ON BL. ALEXANDER SAULI, BISHOP OF PAVIA, IN THE DUCHY OF MILAN,
IN THE YEAR MDXCII.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
The biographers of the Blessed: the Life to be given here.
Alexander Sauli, bishop of Pavia, in the duchy of Milan. (B.)
BY THE AUTHOR J. B. F.
The virtues and illustrious deeds of Blessed Alexander various priests of the Order of the Clerks Regular of St. Paul at various times
have consigned to writing. Among the biographers of Bl. Alexander here listed The chief of these, whose works also were examined and, as they say, compared in the Roman process, the compendium of the processes which were drawn up by Apostolic authority for obtaining the lawful cult of this Prelate, preserved in our literary stock, lists in these following words: The venerable Servant of God has obtained the four following writers of his Life, of whom the first two were ancient and contemporaries of the venerable Servant of God, and the others more recent: namely the reverend father Giovanni Antonio Gabuzio, of the Order of Clerks Regular of St. Paul, who, having very often conversed with the Servant of God, wrote his Life about the year 1600, and the reverend Fr. G. Ambrogio Mazenta, Provost General of the Congregation of Clerks Regular of St. Paul, who, having conversed with the Servant of God, also wrote a Compendium of his Life in the year 1617; the reverend Fr. Innocenzo Chiesa, a cleric of the same Congregation, who wrote the Life of the Servant of God in the year 1656; and finally the Rev. Father Agostino Gallei, who published a Life of the same Servant of God at Rome in the year 1661. The reverend fathers Maggi and Agostino Tornielli followed the cited biographers; and from the works of these, compared with the work of Fr. Innocenzo Chiesa just cited, Fr. Francesco Barelli composed the Acts and Miracles of Bl. Alexander, which he inserted in the History of his Order, published by him in Italian at Bologna in the year 1703.
[2] Gabuzio, whom we see named in the first place among the biographers of our Blessed, the first place is held by G. Ant. Gabuzio. entered the Congregation of Clerks Regular of St. Paul in the year of restored Salvation 1575; he was a man of the highest talent, of approved life, to be admired for learning and morals, as it is permissible to gather from his Life, which Paolo Branda, a cleric of the same Congregation, composed, and from the Life of Bl. Alexander to be reprinted by us below; who, among various monuments of wonderful learning which he handed down to posterity, wrote the illustrious deeds of the most holy Pontiff Pius V so faithfully and elegantly that the most learned men agreed that nothing more perfect, nothing more illustrious than this work (see in our Work at the 5th day of May the preliminary Comment. on the Life of this blessed Pontiff) could have been made. With the same fidelity and elegance the cited author committed to Latin letters the deeds of Bl. Alexander, by which, as long as he was alive, he was an example of innocence and virtue to mortals, as also the miracles which were wrought by God through the intercession of our Blessed; and he had all these things very well ascertained, as the author himself testifies in these following words of the Prologue to the reader: For the rest, we shall comprise in a brief and faithful narrative only those things which we either saw ourselves or received from men worthy of credence and eye-witnesses, who confirmed almost all these things on oath in the process.
[3] His Latin work, Furthermore, with what care and solicitude the cited Gabuzio laboured to perfect that Latin exemplar, and how much it is to be esteemed, we gather from the little Preface prefixed to that Work, in which he who put it out to light at Milan in the year 1748, Paolo Onofrio Branda, a priest of the Clerks Regular of St. Paul, speaks in the following manner: With how much industry an exemplar of this kind, which we publish, was perfected, we can plainly understand from another manuscript codex likewise of the same Life, which we weighed, emended in many places by Gabuzio's hand and in great part renewed. This exemplar, therefore, so severely corrected by Gabuzio, afterwards neatly copied out before the year MDCXXII, and again lightly filed in a few places by Gabuzio with almost insatiable diligence, we found in another manuscript book of the Archive of the Provost General of St. Barnabas, and this is what we are now taking care to have printed.
[4] from another Italian one of the same author Some years having elapsed after he had written the Life of our Blessed in Latin, the same author composed another in the Italian language, fuller than the Latin and enlarged with very many illustrious deeds. So Onofrio Branda teaches me in the Prologue cited above: For we have found, he says, in one volume, joined to the Latin exemplar, an Italian one composed by the same Gabuzio and enlarged with many most beautiful and necessary pieces of information. And we found it of such credit and authority that at the end of the work we discovered the permission to publish it sealed by those to whom it pertains, in the name of the Religious Order and of the Prince, while Gabuzio was still alive. And, some things being interposed, the same writer declares thus why Gabuzio's Italian work contains very many things lacking in the Latin: Nor should you wonder that the Italian history of the same author is fuller than the Latin. For since Gabuzio held nothing more important than truth, and even states at the beginning of the Italian Life that he would rather die than affirm for certain anything which was not sufficiently established, it is no wonder if he passed over in silence in the Latin very many things which he afterwards inserted in the Italian written by him some years later, namely when those things had been explored and ascertained through sworn witnesses in the lawful Acts which, while he was writing the Latin, had not yet been proved by the firmest evidences.
[5] Paolo Onofrio Branda, of the Order of Clerks Regular of St. Paul, and enlarged from elsewhere by Onofrio Branda, here to light, made public at Milan in the year of the Incarnate Word 1748 the Life of Bl. Alexander, which we said was composed in the Latin language by the cited Gabuzio, studiously collated with the above-cited Italian work of the same writer, from which he excerpted very many things of greater moment and gave them Latin form, and enlarged with some deeds which, Gabuzio perhaps having died, were discussed and proved in the Roman process. Let us hear the editor himself speaking in the Prologue to the reader about the form of his Work. Hence, therefore, that is, from the Italian Life, we judged that the things of greater moment should be drawn. But since these were to be turned into Latin, lest anything should rashly be brought into Gabuzio's text with violated fidelity, of whose very words he himself was not the author, we thought it best to place beneath each chapter, in another type, as additions, the things which we had made Latin from Gabuzio's Italian Life: so that, if anyone desires those also, he can easily recall them to their place by the indication of the numbers; if anyone, delighted by Gabuzio's elegance, disdains the roughness of the translator of the rest, he may go straight on with the reading of Gabuzio… But if we shall judge that anything should be added which, Gabuzio perhaps having died, was discussed in the Roman process concerning the holiness of Alexander and confirmed by sworn witnesses (which will happen rather rarely), we shall distinguish it with this mark *, and at the same time we shall designate the place of the Roman Acts which were gathered in this cause and printed at Rome. This Life of our Blessed, as it was published by Paolo Onofrio, we shall reprint and illustrate with the customary Annotations; to which we shall then subjoin the very Brief of Beatification, sent to us from Rome.
[6] It remains that we should teach the reader why we treat on this day of Bl. Alexander, we give it out, treating of the Blessed on this day for the reason here alleged. who is honoured every year on the XXIII day of April, by Apostolic authority, with the Office and Mass of the Common, as they call it, of a Confessor Pontiff, by the churches of Aleria and Pavia and by the Barnabite clerics. Although we are generally wont to bring into our Work Saints and Blessed not inscribed in the Roman Martyrology on those days on which they are honoured by the Faithful with ecclesiastical cult either from the usage of immemorial time or from the concession of the Church, and therefore our Blessed should have been put off into the Appendix of it, so that he might be treated there at the XXIII day of April, on which, although he has nowhere hitherto been inscribed in the Roman Martyrology, yet every year, as has been said, he is venerated by Apostolic authority, it has nevertheless seemed good today to grant the Blessed a place in our Work and to set forth his illustrious deeds for the reader to read, both because every year, as the Rev. Father Attendolo, provost of the college of St. Barnabas at Milan, wrote to our Elders, on this XI day of October, on which in the year 1592 he exchanged mortal life for immortal, he is honoured by the Barnabite religious with the honours wont to be paid to the Blessed; and because it had been promised to the cited Provost by our predecessors that the virtues of Bl. Alexander would be treated by us on this day.
LIFE OF BL. ALEXANDER SAULI, BISHOP OF ALERIA, THEN OF PAVIA, OF THE ORDER OF CLERKS REGULAR OF ST. PAUL,
By the Author G. Ant. Gabuzio, cleric of the same Order,
published at Milan in the year MDCCXLVIII, with many additions drawn chiefly from the same writer, by Paolo Onofrio Branda, cleric of the same Congregation.
Alexander Sauli, bishop of Pavia, in the duchy of Milan. (B.)
By Gabuzio.
PREFACE OF THE EDITOR.
This Life, composed in Latin by the sincere and learned Gabuzio, I think it is now more clearly established than that it should need to be demonstrated by more words that nothing weightier of this kind can be brought forward than this life written. For scarcely can anyone's fidelity, integrity and learning be so great as that of Gabuzio has already been proved to be by the supreme council of the religious order and by the consent of almost the whole world. With how much industry an exemplar of this kind, which we publish, was perfected, we can plainly understand from another manuscript codex likewise of the same Life, which we weighed, emended in many places by Gabuzio's hand and in great part renewed. This exemplar, therefore, so severely corrected by Gabuzio, afterwards neatly copied out before the year 1622, and again lightly filed in a few places by Gabuzio with almost insatiable diligence, we found in another manuscript book of the Archive of the Provost General of St. Barnabas; and this is what we are now taking care to have printed.
[2] to which certain things, taken from the Italian exemplar of the said author, A compendium rather than a sufficiently unfolded history. Many things also are lacking in this which must be held splendid, which heroic, for commending the celebrity of the most holy virtues of Alexander and promoting his example. But this was first desired by those who were demanding this book, that it should be very convenient, and by its very brevity should entice even the busy to read. And it was not difficult to find by what means we might supply the principal things that were lacking. For we found in one volume, joined to the Latin exemplar, an Italian one composed by the same Gabuzio and enlarged with many most beautiful and necessary pieces of information. And we found it of such credit and authority that at the end of the work we discovered the permission to publish it sealed by those to whom it pertains, in the name of the Religious Order and of the Prince, while Gabuzio was still alive, namely on the 5th day before the Ides of January MDCXXII. Hence, therefore, we judged that the things of greater moment should be drawn. But since these were to be turned into Latin, lest anything should rashly be brought into Gabuzio's text with violated fidelity, of whose very words he himself was not the author, we thought it best to place beneath each chapter, in another type, as additions a, the things which we had made Latin from Gabuzio's Italian Life: so that, if anyone desires those also, he can easily recall them to their place by the indication of the numbers; if anyone, delighted by Gabuzio's elegance, disdains the roughness of the translator of the rest, he may go straight on with the reading of Gabuzio.
[3] Nor should you wonder that the Italian history of the same author is fuller than the Latin. and the editor added to each chapter, rendered into Latin, For since Gabuzio held nothing more important than truth, and even states at the beginning of the Italian Life that he would rather die than
affirm for certain anything which was not sufficiently established, it is no wonder if he passed over in silence in the Latin very many things which he afterwards inserted in the Italian written by him some years later, namely when those things had been explored and ascertained through sworn witnesses in the lawful Acts which, while he was writing the Latin, had not yet been proved by the firmest evidences. The knowledge of the chief matters in this Life, therefore, will rest on the authority of Gabuzio. But if we shall judge that anything should be added which, Gabuzio perhaps having died, was discussed in the Roman process concerning the holiness of Alexander and confirmed by sworn witnesses (which will happen rather rarely), we shall distinguish it with this * mark, and at the same time we shall designate the place of the Roman Acts which were gathered in this cause and printed at Rome b. And we ask that this be permitted as often as it shall please us; without our being bound by any law to bring into this short Compendium all the things which have been proved there by the highest authority.
[4] That Gabuzio's diction is neat and elegant and truly Latin, he is much praised for his elegant diction. we do not doubt that any reader will judge: provided only that we fall upon a fair and by no means superstitious judge of Latinity. For not only reason but necessity itself compels us to pluck from the mind certain scruples in judging Latin words, when we are dealing with things which pertain to sacrosanct religion and the institutions of Christians, and which it is not permitted to borrow, sufficiently fitting, from authors golden indeed but by no means Christian. In which things who could justly be angry with us if we bend Latin words even a little to our matter, or even substitute certain words already received among the ancient fathers of the Church, or even derive from the Greek names of things which were altogether unaccustomed and unheard of to the Latins? Wherefore it will be open to us to call Jesus Christ, the author of our salvation, Salvator by his own name, although not so Latin, without often using a troublesome circumlocution of words. For those who think that Servator signifies the same seem by no means to touch the matter c. By almost the same reasoning it will be wrong to expunge from the Lives of the Saints humility, devotion and other names of virtues of this kind, which have been defined for promoting the holiness of the Servants of God. Furthermore, church, bishop, clerics and very many things of that kind are so familiar to sacred writers, even the most polished, that he who convicts them of foreignness seems himself to be a foreigner in the Christian commonwealth. But these things are perhaps already too many, especially for a kindly and benevolent reader, such as we know for certain you are, who are by no means reluctant to read even our things; of the rest we neither seek the approval, nor do we either fear or refuse the censure and reproof.
ANNOTATA.
PREFACE
OF THE AUTHOR GABUZIO.
[The author declares why he commends the deeds of the Saint to posterity, and whence he drew them.] That to commit to writing the morals and deeds of men excelling both in dignity and virtue and in holiness of life conduces to the Christian Commonwealth, both the fact itself teaches and the wisest men have always judged. For if, as St. Ambrose excellently said, the life of holy Men is a norm of living for the rest, it is helpful that it should be proposed to us for imitation: and if all history, as the supreme Orator left in writing, is the mistress of life, this applies the more to that history which represents to us, as in a mirror, the image of perfect virtue expressed in the various colours [*] of holy actions, and kindles souls to living rightly and piously. In which kind, although there are not lacking to us very many and those illustrious examples handed down in every age by every zeal of writers in the monuments of letters, yet it will not be beside the point to hand down to posterity those which are more recent and which, as being more present, move the souls of readers more; so that, if not by ancient goads, at least by those of our own time, we may be spurred to virtue; and that we may render honour and glory, as is right, to him who willed such lights of virtues to shine before us in his Servants for our instruction. Since, therefore, God in his clemency toward us has conferred a benefit of this kind in Alexander Sauli, a bishop endowed with singular virtue, it has been judged to pertain to the glory of God, to the retaining of the memory of his servant, and to the common advantage of posterity, to publish it in writing, lest it should ever be blotted out either by any injury of the times or by the forgetfulness of men. For the rest, we shall comprise in a brief and faithful narrative only those things which we either saw ourselves or received from men worthy of credence and eye-witnesses, who confirmed almost all these things on oath in the process. But now let us approach the matter.
Annotata* read coloribus
CHAPTER I.
The birth of the Blessed, his education, and his entrance into the congregation of the Clerks Regular of SS. Paul and Barnabas.
[The Blessed, of an illustrious family, his father being Domenico Sauli, his mother] The name of the Sauli family is too famous at Genoa a and elsewhere, both for the splendour of its lineage and for the celebrity of men excelling in virtue and dignity, for it to seem that one should linger here in recounting them. Among others, however (to pass over the ancestors), Domenico, the father of Alexander, flourished with the praise no less of Christian piety than of civil prudence and learning: and on that account he was by far most welcome both to other very great men and above all to Francesco II Sforza, the last duke of Milan, and to Charles V Caesar, who afterwards held that dominion. Under these princes, although a Genoese by fatherland, he was honourably co-opted by singular privilege into the senate of Milan, and set over the conduct of most weighty public business: and by the duke himself, for the sake of honour and merit, he was made Lord of the Castle which, situated in the diocese of Tortona in Liguria, is called Pozzolo; and which is also held in the Sauli family at this time. Domenico besides administered with integrity most honourable embassies to the supreme pontiffs Clement VII and Paul III, and other public offices, and among them, as president, both magistracies of the Quaestors at Milan (although to his great loss, on account of grave calumnies stirred up against him).
[2] Furthermore, his house lay open to all the best and most learned men, [Thomasia Spinola, born at Milan on the 15th day of February in the year 1535, he is excellently brought up, and] whom he, as another Maecenas of his time, liberally cherished and embraced with honourable services. Alexander, then, was born at Milan, of his father Domenico and his mother Thomasia Spinola, his wife, a most excellent woman, of equal nobility, on the 15th day before the Kalends of March, in the year of Salvation MDXXXV b. As a youth, excellently brought up in his father's discipline, he gave his effort to the studies of the Greek and Latin languages, of Rhetoric besides, and of the other good arts, in which, through both the excellence of his talent and the industry of his preceptors, he made no mean progress. He had as teacher, among others, Giovanni Battista Rasario of Novara, an upright man and most adorned with every liberal learning, who afterwards translated into Latin the works of Galen, Hippocrates, Oribasius and other Greeks, no less faithfully than elegantly, and publicly taught the oratorical faculty at Venice and at Pavia for almost XXX years with great praise c. Alexander, therefore, instructed in humane letters and the best disciplines, gave such a specimen of future holiness that among his equals no one was more modest than he, no one more candid, and more inclined to the pursuits of Christian piety.
[3] [instructed in good arts, he put on the habit of the Clerks Regular of St. Paul at Milan in the year 1551,] Accordingly, being in his XVII year, considering with himself the frailty of human life and the joys of eternal felicity, and diligently weighing on how many and great accounts it behoved him to live for God, leaving all things, he resolved to dedicate himself to God in the Congregation of the Clerks Regular of St. Paul, and in the year of the Lord MDLI, on the sacred day of Pentecost, the 16th day before the Kalends of June, he was admitted to probation in the college of St. Barnabas at Milan, after various trials had been made of his constant purpose, and on the 18th day before the Kalends of September of the same year he received the habit of the Religious order, retaining his own name. Among the other exercises of his probation, that one was memorable when, whether by the persuasion or by the permission of the fathers, in his white and elegant habit, that he might become a fool for Christ, carrying a great cross, he went forward eagerly into a broad square of the city d, in the greatest concourse of the people, and spoke with ardent spirit of the contempt of the world and of the serious imitation of Christ. Which spectacle, as it was for very many an occasion of admiration and of conversion to a better life, so for others it was an occasion of derision and mockery. For so the life of the pious is wont to be: To some indeed, as the Apostle says, the odour of death unto death, but to others the odour of life unto life. II Corinthians II, XVI. But in both Alexander, triumphing over the world, carried off the gain which he sought: in the former the salvation of souls, in the latter the despising of himself and of human pride. But works of religious humility of this kind were in frequent use, as with those first fathers of the congregation, so afterwards with our Alexander; and from them they very often exercised themselves in the inmost denial of self and in holy victory over human pride.
[4] in which religious order, of very many virtues But that too was pleasant to see or hear, when, various difficulties being set before him, as happens, by the fathers examining his purpose, he answered prudently and religiously. Asked among other things why he had chosen for himself this new and poor Religious order rather than another far more ancient and more famous one, and whether he had consulted God with the utmost prayers about this deliberation, and what he chiefly looked to in this matter: and relying on what strength and helps he would undertake so arduous a work as is
the perpetual yoke of religious profession; finally that he should think again and again and see what he was doing. For to him, delicately brought up and already accustomed rather to use the service of servants than to serve others, it would be heavier and perhaps intolerable to embrace a harsh religious institute and to serve the others in labours and vigils. Being asked about these things one by one, answering point by point, he said: "For a year, from the time that he put this mind into me, I have earnestly prayed God to show what would be more pleasing to him and more useful to me for salvation: and, confirmed more every day in this counsel, under his leadership I have resolved to consecrate myself to divine worship in this Order of Clerks, thinking that in most other religious families I could indeed find a severer discipline of afflicting the body; but that here, besides the other institutes of mortification, there flourishes most of all the inmost denial of the will, which I judge to be a sacrifice far most pleasing to God and a more excellent kind of suffering. In which this is my purpose, that by bearing injuries and reproofs with humility, patience and charity I may serve God perfectly; and so be made holy to his glory; which I hope to attain by divine help and by your aid, fathers. Nor can either the difficulty of the institute, or a body comfortably nourished, or the love of my own liberty, or anything else call me away from this counsel." These things he said almost word for word.
[5] When the fathers asked what virtues he especially loved: having given specimens for three years and more Humility, he said, and chastity, since I understand that through them the most blessed virgin Mary greatly pleased God. Meanwhile one of the fathers, as if foreseeing the future, in jest, as happens, to try his modesty, objected that he wished to be enrolled in this order in order that he might thereafter become a bishop. Which he, taking it as said in jest, and thinking nothing less likely to be, passed over in modest silence. And although these things may perhaps seem too light to be committed to writing, yet it did not seem good to pass them over in silence, both so that it may be known from them, as from the flowers of his youth, what fruits of virtues he was to give in his time, and also so that it may be seen how maturely and cautiously our fathers were wont already from that time to act in admitting novices to this Institute, especially youths (which is also still retained in use).
[6] Alexander, then, having received the habit of religion, not only did not disappoint the expectation which he had roused of himself, given, in the year 1554 the solemn but even far surpassed it. For he so began to exercise those virtues which chiefly adorn a recruit of the spiritual warfare that no one was readier than he for devotion and humbler ministries, or more eager to obey, or more diligent in all the duties of regular discipline e. Most humble toward his superiors, welcome and amiable to all among his equals, patient in labours, in vigils, in fasts, in the denial of self stronger every day than himself, in fine a singular example to the rest in every kind of virtue. Which virtues in him a certain virginal modesty, and a modest gravity, and simple prudence wonderfully seasoned f. Exercised in this probation for three years and more, at length in the year MDLIIII, on the 3rd day before the Kalends of October, he made the solemn vows of religion. For so the profession (especially of youths) had usually been deferred at about that time. But when afterwards the synod of Trent had decreed that after a year of probation those who were fit should be admitted to profession, this thenceforth began to be duly observed among us. For the rest, those already professed are wont to be kept among us, at the discretion of the superiors, under the discipline of the novices for four years, more or less, so that regular morals may grow up in them more and more, and the virtues may strike their roots deeper.
[7] Alexander, then, bound by the bonds of the vows, and long proved, he makes his vows. although he had been brought out of the novitiate, yet relaxed nothing of his submission, nothing of the severe manner of the regular life; but he thought that the way of religious perfection which he had entered must be held by him more every day (for the path of the just, as the wise man says, Prov. IV, XIIX, goes forward like a shining light, and grows even to perfect day), and he diligently guarded against the grave error of those who, the novitiate of the regular life having been completed and their vows professed, as though they had already arrived at the goal of perfection, relax by a certain pernicious licence the pursuits of fervent discipline, and, while they neglect the smallest things, fall little by little g.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER II.
He is made a priest and doctor of sacred Theology: then he is elected Provost of the college of SS. Paul and Barnabas at Milan and of the whole Congregation.
[Promoted to the priesthood, by order of his superiors, against the decree of this Congregation] Holding constantly, then, the manner of living piously which he had begun, he judged that, under the guidance of his superiors, he should join learning with uprightness, piety with wisdom. And, as he was of excellent talent, given to the studies of Logic, Philosophy and Theology, he made such progress in them in a short time that he was judged fit to teach the rest. And having been made a priest, teaching at the command of the fathers in the college of the Congregation at Pavia a, he obtained the insignia of doctor of those sciences in the year of Salvation MDLXIII, and this in order that he might be able to teach among us with greater authority and, where there was need, to profess the sciences which he knew very well: although neither he nor any other of ours is found so far to have discharged the office of doctor in the public schools, and this was afterwards provided against by a decree of the Constitutions. Indeed it was also made customary, in order to decline pride and retain religious humility, that the doctor's laurel
should be sought by none of ours, nor should they be wont to be distinguished with it: but rather that those who are strong in talent should take care to be diligently instructed privately among us in sacred learning and in the knowledge of divine and human things necessary for procuring the salvation of souls.
[9] he is created doctor of Sacred Theology, which with the greatest humility, Meanwhile, then, Alexander preached the word of God on feast days in our church at Pavia, heard sacred confessions, taught in the college itself Dialectic, Philosophy and sacred Theology to ours and others with great praise and equal fruit to his hearers, explained the questions about the duties of the Christian life which they call Cases of Conscience, and answered many about divine and human law. In sermons he was grave and orderly and easy; teaching useful things, not in curiosity or loftiness of speech, but in the doctrine of the spirit; not preaching himself but Christ; effective and sweet in words, and most weighty in delivery and in the weight of his sentences b. In fine, in every manner of speaking and teaching he was safe and clear. And he was so skilfully versed and learned in the doctrine of St. Thomas that he held his works, and especially almost the whole Theological Summa, in memory. Among the other holy Fathers he delighted especially in the reading of the works of St. Gregory the Pope, St. John Chrysostom, St. Bernard and John Cassian; and as he represented their morals in his life, so he represented their spirit and doctrine in his sermons.
[10] of which he continually gives examples, And whatever he had received from sacred authors he did not boast of as his own in teaching, but, where there was need, acknowledged it as received; not ignorant that it is the part of a gentleman to confess through whom you have learned. Nay, whatever he had learned by his own studies and labours he was wont not to claim for himself, but to acknowledge as received from him from whom all wisdom is, and to direct all things to his glory: nor did he, an otherwise most learned man, make a display of knowing much; but in many things, as if ignorant, he desired rather to learn than to teach. Yet he seemed to care for nothing more than to profit all whom he could by word and deed, and to pass no day without an office of kindness toward someone: thinking that he was born not for himself alone but for others also, a debtor, with the Apostle, Rom. I, XIV, to the wise and the unwise c.
[11] Meanwhile he was a great example to all both of the other virtues and of religious submission, he teaches his disciples. not handling the illustrious lineage of his parents, not being puffed up by the illustrious ornaments of mind and talent; not fleeing all the humbler domestic ministries. When once his kinsfolk had sent, for charity's sake, a cart laden with grain to our college at Pavia, where he was then staying, and ours wished, as happens, to hire porters to carry the wheat into the granary, Alexander, who was like a grain of wheat, dead in the earth to himself and the world for Christ, to bring forth much fruit, said: "See, what prevents us ourselves from storing the alms offered without the work of others?" And quicker than the word, seizing the sacks and halving them to the measure of his strength, he began to carry the wheat on his shoulders into the granary, the other clerics both admiring and imitating his example. But it would be long to recount many other such examples of his humility and other virtues, of which more will be written below in their place d.
[12] Performing by rule these and other offices of religious humility and Christian charity, [In the 33rd year of his age, elected Provost of the Congregation, he is confessor to St. Charles Borromeo:] well exercised in every kind of virtue, being in the XXXIII year of his age he was chosen by the fathers Provost of the Congregation and of the college of SS. Paul and Barnabas at Milan. Discharging this office for three years with great piety and praise for prudence, in grave matters pertaining to Christian and Ecclesiastical discipline he faithfully served, as also before, St. Charles the Cardinal, with whom he was most powerful in favour and authority. For that holy prelate was wont to do almost nothing even a little weighty which he did not first confer about with Alexander and determine by his counsel; and he willed him to be his confessor, and in his eminent humility moderated the manner of his most holy life by his prudence e. For the excellent prelate, as long as he lived on earth, was wont, out of his singular benevolence toward this Order of Clerks, often to turn aside to our fathers and to stay with them long and familiarly, and to use their work and help in very many matters, especially those which pertained to divine worship and the salvation of souls f.
[13] For the rest, Alexander, made Provost, greatly advanced regular discipline in the Congregation no less by example his subjects in regular discipline than by word; and this with wonderful charity and gentleness, whereby it came about that he was lovable and venerable to all; and he said, and performed what he said, that men, especially those of gentle birth and those who had subjected themselves of their own accord to the yoke of Christ, should be kept in their duty and trained to a more perfect life by love rather than by fear. Accordingly, such was his charity toward all and the respect of all toward him, he was wont not to order but to ask; not to command but to hint; not to chastise but to admonish g. The hours which others give, immediately after taking food, either to rest or to recreating their spirits, he spent either treating with the fathers about rightly governing the Congregation and ordering discipline, or in hearing the needs of the brothers.
[14] by example and word he advances, For the rest, the greater he was than others, the more he thought himself the servant of all, after the example of him who came from heaven to minister, not to be ministered to; when on feast days he held sacred sermons in the church of St. Barnabas in the evening hours to the people, who flocked together in numbers to hear him, on those days, having taken a very light breakfast, he was wont, while the brothers dined, either to serve at table or to discharge the office of reader, and afterwards to clean by rule the dishes and kitchen vessels for the sake of humility; which at other times also he did through the whole week, and sometimes, out of order, supplying others' turns, in order to provoke others to the example of humility. And on this religious humility, as on the firm foundation of all the virtues, of which more will be said below in its place, rested that ardent charity which he used toward all for God's sake, and above all toward those of his household, especially the sick and invalid, visiting them kindly every day although occupied with various cares, solicitous about their diligent care, and gently exhorting them with most kindly words to patience and to taking the fruit of salvation from their languor h.
[15] he corrects the erring with fatherly love, Furthermore, in private meetings and in familiar intercourse nothing was more kindly than he, nothing more effective by its example for composing morals. You would have seen him uttering nothing idly, nothing rashly, but, speaking words of life, stirring each to virtue, giving admonitions of salvation, kindling all to the love of God and to fraternal charity, and this not importunately or troublesomely, but with a certain grave cheerfulness and prudence. And in the conferences on spiritual things, or in those to be held by rule on the accusation of faults, discoursing with great experience of things, with apostolic spirit, on the cure of vices and on the actions of the virtues, he sent all away no less by example than by word inflamed to a perfect manner of life i. If anyone had erred privately, he was wont to rebuke him not publicly but in secret; but if the error had been public, to correct him before others with a certain fatherly severity according to the gravity of the fault. But first he led the one erring to repent truly, having recognized the quality of his error; and, about to open the vice of the sinner like an ulcer, he first commended his virtues and honourable actions, presently subjoined the foulness of the vice, which obscured the praiseworthy virtues in him; that if it were amended, a beautiful form of morals would not be wanting in him: presently, as an excellent physician of souls, having shown the beauty of virtue, he skilfully demonstrated by what remedies the disease was to be cured and virtue acquired.
[16] and he corrects them. And this divine manner of correcting he had learned, God teaching it, who, as is in the sacred Apocalypse, chap. 11, being about to reprove certain ones, first recalls their virtues and commends their good works; then he stirs up those reproved to salutary penance. For the Lord knows his own handiwork; and Alexander, led by his spirit, knew that men are so made by nature that virtue, stirred by praises, grows, and souls are wont to be exasperated rather than healed by reproofs, unless they are rightly made; and that most are corrected rather by gentleness than by bitterness: and that one must altogether take care lest the medicine harm the sick man; nor should the remedy of rebuke become the vengeance of an indignant soul, but the healing of charity chastising justly and piously, that it may obtain the fruit of salvation which it ought. While, therefore, Alexander was vigorously exercising himself for the salvation of souls in these and other cares of this kind, both domestic and external, the fame of the integrity of his life, of his learning and prudence, had already spread abroad: and very many flocked to him, as to a supreme theologian and an excellent man, for the sake of counsel and help.
ANNOTATA.
into a book prepared for that purpose; of which matter many records exist among ours. Of Alexander we have found nothing noted in these except an excessively ardent desire of learning; which was so great that sometimes he rang the bell with one hand and with the other held a book which he was reading attentively. For this reason he frankly testified that he had experienced nothing more difficult in the course of life he had undertaken than not being able to give his effort to letters at will. Yet he so restrained this desire in the victory over himself that he would not read or write even a single little letter except by the prescription or permission of his director, and afterwards he confessed that he did nothing more willingly than break his whole will.
CHAPTER III.
He is created bishop of Aleria: in this diocese he restores ecclesiastical discipline and the Christian religion.
The bishopric of Aleria offered by the supreme Pontiff Pius V Wherefore Pius V a, a most holy Pontiff and of most keen judgment in estimating the merits of men, although he was not unaware that his work was very useful for gaining souls for Christ and for governing well this little Congregation, yet thought that the divine honour would be better consulted if he were chosen bishop and sent to the church of Aleria in Corsica b, as to an uncultivated vineyard of the Lord to be diligently cultivated. Aleria was formerly a distinguished town of that island and a noble colony of the Romans, but now, through the injury of time, desolate, of which scarcely the ruins remain, and it holds the title of a bishopric which has under it many other towns and villages, so that it is said to hold the chief place among the other bishoprics of that island no less for the roughness of the places than for the extent of the diocese. For it extends in length almost a hundred miles, and in breadth fifty. As therefore that Gregory c, surnamed the Theologian, was once designated by Basil the Great prelate of Sasima, a small and ignoble town in Cappadocia, so our Alexander is designated by the supreme Pontiff, against his will, prelate of a city small indeed and fallen, but of an ample and noble diocese and church.
[18] [he refuses, but at length, at the command of Pius V and the persuasion of St. Charles, this church] As soon as he learned this, he gave letters to the Pontiff, in which, with the submission and freedom that befitted him, he refused to undertake the burden, as he himself was wont to say with the same Gregory, to be dreaded by angelic shoulders and unequal to his strength: for he preferred to keep himself safely in the harbour of religious humility rather than expose his salvation to the perilous waves of the episcopal life: there were not lacking others far fitter and better for bearing this burden; he would more willingly spend whatever he could, as long as he lived, for the benefit of his congregation, in which he desired to die: meanwhile he would not be wanting in procuring the salvation of others: otherwise he was ready, when there should be need, sparing no labours, to pour out his life and blood for the Apostolic See and the holy Church of God. But the more he resisted, the more constantly the Pontiff seemed to persist in his opinion. Wherefore he could by no means escape obeying Pius commanding and St. Charles persuading, especially because they said that it pertained to the greater glory of God and to the advantage of his church d.
[19] [meanwhile, the fathers of the said Congregation grieving very much, he undertakes to govern it,] Accordingly, lest he should seem to have refused the pastoral labours in feeding the Lord's flock there on account of the difficulties of the place or for other inconveniences, he yielded, though unwillingly. And this election was by no means welcome both to our fathers and to the elected himself, but rather bitter and full of grief: both because a man most useful to the congregation was being withdrawn at the time when it most needed his work; and much more because they feared that it was repugnant to the institute of preserving religious humility, and would as it were open an entrance for ambition to dignities. For nothing did those first authors of this congregation, and their successors thereafter, more expressly take care of than that, by no means aspiring to honours and dignities, they should keep themselves in their profession of humility and serve the Lord in the vocation in which they had first been called. But, as happens, when the supreme Pontiffs sometimes judge otherwise to be expedient for the honour of God and the advantage of his holy Church, and even command it, it seems wrong not to acquiesce. For as to canvass is perilous and base, so to resist the divine will declaring itself in the vicar of Christ is by no means safe or just. Meanwhile there was not lacking one who suggested to Pius that he should impose an annual pension on the revenues of that bishopric, which were about two thousand gold pieces. Which suggestion the Pontiff repelling, said: "This by no means pleases us. For we know that the bishopric has been conferred on an upright and worthy man, who will administer it rightly." The outcome, as will be clear, approved the Pontiff's opinion.
[20] Alexander, therefore, on the fourth day before the Ides of March, the feast day of St. Gregory the Pope, in the very year MDLXX, in the Metropolitan church at Milan, is duly consecrated by St. Charles, [and, having been consecrated by St. Charles, he sets out for it in the year 1570.] and a little after sets out for his church: and he took with him three priests of the congregation, by whose fellowship he might retain regular discipline in whatever way he could, and by whose work what had been prescribed to him
by Pius he might use for procuring the salvation of souls and governing that church well. To these, two or three other priests and clerics of ours succeeded thereafter from time to time, as occasion required; who by great labours brought forth there no mean fruits of piety for the salvation of souls. As he was hastening to Corsica, a mournful message followed him of the death of his father Domenico, whom he had left at Pavia languishing with old age and disease. Which event he bore with even mind, relying on the divine clemency, which had transferred him from the miseries of human life to the joys of eternal felicity: and, not delayed by it at all, he thought that the death of his dearest parent should be attended not so much with tears as with pious suffrages before God: and, holding his course, he arrived in Corsica, where, received reverently by the peoples of his diocese without the pomp of magnificent display, the good pastor brought all his thoughts and zeal to the good care of his flock.
[21] That diocese at that time was rough, like an uncultivated forest, In this diocese, the people to the Christian religion, darkened both by various corruptions of morals and by the darkness of ignorance; and this on account of long wars and the negligence of non-resident pastors. Ecclesiastical discipline neglected and collapsed, great ignorance of the things necessary for salvation, both in the clergy and in the peoples. But as the people, so the priest. No catechesis of Christian doctrine; great famine of the word of God and barbarism of morals; long and pernicious silence of the preachers of the gospel; the priests, like dumb dogs, out of ignorance or torpor neglecting to cry out against vices. Feast days, appointed fasts, the use and rites of the Sacraments, the pursuits of divine worship everywhere neglected: the Churches, squalid and uncultivated, smelled of stench rather than shone with neatness: very few who duly held the articles of Faith, the commandments of God, and the other things necessary to be known for salvation. Marriages unlawfully contracted, and families propagated through incestuous nuptials. Rivalries, intestine hatreds and enmities flourished; crimes and murders were everywhere perpetrated. Finally, that saying of the wise man seemed to be fulfilled therein: "When prophecy" (that is, the preaching of the word of God) "shall fail, the people will be scattered." Prov. XXIX, XVIII. For where the priests do not perform their office, religion fails, the piety of the people falls, and Christian morals easily slip: and, the pastor sleeping or absent, the wolf seizes the sheep and scatters the flock.
[22] There were no colleges of priests in the whole diocese, no cathedral church, and the priests to ecclesiastical discipline, no episcopal houses. But Alexander, whether in the diocese or outside, was compelled to use lodging begged or hired, until he himself at his own expense built honourable dwellings for himself and his successors, as we shall tell. These and many other inconveniences met our prelate, which would have been more tolerable if it had been possible to have sacred ministers whose work he might use, as was needful, in the pastoral office. But the harvest indeed was great, but the labourers few; and those indeed altogether less fit than was right for so great a work. And truly could be said that word of the Prophet: "The little ones asked for bread" (of the word of God) "and there was none to break it to them." Lam. IV, IV. Accordingly illustrious arguments of great patience, eminent fortitude and apostolic charity were not lacking to Alexander. But he, deterred by no difficulties, relying on divine help, put his hand to strong things; and, sparing no labours or vigils, he bent all his strength to thoroughly clearing and cultivating this forest. And this he undertook vigorously to accomplish both by divine help, on which he chiefly relied and which he suppliantly implored by assiduous prayers and daily sacrifices, and by labours and examples.
[23] which they had altogether neglected, And first, indeed, following the counsel of the wise man, who admonishes the pastors of souls, Prov. XXVII, XXIII, to know diligently the face of their cattle and to consider their flocks, he began to go through the whole diocese, often accomplishing a long journey on foot with sweat over the ridges of the mountains, through villages and castles, through rough places inaccessible to beasts of burden, where it sometimes happened that he spent the night in the open air, when, night creeping on, he could not reach lodgings through the darkness. And when he had entered a village, meanwhile neglecting the care of the body, he first went to the church, after the example of the Saviour, and there, if time allowed, having called the people together, he held a sermon, heard sacred confessions, and, the divine sacrifice having been offered, refreshed with the most holy communion those whom he had seen absolved from sins and prepared: presently, on the same or the next day, he administered the sacred chrism, and ordered in the churches the things that were needful; he restored divine worship and fallen ecclesiastical discipline, instituted schools of Christian doctrine, emended the morals of priests and people. In which, lest he should burden anyone, he took with him as few ministers as he could: and on the first day only he accepted from the priests the offered office of charity, which he wished to be seasoned with great frugality. But if it happened that he lingered longer, he did it at his own expense. And as he himself on the journey, in visitation, and everywhere, was sparing in food and in the necessary use of things, and content with few and whatever things were set before him, so he desired his household and ministers to be such: and he exhorted them to frugality of this kind.
[24] with singular care and untiring labour And this manner of visiting was customary for him in every place and time, while he went through the diocese; which he was wont to go round in almost every part every year. Nor indeed did he alone apply himself to this care of visiting; but repeatedly he sent into various parts of the diocese regular priests from among ours, or select men from the Hermit, Franciscan or Capuchin Order: to whom, providing the travelling money and all the expenses (for he did not wish to burden the poor clerics of the province), he suggested the method and instructions for visiting. Moreover he instituted many schools of Christian doctrine through the villages and towns, and furnished them with the best laws and customs. He did not cease himself to frequent them, to teach the rudiments of the catholic Faith, to entice all to these with sacred little gifts and money, to rouse them by sermons and examples, made all things to all, that he might gain all.
[25] And among the other cares which, as soon as he came to the episcopal ministry, he undertook to exercise diligently, he recalls. it is established that this especially was one in which pastoral industry shines out above all, in restoring ecclesiastical discipline holily and composing the life and morals of priests. For he understood that the corruption of morals and the blindness and ruin of the Christian people depended chiefly on the negligence and ignorance and evil examples of sacred men. Accordingly he held a diocesan synod as soon as possible, and gravely admonished the assembled priests of their office; and he diligently established whatever pertained to restoring divine worship and Christian morals; and this he diligently carried out every year. At which time, as often at other times, he kindly received with hospitality poor priests coming to the synod or approaching him for other causes, and sent them away furnished no less with excellent admonitions and examples than with the necessary supports of life. And sometimes, to accommodate them, he took the bedding of his own bed from himself. For the rest, his house lay open in hospitality to all, especially the poor, and he embraced all, as he could, with great ardour of charity; since he had learned from the apostle, his master, that a bishop must be hospitable. But above all he loved priests and others initiated in sacred orders very much, honoured them and cherished them with every office of charity, and took care that they should be revered by others: and he very often admonished them to show themselves conspicuous to all as an example by that holiness of morals and integrity of life and learning which commends the priests of God, and that each should diligently perform his office.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER IV.
He founds a seminary of clerics: he rules his church with the greatest integrity: he is promoted by Gregory XV to the see of Pavia.
[In a seminary built at his own expense he takes care that clerics be instructed, and] But since he understood very well that good priests are made from good clerics, and that men generally retain through all their life the morals which they have imbibed from boyhood, and that it matters much in the church
of God to take care of the good education of the youths who have given themselves to the divine ministry; he erected a college of them according to the decree of the council of Trent a, as soon as he could, in which, as in a perpetual seminary of sacred ministers, at least twenty-five, and likewise more if the means sufficed, clerics of good disposition should be instructed in the best arts and in ecclesiastical disciplines. Which college indeed he instituted in houses bought at his own expense, and furnished in perpetuity with annual revenues of three hundred gold pieces from the episcopal Mensa b, besides the salary which he conferred every year on the master himself who taught the clerics. But he, embracing them with fatherly charity, took care that they should be instructed in the best disciplines and Christian morals not only through others but also through himself, and, calling them to him daily, instructed them in sacred institutes and doctrines. And those, whether clerics or priests, whom the college itself could not hold, he often received kindly with him in long hospitality, and, sustaining them with singular piety and patience, instructed them in the necessary disciplines until they were made fit to exercise the sacred ministries duly.
[27] To these salutary remedies for ordering things well he added also others, [he teaches the people and the priests the necessary things both by words and by books composed by him.] which contributed very much not only by the assiduous labour of preaching the word of God, but also by a zeal for writing and teaching accurate and suited to the instruction of unlearned clerics. For wherever he was found throughout the diocese, he was wont to hold a sermon to the people on all feasts especially, and on other days, and often twice in the day c. And the things which he could not teach to all by living voice he took care that everyone could more conveniently learn, meditate and bring into use, handed down by him in writings and printed. Accordingly in spare hours he wrote various little works full of Christian piety and sacred learning, in which the things which are necessary to be known for salvation, both by the people and by priests and clerics, are contained in a certain easy and plain method. And this besides the pastoral letters written with Apostolic spirit, which he promulgated at the beginning and thereafter from time to time to rouse the clergy and people of his church and to instruct them in piety. Among the other monuments published by him in the Italian tongue there are extant first of all those which he entitled brief Institutions, enlarged once and again; and likewise a volume of synodal Constitutions; and finally the doctrine of the Roman Catechism, reduced in dialogue to a simpler and easier method. And these books, when published, he himself piously bestowed on clerics and others, and exhorted all to take fruit from them. All which things he said he had committed to writing not in order to publish new books, or, doing what was done, to repeat what other authors had copiously handed down: but in order that the things which are contained diffusely and skilfully in that kind in the little works of weightier doctors, especially in the decrees of the sacred council of Trent, the Roman catechism and the doctrine of St. Thomas, he might propose to be learned by a brief and easy method and way of teaching, especially for the sake of unlearned priests. From which labour indeed, as he hoped, they received no mean fruit of piety for the salvation of the souls entrusted to him.
[28] Moreover his singular integrity shone out both in many other matters He confers the benefices of the church with the greatest integrity, and and especially in conferring sacred orders and benefices, and in administering law and rendering to each his own. For he admitted no one either to sacred orders or to ecclesiastical benefices, especially to the cure of souls, except those who, having first been diligently examined, excelled the rest in virtue and knowledge, and of whose uprightness of life there existed testimonies; and in this he most diligently guarded against every kind of gift, whether offered by the hand, or by the tongue, or otherwise. Furthermore he was a most upright vindicator of law and equity: and he took pains that each should retain his right, and that his officials should do nothing unjustly, nor allow injury or loss to be inflicted on others, nor that respect of persons should have place with them. He gravely rebuked [*] his vicar because he permitted his chamberlain to accept money from those whom he admitted to audience d, those who gave nothing being repulsed: and, having testified, many of them knowing the matter, that this greatly displeased him, he ordered that the vicar should no longer allow it, nor accept from others a reward or fees for his office. For it was his part to remunerate him, since he had established for him a just salary of two hundred gold pieces. Nor indeed would he ever sell the office of chancellor of his curia, as others were wont; not ignorant that it had once been cleverly said: He who buys must necessarily sell.
[29] he administers justice: Fines, if he or his vicar imposed any, he applied all either to churches or to pious works. Although he rarely imposed them, on account of his singular clemency: whereby it came about that not a few, moved by it, were converted to a better life. And in secular controversies, and in transacting every business, where the divine honour was concerned, he feared no one, but resisted anyone to his face: but where the matter concerned injuries inflicted on himself, he was moved not at all: but rather, condoling with the miseries of others, he prayed God for his rivals or offenders e.
[30] the Genoese, to whom he was always dear, With the republic of Genoa, to which Corsica f is subject, he never had any controversy about jurisdiction; nay, the Genoese deferred to him so much that they resolved that the judges and the other prefects of Corsica should decide nothing weightier without his counsel. For the rest, in defending ecclesiastical dignity and liberty and retaining sacred jurisdiction, as he was by no means slothful or conniving, so he was neither obstinate nor litigious nor an exactor of the strictest right: but he so conducted himself with a certain pious evenness and ecclesiastical clemency and kindness toward the Magistrates of the Republic and the prefects of the Island that without controversy the church retained its right with dignity: and they of their own accord paid to the sacred power the obedience and honour that befitted it.
[31] invite him in vain to rule the archbishopric of Genoa. Accordingly the citizens of Genoa, admiring the eminent virtue of the man and his excellent manner of administering sacred rights, and embracing him with singular benevolence, often tried to have him transferred to rule the archbishopric of Genoa. But he, like another St. Bernard g, formerly elected to the same church, always opposed by every means that this should be done; thinking, as he said, that the administrations of churches should be conferred not by human efforts but by divine counsel, declared through the supreme Pontiff, who acts in the stead of God. Besides, he did not wish to be promoted to that church where he could neither tolerate nor remove certain secular affairs.
[32] [solicited by friends at Rome in the holy year 1575 to ask the Pontiff for a more convenient see,] Nay, when in the holy year MDLXXV he had set out for Rome to Gregory XIII h, who loved him exceedingly, and had conferred much with him about the state of his church and about supplying the number of sacred ministers and helpers for himself, he could never be brought, at the request of friends in the city, to ask the Pontiff to transfer him to another better and more convenient church, which he would easily have obtained. For he said that that counsel must be left to divine providence, and that he did not wish of his own accord to abandon that church, his first spouse, which that most holy Pontiff Pius V had committed to him by divine nod of his own motion, though inconvenient and laborious, in order to pass to a more convenient and richer one; unless it were established that this pleased God through the free decision of the Pontiff i.
[33] he flees to Corsica. Therefore, having returned to Corsica as soon as possible (for he stayed at Rome as little as he could), he applied himself to ruling his church with the greatest diligence, labour and industry; until, as we shall tell, he was transferred to the church of Pavia. Meanwhile the good pastor raised up, instructed and led into the way of eternal salvation the flock of Christ committed to him, as before, both by illustrious examples of holiness, and by assiduous preaching of the word of God, and by largess of alms, and by excellent institutions. In which it is incredible what labours and sweats, and what vigils, what hardships and inconveniences he endured for twenty-one years in that Island, as though banished into exile for the glory of Christ and the salvation of souls, especially affected as he was by sickly health and a weak constitution of body: whereby it came about that he often suffered from an abundance of phlegm and from fevers. But the rest of the things done by him in Corsica, together with those which he likewise did at Pavia, since they pertain to the same kinds of things and virtues, we shall set forth together below in their place, lest the same things be repeated twice k.
[34] What therefore he himself in his modesty never wished to ask, [In the year 1591, the people weeping, from the church of Aleria to the see of Pavia] that the Roman Pontiff Gregory XIV l afterwards, who was not ignorant of the man's virtues and merits, resolved of his own accord to grant according to his merits, very great men and good men approving; and he recalled him to rule the church of Pavia in the year MDXCI, on the 6th day before the Ides of May. This translation was made by the singular kindness of the most benign Pontiff, not inconvenient to Alexander; nay, altogether suitable and opportune for a man growing old, and, as it was by far most welcome to all the people of Pavia and to the Insubrian m peoples, so it was very bitter and full of grief not only to the church of Aleria, but also to all the bishops and peoples of Corsica, from whom a great light and protection of Christian discipline was being withdrawn. The Corsicans mourned the loss and absence of their excellent prelate and most loving parent; and, like sheep bleating for a lost shepherd, they complained, fearing lest the wolves should scatter the Christian flock now well disposed. The pastor himself too grieved to leave, as though wandering sheep, the sons most dear to him, whom he had begotten in Christ and had formed to piety with so many and so great labours. But the people of Pavia congratulated themselves that they had obtained a most excellent prelate of sacred things, one whom they vehemently desired, as being already long known and proved to them as a guide of the spiritual life, and they gave very great thanks to God and to his vicar the Roman Pontiff for it, hoping, as did not deceive them, that through his zeal and work ecclesiastical discipline and Christian affairs would be excellently established in that church and city.
[35] Alexander succeeded Bishop Ippolito de' Rossi, [he is transferred by Pope Gregory XIV, and, received by the people of Pavia with the highest honours, he foretells his death.] cardinal of the title of our St. Blaise de Annulo at Rome, where he was buried in the same year MDXCI; who had administered the church of Pavia for almost thirty years with great praise. For the rest, as the city of Pavia is held especially celebrated and distinguished among the chief cities of Insubria for the antiquity of its origin, the nobility of its citizens, the pleasantness of its site, the abundance of things, the public academy of the sciences, and (which is the chief point) the cult of the Catholic Religion; so the bishop of that church, by the benefit of the Apostolic See, enjoys the honour of the sacred Pallium, immediately subject to the Roman Pontiff. To rule this church, then, Alexander came in the same year, on the 12th day before the Kalends of November, the Roman See being vacant through
the death of the same Pontiff: and, received by the people of Pavia with the highest honours, he filled the minds of all with great indeed but brief joy, being about to die after a year, as we shall tell. Sustaining these honours, conferred by the kindness and munificence of the citizens, and considering the frailty of human things and the lot of his own mortality, while he was entering the city in solemn procession, tears springing up, as if foreseeing the future, he said: These joys will be turned into mourning after a year. The outcome, as will presently be told, proved the prediction. For a year having scarcely rolled round, mourning took hold of the extremities of joy on account of his decease.
[36] In this diocese, the things which to the clerics Having undertaken, then, the administration of this church and ample diocese, he applied himself diligently to ordering it piously by word and work. He restored the discipline of the clerics, which had in part lapsed, and took pains that all should live piously and chastely; that beneficiaries should reside; that they should recite the divine offices with fitting piety: and that those who had the cure of souls should discharge it with the solicitude and charity that were right. He took care that the beauty and adornment of the churches should be increased, and, where divine worship had been neglected, restored; and he guarded against anyone's engaging in temples in profane conversations or vain actions unworthy of a sacred place; and that wares or foods should not be sold before the doors of the cathedral church: and he furnished the church itself with sacred and precious gifts, and priestly vestments, and silver vessels for divine worship.
[37] and pertain to the Christian people, he duly orders. And there, very early in the morning, at the nocturnal and likewise at the daytime prayers, especially on feast days, unless gravely hindered, he was present first together with his canons; and he gave himself devoutly and attentively to the sacred Psalmody. Nor was he hindered in this by the fairly broad and open square lying between, by which the episcopal palace n is separated from the church. He did not cease to hold very often from the pulpit sacred sermons full of fatherly charity and salutary doctrine, to visit the schools of Christian doctrine, to raise up those that had fallen, to foster and advance to better things those raised up; to carry on with the greatest charity the care of the poor, of which we shall write more below; and besides opportunely to promulgate edicts, decrees and pastoral letters, which are extant, to the clergy and to the sacred Virgins and to the people, by which sacred and Christian discipline might be restored by excellent instructions, and, restored, be preserved. Finally, he repressed with the greatest vigilance the various corruptions and depraved morals which, as human frailty is, had crept everywhere into that city and diocese. And Alexander, performing these and other offices of pastoral care, left to posterity illustrious examples both of the episcopal and of the other virtues, of which some present themselves which, since they require another order of writing, we have thought it would not be beside the point to relate thereafter one by one, that they may be more readily at hand. And first it seems that we should treat of that sublime humility and gentleness which is the foundation of the other virtues and which shone out most in him.
ANNOTATA.
visitations of places and by the examples of a most holy life: but that so rich a produce was still flourishing and growing up under an excellent cultivator; but that, he being taken away, it would be plundered. They then proceed to all the kinds of beneficence and liberality by which the excellent pastor spent the revenues of his church in great part on the relief of the poor and the alleviation of calamities often falling upon them. In the very great difficulty of provisions, by which once and again the whole island was brought into extreme peril, the providence of the bishop alone had been watchful, and unless he had taken care that supplies of every kind should be brought from the Mainland, the famine would have been much more bitter and would have consumed very many. Burdens imposed by others had been remitted by him: the officials of the Curia lived honourably enough on the bishop's salary, burdened no one. Finally, the kinds of most lavish beneficence were infinite by which he, truly the common Father of the poor, had bound all to himself. After the divine clemency they owed everything to Alexander; nothing of hope remained to them on earth. They conclude that they did not so much grieve at the inconveniences of the present life, all of which they saw hanging over them if Alexander were snatched away, as they shuddered at the peril of souls and of eternal life into which they felt themselves being brought, unless the most holy Pontiff should kindly grant them their Pastor, as they suppliantly prayed. Sixtus, moved by these prayers, and admiring the holiness of the Servant and the agreement, very rare in these times, of the love and respect of the clergy and people toward their Bishop, would not deprive that flock of so useful and dear a Pastor.
* read increpuit
CHAPTER V.
His chief virtues: humility, gentleness, piety toward God, and religion.
Set in the episcopate, of eminent humility, This virtue, then, in which, by the testimony of St. Bernard a, every spiritual building consists and grows, and than which, as he adds, no gem is more splendid, shining especially in the adornment of a Pontiff, so shone forth in Alexander that, the loftier he was in dignity than the rest, the more illustrious he appeared in humility, even than himself. Through this it came about that, as he thought and spoke most highly of God and honourably of others, so he thought and spoke most humbly of himself; and whatever he was or did of good, he referred it all everywhere to the glory of God. Hence he bore it ill if he heard anything that pertained to his own praise. But, not to repeat the things which we related above of the religious submission and modesty of his soul, this is sufficiently established from many of his letters given to the provost of St. Barnabas; in which, while he was bishop, he called himself his humble son in Christ, or the least and unworthy member of this Congregation. Furthermore, he betook himself most willingly, as often as the episcopal cares allowed, to our colleges at Rome, Milan and Pavia, as, he was wont to say, into the bosom of a most loving mother and the tranquil harbour of religious quiet; so that, his strength gathered, he might return more vigorous and firmer to his pastoral labours. In which it is wonderful how great was his kindness and religious submission. As one among others he kept regular discipline, revered the superiors, showed himself affable and humble to all, undertook by rule all the humblest ministries, offered to all all examples of piety, gentleness and charity. Finally, in food, in his cell and in all care of the body, he allowed nothing to be given him outside the order of the others. But, made a little one in the midst of the brothers, the greater he was in the sight of God and men, the more he submitted himself in all things.
[39] of patience, For the rest, leading the regular life in the episcopate, he diligently kept all the institutes of the religious order which he had professed, as far as his condition and dignity allowed; and he perpetually held the modesty, virginal chastity and integrity of morals which he had displayed from his earliest age. You would see nothing harsh in his words, nothing disordered in his acts, nothing imperious in his commands, and as nothing mean in his humility, so nothing sordid in his morals, nothing proud in his gravity. But he so tempered submission of soul with gravity that he was at once venerable by reason of his dignity and lovable to all by reason of his humility. Easy access to him lay open, and to all men, however abject, he kindly lent his ears. He had ordered his chamber ministers to exclude no one, though of the lowest rank; but if anyone feared to approach him, he himself kindly called him, and heard him patiently as long as he wished; and, as far as lay in him, he never sent anyone away from himself sad or ill received. His familiars and officials and others admired his eminent patience and gentleness toward them. Of these, some who had served him perpetually in the episcopate confirmed on oath that they had never noticed in him any sign of a soul flaring up: although the ministers, as happens, sometimes erred, yet nothing disturbed him. This very patience, the companion of humility, he showed especially when he was sick: which the officials, looking up to it, testified that they had never heard any complaints from him. But whether languor, or badly seasoned foods, or the carelessness of those ministering, he received all things patiently from the hand of the Lord with thanksgiving.
[40] For the rest, content with little, he rather neglected the care of his body and he offers examples of temperance in food and dress. than indulged his inclination too much. His food simple and temperate, of one or another kind of dish. His clothing modest for his dignity: he never used a silk garment outside the divine offices, but was clothed in woollen garments, for the most part of black colour. A simple and common little bed, not of feathers nor adorned with a canopy, but spread with cheaper stuffing. His rooms furnished not with vain pictures, not with profane paintings or precious hangings, but only with sacred images. To a noble man of his kin, who exhorted him to adorn the rooms of his house with beautiful tapestries and promised to procure them from Spain, he answered "that he preferred to clothe the poor of Christ rather than walls." "For," he said, "in that great judgment Christ will require of us not whether we have covered the walls, but whether we have covered his poor, naked, who represent him." He used few words indeed, but those always about salutary and serious matters, uttering scarcely anything that did not pertain either to the honour of God or to his own or others' salvation. Accordingly, wherever occasion was given, which he himself often sought, he discoursed on living piously, on the right worship of God, and on other things necessary for salvation. No one dared to engage in idle conversations and vain, and therefore the more pernicious and unworthy, talk before him. Finally, holding perpetually the gravity of morals innate in him together with eminent moderation of mind, he showed himself everywhere alien from all pride and ambition of human things.
[41] When Gregory XIV was created supreme Pontiff, he rejoiced vehemently on account of his old intimacy and singular benevolence toward him. He refuses the honours of the Cardinalate, and For both were most closely joined by mutual love, and by the friendship of their parents, and by the affinity of kinsfolk, and by similarity of studies. Nevertheless he never sought or asked of the Pontiff himself either riches or honours or anything else human. Nay, having set out for Rome for the sake of obedience and duty and having been kindly received by the same Pontiff, when he indicated that he wished to choose him into the number of the Cardinals, he answered that he desired nothing less; but rather that by apostolic concession it might be permitted him to return to his religious order b. But Pope Gregory c had already resolved, if life had been granted him, to take him into the college of the most eminent fathers. But, God providing otherwise, he departed from Rome as soon as possible to care for the church of Pavia committed to him, as we have said, and left the honour of the Cardinalate to his younger kinsmen, namely to Antonio Sauli, his cousin, already conferred by Sixtus V, and to Alfonso Visconti of Milan, the son of his sister Lucia, afterwards conferred by Clement VIII; which two Cardinals, illustrious lights of the Roman Church, were afterwards renowned for prudence and the splendour of the other virtues.
[42] he longs for his former religious obedience. But Alexander longed, not for higher grades of dignities, but for his former religious obedience and humble subjection for Christ, like another Gregory the Great. When once the fathers d, visitors of the Congregation, had come to our college at Pavia to discharge their office, and had approached the bishop himself to pay their respects out of love and duty, he asked for what purpose they had come to Pavia: and when they signified that they had come for the sake of visiting that college, the humble Prelate, groaning, said: "Would that I too were subject to your visitation, and that you might correct me by your judgment." Something similar happened when once a noble youth of our Order had been sent to him to be made a cleric, and, being asked what he wanted, had answered that he had come to carry out the commands of his superiors; the bishop, groaning, said: "O happy you, would that I too were subject to such obedience."
[43] Relying on divine help Moreover, with this eminent humility was joined a certain singular candour of soul and sincerity of morals, so that you would see nothing feigned in him, nothing simulated. To this was added a certain eminent greatness of soul and eminent confidence in God, whereby it came about that, although he was by nature timid, yet in great dangers and difficulties of affairs, relying on divine help, he trembled at nothing. A thing small to tell, but which pertains to indicating this confidence, I will not pass over in silence. It once happened, while he was in Corsica, that he had none of ours with him, without whom he lived with difficulty, although he had asked by letter that a companion be given him by the fathers. On which matter, to Paolo Maria Omodei, then provost of the college of Milan, who excused himself that he did not have ready a priest whom he could send according to his wishes, Alexander answered in almost these words: "Concerning the sum of the matter" (namely that of which we have spoken) "I will prescribe only this, that I receive all things from the hand of the Lord with an even mind; and if it should be necessary for me to remain without a companion, not only in Corsica but even in a worse place, I trust in God the Lord that he will always be present with me, and will never desert me, according to his divine providence, by which he most wisely
disposes all things." But a little later some of ours were sent to him, to help him with their zeal and work and to assist him continually e.
[44] he does not dread the dangers of shipwreck. In dangers indeed, both at other times often and especially once, when he was being carried down by boat from Sesto, a town of the diocese of Pavia, to Pavia on the river Ticino, he showed himself intrepid, relying on divine protection. For where the aqueduct leading to Milan is drawn off from the bed of the flowing stream, it was not far from happening that the boat, caught by the diverging current of the waters and dashed by its impetus against the transverse embankment, should overwhelm the passengers in a shipwreck. In which danger, all being terrified, Alexander alone, with constant mind, having suppliantly implored heavenly help, strengthened the trembling: let them trust in God, they would escape the danger unharmed with the boat intact. And when they had seen this done at once, all together with him gave thanks to the divine clemency, and several attributed so singular a benefit, received from God, to his prayers and merits.
[45] And upon this solid foundation of true holiness, laid in humility, there rested an eminent height of the other virtues, which wonderfully adorned Alexander's soul and virtue before God and men. To write of each of which in this place [The author here indicates that he will not now write of each of the chief virtues of the Blessed.] would be long, and neither within my faculty nor my purpose; especially since it is in my mind to weave, not a panegyric, but simply a history for example; and such is the condition of the virtues and of the men excelling in them that far more and greater ornaments lie hidden within than those which appear outside; so that not undeservedly the Prophet sang of the holy soul: All her glory is from within. Ps. XLIV, XV. In Alexander, then, to pass over other things, besides those which we have mentioned, there seem especially to stand out a singular piety and devotion toward God, the highest charity toward all, and mercy toward the poor. Of which we shall presently record in order some things which are more important.
[46] He so burned, then, with zeal for the divine honour that he watched assiduously, [He is wont daily to read the divine Office with uncovered head, to confess, and to celebrate Mass, in which he often suffered ecstasy of mind;] and spared no labours, to spread the glory of God far and wide and to rouse all to his worship f. He recited the divine office at the fixed hours every day with uncovered head and for the most part kneeling, with singular devotion, and sometimes the whole Psalter, or the Psalms pertaining to penance. The sacrosanct sacrifice of the Mass, unless hindered by ill health, he never omitted to celebrate with diligent preparation both of sacred confession and of pious prayers. In which he often suffered ecstasy of mind, rapt in divine things. Wherefore he wished that only that priest should assist him at the altar whom, aware of his custom, he had long had as a familiar: who indicated to him, while he celebrated and underwent divine things, and when he had returned to himself, what followed in the sacred action. And this rapture of mind he sometimes suffered even while preaching; especially when he spoke more ardently of God and heavenly things.
[47] He recalled with pious meditation the sacred Passion of Christ the Lord our Saviour at all times indeed, He passes Holy Week in fasting and prayer. but above all during those days in which holy Church celebrates with yearly rite before Easter the memory of so great a benefit. On which days, macerating himself with severer abstinence, he added to bread alone a porridge of rice-flour seasoned only with salt, omitting the evening refection, and he persisted longer in prayer, in which he sometimes spent the night before the Most Holy Sacrament laid in the customary representation of the sepulchre. And when the divine offices were completed, covered with the episcopal hood up to the eyes, trailing the train of a mourning garment, for the sake of pious grief, he departed from the temple in grave silence, and exhorted his household by words and example to celebrate the Lord's Passion itself piously during those days. On the Thursday of the Lord's supper he received with him at a kindly banquet all the priests who had assembled to make the holy oils duly with him: and he washed the feet of twelve poor men after the example of the Saviour, and kissed them; and he sent them away refreshed with food and drink and relieved with money. During the same days he piously recited the Psalter with uncovered head, and every Friday through the year the history of the Lord's Passion from the Evangelists in turn, and the appointed prayers of the holy Cross daily.
[48] Moreover, in all his life, his mind raised to God, whatever time remained over from necessary actions and from sacred studies he consumed in prayer. For, four hours of the night, or at most five, being given to sleep and rest, in which also he was often heard to chant psalms and to converse with God, [Always, though entangled in many affairs, he has his mind intent on God, and at times he is suffused with heavenly light;] he was wont to rise daily before dawn, and, clothed by himself, without a servant, without a light, withdrawing into a chapel near his room, to persist there for two or three hours in silence, intent on divine meditations, kneeling, immovable. Where once, praying at night, his eyes and hands raised to heaven, he was found surrounded with great splendour, and was seen by the priest who served him: who testified on oath these and other things of him g. Often besides, walking alone either in the garden or elsewhere, with eyes fixed on heaven, presently kneeling, his mind rapt into God, he remained so long that he did not notice those approaching him. Furthermore, toward evening he applied himself to the same zeal of prayer for at least an hour. Finally, he was so assiduously intent on holy meditations and prayers of this kind that his soul seemed to be borne perpetually toward God, and he could say with the Apostle: "Our conversation is in heaven." Philippians III, XX. Which yet did not call him away from the actions necessary by his office, or from the attention due to human affairs. For he understood that he had been appointed by God as it were his ambassador on earth, and that the episcopal burden laid upon him could not be sustained by human strength except by divine help and counsel: therefore he thought that he must often take refuge in conversations with God; both that, as an ambassador, he might learn from him what he ought to do with the people entrusted to him for carrying out the divine will, and also that he might obtain the strength necessary for accomplishing all things holily, and might render and keep God propitious to himself and his people.
[49] he takes part in public supplications with the greatest devotion: But his piety and religion shone out with a singular example of Christian humility both in many other matters and especially in public supplications. Of which this one was memorable; when the supreme Pontiff, to implore divine help in the various difficulties of the Church, had promulgated an ample and general edict of Apostolic indulgence, by which he called all the faithful to salutary penance and to the other pursuits of piety by which the divine anger is appeased, Alexander, as he was wont on such occasions, took care that it should be carried out with the greatest piety he could: and, a supplication having been proclaimed, in Balagna, which is a province of Corsica in his diocese, he proceeded praying from one temple to another fairly distant, in a rough and mournful habit, with bare feet, a rope hanging from his neck, carrying a great cross, his eyes fixed on the image of Christ the Saviour. Moved by his example, all followed the footsteps of their excellent pastor, unshod and praying. To whom, when he had arrived at the place of the station, he gave a weighty sermon. And although blood flowed with pain from his foot, hurt on the way, and his body streamed with sweat, nonetheless, gladly suffering all things for Christ, he patiently put off the care of himself until the work of God was completed h.
[50] he spends a great sum of money in restoring, adorning and building churches: Moreover, as we have said, he always applied the greatest zeal to restoring and preserving divine worship and ecclesiastical discipline. In churches he tolerated nothing sordid, nothing indecorous or unworthy. And in them he corrected the negligence of clerics or priests where they offended. In repairing sacred buildings and building new ones and adorning them fittingly he made great expenses. He once spent two thousand gold pieces in procuring priestly and ecclesiastical vestments of silk, woven with gold and silver, which he afterwards bestowed with liberal piety on various churches of his diocese in Corsica, as they more needed them. Which will not seem incredible to those who know that his episcopal revenues, which consisted of tithes, agriculture having increased in his time, had grown to almost six thousand gold pieces. Among the other sacred buildings which he erected and adorned, there stands there the noble temple of the episcopal see at Campiloro, and in it a college of priests instituted by him: to each of whom he assigned fifty gold pieces annually in perpetuity from the revenues of that church, with the concession of the supreme Pontiff. But he did not allow his name or family arms to be inscribed on the buildings or other things established or given by him. And to his sister Lucia, a most honourable and most religious matron, who had married a man of the first rank, Annibale Visconti of Milan, when she persuaded him to allow the arms of the Sauli family to be put on certain priestly ornaments made at Milan, he answered that he did not wish it: "For I think," he said, "that this pertains not at all to piety but to vain glory."
[51] And he honoured the Bl. Virgin Mother of God with singular devotion, he follows the Bl. Virgin with the highest veneration: and in her honour recited daily her psalmody, litany and the rosary; and he fasted on Saturdays and on the vigils of all her feasts, as also on the other days assigned by the Church to sacred fasting, and daily through the Advent of the Lord, and likewise through the year every Wednesday and Friday, unless hindered by sickness or a journey; although, as we have said, he enjoyed slender health. Furnished, then, with these arms of prayers and fasts and with the other ornaments of heroic virtues, the Man of God, as he was lovable and venerable to the highest and lowest, so appeared terrible to the demons. For when those vexed by evil spirits stood before him, they testified with great cries, even unwillingly, that they could not bear his presence.
[52] Furthermore, as often as it happened that he must sail, before he boarded the vessel [he never boards a ship unless he has fortified the sailors, having confessed, with the Holy Eucharist.] he took pains that the sailors and all the passengers, having duly confessed their sins, should receive the most holy Eucharist, he himself ministering; namely lest the vessel, weighed down, so to speak, by the burden of sins, should provoke the anger of God to shipwreck: nor did he allow that any of those sailing with him should blaspheme or speak wicked things. But he himself, with his others and companions, was wont to pour forth prayers to God and to converse about salutary things with great sweetness.
[53] Moreover, as he was an eminent cultivator and guardian of chastity both in himself and in others, He avoids the company of women. so he always abstained from cohabitation with women, nay, from conversations with them as far as charity permitted, so that if ever he had to hear them by reason of his office, it was done before others, with downcast eyes and in an open place. But in all his life he kept virginal modesty, as we recorded above, and the holy chastity which he had professed from a boy, in words and
in morals so preserved and held that all who knew him well conjecture, not rashly, that he migrated from this life a virgin.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER VI.
His singular charity toward all and mercy toward the poor: domestic discipline.
[Kindled with love of neighbour, he brings sinners back to God: he visits the sick:] And now, how ardent was his zeal of piety and ardour of charity toward God may be recognized not only from what we have said, but also from the things which he did for the salvation of souls and toward the poor of Christ. Of which, besides those things which we have touched on here and there above, it is pleasing to relate some in summary in this place. For it is sufficiently established that charity toward God is proved and known in scarcely anything more than from the things which are done toward men for his sake. Alexander, then, thirsted so ardently for the salvation both of all souls and especially of those committed to him that, both in the episcopate and before, he spared no vigils and no labours, that he might gain all. For he was wont to rouse all who were guilty of crimes to penance by word and example: to expiate those whom he could by sacred confessions; to keep the good in their duty and advance them to better things; to visit the sick, especially the poor; to console the afflicted most kindly, to succour their necessities with a benign hand; to cure the poor sick gratis by the work of his household physician and to supply them with the necessary foods and medicines, to assist the dying, to clothe the naked, and to perform the other offices of Christian charity with wonderful piety and patience.
[55] he reconciles those at variance with one another. Hence it came about that he impelled all to virtue no less by examples than by words, and in allaying and removing discords, which he was very often wont to do, he was most powerful in favour and authority a. In which, in order to convict the obstinacy of enemies at variance and to bend obstinate souls to forgiving injuries and making peace, he used not only effective speech, but sometimes even, kneeling, humble supplication through Christ. By which wonderful example of Christian submission and ardent charity in so great a man they, confounded, were compelled to be reconciled. But if he saw them guilty of a feigned peace, and had found that perfidy underlay it, he threatened with great authority the punishments of eternal damnation.
[56] [Condoling with the need of others, to the Corsicans, pressed by the difficulty of provisions,] And this, beyond the rest, was a great argument of his charity: when, in the utmost difficulty of provisions and sterility of the fields and inclemency of the sky, God punishing the sins of mortals, there threatened the danger that a long famine should afflict the Corsicans, many already bearing ill the bitterness of the present scourge, Alexander, like another Joseph, grieving at the common lot of his people, succoured them with provident charity; and he caused a great quantity of wheat, millet and legumes, procured at his own expense, to be brought from the mainland to Corsica, and little by little distributed it largely, gratis to the poor, and to others suffering famine either at the smallest price or only at as much as it cost: to very many also he imparted these things either with the payment of the price deferred for a time, or with a pledge deposited for the sake of security, if however they should at some time be able to pay. Nor only during that time, but also at other times often, he relieved the need of the poor according to his means. For every year he caused a hundred measures of wheat and legumes to be distributed to needy families, as there was need, besides very many other daily alms distributed to beggars and other poor.
[57] Furthermore, in time of scarcity he gave a fixed measure of wheat per week to the Clerics of the Seminary, he twice succours them, pressed so that from it they might help their needy parents and kinsfolk. Every third year he was wont by custom to visit the Apostolic thresholds; to do which he once came to Milan to St. Charles out of love and duty, intending to turn aside thence to Rome; but when he had heard there that the poor in Corsica were pressed by the difficulty of provisions, he returned straight to his church to succour their necessities; and the money which he would have spent on the journey, that and more he contributed to the sustenance of the needy. He did this same thing besides at another time, having departed from Corsica to reach Liguria b: when he had heard that Genoa was suffering from pestilence, his counsel changed, having returned to the island, he gave what he was going to spend as travelling money to relieving the poor c.
[58] He was wont also every year to send a hundred gold pieces in aid to the college of novices of our Congregation at Monza d: he bestows alms on monasteries: and, that a dwelling might be erected for us at Genoa, as he desired, he placed a certain sum of money there for that purpose in trust with those who do business at St. George's. Moreover, his Congregation, which he called his Most Beloved Mother, he loved uniquely, as before, so after he became bishop, and always embraced it with singular kindness.
[59] But since it would be long all his
offices of charity to recount, he gives the supports of life to sailors despoiled by pirates. very many being omitted, it is pleasing to add, to those which he performed in Corsica, only two which must not be passed over in silence. When about seventy fishing boats from Sardinia e had been plundered and despoiled by pirates off the shores of Corsica, the sailors, and others who had suffered loss with them, about eight hundred, took counsel to flee to the kindness of Bishop Alexander. Whom he, having received them kindly, sent away refreshed with food and other supports of life.
[60] It happened moreover one day that, as he was going by a country road to the Franciscan convent not far from Zerbio, [he orders a little boy abandoned by his parents to be nourished at his own expense,] a town in Corsica, he heard the voice of a wailing little child, and, looking round, saw a little sack, whence the voice was heard, hanging from a tree: at the sight of which he at once sent Thomas, a priest of his household, who narrated these things to us, to inspect the matter. He, therefore, having taken down and inspected the sack, found in it an infant newly born: and since it was established from a written note that it had been duly baptized, Alexander, detesting the impiety of the parents and grieving at the misery of the offspring, ordered a nurse to be sought and the boy to be handed over to her to be brought up and diligently cared for, a wage being paid her together with the food, until the infant should grow up. Accordingly the Man of God, relying on divine help and an excellent conscience, lest he should be wanting in charity, feared no suspicion of infamy, nor could human malice or the danger of calumny in the least obscure the bright fame of his uprightness, or deter him from the office of piety. These, then, and many other illustrious works of Christian charity Alexander performed in Corsica, to which not lesser ones succeed, which he accomplished in the episcopate of Pavia.
[61] He entices the people of Pavia by example to succour the needy. For at the first time that he celebrated Pontifical Mass with solemn ceremony in the church of Pavia, the city and the peoples flocking together offered, at his exhortation, copious money for the relief of the poor; and that they might do so more readily, he, rousing them not only by words but also, which is more effective, by example, was the first to contribute a hundred gold pieces of his own for this. Which money he forthwith took care should be paid out to the assemblies of the poor.
[62] His solicitous care for those ashamed to beg, Then at the same time, having undertaken the care of the needy, he wished the number of all of them, especially those ashamed to beg, to be written down and given to him. And for this he chose four noblemen, by whose work he distributed money to them on fixed days. Nor did he pass over anyone in need whom he did not help according to his means. And sometimes he gave courage to those who were afraid to ask for others, and paid out more than they had asked. This happened to him, among others, as Baldassare Landini related, a pious man, a merchant of Pavia, whose work he himself used for these things. He, therefore, when he once excused his so frequent approach to him to petition him for the poor, Alexander, embracing him kindly, said: "There is no reason why you should fear to be importunate to me in this office of piety. For you can do nothing more pleasing to me than to give me this occasion." It happened, moreover, that the same Landini asked him for an alms to be paid out to a certain poor man, whom he sent back to his minister holding the purse, from whom he was to receive two gold pieces. For the Bishop did not handle money. But he, having heard Landini's petition, delayed to do what was ordered. When the Bishop learned of this, he at once commanded that four gold pieces should be given to Landini; and he compensated for the minister's slowness with a double dole.
[63] care for orphans and widows. Besides, he piously bestowed every month on the convents of poor and pious women at Pavia, on some three, on others six, on others ten gold pieces. Finally, he had so solicitous and provident a care of the poor, orphans, widows and wards, and other wretched men, that by a singular example of kindness and fatherly charity he very often visited them, relieved their need, and was rightly called by all the benign Father of the poor.
[64] Living frugally, the superfluity of his revenues Whatever remained over from the revenues of the bishopric to himself, using great frugality, and to maintaining his moderate household, all of it he paid out with a generous hand for sustaining the needy: and he grieved that he could not confer greater offices of kindness on them. Hence he bore it ill that an annual and heavy pension had been reserved from his revenues, which he complained had been taken away not from himself but from the poor of Christ. For the Man, excelling in piety and wisdom, understood that the care of the poor is proper to bishops; and that it had been diligently commended by Christ the Lord both to all his disciples and above all to the Apostles and to their successors the bishops; and that earthly resources, especially ecclesiastical ones, are conferred on their relief no less usefully than justly.
[65] he pays out with a generous hand. But the more Alexander's soul burned with charity toward God and men, the less was it defiled by the filth of avarice and the desire of perishable things. From which stains indeed and from all ambition he was so far that he did not leave room for even the least suspicion of them. And faults, if there were any, those smallest without which no one lives, were overwhelmed by the multitude of his virtues and the greatness of the heavenly gifts. Which those who knew him and the writer well will easily judge to have been ascribed not to affection but to truth. From these, then, and his other actions, I think it is already almost sufficiently established what Alexander was toward himself, what toward God and men. It remains that we see what he was toward his household.
[66] Nor indeed toward outsiders only, but even more toward those of his household, His servants whom he loved as sons, did he show himself a kindly and prudent Father. For he knew that a bishop, by the apostolic precept, must rule his own house well. For he who does not know how to rule his own house (says the Apostle, I Timothy III, V), how will he take care of the Church of God? Accordingly Alexander took to himself a moderate and select household, which should not burden the Bishop's house by morals and life, but adorn it; and which should show the morals of its Lord. And he himself diligently took pains to make his household better by word and example, to bear with the imperfect, to instruct the ignorant, to keep all in their duty; furthermore he was never troublesome, or importunate, or angry, and still less injurious, to anyone.
[67] But it was customary for him to correct the erring with fatherly charity, and the priests his helpers with fatherly not to chastise all the smallest sins; but to dissemble some for the time and to pardon others to human weakness; to pay honour to each according to his dignity, to embrace all with singular charity: every eighth day to rouse all, assembled, by salutary admonitions to living honourably and piously. Daily in the evening, about the hour of the night's rest, all, assembled with him for prayer and examination of conscience in the domestic chapel, the litany of the blessed Virgin Mother of God having been recited, sprinkled with holy water by him, betook themselves in silence to bed. The priests offered the sacrosanct Sacrifice daily; and the rest frequented the sacred Table of Communion, he himself ministering, either once or more often in the month and on the yearly solemnities; each recited his prayers, abstained from meat every Wednesday, and, besides the appointed fasts of the Church, most of them fasted voluntarily with him through the Advent of the Lord and every Friday.
[68] He likewise brought priests and strangers to his table, he directs with charity. which indeed, even when the household reclined, he wished to be seasoned with sacred reading, so that minds no less than bodies might be refreshed at the same time. Profane talk, and still more impure, dice and the other kinds of vices were far from his house. You would not have seen there clothing betraying vanity, or luxury, nor idle conversations, nor anything else unworthy of a sacred household. Moreover, he allowed no office of charity to be lacking to them when sick or invalid, and, visiting them very often, he took care that the work of physicians and ministers and medicines, even for a long time, and the other things necessary for them, should be abundantly supplied, diminishing nothing of their wages. Performing these and other offices of an excellent Pastor, he did good, as the Apostle says, to all, but especially to those of his household, whom he did not easily change; but, since he held them proved, he did not forget to reward with honourable rewards most of them, who persevered faithfully from the beginning of his episcopal life to the end.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER VII.
His death and the signs of his holiness.
[Visiting his diocese, he falls ill, and, now close to death, is fortified with the Sacraments of the Church;] When he had spent almost a year in holily administering the church of Pavia, two
duties of the pastoral care laid upon him remained for him to perform: to visit the flock of Christ committed to him and to hold a diocesan synod; and he had appointed this to be held when the visitation was completed. But that supreme Creator and Ruler of things, who disposes all things most wisely, forestalling human counsels, called his Servant to the rewards of eternal life sooner than was commonly thought. For while he was going round and ordering the diocese of the church, in a castle of the same diocese called Calosso, in the hills of Asti, seized with fever, weakened by labours, fasting, age already growing heavy, and the care of an unskilled physician, he succumbed to the disease. Accordingly, feeling that the end of his pilgrimage was at hand a, he diligently prepared himself to meet his last day happily, having duly received, with a singular sign of piety, the most holy Sacraments of the Church through the ministry of Ambrogio Rotola, a priest of our Congregation, who, a sharer of his labours and sorrows while he lived, for many years first in Corsica and then in the church of Pavia, was present with him as he died and faithfully ministered to him b.
[70] Toward death he spoke to his household and his hosts in the house of the nobleman Carlo Rovere then he gives a pious address to his host and household, from whom words full of eminent piety, in which, displaying eminent humility, holy faith in God and ardent charity, he exhorted all to live piously and holily, protesting that he held and confessed the dogmas of the Christian religion with so constant and clear a faith that, comprehending them by a certain light of divine Wisdom, he almost feared lest this should diminish the merit of faith. Although he was not ignorant that an abundance of divine light takes nothing away in this life from the excellence or merit of faith, but rather increases it. And he showed that he had said this not for the sake of boasting, but in order to confirm others more in the profession of the Christian faith. In which however one may recognize the light of divine Wisdom, which bestows itself on holy souls, abundantly illuminating his pure mind.
[71] Meanwhile he asked pardon with great submission from all, both present [and he asks pardon of offences also from the absent, and, consoling them, dies piously.] and absent, if he had offended them in any matters; and he asked that they would pray God for the salvation of his soul and commend it to the pious prayers of the people of Pavia, especially of the sacred virgins. Besides, all who were present weeping together and deploring the loss of so great a Man and most loving Father, he himself most kindly consoling them said: "Do not, I beg, brothers and dearest sons, attend me with tears, but with joyful souls and prayers. For I, as I hope, am hastening through the mercy of God to the everlasting joys of life; but you so act that you may be able to arrive at the same c." These things said, his hands and feet arranged in the form of a cross and his eyes fixed on heaven, pronouncing those words of St. Job, "I wait until my change come," he gave back his spirit to God on the fifth day before the Ides of October, on the Lord's day, about the sixteenth hour, in the year of Salvation one thousand five hundred and ninety-two, and of his own age the fifty-eighth.
[72] His body, whose appearance is here painted, He was of tall rather than middling stature, with a grave aspect full of Holiness, a lean and oblong face, rather large and whitish eyes, a high forehead, the nose somewhat snub, a good and cheerful mouth, a reddish complexion, a beard moderately long, greying hair, long hands, sound in his whole body, comely and venerable.
[73] [fragrant after death with a sweet odour, is carried to Pavia, and in the cathedral] Moreover his body, as we have received from those who took care of its burial, although embalmed with no substances, was fragrant with a sweet odour: and though it had been unburied for almost eight days, his flesh was lively and soft like that of a living body: which seem no slight indications of holiness. Accordingly, having been fittingly cared for and carried to Pavia, it was brought in pontifical habit into the cathedral church with a great concourse of the whole clergy and city, all deploring the loss of their dearest Parent and the death of their excellent Pastor, and, on account of the constant opinion which they had conceived in mind of the holiness of his life, trying to kiss his hands, feet and vestments and to touch them with sacred rosaries. Which opinion indeed began to cling so firmly to the minds of the people of Pavia and the neighbouring peoples that they do not cease thereafter to venerate him and to invoke him as already enjoying heavenly glory. Of which more will be treated below in its place.
[74] [there in the church by the fathers of the Congregation of Clerks Regular, whom he had appointed heirs of his household goods,] By a testament made with Apostolic faculty he appointed our college at Pavia, where he himself had been trained in studies, and where, while he held the episcopate, he was frequently wont to turn aside, heir of his household goods: and he left two hundred gold coins for adorning the sacristy of the cathedral church with sacred vessels, and some supports of money to be distributed to his household officials and to the poor. Finally, to the seminary of clerics which he himself had erected in Corsica and had furnished, as we have said, with three hundred gold coins annually, although it no longer pertained to him, yet out of his affection for it he bequeathed, dying, four hundred gold pieces, which were afterwards paid to it. But as in all his life he was an eminent cultivator of evangelical poverty, so at his death, owing to the largess of his alms, little remained over which he could leave to posterity.
[75] he is honourably buried. And our fathers, especially those residing in that college, who had honoured him with singular piety while he lived and attended him, when he departed from human things, with the highest grief and honour and an equal benefit of suffrages, took care that his body should be buried in the middle of the cathedral, enclosed in a coffin on which was inscribed: Alexander Sauli, bishop of Pavia, lies here; and they placed on the tomb a stone d of polished white marble e.
[76] A concourse of the people to Alexander's tomb, which, though Thus far we have recorded with honest faith the course of Alexander's life and what he did for the glory of God by his help, as we ourselves saw with our eyes and as we received from others who saw. And thereafter we shall relate with equal faith the things which God himself has accomplished, through his intercession, for the honour of his Servant, enjoying, as we piously believe, heavenly glory. For it seems to have been established by divine judgment that those who have paid God the honours due to him should likewise be honoured by him; so that we may understand that his decree is altogether certain, who promises in these words: "Whoever shall glorify me, I will glorify him." I Kings II, XXX. Which we see to be true not only of that everlasting glory which the just enjoy in heaven, but also of this by which they shine on earth. For although the proper rewards of virtue are rendered to the just in heaven, yet God has willed most of them to be venerated also in this mortal life, and signs of his divine power to be given through them, either that the weak may be confirmed in faith, or that they may be roused by their illustrious examples to living rightly, or that those whom perhaps they had formerly made little of they may recognize to be worthy of divine and human honours, or finally that all these things together and his other divine counsels may be fulfilled for his glory and human salvation. But, as it has not been given to all, otherwise most holy men, to shine with the signs of miracles, so no one can do these signs (as he says in the Gospel, John III, II) unless God be with him: and the signs of miracles are confirmed by holiness of life, so that the life answers to the signs and the signs to the life; and thus God, who is the supreme truth, becomes the witness not of vanity but of truth. Since these things are so, it ought not to be a wonder if God, the author and rewarder of all good things, who in his immense goodness exalts the humble, and adorns with divine and human honours those who have striven to increase honour to his divine Majesty, has begun to make this Servant of his illustrious by various miracles wrought at his invocation.
[77] In the year, then, from the birth of Christ MDCX, and the eighteenth from Alexander's death, is prudently restrained by the bishop of Pavia, some sick persons at Pavia having been wonderfully healed by divine power through his invocation, a greater and more frequent concourse of the city and the neighbouring people began to take place to his tomb. Very many made vows there, lit candles and tapers; offered tablets for the sake of a vow and other symbols of piety and of restored health, gifts and money. But, as happens, some doubting of the truth of the matters, Giovanni Battista Biglia, bishop of Pavia, Alexander's successor, by his singular prudence and authority took care that nothing should be wrongly committed in this matter. Wherefore, as soon as he heard of these things, he repressed the frequency of the people; and he took care that no concourse should take place to the tomb, nor should candles or lamps burn there, nor tablets and other things be deposited there for the sake of a vow, until, the whole matter having been diligently inspected and long tested, it should be more established: and this, lest in so grave a matter he should seem to have believed anything lightly or done anything rashly.
[78] But since the people of Pavia bore this long delay ill, nevertheless it grows daily, and at length, the more the piety of the people toward Alexander was repressed, the more vehemently it seemed to be increased and kindled, and the frequent concourse to his tomb to be pressed more every day. What therefore was thought to suppress the glory of the Servant of God made it more clearly illustrious, as will presently be told. In which also many commended the modesty of our fathers; since they, as soon as the report of these things spread, although they professed that they had no doubt about Alexander's holiness, yet were so far from wishing to proclaim these signs, to put them before the public and to court a concourse, that, silence having even been imposed on all of ours, they judged it better to dissemble the matter, to be silent, to commit whatever it was to God and leave it to the judgment of the Church, until the truth should shine forth more: namely lest occasion of talk should be given to men eager to carp at these things too much and to ascribe them to boasting.
[79] the college of sacred rites assenting, But the Lord did not suffer the lamp to lie hidden longer under the bushel; but the more human prudence delayed to unfold the glory of the Servant of God, the sooner and more surely divine providence spread it far and wide. For about the twentieth month from when the rumour of these things spread, the same bishop, by the counsel also of the most eminent fathers set over the sacred rites at Rome, by his authority gave free power to all, that everyone might flock to Alexander's tomb, invoke divine help through him, make vows to him, offer tablets and other things, light lights, and pay the other honours wont to be paid, according to the rite of the Church, to those just who have not yet been placed among the Saints by the supreme Pontiff f.
[80] it is permitted. When the citizens of Pavia had understood this, the whole city proceeded to flock to Alexander's tomb and to make vows with singular devotion, to bring burning candles, votive tablets and other symbols of piety g. And accordingly many, healed of various ailments through his invocation, rendered testimony with surer faith to the divine power and to the holiness of the Servant of God. But let us now look upon the wonderful works of divine power themselves wrought through him, as we have seen and as we received from those who saw. Which yet not all
in this place, but, many being put off to another time and place, we shall relate some better ascertained by us.
ANNOTATA.
CHAPTER VIII.
Miracles wrought after his death by his intercession.
By the invocation of Bl. Alexander one seized with pain of the calves is healed. In the month of May in the year MDCX, in the city of Pavia, in the parish of St. Gervase, Giovanni Antonio Spoleto was seized for the space of two days with so grievous a pain of the kidneys and calves that he could neither take food nor sleep nor rest in any way. Accordingly, since he was in the utmost peril of life, he fled to the intercession of Alexander; and, a vow having been made to him, he immediately fell asleep; presently awaking, he found himself altogether sound and unharmed.
[82] A Canon escapes a great danger: Pietro Antonio Lazzaro, canon of Pavia, in the same year, in the month of June, when he was riding to a suburban villa together with companions, talking about Bl. Alexander, met a laden beast of burden, and, to give it place, turned his horse aside to the edge of the road, where there was a ditch, or an aqueduct dug deep, and in it a wooden sluice of the waters opposite. Into this the horse, slipping with its hind feet and overturned, threw its rider; who, while he was falling, invoking Bl. Alexander, struck his head heavily against the sluice itself. But, just as if he had fallen on soft feathers, feeling no harm, he rose unhurt; whereas otherwise, by the judgment of all, it seemed that from so grievous a fall, his head being dashed, he could not have escaped death except by divine help.
[83] A boy of Pavia, by name Carlo Francesco, son of the spouses Giulio Villani and Antonia Roveda, [a boy is freed from a hernia, whose mother recovers her sight: one is healed of a flux of blood, another of pain of the head:] suffered grievously, the membranes having been torn, from the intestines flowing down into the scrotum. But when one day his parents had vowed their son to Alexander, the following night he was healed, and in the morning rose altogether sound, and neither he nor his parents told me that he suffered any such thing thereafter. Furthermore Antonia herself, when she suffered from dullness of sight, having invoked the name of Alexander, immediately recovered her former power of seeing. Girolamo Bossi of Pavia, pouring out blood rather copiously from his nostrils, one night, when he was in doubt of approaching death on that account, fled to the intercession of Alexander, imploring divine help through him in this manner: "Blessed Sauli, if it is true, as I piously believe, that you enjoy heavenly glory, I ask that by your merits and prayers I may escape sound from this danger." This said, the blood forthwith stopped; and thereafter he was altogether free from a flux of this kind. Marco Antonio Bellano, a monk of the convent of St. Saviour at Pavia of the Order of St. Benedict, when for many years he suffered a grievous pain of the head, called by the Greeks Hemicrania, and especially seemed to bear a heavy weight on his eyes, and could not fix them on any object, and sometimes could not speak, very many remedies having been used in vain, was freed by praying at Alexander's tomb, and returned home sound.
[84] Sebastiano Longo, a lay brother of ours, of those by the use of his pectoral veil an illness of the stones is cured. whom we call Conversi, a Milanese by fatherland, about XX years old, had already for almost two years been suffering from a sharp pain from the stones and difficulty of urine: when the many and various remedies applied by skilled physicians had profited him nothing, it was tried whether a change of place and of remedies would contribute anything. Accordingly, sent to various colleges of ours, he was diligently cared for there by the work of physicians, but by no means healed. Nay, the disease growing heavier, the physicians judged that he could not be healed unless the stones were extracted by incision. Wherefore, as though his health were despaired of, uncertain what to do, sent back from the city of Acqui to Milan, in the year MDCX about the Ides of July he stopped at Pavia. Where, afflicted by grievous pain, when he had already for three days passed no urine, he fled from human remedies, which he had tried in vain and had long since ceased to apply, to divine ones; and, taking with him the pectoral veil or little linen cloth which Bishop Alexander was wont to use at table, he went full of faith to his tomb. And there, praying God from his heart that, if it were so expedient, he might be freed from that languor through the intercession and merits of his Servant, he immediately felt all pain had ceased; and, the need of urinating pressing, scarcely having gone out of the temple, a great quantity of turbid humour having been gently poured forth, he altogether recovered. Thence
returning home joyful and unharmed, giving thanks to God and to Alexander his Servant, he narrated the matter, as it had been done, to the fathers of our college at Pavia, then to the writer of this history, and to others. And he testifies that from then on he has suffered no pain or impediment of nature, now for two years and more since this happened. Whoever doubts, let him go to him; he lives and freely performs his duty. Of these things we have very many witnesses from among ours, and from the Physicians, whose work he had employed to no purpose.
[85] A vow having been made, the use of his eyes is restored. Cristoforo Pietra of Pavia, when he had fallen into a most grievous disease and pain of the eyes, so that, the faculty of seeing being lost, his eyes swelling from a great quantity of humours each to the size of a large ostrich egg, he presented a monster of a man; and for many days he could do nothing except complain and lament from the vehement torment; finding no remedies, the physicians fearing to cut those tumours, he turned at the exhortation of his friend to implore the help of Alexander; and, he having been suppliantly invoked and a vow made, a little later, while he was resting by the fire, his head leaning on a pillow, he seemed to hear a voice saying to him: "Come, rise: do you think that you are incurable?" Roused by this voice (for he was alone in the place), he calls out to his wife, who had so spoken to him; and when no one was seen, at once the pain yielding, the humours began to flow out of the tumours of the eyes, and within the space of two or three hours, those little bladders having been emptied, the skin to be drawn back inward, and with healed eyes he began that day to see and as it were to come back to life: and thereafter, as we have seen, sound, and with the skin around his eyes reddening as a sign of the matter, he lives sound, giving thanks to God and to Alexander.
[86] To a nun, by malignant But in the possessed, to be freed through Alexander's intercession, the divine power shone forth more than once. Among the other noble assemblies of sacred virgins there stands at Pavia a celebrated and ancient convent, which holds its name from its founder, Duke Senator (that was the man's name), kinsman of Liutprand, king of the Lombards. In this convent, under the Institute of St. Benedict, the religious virgin Aurelia Bossi, God so permitting, oppressed now for five years by malignant spirits, was so grievously vexed that she could not rest: and she was often in danger either of being plunged by them into wells or of being thrown headlong from a high place; and it would have happened had she not very often been snatched from the danger by divine help and by the hands of the other virgins. When very many remedies applied to free her and many vows made to the Heavenly ones seemed vain, at length, in the fourth year, as she prayed more vehemently before the image of the Virgin Mother of God in the garden chapel of the convent, such a thought was as it were divinely put into her: that she should bear it patiently; for she would soon be freed through the intercession of a Saint not yet known to the world.
[87] vexed by spirits, But she, ignorant who this unknown Saint was (for the fame of Alexander's holiness had not yet spread), sustained the hope of future salvation until in the following year the rumour, spread abroad, of the signs of the holiness of the Man of God recalled to her mind the confidence given her, and raised it to the hope that this was perhaps that Saint unknown to the world through whom the Mother of God had announced that she would be freed. Accordingly she began to invoke him with great faith and devotion. Meanwhile the evil spirits set about harassing and torturing her more sharply, not bearing that she had chosen such a Patron for herself, or implored his help. And when she had so besought God for almost four months, at length, many prayers and tears having been poured forth, it came into her mind to venerate, in whatever way she could, the tomb and bones of Alexander. And since it was not permitted her to go out of the enclosure of the place, having had measured by others the space by which the tomb is distant from the convent, she resolved herself to go over it with as many paces, namely a hundred and thirty, from her cell to the chapel situated in the garden, in pious procession, barefoot, together with some sacred virgins praying with her.
[88] The following night, as she lay on her bed, Alexander appeared to her in sleep; Bl. Alexander appears in sleep, she seemed to see him in the old church of the same convent, in pontifical habit, before the high altar, surrounded by many other venerable bishops (she recognized him among the others because she had seen him while he lived among men, and had formerly received the Sacrament of Confirmation from his sacred hands); and there, seeing a distinguished lamp shining, she asked him why that lamp shone there; to whom he said: "This is done from the pious desire of a sacred virgin, your companion, who, desiring this lamp to shine here for the honour of God, grieves that by reason of her poverty she cannot fulfil her wish. But God has declared by this sign that her pious will is pleasing to him. By which sign understand also that your vows will not be vain; but what you have piously resolved to carry out, perform in fact: and this by a procession held three times on different days; the first, namely, on the following day (which day was about the Kalends of May in the year MDCXI), the second on the day after that day; and the third on the feast day of the Finding of the Holy Cross: on which day, the evil spirits being expelled, you will be altogether freed."
[89] But Aurelia, awaking, wondered at the vision and suspected somewhat about the truth of the matter, and, the vow having been fulfilled, he frees her. lest some illusion should underlie it. Accordingly, very early in the morning, that she might be more certain of the truth, she asks her companion Vittoria whether she had ever thought of placing a lamp in the old church. She answered that she had indeed long wished this; but grieved that she could not satisfy her wish, which however she had signified to no one. Aurelia, having heard this, understanding that what she had seen in sleep was by no means vain, began to carry out the procession which she had resolved upon, and, taking with her four other sacred virgins, for three days, as we have said, she measures, barefoot and praying, the appointed paces to the chapel situated in the garden, saying at each pace: "We adore you, O Christ, and we bless you, because by your holy Cross you have redeemed the world. Free me, O Lord, from these infernal dragons." Having proceeded to the chapel, prostrate before the image of the most blessed Virgin, recalling the virtues, labours and merits of Bishop Alexander, she suppliantly implored his help with God. While she was so praying, the unclean spirits, compelled with great force, went out of her nostrils, mouth and eyes like sparks of burning fire: and on the very day sacred to the Holy Cross, the third supplication having been completed and the most holy Eucharist having first been received, as had been foretold her, she came out by divine help altogether free and sound: and at the same time she was admonished by a certain inward instinct, as by an angelic messenger, that she had been freed through the intercession of Bl. Alexander Sauli. Refreshed by this divine benefit, she is proved to have been thereafter wholly free from every trouble of diabolical vexation. Which was thenceforth found to be so after long and various tests applied for exploring the matter for a hundred days and more, and over the space of almost two years. This Aurelia herself and very many other witnesses of the same matter, beyond all exception, diligently examined in the process, asserted on oath.
[90] [Through the merits of the Blessed a long fever, likewise a bewitchment, are driven out:] Allegrina de Lù, suffering from a long fever and catarrh, rising from the bed on which she had lain sick for many days, the divine help having been invoked through the merits of Alexander, rose up as she could, and, leaning on a staff, hurried herself, though with difficulty, to his tomb: where, prayers for her health having been poured forth from her heart, she returned home sound, the staff being left at the tomb. Giovanni Battista, son of Antonio Maria Tibaldi, about eighteen months old, seized at Pavia by a bewitchment and a continuous six-month fever, had so wasted away that the skin scarcely clung to the bones. And since no human remedies profited him, his father fled to divine ones; and, a vow having been made through Alexander's prayers and merits, he joyfully saw his son immediately recovering. But afterwards, when he thought less than was right about paying the vow, the boy fell back into his former languor. Whereupon the father, recognizing and reproving his own negligence, confirmed and paid the vow. This done, the son forthwith recovered again, and, as we have seen, is growing up excellently and sound. By which double miracle indeed the Lord showed that divine saying to be true: "If you have vowed anything to God, delay not to pay it. For an unfaithful and foolish promise displeases him." Eccles., verse III.
[91] a woman now close to death, and another affected by a grievous pain of the womb; Ortensia, wife of the nobleman Fabrizio Campesio, afflicted now for three months with grievous fever and pains in various parts of the body, was near to dying; therefore, already anointed with the sacred oil, she was preparing herself to depart from life: when behold, Alexander Sauli having been suppliantly invoked and a vow made to him, she at once began to rest and to fall sweetly asleep: presently awaking and being better, the fever and pains extinguished, within the space of eight days she rose altogether sound. Margherita, wife of Alessandro Salvadei, when she had been vexed for almost fifty days by grievous pains of the womb and was relieved by no human remedy, suppliantly imploring divine help through Alexander's merits, obtained it, and, a vow having been made to him, awaking after rest, she found herself sound.
[92] likewise a paralytic woman, But in what follows one may admire the divine power through the intercession of this Servant of God still more. Aurelia, wife of Giovanni de' Regi, at Pavia, afflicted now for five years with most grievous pains of the kidneys and sides, and finally of the whole body, lay paralytic and immovable: nor could she be moved about the bed even by another's hand except with sharp torment. The physicians professed that the condition of the disease was unknown to them, much less curable, although many remedies had been applied to no purpose: and they had ceased to treat her for almost a year. She at length, when she had heard of the signs of Alexander, began to invoke him; and, binding herself by a vow, suppliantly asked only that she might be able to move herself in the bed. For she reckoned that a great enough benefit. When she had obtained this at once, moving herself, joyful, a greater confidence having been conceived, she asked and obtained through Alexander's prayers that she might be able to rise from bed, her pains being mitigated. Accordingly, joyful at the double benefit, increased in faith and spirit, that she might obtain entire health, she betook herself to Alexander's tomb, leaning on wooden crutches, creeping as she could, and there, pouring herself out in prayers and tears, giving thanks to God for the benefit received through him, she was restored to her former health; and, the crutches being left there, she returned home by herself, and thereafter, as we have seen and have received from her and others, she has long continued to bear the labours of domestic care, free from all languor. [another deprived of the senses, a woman set at the point of death, likewise an epileptic daughter,]
[93] Claudia, wife of the nobleman Giovanni Giacomo Marozzi, who professed the medical art in the university of Pavia, being sick, and already, dying, given up by the physicians, and deprived of speech and senses, was near to breathing out her soul: when behold, her husband, invoking Bishop Alexander for his wife's health, vows her and himself to him; the vow having been made, she forthwith began to recover, presently
to speak, and within the space of about eight days she wholly recovered entire health by no other remedy. Caterina Papazona, wife of the nobleman Pietro Imberti, a Physician of Pavia, when, abandoned by the physicians after a grievous illness, she was set at the point of death, her husband, a vow having been made, commended her to Bl. Alexander, and she, immediately coming back to herself, began to breathe and within a short space of hours altogether recovered. Cecilia, five-year-old daughter of the spouses Giuseppe Marini and Francesca Resta, an epileptic, fell horribly at Pavia almost ten times daily, and seemed unable to be helped by any remedy. Her mother led her to the tomb of Bl. Alexander: and there, a vow having been made, she persevered from morning until evening in fasting and prayer, suppliantly imploring her daughter's health; and she carried off the fruit of her perseverance, her daughter's health: who thereafter never suffered from such a disease.
[94] Another honourable woman of Pavia, named Benedetta, a woman affected with an ulcer recovers health. suffered with great pain an ulcer on her leg in the form of a cancer, by which, gradually consuming the flesh, she was in peril of life. One night Alexander, invoked by her with inmost affection in the heat of the pain, was at once present; and, the pain having been wiped away, he wholly restored her health, as we received from her, after two days.
[95] Girolamo, son of Paolo Emilio Caponago, a noble citizen of Pavia, [A boy of ten, by invocation of the Blessed, is drawn out unhurt from a deep well into which he had fallen:] about ten years old, playing with other boys in the portico of the house, fell into a deep well, which was covered with rotten planks, stones and heaped-up rubble. The fall was thus: the planks which he incautiously pressed with his feet being broken, falling in, hanging by his arms, he implored the help of Bl. Alexander, whose image he carried in his bosom out of his piety. But, that the grace of the divine benefit might shine out more, God permitted that he should fall into the bottom of the water sooner than he could be snatched out, drawing with him that whole heap of wood and stones collapsing upon his head. When his companions and others of the household had seen this, they thought that he had been overwhelmed by so great a mass and submerged in the water. But at once they let down into the well a thin little cord, since they had no stronger at hand, furnished with an iron hook. By which he was suddenly, he knows not how, having put his foot into it, drawn out altogether unhurt, all wondering, but wet and dirty: and he and his parents and others attributed so great a benefit, received from God, to the intercession of Alexander, whom he himself had invoked as he fell. All which things we received from the boy himself, present and attesting, and from others who saw.
[96] Girolamo Sellari of Pavia had a little son suffering so from fevers and pustules A boy from fevers and pustules, that, by the judgment of the physicians, no hope remained of his health, and he was already near to breathing out his soul. The father therefore, distrusting human remedies, relying on divine ones, ran suppliant to Alexander's tomb; and, a vow having been made, he implores health for his son, and, that he might obtain what he asked the more effectively, he brings in as intercessors at the tomb itself two Capuchin monks whom he met on the way. Finally, having returned home, he found his son recovering and taking the food which he previously rejected, who within the space of two days came out free from all disease.
[97] Daria de' Regi, a matron of Pavia, a matron from a humour of the head, had suffered for five years from a cold humour in the head with continual pain, so that she seemed to bear a great block of ice in her brain. Which humour, flowing down into the eyes, darkened her sight, and, descending into the shoulders and the other lower parts, brought her bitter pain. And when the many remedies applied had profited nothing, at the exhortation of Laura Beccaria, her friend, who herself also had been favoured with a certain divine benefit through the intercession of Bishop Alexander, she fled to his help, and asks Laura, since she herself could not go to Alexander's tomb, to be willing to do it for her; whatever vow she should make to Alexander for her, she would hold it ratified and diligently perform it. Accordingly Laura, having gone to the tomb, pledges on her behalf the offering of the divine Sacrifice to God and Alexander, together with the gift of a silver head. When Daria had held all these things ratified and welcome and had paid them with full faith, she was at once free from all languor and lived thereafter sound.
[98] a woman from the vexation of demons, A certain woman of Pavia, named Bartolomea de Monte Alto, who had formerly suffered vexation from demons, from which, since they had now for the space of a year inflicted no trouble on her, she thought herself exempt, praying at Alexander's tomb, began to be vexed anew, the enemies betraying themselves and proclaiming that on account of Alexander Sauli they could not lie hidden, but must be expelled by him. Which happened in fact not so long after: while, in the church of St. Bartholomew, an Exorcist commanding them in Alexander's name, they departed. And she, as was thereafter proved, was altogether free from all vexation of demons.
[99] a daughter from pain of the thigh, another from fever and vomiting, Susanna Zoja of Pavia, when she was vexed from the right thigh down to the foot by a grievous and long-lasting disease and so sharp a pain that she could neither stand, nor walk, nor rest in bed except with most bitter torment, the foot being as it were dead, when, leaning on a staff, she had scarcely betaken herself to Alexander's tomb, praying there she was healed, and, returning home by herself without the staff, felt no further ill. Antonia Succia, sick from fever and from a vomiting so troublesome that she could in no way retain food, when one day she had held a conversation about Alexander's signs of holiness, the following night Alexander appeared to her while awake, with a shining face; at the sight of whom she, terrified, said that she did not dare to ask anything of him, since she had not yet been cleansed by the most holy sacraments of confession and communion. But he, looking at her with cheerful face and blessing her, vanished. Presently she herself recovered, suffering nothing at all thereafter.
[100] likewise a woman is freed from a dangerous childbirth. Costanzo Grasso, when he saw his wife already for three days in labour with great pain and with peril to her and to the foetus lying crosswise in her body, fled to Alexander's help; and, having prayed to him, obtained safety for his wife and offspring. For she forthwith gave birth without any harm to herself or the foetus. a
ANNOTATION.
APPENDIX
Benedict XIV places Alexander Sauli in the number of the Blessed.
BRIEF OF BEATIFICATION OF BLESSED ALEXANDER SAULI, OF THE CLERKS REGULAR OF ST. PAUL CALLED BARNABITES, FIRST BISHOP OF ALERIA, THEN OF PAVIA
POPE BENEDICT XIV.
FOR A PERPETUAL MEMORIAL OF THE MATTER.
Pope Benedict XIV indicates To extol and proclaim the benignity of our God and the riches of his goodness in the virtues and merits of the servant of God Alexander Sauli, first prelate of Aleria, then of Pavia, we not only consider to be a duty owed to religion; but we also understand that nothing is more opportune in this condition of the times than that more abundant examples for imitation should be available to all the faithful of Christ and especially to the pastors of souls, and in his patronage and admirable deeds protections for procuring peace, tranquillity and salvation, both among all Christians and especially among those peoples who, formerly instructed by him for twenty years and more, not as the bishop of Aleria alone but as the Apostle of all Corsica, with salutary admonitions and laws, and taught, their morals having been corrected, hatreds extinguished, friends reconciled and clerics reformed, to run the way of the commandments of God, are now held estranged from the most holy discipline handed down by the very disturbance of human and divine affairs which has long since arisen there.
[2] why Alexander Sauli Wherefore, among the chief parts of the Apostolic office which has been laid upon our weakness by the most high counsel of divine Wisdom, we reckon that one more fitting for performing the ministry duly and holily, that, in order to merit heavenly help for ourselves, we should strive, as far as is granted us from on high, for the glory of almighty God, the honour of the Catholic Church and the good example of the Christian people, to promote the cult and veneration of the same Servant of God, who, having completed the course of boyhood with the highest praise of piety and learning, and having embraced the institute of severer discipline in the Congregation of Clerks Regular of St. Paul called the Barnabites, shone far and wide with the splendour of all the religious virtues, and, called to the pastoral cares of the sheep commended to him, so conducted himself that we do not doubt that, having discharged the office of an excellent Pastor, he has been presented with an eternal reward by the prince of Pastors Jesus Christ. Since, therefore, the Processes having been maturely and diligently discussed and weighed through the Congregation of our venerable Brothers the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church set over the sacred Rites, the Processes having been drawn up by leave of the Apostolic See, concerning the holiness and the virtues, both theological and moral, in heroic degree, with which the same servant of God Alexander Sauli shone in manifold ways, and also concerning the miracles which, at his intercession and for manifesting to men
his holiness, were asserted to have been wrought by God, the same Congregation, assembled before us, having heard also the votes of the consultors, judged with one spirit and one voice that the aforesaid Servant of God could be declared Blessed, with the customary Indults, whenever it should seem good to us.
[3] he enrols him among the Blessed, Hence it is that we, kindly inclined to the pious and very earnest supplications, humbly presented to us on this matter, of very many venerable Brothers Archbishops and Bishops, and also of beloved sons the magistrates, nobles and peoples, especially of Italy, and moreover of the whole aforesaid Congregation of Clerks Regular of St. Paul (which, formerly also humbly given, Ferdinand of famous memory, King of the Romans, elected emperor, had strengthened by the accession of his pious prayers to our Predecessor of happy memory Pope Innocent X a, Emmanuel of good memory, Duke of Savoy, to Pope Clement X b, and Cosimo likewise of good memory, grand duke of the Etruria subject to him, to Pope Innocent XI c, and which our dearest daughter in Christ Maria Amalia, illustrious queen of both Sicilies and of Jerusalem, likewise renewed to Pope Clement XII d of happy memory, likewise our Predecessor, and lately to ourselves our beloved sons the noble men the duke and Republic of Genoa), by the counsel and assent of the aforesaid Congregation, by Apostolic authority, by the tenor of these presents grant that the same servant of God Alexander Sauli may henceforth be called by the name of Blessed, and that his body and relics may be exposed to the veneration of the faithful (not, however, to be carried about in processions).
[4] That his images also may be adorned with rays or splendours, [He grants that his feast day may be celebrated every year in the churches here named] and that every year on the XXIII day of the month of April e the Office and Mass of the common of a Confessor Pontiff may be recited of him, with the Prayer approved by us, according to the Rubrics of the Roman Breviary and Missal. Furthermore we grant that the recitation of the Office and the celebration of the Mass of this kind be made only in the whole Congregation of the same Clerks Regular of St. Paul called Barnabites, in the city of Milan, where he was born and made his Regular profession, in the dioceses both of Aleria and of Pavia, over which he presided as bishop, and in the city of Genoa, whence he drew his origin, and where his noble lineage and family still continues, by all the faithful of Christ of both sexes, both secular and regular, who are bound to the Canonical hours, and, as regards the Masses, also by all priests coming to the churches in which the feast shall be kept.
[5] Besides, we grant the power of likewise celebrating, in the first year only from the date of these letters, and as regards the Indies beginning from the day on which these letters shall have arrived there, in the churches of the Congregation, cities and dioceses aforesaid, he grants that it may be celebrated. the solemnities of the Beatification of the same Servant of God, with Office and Mass under the rite of a greater double, on the day appointed respectively by the Ordinaries, after the same solemnities shall have been celebrated in our Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican in the City on the very XXIII day of the current month of April. Notwithstanding the Apostolic Constitutions and Ordinances and the decrees issued concerning non-cult, and any other things whatever to the contrary. And we will that to transcripts or copies, even printed, of these present letters, subscribed by the hand of the secretary of the said Congregation of Cardinals and furnished with the seal of the Prefect of the same Congregation, altogether the same credit be given by all and everywhere, both in court and out of it, as would be given to these presents themselves if they were exhibited or shown. Given at Rome at St. Mary Major under the Ring of the Fisherman on the XXIII day of April 1741, in the first year of our Pontificate.
D. Cardinal Passionei.