William Zucchi

ON BL. WILLIAM ZUCCHI, AT ALESSANDRIA IN ITALY.

ABOUT THE YEAR 1377.

Guilielmus Zucchius, at Alessandria in Italy (Blessed)

G. H.

[1] Ferrarius in the General Catalogue of the Saints on the 10th of February has this: At Alessandria of the Statielli, of Blessed William, Confessor: and he notes that he writes this from the monuments of the Church of Alessandria, where his manuscript Acts are extant, which are printed thus, Blessed William or at least their compendium, from the Annals of the city of Alessandria.

[2] William of Alessandria in Liguria, born of respectable parents of the family of Zucca, as soon as his age permitted, of the family of Zucca, spurning the allurements of this world and the care of earthly things, devoted himself wholly to works of piety. As long as he lived he held the charge of the fabric of the cathedral church without any temporal wage. overseer of the fabric of the church, The rest of the time that remained he spent in sacred reading (for he was of no common learning) and in procuring the salvation of his neighbors, being especially zealous for the relief of the needy and wretched: given to almsgiving, those of whom who were ashamed to beg he secretly sustained from his own means. Of him this is handed down to memory, that the purse which he carried with him every day to give alms to the poor, once filled by him with money, was never emptied, although he distributed what he drew from it more copiously day by day. Wherefore the thing passed into a proverb which still lasts. For when money is asked again of someone who has given it out several times, he is wont to answer: Do you think I have Blessed William's purse, which is never exhausted?

[3] After his death he also shone with miracles. For those who were oppressed by various, long-lasting, and difficult diseases — for whom there was no hope of health — fleeing to the patronage of William, he is renowned for miracles after death were immediately healed by divine power. Which also happened to those in calamitous circumstances, who after imploring his aid returned to a better state of fortune. He lived around the year of our salvation 1377. His body was deposited in the church of St. Mark, which belongs to the Friars Preachers; and when it was being transferred to a more suitable place, a wondrous and most sweet fragrance exhaled from it. Thus far the Life; to which is added this annotation:

[4] His image — which indicates a habit similar to a monastic one — his image in the Cathedral church with a purse and a surrounding crowd of the poor, is to be seen in many places, especially in the Cathedral basilica, painted in the year of the Lord 1388 with an inscription of this kind: "Blessed William Zucchi, citizen of Alexandria, sacristan of this church."

Since the day of his death is unknown, he has been noted at will under the day of February 10, on which St. William the hermit is venerated. So far the source. A "massarius" is a custodian of furnishings or movable goods; for from the Latin word "massa," the Italians form "massaio" (custodian) and "masseria" (furnishings).

[5] The Life which we add, received from Alexandria, was published by Lord Bartholomew Zucchi of Monza among his other literary works — the Life written sprung, as he prefaces, from the same family from which Blessed William came.

LIFE by the author Bartholomew Zucchi.

William Zucchi, at Alexandria in Italy (Blessed)

By the author Bartholomew Zucchi.

[1] Neither should the vices of the dead be published broadcast, nor should their praises be kept silent, since the one would be inhumanity and the other malice. Therefore, just as the vices of the wicked are to be buried, so the praises of the Saints are to be recalled from the tomb and from destruction; for since the wicked perish utterly, it is not right that even their vices should live; but since the just live wholly, it is not right that even their praises should perish. Prologue of the author I say this here lest anyone should judge this labor to be ambitious rather than pious, because I undertake to commemorate the praises of Blessed William Zucchi. For since from the same stock and family the noble name of the Zucchi has come both to many provinces of Italy and to me, there will be someone who thinks not without some trace of ambition that the praises of ancestors can be handled by their descendants, to whom they are for the most part common.

[2] An outstanding man, I say, altogether, was Blessed William, and this is especially clear to one who goes over the several moments of the life he passed. In boyhood, the study of letters and piety: For in the first place it matters greatly to see what foundations of a great structure he laid in his first age, since, as Philo says, the mind of boys is like wax, which, whatever mark you burn into it, preserves it with a constancy as great as the ease with which it takes it. At that age, then, when it is hard to put the reins of letters and piety on tender necks, he shaped his very keen little wit by literary labor, and his most candid mind by the laws of piety. For piety is wont to subdue a fierce wit to literary sweat, and the thread of wisdom to fan the little sparks of piety. The boy was taught literature by his elders: he taught piety to his equals, so that it would seem a matter for further deliberation whether he learned more than he taught. Moreover, so as not to be compelled to listen to troublesome interrupters of his studies at home and abroad, and to the little domestic sirens, he gathered the rudiments of the rugged arts by studying on his own, in the inner recess of his father's house, or in the sanctuaries of the church, secluded from crowds and witnesses. It is wonderful how great a yield he brought in, and in how short a time. He filled himself at one draught with divinity and letters, he who had drunk in the streams of letters instilled from the bosom of divinity. So it can scarcely be told with what speed he sipped erudition from the more charming Muses and wisdom from the more severe. He preferred, moreover, that solid wisdom whose academy was the church, whose book was heaven, whose teacher was God, whose study was prayer. For besides the law which he had laid down for himself, that at each of the appointed intervals of the hours he would devote himself to piety on bended knee, he often lingered on the bare floor and did not take himself away until the sun rose, or set: nor did he seek sleep unless he had equalled the whole day with supplications. This was already then the clear delight of the noble boy, in this his mind rested, if only, at leisure for God, he might sing to himself and to heaven what he had learned. So that saying which Pliny the Consular affirmed, that no man's genius is so blessed that it breaks forth unless a patron and commender befalls it, gave way in this one alone, who, canvassing no witnesses of his studies, no patrons, no admirers, used God alone, and his Master, as his theatre.

[3] Now let us see how he passed his youth. For that age is something perilous, in which the demon chiefly lays his snares and pledges the sweet evil of allurements: headlong besides and uncertain, so that not even Solomon confesses he can trace its path; unstable, finally, and tossed hither and thither, it seeks the heights, it slips to the depths; it is carried by its pursuits, it recoils from fear, it flows, it ebbs, it burns, it freezes, always the same, never the same, most constant in one thing only, inconstancy. in youth, neglect of the body and candor of mind: And yet this is to be wondered at, that in this very age, soothed by no appearance of vices, William exulted in that harvest of virtues which, already striking roots from his tender years, had sprouted with a certain greenness of a hastened harvest. For while all virtues are wont to be pleasing in any age, two especially, neglect of the body and candor of mind, are as it were the gems of youth, both illustrious and rare. And this rare and illustrious thing was in William. He did not grow to blaze in purple and gems, to arrange his hair with stibium, to adorn his body with a train and ribbons, to spread a wheeling pomp of delights, to draw out waves of servants, although he enjoyed the benefit of a noble and patrician fortune: nay, covered with a worn cloak, by which he could scarcely defend his ailing body against the force of bitter winter, and even open to the rains, carrying about his bones and limbs, he desired to be held in mockery, to be cast out with reproaches, to be attacked with jests: and to care nothing more for his body than if nothing less had existed. Hence that second effect came about, that, his body being neglected, living wretchedly and afflicted, he preserved the candor of his mind unstained and untouched amid this filth and dust. Hence that excellent color which he drew over his whole face whenever he heard any somewhat obscene common sayings. Hence, finally, that confidence by which he raised himself against vices, and, straining the bonds against savage cupidity, ruled over the rabble of his senses.

[4] And now, when his age stood at midday, in which men are wont to pour themselves into business and to hunt honors, how he gave himself to God! how many honors he fled! in mature age, humility and retirement: For first, that he might bind himself to Christ Jesus with more knotted bonds, initiated in the sacred office, and vowed, since that saying of Augustine rang about his ears, Receive daily what profits daily, he excepted no day from offering the sacred victim, unless he succumbed utterly to the too great force of sickness. While offering, indeed, it can scarcely be told how many tears he poured out: two lustral streams gushed from his eyes, so that that sacrifice which is accomplished without blood was never accomplished without tears. These were the man's delights: this his expiatory office: this his whole pleasure amid the greatest groaning, to hold God in his hands, or to contemplate Him in his mind. So in those years in which all, intent on the pursuit of glory, burn to be borne along by popular talk, to make a name, to draw a line of clients, to cherish fame, to fill the curule chairs, to be pointed out with the finger, to give orders, to command, to dominate, our man meanwhile lay hidden, and fled all honors as much as he merited them, since he never merited them better than when he fled them. Wherefore, when he perceived that he was being put forward for the chief insignia of dignities, even by a singular artifice of his friends, then, carrying off with him his poverty alone, as the companion of his journeys, contriving one solitude after another, he frequented, a magnanimous deserter, the hidden recesses of the groves and the lairs of wild beasts. Far removed indeed was this flight from the common custom of men, of whom some (as that great Hugh says) weary themselves and pant to acquire honors, and some even flee honors to meet them, feign to be subject that they may be able to preside; for often glory is despised that they may acquire it, and the world is left that they may obtain it.

[5] What is to be said now of that age which is already sinking toward its setting is not difficult to conjecture. Although what is more difficult than liberality and labor in old age, in old age, liberality and labor: which alone of all ages is the friend of gold and of rest? But he, since he lived for others rather than for himself, preferred to procure money and strength for the benefit of others rather than his own. Fortune had granted William very great wealth: for what would fortune deny to him to whom God and nature had denied nothing? He, to cherish the eager hopes of the wretched, throwing open his household citadel to the wanderers, granted his home to all, and scattered among the common people all the money gathered from his tributary fields. Hence a certain prodigious and singular thing has been celebrated in the letters and tongues of many, that the familiar little purse which he always had at hand for helping the wretched, a little money once put into it, and that given out again and again, always overflowed of divine accord, so that to these times, if any are importunately asked for money a second time, they answer that they by no means possess Blessed William's purse. Nor did he apply himself otherwise to procuring the salvation of souls than of bodies, when that force of anxious love had grown warm in his chilly age. He would bring himself into the midst of the crowd and imbue all the unlearned with divine things: the more sluggish he wearied with the goads of exhortations applied: furious minds he broke with soft words; if grief had swallowed any, running to meet them with wide arms, he offered help or comfort. And if he foresaw that certain wicked men were either pressing on a premeditated crime, or, spattered with every stain, were about to go to ruin by the power of the divine right hand, he contrived nothing else than to shake out from their breast the evil poisons of the envenomed mind, and to call those who had strayed from the path of right away from the court of divine justice to the altar of mercy. Nor indeed, because he betook himself among men for action, was he ever defrauded of the gain of meditation: for, as was excellently pronounced by S. Prosper, if any Priests console the afflicted, feed the needy, clothe the naked, redeem captives, receive pilgrims, promise to the desperate the hope of obtaining pardon, and constantly exercise whatever pertains to their office, who will be so foreign to the faith as to doubt that these men will be partakers of the contemplative life? book 1 on the contemplative life.

[6] And so this man, so distinguished and singular, having most holily completed his entire life and being now worn out from doing good, death, and miracles when his strength had been rebellious neither in spirit nor in labors, in the year one thousand three hundred and seventy-seven, with a mind still vigorous and full of God, greeting his most sorrowful followers with a serene and pleasing countenance, with eyes raised and fixed on heaven, with the greatest tranquility and delight, heard repeatedly commending himself to Christ and to Mary His Mother, with his eyes sinking as into the sweetest sleep, and with the strength of his body gradually exhausted, breathing forth his soul most gently — or rather breathing anew — he restored his spirit to heaven and his body to his homeland. A man truly praiseworthy in all things, whose life was most holy and whose death was most precious; for as he was pleasant to many while living, so he was useful to all when dead. Some dragged to his sacred buried ashes a half-living and nerveless body; others a body broken with loosened joints of the bones; others one driven by furies and passions; others presented a soul marked with some notable vice; and many indeed offered a mind contaminated and consumed by sins — of whom the former marveled that sound bodies were suddenly restored to sound minds, and the latter that a sound mind was suddenly restored to the body. His sacred body was first deposited at Alexandria, his homeland, in the church of St. Mark of the Order of Preachers. And when it was being transferred to a more suitable place, it poured forth from itself a most sweet and almost divine fragrance all around. The image of this man, skillfully painted, is to be seen in very many places — especially in the Cathedral church, with a purse and a surrounding crowd of the needy — adorned with vestments almost like those of monks, a kind of garment that in those times was commonly used by anyone who had been initiated into sacred orders, as the painted portraits of Francesco Petrarca, Archdeacon of the Church of Padua, will indicate. The day consecrated to Blessed William is the tenth of February.