoys in heaven,
Amen

BX 4700 .6356 C3713 1895 SM(

Car let t i , Giuseppe .

Life of St. Benedict jj

surnamed "The Moor 1

47232922