ON BL. NICHOLAS, HERMIT,
IN SICILY,
In the year 1167.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
His lawful cultus is proved.
Nicholas, hermit, in Sicily (Bl.)
BY P. B.
In the Sicilian Martyrology he is thus reported on this day by our Ottavio Gaetani: The cultus of the Blessed At Arcaria, in the diocese of Messina, St. Nicholas the hermit. And in the margin is added: He is honored by the grant of Pope Julius II. Ferrari followed in his New Catalogue: At Arcaria, a village in Sicily, St. Nicholas the hermit; and in his Annotations he observes, first, that Arcaria is a place of the diocese of Messina near Milazzo and the shrine of St. Lucy; secondly, that Nicholas died about the year of Salvation 998, while the Saracens held Sicily — which is false from our Acts; finally, that Nicholas is honored by the concession of Pope Julius II and of Hadrian, which last I do not remember reading elsewhere. More safely, therefore, does Rocco Pirri deal with it in the Notices of the Sicilian Churches, vol. 2, page 115: Bl. Nicholas the hermit is of Adrano, who led a most holy life beneath Mount Etna, in the time of king William II. Thence, illustrious for miracles in and after death, he died in the town of Arcaria of the diocese of Messina on the XVII day of August, where, by the indulgence of Pope Julius II, he is honored with great celebrity.
[2] granted by Pope Julius II. Moreover the diploma of Pope Julius II runs thus in Gaetani in the Animadversions, vol. 2, page 61: Pope Julius II. Beloved sons, greeting and apostolic benediction. You have caused it to be set forth to us that formerly, when one Nicholas del Polito, commonly called Blessed Nicholas, had died in a certain cave near that your land, you — or more truly your predecessors — having, on account of his good life, a great devotion toward him, took his body with the mind of placing it in the greater church of that land, and at length, your purpose being changed, laid it in a church; but since you fear lest any one steal it thence, according to your first purpose you desire to remove it thence to your land and to carry it to that church and to place it there, with the celebration also of an anniversary both in that church and in the church of St. Nicholas de lo Cito, near which he died: wherefore you have caused supplication to be made to us that we would deign of apostolic kindness to grant this your desire in this matter. We therefore, inclined to such supplications of yours, by apostolic authority by the tenor of these presents and of special grace grant and indulge to you that you may freely and lawfully, and without prejudice to any one, transport the aforesaid body, commonly called del Beato Nicolao, from the said uninhabited place to your church, and celebrate, both in it and in the aforesaid church of St. Nicholas near which he died, the anniversary day of the XVII of August at your pleasure, yet fittingly; forbidding, in virtue of holy obedience, all and each of the local ordinaries to whom it pertains, that they molest or disturb you directly or indirectly in the aforesaid removal, translation, placing, and celebration, or permit you to be molested or disturbed by others; notwithstanding apostolic constitutions and ordinances and all other things to the contrary. Given at Rome at St. Peter's, under the ring of the Fisherman, on the VII day of June, 1507, in the fourth year of our Pontificate.
[3] The most holy Father Julius II granted, therefore, the cultus of our Bl. Nicholas in at least two churches: both where he then was, and in that to which he was then destined, the greater church of the people of Arcaria. For, as our Gaetani adds a little below: The body of the divine Nicholas is preserved today in the greatest church. He is patron of Arcaria. He was formerly celebrated also with a proper Office and Mass. His feast day is kept on the XVI of the Kalends of September, which was the day of his departure from life; and on the IV of the Nones of May, on which day he first began to be honored by permission of the Apostolic See (which I do not sufficiently understand, unless it was long deferred, or the diploma just exhibited is ill noted). To increase the celebration and the piety of the people of Arcaria toward the divine Nicholas, John Andrew, cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and archbishop of Messina, granted letters of indulgences on the IX day of January, indiction XV, in the year 1557. Now let us see the Acts in the same Gaetani, vol. 2, page 180, somewhat fuller than those which had been sent to us a little before as by the Blessed man's confessor of the Order of St. Basil; but these are without doubt of less merit, and indeed less enlarged, yet everywhere less accurate, and therefore to be passed over.
THE ACTS
By his confessor, but afterwards enlarged.
Nicholas, hermit, in Sicily (Bl.)
BHL Number: 6229
From the printed text of Father Ottavio Gaetani.
The birth and pious upbringing of the Blessed, his flight from marriage, At the season when the illustrious count Roger was reigning, who had reclaimed Sicily by arms from the dominion of the Saracens, Bl. Nicholas was born at Adrano of the family of the Politi a. He had parents by no means of the lowest sort, but among the first of that town b; who, since they had no one to whom to leave their goods and fortunes, entreating our Lord Jesus Christ and His most holy Mother with many prayers, fastings, and almsgivings, received Nicholas, their only offspring. The boy, advancing with a good disposition, was handed over to masters by whom he might be instructed in letters. But his parents, now fearing the end of their life, resolve upon a wife to be taken by their son; and when they wished Nicholas to be bound to her and even almost compelled him, but he altogether refused and could by no other means escape their force, he resolved to take flight unknown to all: for indeed by day and by night he turned over in his mind what is written in the Gospel: If any man will come after Me, and hate not his father and his mother and wife and children and brethren and sisters, he cannot be My disciple.
[2] and his embracing of a hard solitude, On the night, therefore, which God's providence had appointed, when all had gone to bed and sleep had closely embraced them, while Nicholas, counting as nothing for the love of God his home, his country, his parents, and all that he hoped to possess, resolves to leave them and plans flight, this voice came to him from heaven: Nicholas, arise and follow Me. Straightway he rises and followed Him who said to him: Come with Me, and I will show thee a saving place of penitence, in which, if thou wilt, thou shalt be able to save thy soul. And so, being led to the middle region of Mount Etna, and finding a cave hedged about with brambles, he hides himself in it; where, giving himself assiduously to fastings and prayers and especially to meditation on the passion of Jesus Christ, and chastising his body with scourges and other maceration, he remained nearly three years. But since that place seemed by no means fit for his progress, and was near his country, and his parents were seeking their son, when the divine providence willed to remove Nicholas from it, He sends His messenger to him with these charges: Nicholas, tarry here no longer: for they who seek thee, if they find thee, will carry thee back to thy country; and so thou wilt lose what thou hast begun. But go on to the place which I shall show thee, toward Arcaria c, beneath Mount Calamna d; where thou shalt abide until thou end thy life.
[3] then his change of place, the devil assailing him but being overcome, At the approach of dawn, Nicholas, setting out from Etna, begins his journey to the place which the angel had revealed. But when he had come into the middle of a wood, the demon in the habit of a merchant meets him and speaks thus: Whither, wretched man, dost thou go so alone? He answered: To Mount Calamna near Arcaria, whither I have been sent. The enemy of men took him up: Come with me: for it shall fall out better for thee. I will show thee my cities and places; and these, if thou wilt obey my words, I will give thee; in which, filled with better pleasures, thou shalt live far more pleasantly than on Mount Calamna. Hearing which, Bl. Nicholas, reckoning with himself in mind, said: Who is this, who draws me back from my journey and promises me his riches and his bread to eat and his garments and pleasures to enjoy in this world, and shows so great a charity toward me? And straightway calling to mind the passion of Christ and fixing his eyes upon heaven, he said: O Lord Jesus Christ, by Thy five wounds and by Thy passion grant that I may escape the snares of this temptation. Which prayer being ended, he was free of that harassment, and the demon vanished from his eyes.
[4] where he brings forth a spring prodigious by miracle, Therefore, pursuing the journey he had begun, he came to the place which today has the name Holy Water. There, being weary from the road and afflicted with the accustomed chastisements of his body, he began to suffer thirst; wherefore, stretched upon the ground and lifting his eyes to heaven, he prayed God with this prayer: Lord, who once didst bring forth most abundant springs from a rock, grant to me, I beseech Thee, that I may here be able to find water wherewith to refresh my body. Which being said, he heard a voice from heaven: Arise, Nicholas, and strike the rock which thou seest with thy staff in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; it shall grant thee what thou askest. As he heard, so he did; and straightway water flowed from the rock; which those afflicted with various diseases or pains have thenceforth drunk and been made whole.
[5] But Nicholas, when he had come to the mountain shown him, and he lived austerely for 30 years and more. passed his life in the greatest abstinence from food, in assiduous prayers to God, and in a rich pouring forth of tears. There stands on the summit of the mountain a rock beneath which he poured forth his prayers to God. He was frequent in meditation on the wounds of Jesus Christ, in whose most sweet remembrance he for the most part wept bitterly seven times a day. But roots of herbs afforded him food; sometimes angelic bread; and he was wont, so long as he lived, to take food once a day. He remained on that mountain thirty years and more, wholly unknown to any one save a few religious men. When he was drawing near the end of his life, he met two women who were carrying pears, and asked of them in the name of Jesus Christ a small part of those fruits; and one of them refusing, but finding the other generous, having given thanks to God, he prayed well for her. These women bore witness after the death of Bl. Nicholas and after his being made known that for her who had been kind the fruits lasted many days, but that all the miserly one's rotted, so that they were not even fit for use.
[6] Now on the VII of the Kalends of September a certain husbandman, Leo, He is found dead there, and a church is built. a man of remarkable probity, when in seeking his straying oxen he was carried into the wood and solitude, came to the place where Bl. Nicholas had breathed out his soul, and, having ended his life, on bended knees and leaning upon his staff with his hands, was gazing up to heaven. Seeing which, the man was afraid and straightway cried out: But who art thou? Who indeed art thou? But when no answer was made him, approaching the body
he touched it with his right hand, and straightway his arm withered. Warned by which prodigy, he pondered with himself that he was certainly some holy man. Therefore he runs back in haste to Arcaria. He publishes what he has seen to the archpriest and the magistrates, to the astonishment of all: especially because at that season the bronze bells of the churches, struck by no human force, had given forth a sound. Therefore the clergy and the magistrates and the people, with the husbandman as guide, go forth barefoot to Nicholas; and as soon as they had come thither, when the guide wished to point out the dead body and stretched out his withered arm, he suddenly felt it whole. And it was granted to the honor of the divine Nicholas that in the place where the body was found a church should be dedicated to his name.
[7] But when the body was being carried to Arcaria, the way lay past St. Hippolytus's; It is carried off to the Basilians, where it remained incorrupt for 336 years: but when they were passing by, they felt it so heavy and burdensome that it could not even be moved a step. They take counsel among themselves to which shrine the Saint would rather be brought; and when they had named many of that town and had tried whether perchance it would go forward thither, they tried in vain. And so there was great wonder among the common people, and a great difference of opinion among the chief men; which was decided by an infant hanging in the arms of its mother who was standing by at that prodigy, who cried out that they should carry it to Our Lady St. Mary's, which is named from Rogatus: thither Nicholas would follow of his own accord. Beside this shrine was situated a monastery kept up by followers of the Basilian institute, men very religious and pious. Of these, as it is believed, Nicholas while living had chosen one for himself as confessor, who had even noted some things in writing concerning his life. This being received as an oracle, they at once took up the body without any hindrance and carried it thither; where for 336 years e, wholly free from corruption, it endured fresh and whole, and was not without miracles held in veneration.
[8] But when in the year of salvation 1503, on the 10th day of May, all that neighborhood was suffering from a very great scarcity of rains, the peoples as suppliants, invoking the citizens of heaven by name, went in procession to that church with wondrous religion. And straightway, as soon as they had brought forth the body of Bl. Nicholas and set it on high upon the altar f — as the custom had long since begun, and with fruit — in the year 1503 the body is exalted, not without miracles a huge rain followed by the admirable benefit of God and of the divine Nicholas. At which time, when very many after pious prayers were reverently and eagerly kissing the sacred relics, it happened that a woman of ill fame, mingled with the crowd, dared this also: but indeed at her approach that holy body drew itself back and did not suffer itself to be touched, to the great astonishment of all. And when the sacrifice of the most holy Mass had been offered, as they were carrying the relics back into the church after having borne them about, at the very entrance of the shrine, since those who had set their shoulders beneath the platform, being pressed by an unwonted weight, could go no further, they were compelled to halt and to invoke mercy and pity from the immortal God.
[9] and by several: This prodigy was received with happy issues: for in that mixed crowd John Hospitalis, who had long been afflicted with a hernia so monstrous that it was supported only by a bag, suddenly felt himself relieved of that disease; and he for his part everywhere cried out upon so great a mercy and published his healing; and the crowd flocked to him out of a desire of seeing him. Meanwhile another sufferer from hernia in the multitude repeats with lifted voice: I am whole. And behold, a third laboring under the same kind of disease says: I too am whole; I also. Wherefore, amid so great astonishment and feeling of the people, it seemed very opportune to a certain religious of the Franciscan family, a good man and no unlearned preacher, to speak from a lofty place; the outcome of whose words was this: that the citizens of Arcaria undertook with solemn pledge that they would expend whatever money must be expended until leave should be obtained from the Sovereign Pontiff to venerate the relics of that holy man.
[10] [at which time the matter was treated at Rome, and obtained concerning the cultus from Pope Julius II.] Two prudent men were therefore chosen for this business, Antonio Tundo, a priest, and Giovanni Cottone. These go to Rome at the public expense and treat the matter by petitions. But the business being deferred from day to day and unaccomplished, and their money being spent, they were thinking of returning. They chanced to have turned aside into an inn; and in that place, as they were sad and full of thought, some man or other in poor and rough dress accosts them: of what country they were, to what end they had come to Rome, and what was the cause of so great grief? And when they had answered him very kindly, he consoled them. Be not sad, he said, brethren: go in confidence: for yesterday at Ostia on the Tiber your business was accomplished, and you shall find the diploma of leave in the possession of such a one (he added the name). Which words being said, the poor man went out of the inn and ceased to appear. They, going to Ostia on the Tiber, found that what they had received from the stranger was true. And the Pontifical diploma concerning the venerating of the relics of Bl. Nicholas was given in the year from the Virgin's childbearing 1507, on the VII day of June, Julius II being Sovereign Pontiff g.
[11] Then, fearing a theft, the people of Arcaria Meanwhile the fame of Bl. Nicholas was widely spread through those places by the illustrious number of his miracles; and very many flocked to him to make supplication for health; and not in vain: for they returned to their homes strong and whole with much thanksgiving. But this vehemently inflamed the people of Adrano, fellow-townsmen of Bl. Nicholas, to have so rich a treasure rather at home with themselves than elsewhere with others: but as they often attempted secretly to carry it off, the little bell of the shrine of St. Mary, redoubling its sound of its own accord, disclosed them; by which sign the people of Arcaria too, being roused, ran together in a body to defend what was in their right.
[12] But since that place itself, which was far from the town and among the woods, seemed to afford occasion for these incursions, it was decreed by the people of Arcaria that those relics must be translated within the town and safely placed. This business is entrusted to eight of the chief men of the town: carried off the body to themselves, Peter Rosata, a priest, John Gemburdus, John Sciarra, Florinus Marinus, another John likewise Sciarra, and three others whose names have perished. These, in the dead of night and amid dense darkness, took up with reverence the body of Bl. Nicholas and laid it within the town in St. Pantaleon's, a divine light accompanying them, no one at all getting scent of it while it was done h. There was there a certain man of Bronte who for the fourteenth year was possessed by a demon; nay rather, for eight years past he was sustaining a body already dead and destitute of soul (as was said by him). Therefore, whoever he was, being led to Bl. Nicholas, he was freed from the evil spirit; and, the demon being put to flight, the putrid corpse sank down.
[13] These and many other things Bl. Nicholas wrought by his merit, where they went on and works today: which, as it is plain to every one, so ought it to incite all to give thanks to God. But this must by no means be passed over. A woman had gone out to a farm with other women, leaving her little son, whose name was Matthew, lying in bed; and afterwards she found him dead. The mother, dismayed with grief and mourning, implores the help of Bl. Nicholas; from him she seeks life for her dead son: she sought and found: for at the mother's prayer, as though he had awakened from sleep, the son began to speak and to give thanks to God and to Nicholas. He afterwards lived to old age.
[14] The baroness of Militello, kindled toward this blessed man by the celebrity of so many and so great miracles, many miracles. betook herself to venerate his relics, while they were still kept in the aforesaid monastery. Therefore, when she had accomplished this with a very great retinue, having brought with her also her little son, and, desiring to carry home with her a small portion of so great a treasure, had received a small fragment from the arm, she was returning under a clear and most cloudless sky. But behold, the air, suddenly darkened, lashed everything with a very great shower and hail; and her own son is blinded by a stroke of hail. And so all who accompanied the mother judged that this prodigy must be expiated by restitution; but before they did so, it seemed good that the little boy's extinguished eye should be touched with that fragment of the arm, in case it might be repaired. The outcome was happy and wonderful. The memory of that deed a mountain preserves today, where these things befell: the hill Orbulus, so called from the boy's loss of sight. These things have been written to the glory of almighty God, of the blessed Virgin Mary, and of Bl. Nicholas.
ANNOTATIONS.
A HYMN TO BL. NICHOLAS.
Nicholas, hermit, in Sicily (Bl.)
a
From the printed text of Father Ottavio Gaetani.
With staff and blessing he drove all the wolves from the sheepfold, even as a father and advocate of the peoples; he has care of those who piously honor him, and frees us from every peril and disease.
Sins, like serpents, he fled from boyhood; and he drove off demons and, as a strenuous champion, turned them to flight; he was also a most strong wall against the enemies. Intercede for our souls.
He led a life exceedingly harsh, and displayed a singular lowliness of mind and piety. From this our zeal toward him is great: for he does not forsake his clients in their necessities.
From tender years he followed the institute of religious men, and corrected many, snatched from outrages, to better fruit.
When he prayed to God, this was his prayer: O Father, O Son, O Holy Spirit, attend to my prayer, who dwell in this solitude. In Thee alone have I placed my hopes: when I shall have departed this life, I beseech Thee, receive my soul.
As a shepherd thou didst come to us, and like a shining sun thou didst give light to the blind and didst direct us to the true way.
As he lived piously and lowly, so also he met his death:
and he was found by the upright man Leo, clad in a hermit's habit, and appeared as a light to the world.
Thou hast risen as a splendor upon this town, which never sets; and thou art an intercessor with God, and propitious to thy clients by land and sea: therefore we praise thee and render thee thanks.
Blessed Nicholas, having made the sign of the cross with his staff, healed the sheep and drove out the wolves, and guarded the neighboring peoples from diseases.
I, Cosmanus the theologian, have well known his great zeal for penance, with which, while he lived, he wore himself down; and through penance thou wast like a burning lamp before God, to whom thou hast gone; but now thou enjoyest the splendors of glory.
Ardently didst thou pray God that He would bestow His grace upon us; and by thy penance thou didst obtain such power that thou couldst restore light to the blind and hearing to the deaf, and heal all diseases.
The cave in which thou didst dwell was beset by serpents and asps, which by thy command and by the harshness of thy life thou didst drive far away.
At the invocation of thy name thou didst calm the tempest of the sea, and didst grant a ship a prosperous course into a safe harbor.
From infancy it was plainly proved that he was consecrated to God: for while still in swaddling clothes he abstained from milk on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, not without great admiration and the astonishment of all.
Thy prayers were acceptable to God: for they were poured forth from a sincere heart.
O strong defender with God against demons, and advocate of Christians, free us from all evils.
As his tongue was ready to praise God, so were his hands bountiful in almsgiving.
Blessed be the breasts which thou didst suck, and blessed be the womb that bore thee: for thou art a virgin both in mind and in body.