Alphonsus Rodriguez

ON BL. ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ, TEMPORAL COADJUTOR OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS, AT PALMA ON THE ISLAND OF MAJORCA,

IN THE YEAR 1617.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Alphonsus Rodriguez, temporal coadjutor of the Society of Jesus, on the island of Majorca. (Bl.)

BY R. D. B.

§ I. Of the Life of Bl. Alphonsus, written both by himself and by many others.

Although many men conspicuous for learning and especially for holiness have with eminent zeal handed down to posterity the Acts of blessed Alphonsus, temporal coadjutor of the Society of Jesus, Bl. Alphonsus wrote an account of his conscience, yet the first and chief was the blessed Brother himself; who, in order to comply with his superiors, committed to writing an account of his conscience, that is, of the whole of his life, things done both rightly and wrongly, and his progress in the virtues, and the peculiar benefits granted to him by God [Compare Suarez, Tractatus de Religione Soc. Jesu, edition of Paul Gueau de Reverseaux, appendix, page 645. Institutum Soc. Jesu, volume I, page 350 and following, Prague edition of 1757.]. For when he had been ordered by Father Gabriel Alvarez, rector of the college of Majorca from the year 1604 to the year 1607, to declare in writing the inmost sentiments of his soul, indeed the singular gifts with which God had adorned him, he set forth on paper whatever he had done.

[2] at the command of Gabriel Alvarez, Of which matter Father Alvarez himself gave this testimony: I, Gabriel Alvarez of the Society of Jesus, by order and mandate of my superior, Father Diego Escrivá, provincial of the province of Aragon, attest and say on the word of a priest, that while I was rector of the college of the Society of the city of Majorca, and the venerable Brother Alphonsus Rodriguez was my subject, I ordered him to write with his own hand the things which had come to pass and befallen him and through his soul, from the time he could remember; for I judged that this could redound to the glory of God, and to the consolation and spiritual help of many: and that in writing his deeds and the graces conferred on him by the Lord the said Brother Alphonsus would have no occasion of vanity; and this because of the firm hope which I and all had in his solid

holiness and profound humility; and I considered it certain that, if the said venerable brother were not constrained by a precept of obedience, he would not disclose the communications and interior favors conferred on him by the Lord. For I saw him always most recollected, and wholly averse to the disclosing and opening of his affairs that could reveal his holiness. And the aforesaid, obeying my order and mandate, wrote with his own hand his deeds or affairs, in the preceding leaves, under the name of a third person, in no way naming himself; for so it pleased him to do out of modesty, and I complied with him in this; therefore in testimony of the pure truth I subscribe myself with my own name; in the college of the Society of Jesus of the city of Saragossa, on the 18th day of July of the year 1627, Gabriel Alvarez [Summarium, from the Majorcan process, page 179, 150 and following. Compare Resp. ad novas animadv., page 119, 16 and following.].

[3] John Torrens, Thus far Gabriel Alvarez, who retained that account of conscience, communicated to no one, until the year 1627. But it must be noted that Bl. Alphonsus in this writing recorded few of the things that had happened to him before his thirty-first or thirty-second year. In the year 1607 John Torrens was appointed rector of the college of Majorca in the place of Gabriel Alvarez. He confirmed on oath before the delegates of the bishop of Majorca that for five or six continuous years, during which he governed the college of Monte Sion, he gave Bl. Alphonsus the mandate, at least twice in every year, to give an account of conscience … in writing Summarium, page 117; compare page 180 and following.. He added that Alphonsus at first took this precept ill; but when he had been assured by God that this was the divine will, he at once rendered eager obedience, and handed the account of conscience written out with the pen to the rector of the college. This he himself, when the servant of God had died, entrusted to the bishop's delegates. And this, afterwards rendered into Latin, was inserted in the Summarium of the process of beatification.

[4] and by others. In the month of September of the year 1612 John Torrens of Majorca obtained as successor Peter Gil of Catalonia, whose praises have been written by Nathanael Sotwell Bibliotheca script. Societatis Jesu, page 655., Mathias Tanner Societas Jesu apostolorum imitatrix, page 548., and Nicolás Antonio Bibliotheca hispanica, volume II, page 165, Madrid edition of 1788.. But in the year 1614, in the month of November, Michael Julian was created rector of the college of Majorca; for whom shortly after the death of Bl. Alphonsus John Matthew Marimon was substituted. But since John Torrens, under the rectors Peter Gil and Michael Julian, filled the office of prefect of spiritual things in the college of Monte Sion, it came about that Bl. Alphonsus did not cease to entrust the secrets of his soul to him. These, however, at least in the last year of his life, he did not write with his own hand, but dictated to Father Torrens [Compare Catalogus testium examinatorum in processibus causæ B. Alphonsi Rodriguez, page 17. Summarium, page 26 and following.]. On whose testimony, there remained a minute knowledge in writing of the affairs of the holy Brother from ten or twelve years back, and also of those more notable things concerning his life which had been done before. And it is added in the Process that the whole and entire collection of all the renderings of conscience … is that which, gathered from the original leaves into one volume, was formally collated in the apostolic process of the year 1627 … and printed in the Summarium of the first positio, number 30 Responsio ad nov. animadv., page 9 and following.. Certain copies of those Accounts of conscience, preserved in the chamber of Bl. Alphonsus at Majorca, we shall review below.

[5] Michael Julian wrote his Life, Nor yet did he alone express the image of his life, but many others have handed it down to memory. For on the very day on which Bl. Alphonsus died, the rector of the college of Majorca, Michael Julian, wrote a report of his holy life and death in the Spanish language [Relacion y carta comun del Padre Miguel Julian, rector del colegio de la Compañia de Jesus de la isla y ciudad de Mallorca de la provincia de Aragon, a los Padres y Hermanos della y otras, cerca el feliz y dichoso transito desta vida del bendito Hermano Alonso Rodriguez de la mesma Compañia de Jesus.]. He, a Spaniard by nation, a Valencian by homeland, came to the Society of Jesus in the year 1579, aged 22. In it he governed the college of Gandia for six years, that of Lérida for three, and again that of the Balearics for three. He died on the 3rd day of October of the year 1621. His virtues, and above all his piety toward the Mother of God, are proclaimed by Sotwell Bibliotheca scriptorum Societatis Jesu, page 614.. That little work on Bl. Alphonsus was afterwards published and translated into several languages. Father Hubert de Laurent sent it from Lisbon to Belgium. I have in hand the Flemish translation, which was once Bolland's; and likewise the French, which our Peter Francis Chifflet had held before Bolland.

[6] Matthew Marimon, The following year, namely on the 2nd day of October of the year 1618, John Matthew Marimon composed a much longer Life of Bl. Alphonsus, which on the 10th of November of the same year he dedicated to Father Mutius Vitelleschi, general superior of the Society of Jesus Relacion de la Vida y virtudes del Hermano Alonso Rodriguez, manuscript.. He had known Bl. Alphonsus as a boy, for he had begun the study of letters in the college of Monte Sion in the year 1575. Afterwards, having been made a member of the Society of Jesus, he was sent from Catalonia to Majorca to teach moral theology: from the year 1601 until the death of Bl. Alphonsus he was almost always his ordinary confessor. For which reason it came about, as he himself reports, that he had a perfect knowledge of the blessed man above others. Add that he handled the writings of Bl. Alphonsus, who would never have spoken a falsehood even to avoid a cruel death, and especially his treatises on spiritual things and accounts of conscience: not all, however, for the account of conscience handed to Father Gabriel Alvarez, as we have seen in number 3, became known only after many years. He also saw a letter on the family of Bl. Alphonsus, his parents, and his deeds at Segovia, which Fr. Paul Maldonado, according to what he had received from his sisters, gave to the rector of the college of Majorca, from Segovia on the 8th day of January of the year 1612. This elucubration of Father Marimon, never printed, translated from Spanish into Italian by Francis Berretti, deputed for this purpose by … Cardinal Cibo, relator of the cause of the beatification and canonization of the venerable servant of God Alphonsus Rodriguez, was liberally communicated to me by the Rev. Fr. Joseph Boero, a member of our Society. And Fr. Marimon (whom they also call Marymon) died in the year 1627, as is read in the book of the deceased which is preserved in the archive of the Society of Jesus.

[7] another, anonymous author, In the year 1627 another Life of the servant of God was printed at Majorca, and approved by Dionysius Monserrat, vicar general of the bishop of Majorca [Breve relacion de la vida y virtudes del venerable Hermano Alonso Rodriguez, religioso de la Compañia de Jesus… Imprimiose en Mallorca por Gabriel Guasp.]. Copies of this work are so rare that the Rev. Fr. Joseph Fonda, formerly superior of the house of the Society of Jesus at Palma in the Balearic islands, could procure none of them. But he took care to have the booklet copied out for me. This Life, translated into the Polish language, is reported to have been published at the Vilna press in the year 1656 by Father Albert Wijuk Kojalowicz [De Backer, Bibliothèque des écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, volume II, column 493, edition of 1872.].

[8] Eusebius Nieremberg, A less brief history of Bl. Alphonsus was written by Nieremberg, German by family, of Madrid by homeland, which he inserted in the first volume of his work on the Lives of illustrious men of the Society of Jesus in the year 1643 [Claros varones, etc. Biblioth. des écrivains de la Compagnie de Jésus, volume II, column 1533, edition of 1872.]; afterwards published in Italian by Marco Clemente Baratta in the year 1664 Ibid., volume I, column 399., in Flemish by Francis L'hermite in the year 1667 Ibid., volume II, column 128., and in German by Michael Sintzel in the year 1845 Ibid., volume II, column 1533.. John Eusebius Nieremberg, born in the year 1590, gave his name to the Society of Jesus in the year 1614, and, renowned for holiness and for his books, died in the year 1658. About the same time two other priests of the Society of Jesus, Antony Santarelli, an Italian, who died in the year 1649 Ibid., volume III, column 544., and Paul Albinianus Rajas, a Spaniard, who died in the year 1667 Ibid., column 23., wrote out Lives of Bl. Alphonsus in their native speech, never printed.

[9] Louis Janin, Shortly after Eusebius Nieremberg, namely in the year 1648, Bl. Alphonsus obtained another biographer, Louis Janin. He, born at Nantua in the diocese of Lyons, entered the Society of Jesus in the year 1606, and died an octogenarian at Lyons in the year 1672. While he was filling at Rome the office of assistant to the general superior of our Society, having in hand both the Life of the blessed man composed by the anonymous author in the year 1627 and another in the year 1618 by Matthew Marimon, and the juridical processes conducted by ordinary authority at Majorca and Segovia to promote his beatification, he, who had already before published works on many other members of the Society of Jesus, himself wrote a Life of Bl. Alphonsus, published more than once. This was rendered from the Latin tongue into French by Antony Girard of Autun, who was received into the Society of Jesus in the year 1621, and died at Paris about the year 1680. His writing first saw the light at Paris in the year 1654, then at Liège in the year 1656. Following in Girard's footsteps, John Accolito printed Janin's little work, translated into the Italian tongue, at the press of Bologna about the year 1656, printed a second time in the year 1707 Compare ibid., volume II, column 311..

[10] Francis Colin, In the year 1652 Ibid., volume I, column 1324. another Life of Bl. Alphonsus was published at Madrid in the Spanish language by Father Francis Colin, who, while still a scholastic in the Society of Jesus, from the year 1610 to the year 1616 had been the spiritual disciple of the blessed man. How highly this is to be valued is seen from the fact that Francis Colin, who was no less distinguished for holiness than for knowledge, narrates nothing that he did not see or receive from eyewitnesses. He also used, as he himself says, the accounts of conscience of Bl. Alphonsus, and the informations on his virtues set on foot by Simon Bauzá, bishop of Majorca, and by the apostolic see, and the Life written by John Matthew Marimon. This too was of much profit, that in the college of Monte Sion from the year 1610 to 1616 he lived most closely joined with Bl. Alphonsus, and was on most familiar terms with many alumni of the Society of Jesus and with other men conspicuous for probity who had come into the blessed Brother's company.

Colin departed this life in the year 1660, in the sixty-eighth year of his age, after incredible labors endured for the glory of God in the Philippine islands Menologium Soc. Jesu, at the 6th day of May..

[11] whose holiness was revealed to Bl. Alphonsus; Here must be reported the vision which Bl. Alphonsus had of the holiness of Francis Colin, his future biographer, and which he narrated in an account of conscience in these words: It likewise happened to me on a certain Tuesday, while I was going to the church to communicate, after I had prepared myself as best I could, and had knelt with some devotion, by means of God's help, when the Mass was finished, the brother who was serving the Mass joined himself with me, that he also might receive the most holy Eucharist; there was so immense a light which came upon me, proceeding from his holiness and purity, that it seemed to me that he was more than an angel, or that he exceeded the rank of the archangels, and seeing him so holy served me as a great example, esteeming him in my soul, and making very much of him. What then shall I say of the things which happened while I saw myself near him, for the purpose of communicating, seeing him so beautiful and holy, and myself at his side so fetid and full of sins, so that I did not deserve to remain at his side? No one can say or narrate the things which were done there, considering the goodness of that angel and my depravity. O how much the goodness of this saint and his great example signify! In my heart there was impressed that imagination and esteem, that I saw him as it were a heavenly angel, so that the impression * of this kind cannot be blotted out from me as long as I live; so that I can and ought to imitate him because of the great esteem which I have and have conceived of him, seeing him visibly and interiorly beautiful, as an angel of heaven. I beseech God therefore that he may be willing to grant me that I may be able to imitate him. This is he who helps me, the unworthy one, in my necessities, Brother Francis the scholastic Summarium, page 277.. This fact too Matthew Marimon mentions [Manuscript Life of Bl. Alphonsus, book III, §21.]. A compendium of the Life of Bl. Alphonsus written by Colin came from the press of Madrid in the year 1765, by the care of Nicholas Martinez, temporal coadjutor of our Society.

[12] Louis Jacobi, Antony Boissieu, In the year 1659 a Flemish Life of Bl. Alphonsus was brought to light by Louis Jacobi, who, born at Brussels in the year 1594, admitted to the Society in the year 1613, a preacher and missionary in Belgium and Holland for forty years, died at Courtrai in the year 1661 De Backer, Bibl. des écriv. de la Comp., volume II, column 302.. Colin's work was so used by Antony Boissieu, writing in the year 1668 on the same subject, that both in relating the life he follows him almost everywhere and he has translated his book on the writings of Bl. Alphonsus into French in so many words. He also employed, as he himself says in the preface, not a few documents sent to him by the Majorcans. Antony Boissieu was born in the year 1623 in the town of Germain-Laval in the diocese of Lyons, and, received into the Society of Jesus in the year 1643, died at Lyons in the sixty-eighth year of his age Ibid., volume I, column 678.. We pass over the manuscript Lives composed by Antony Santarelli, of whom already in number 8, and by Stephen Terreros y Pando, who died in the year 1782. These the Brothers De Backer mention Ibid., volume III, columns 544, 1084.. Among the biographers of Bl. Alphonsus some seem to number Antony Rolin, a Spaniard, of the Society of Jesus Compare ibid., volume III, column 274., relying only on the testimony of Nicolás Antonio Biblioth. hisp. nova, volume I, page 158, edition of 1783., who affirms that he wrote Vida, doctrina y muerte del venerable Padre Alonso Rodriguez Life, teaching and death of the venerable Father Alonso Rodriguez, not adding in what place, at what time he lived. But I think that this does not concern Bl. Alphonsus Rodriguez, coadjutor of the Society of Jesus, but rather the most pious Father Alphonsus Rodriguez, writer of the books on Christian Perfection. Thus far of the authors who gathered the deeds of Bl. Alphonsus before his beatification.

[13] and other more recent ones. As soon as the servant of God was entered by Leo XII on the roll of the blessed, several Lives appeared. The Fathers of the Society of Jesus living at Rome in the year 1825 printed anew at the presses of Rome and Turin the Life already published at Rome in the year 1761 by Father Archangelo Arcangeli. A compendium of this work was published in the same year 1825 by Philip Stanislaus del Pace, himself also a member of the Society of Jesus [Compendio istorico della vita, delle virtute e de miracoli del B. Alfonso Rodriguez, coadjutore temporale della Compagnia di Gesù.]. These were imitated a little later by Louis Rondeau [Vie du B. Alphonse Rodriguez, frère coadjuteur de la Compagnie de Jésus, in 12mo.]. He, when, laboring gravely with illness at Aix in Provence, he had been restored to health on the 19th day of January of the year 1826 by the blessed man's intervention, composed with a grateful mind the Life of his patron; which first saw the light at Lyons in the year 1828, and again in the year 1836, afterwards at Paris in the year 1862. This Life too was translated both into the English language at London and Dublin, and into the Flemish language at Tournai Carayon, Bibliogr. historiq. de la Compagnie de Jésus, page 341.. To these joined themselves in the year 1842 the Rev. Fr. Joseph Boero Compendio della vita del B. Alfonso Rodriguez, in 8vo, Turin., and in the year 1851 Antony Furió y Sastre, who, writing at Palma in the Spanish tongue, added a narration of the solemnities with which his fellow-countrymen congratulated Alphonsus on being entered by the Roman pontiff into the number of the blessed Vida del B. Alfonso Rodriguez de la Compañia de Jesus.. Lastly in the year 1868 a book in the German language was composed by M. Hausherr, a priest of the Society of Jesus. His work has recently been rendered into Flemish. Of these elucubrations, which we have examined, we shall put to the press only two, namely the notice by Michael Julian and the Life written by Louis Janin, as being better adapted to our Work, as will be clear to the reader. Nevertheless we shall not omit to add among the Annotations many excerpts from the other writers.

* in pretio in the edition.

§ II. Of the holiness of the sisters of Bl. Alphonsus.

The sisters of Bl. Alphonsus, taught by his letters, In the present commentary it is superfluous to discuss the parents of Bl. Alphonsus, his condition, and other things of this kind, which are abundantly illustrated in the Life itself or in the annotations. But to put forward certain things about the virtues of his sisters will not be out of place, since they were much helped by their brother's examples, letters, and prayers in acquiring Christian perfection for themselves; so that their holiness pertains not a little to the glory of the blessed man. Now of the four sisters we know only three: Manuela, Juliana, and Antonia: of the fourth not even the name has come down to us. Manuela entered into matrimony, and lived so piously that Bl. Alphonsus, commending her to God when she had died at Madrid, saw her entering heaven. But of Juliana and Antonia we must speak more fully; whom the holy brother, after his wife's death, received into his house, so that he himself with his son lived in one part of the dwelling, and in the other his mother and two sisters. His sisters too, when he was about to give his name to the Society of Jesus, he enriched with his goods, and afterwards exhorted them in very frequent letters, either to love God more from day to day, or to bear the hardships of the present life with even mind. That both excellently obeyed these counsels we gather both from their letters to their brother and from the writings of the fathers Francis Colin Vida del ven. Hermano Alonso Rodriguez, chapter III, folio 8 and following. and Matthew Marimon [Relazione della vita e virtù del Fratello Alonso Rodriguez, page 28 and following.]. They were called by the people, as being publicly bound by a vow of chastity, the Beatas of Diego Rodriguez, which was the name of their father. When their mother, resplendent in virtues, had soon departed from life, they inhabited a small house near the college of the Society of Jesus; where, withdrawn from all men, and not even admitting the company of a maidservant, for about fifty years they spent their age striving solely after the charisms of Christ.

[15] they lived most holily, This was their manner of living. Rising at the second or third hour of the morning, they gave themselves to the contemplation of divine things in their oratory, and as soon as the church of the college was opened, they were present at all the sacrifices of the Mass, as many as were performed. At the eleventh hour, having returned home, they dined moderately. Then, as long as their sight allowed, they made ornaments for divine worship. But Sundays and feasts they spent almost entire in the church of the college, returning home only to take food. Toward evening they recited in alternate turns the rosary of the blessed Virgin Mary, turning over the mysteries in their mind. After this a little supper of a morsel of bread and a few fruits. Add that three times every week they kept a most severe fast. Before they went to bed, they again meditated for a long time on heavenly things; and when, advanced in age, they began to grow dim of sight, they devoted to prayer the time formerly given to making altar ornaments, so that their whole life was an almost continuous prayer. Besides, they afflicted their flesh with hairshirts, scourges, and other tortures; and if they had not been forbidden by the directors of their souls, they would have dealt with themselves even much more cruelly.

[16] giving proofs of tried virtue, From the time when they had begun to follow more perfectly in the footsteps of Christ, twice in the week and afterwards daily they sat down at the heavenly table. This displeased many not a little. But their confessors, who had well perceived the distinguished virtues of Juliana and Antonia, and especially their unshaken patience and obedience, although drawn in the other direction by their detractors, always counseled the most pious virgins to continue approaching the divine mysteries very frequently. By many also they were harassed because they avoided all conversations, as being less pleasing to God, except with their confessor. Add that some of their confessors (among whom Father Gaspar de Pedrosa, a man, as they themselves wrote to Bl. Alphonsus, of no moderate holiness) took proofs of their fortitude by stirring up troubles for them. But the holy sisters received all bitternesses with eager spirit, as sent by God. Indeed, treating their tormentors with even greater benevolence than others, they offered vows for their happiness. Moreover the Lord himself, now by anguish or coldness of soul, now by bodily weakness or languor, now by other troubles, tried their virtue as gold in the furnace.

[17] and they died with a reputation for holiness. Although both virgins were conspicuous for holiness, Antonia, the younger by birth, especially enjoyed the divine commerce. She, praying to God for Father Bartholomew de Hierro, whom she had had as director of her conscience, saw his soul, immediately after his death at Segovia, ascending into heaven: of which thing informing

her confessor, she added that Bartholomew had been immune from the pains of purgatory. One night, while she was occupied with heavenly things in her oratory, she saw herself surrounded by rays of light. To her also God showed the glory with which the members of the Society of Jesus are rewarded in heaven. Some men who had departed this life, whom she commended to the divine mercy, either receiving the Body of Christ for them or assisting at the sacred sacrifice of the Mass, she beheld rejoicing in heaven in perennial felicity. A few days before her death her sister Juliana asked her to obtain from God for her the grace of following her next to eternal life. That she might better prepare herself, when her sister had died she took no other food than bread and water, by permission of her confessor, and gave herself wholly to prayer. And after two and a half days she passed from life, full of days and merits. Such was the fame of the holiness of these sisters that their bodies were borne into one and the same tomb, in the chapel of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the church of the Society of Jesus at Segovia, with great pomp, most of the citizens of the city accompanying them, and the people preserved their garments as sacred relics. And Bl. Alphonsus, who had obtained from God by many prayers that both should pass directly to heaven without experiencing the fire of purgatory, also asked and obtained that he might contemplate them in the company of the saints. For he saw Juliana and Antonia exulting with joy, clad in a golden garment, on bended knees before the Lamb: and it was declared to him that the golden garment signified their extraordinary love toward God, and the bent knees continual prayer; and that they rejoiced vehemently at the certain hope of soon enjoying the company of their brother in heaven. This vision Bl. Alphonsus reported in his writings, of which a review must be made in § IV.

§ III. Of the religious life of Bl. Alphonsus. His wonderful obedience.

Bl. Alphonsus, temporal coadjutor of the Society of Jesus, The holy man, forty years of age, and having for a long time now embraced virtue with all zeal, at length entered the Society of Jesus and was received among the temporal coadjutors: those namely, as is known, who are occupied with those actions which are necessary for the sustenance of the body and for other exterior and bodily exercises,.. to be regarded indeed not as menials or servants, but as our brothers, companions, and helpers … who also help toward spiritual things, but not in the same way as spiritual coadjutors: for the latter help by performing some part of the spiritual ministries, whereas the rest, by carrying out temporal things, leave them free for spiritual occupations, and in this way also help them in these [Suarez, Tract. de Religione Soc. Jesu, book VII, chapter III, page 392 and following, edition of Guéau de Reverseaux.]. How much trouble this institute caused elsewhere, what great disturbances the behavior of helpers of this kind once made, was known to him who introduced them into the Society of Jesus, St. Ignatius Loyola: but by the religious education of the Brothers, and the frequent making of the spiritual exercises, by opportune change of places and domiciles, by the perpetual vigilance of superiors, by dismissal, where necessary, from the Order, and by other ways adopted, the disadvantages have been so avoided that innumerable Brothers have rendered excellent service to the Society of Jesus, much less done harm, and have been most richly laden with every praise of virtues. For to pass over St. James Kisai and the other Japanese martyrs; the companions of Bl. Ignatius de Azevedo inscribed on the roll of the saints; many other distinguished coadjutors Compare Colin, Vida del ven. A. Rodriguez, Prologo a los Hermanos coadj. temp.; our blessed Alphonsus himself was an example of rare holiness. Since this is declared at length in his Life, there is no reason to anticipate it here.

[19] for his state There is, however, one thing that seems to need touching on. For some have reproached the holy Brother with an excessive and foolishly blind zeal for obeying. Indeed the obedience of the Society of Jesus is not called blind in the sense that a man conforms himself to the condition of a brute or a log, or that he omits to consider whether what is commanded is just or wicked, or finally that he is forbidden to set forth the reasons for which he cannot fulfill the precept; … but that he contemplates in the superior Christ the Lord, whose place he holds, and that he refrains from examining the causes for which the legitimate superior has commanded something [Fr. Ribadeneira, De ratione instituti Soc. Jesu, chapter XXV; compare chapter XXVI and following. Suarez, De Relig. Soc. Jesu, book IV, chapter XV, page 254 and following.]. That Bl. Alphonsus wisely taught this, that he practised this, has been copiously demonstrated in the Process of canonization itself. From which it is well to excerpt some things (mostly keeping the very words), that deeds which some have omitted, and which others have narrated less accurately or badly interpreted, may be brought to light. But to those who may think these things minute or futile, the defender of the cause himself [Responsio facti et juris ad primas animadversiones fidei promotoris, page 30 and following.] says: If sedulous observance in all the least things conduces very much to perfection, … it is indeed of the greatest moment for the perfection of obedience and especially for heroicity.

[20] he was perfectly obedient, Treating more widely the argument already set forth in the Response to the first animadversions of the promoter of the faith, another advocate of the cause Resp. ad novas animadv., page 86 and following. distinguishes what in obedience of this kind belongs to the precept from what is of mere counsel, and notes in the obedience of the intellect two proofs of the highest perfection, namely that obedience be blind (which, as is known, is explained by the example of a corpse, or a staff, or the subjection of the intellect in believing, and has a most solid foundation derived from the sacred pages, from the Holy Fathers, and also from the deeds of the saints); and that the subject should regard the superior not as a man, but as God Ibid., page 90.; not as if he at once absolutely supposes, says Suarez [Tract. de Religione Soc. Jesu, book IV, chapter XV, page 249, edition of Guéau de Reverseaux.], that he cannot err; but only, granted the hypothesis that he does not command evil, nor that any such thing appears in the precept, … he judges for himself that he does not err. And showing the same thing, how rightly one obeys not only a true precept, but also, as St. Thomas says, an interpretative one, the author says: Generally, as often as in the aforesaid cases it is lawful to obey, it is better and more perfect to obey, even if the obligation of the precept could be excused on some title; which is most true when the obligation is lacking for this reason, that the superior does not intend to oblige, though he could Ibid., page 253 and following.. And in this manner of obeying there is nothing of evil, nothing of danger: in which, namely, the matter is honest with sufficient certainty, which is reckoned enough for the subject lawfully to comply, in any kind of obedience, whether civil, domestic, or military. For if a servant or a soldier always had to know the moving reasons of his generals or masters for commanding, all government would be rendered morally impossible. And in actual fact among religious a superior may often be moved by higher reasons, which it is neither necessary nor useful for the subject to know; for example, by the purpose of making trial of the subject, and of exercising him in the virtues Resp. ad nov. animadv., page 92.. For the rest, this kind of obedience is necessary for all the other perfections of obedience Suarez, op. cit., page 255..

[21] even heroically, That the obedience of Bl. Alphonsus attained to the highest degree of that perfection is manifest; and so much so that the very cases which some attack, if they are weighed in the concrete and with all their circumstances, can be imputed to the highest perfection and heroicity of obedience Resp. ad nov. animadv., page 92.. These we shall now briefly review. A certain superior, to test the holy man, commanded him to go and board a ship without turning aside for anything, … and to betake himself to the Indies. But at the same time he had prudently warned the doorkeeper to refuse Alphonsus exit. He at once therefore set out, without cloak or hat, and asked by Father Rector what he had thought to do, he said: I would have gone to the port, and if I had found a ship setting out for India, I would have placed myself on it; and if I had not found a ship, I would have gone in through the waters, until the water reached up to my mouth; and if I could not have gone further, I would have gone back: in which things I consider that I would have satisfied the precept of obedience Resp. ad nov. animadv., page 101 and following..

[22] the examples of the saints This manner of acting is approved, besides the admonition and example of St. Ignatius Loyola, by almost innumerable examples of other saints. In which, however, two kinds as it were must be distinguished: Some are those which, regarded in themselves and from the object … could be illicit, as being joined with evident danger of life or grave harm, or humanly impossible: and as to these … it must be believed that they were done by a peculiar instinct of the Holy Spirit, both on the part of the prelates commanding and of the subjects obeying. These are proposed under that aspect not to be imitated, but to be admired; but to be imitated as to the perfection of virtue which such deeds indicate or suppose [Compare Benedict XIV, De beatific. SS., book III, chapter XLI, number 10. Suarez, op. cit., book IV, chapter XV, page 257. Compare Cassian, De cœnob. instit., book IV, chapter XV and following. Rosweyde, Vitæ Patrum, book V, chapter XV, chapter XIV, and book IV, chapter XXVII. St. Gregory, Life of St. Benedict, chapter VII.]. But there are other examples of the saints which either concern … difficult things, but yet humanly possible; or, if they are impossible, bear the character of a trial so far as it is morally possible; or concern actions in themselves not evil nor illicit, but whose purpose could seem either vain or useless or excessive. And as to these … the most received opinion is that they are also proposed for imitation, since they … contain great perfection of obedience Resp. ad nov. animadv., page 102 and following., and at the same time of abnegation, mortification, and humility.

[23] wisely imitated. Now to this second kind … all the aforesaid cases of the obedience of Bl. Alphonsus are recognized to have belonged; and accordingly in these the blind execution of the work to the letter and without any investigation (which belongs not to the precept of obedience but to mere counsel), by this very fact belongs to the most absolute perfection of obedience, and hence to imitation. Doubt could perhaps arise about this setting out for the Indies. But beyond the fact that in Alphonsus … certain

we are of the interior motion of the Holy Spirit Compare Ratio conscientiæ, in the Elenchus, page 89 and following. … he did not think of executing the superior's precept brutally or rashly, by tempting God or by loss of life, but … interpreted it up to the limits of possibility and propriety; and most wisely: for, according to the mind of our Suarez, one must obey even in an impossible matter … (speaking of the ordinary manner of studiously obeying), as far as undertaking and beginning the action, in so far as it may be possible; and one must not desist before it is proved in fact that it is not possible to go further without grave harm, or without rashness Op. cit., chapter XV, page 257..

[24] He obeys the infirmarian to the letter, When the servant of God was sick, and would not eat the seasoned dish, he was ordered by the infirmarian in the superior's name to eat the whole bowl offered to him: having taken the seasoned dish therefore, he began to scrape the earthenware of the bowl with a knife, that he might be able to eat it thus reduced to powder and mixed with the food; until the infirmarian intervened. There is nothing absurd in this: for granted a thousand times that the superior's intention was about eating the dish, not the bowl; granted too that the servant of God could thus have interpreted it in the common sense, if he had wished; since nevertheless on the other hand the explicit words of the precept expressed not only the dish, but also the bowl (for the dish has … its own proper word), we do not see why it should not be lawful for the servant of God to interpret them to the letter, not indeed of precept, but of counsel and supererogation, both for literally fulfilling the superior's precept and … for the exercise of his own mortification. For if it would have been lawful for the superior, in order to test the mortification and obedience of Alphonsus, to command this seriously, and indeed in no other words; so in turn, given in fact such a verbal precept on the superior's part, it was lawful for the servant of God to interpret it to the letter Resp. ad nov. animadv., page 92 and following..

[25] and to the superior, who ordered him not to move. On a certain day Bl. Alphonsus, sitting in the upper chapel and hearing a sermon, wished to give up the place where he was sitting to Father Rector when he came in; but when he ordered him once and again: Do not move, Brother, sit, stay firm, do not move, he so obeyed that he did not depart from there until, several hours having elapsed, he was recalled by the superior: because namely, as the servant of God himself admits, the rector had gone away without ordering him otherwise, or taking the obedience from him. Now in these precise … terms, wholly unlimited, and uttered with a countenance perhaps more than serious (that is, in the chapel and during the sermon), and accordingly at least in doubt whether the superior was commanding seriously, or to test his obedience, or to exercise him in mortification … or to offer an occasion that he might persist longer there in prayer …, what wonder if … he at once most promptly and gladly obeyed to the terms of the precept? since it is better and more perfect to obey, even if the obligation of the precept could be excused on some title. But that he remained longer in that place was caused not by any defect of his obedience, but by forgetfulness on the superior's part Ibid., page 94 and following.. And very similar examples of obedience of this kind are shown by the Lives of the Fathers and the Acts of the saints.

[26] He performs his office, although another has filled his place. On the Wednesday of the greater week it had been entrusted to Alphonsus that in the matins of Tenebrae at the end of each psalm he should extinguish a candle … but before he came to put out the candle, a certain boy … (standing on the steps …) had already put it out. Alphonsus nonetheless performed the same ceremony with the reed, as if it were still lit: nor was he moved to repeat such an action materially by any dullness of mind, as if he did not believe them extinguished, or did not see that the candles were extinguished. He intended (what was not fulfilled by the aforesaid boy through his material extinguishing of the candle) the execution of the office committed to him, as a minister of the Church, with the sacred surplice …, according to the rite of the Roman Church … approaching from the epistle horn to the middle of the altar, genuflecting before the cross … pointing with a pause to the extinguished candle, and performing the rest so that what was symbolically signified by these things might appear, as is declared in the Responses. And he said nothing to the boy at that time, because it could rather have turned to scandal, if a religious, clad in ecclesiastical habit, had begun to wrangle with a boy in the church in the midst of a sacred function Resp. ad nov. animad., page 96 and following..

[27] He does not inquire into the causes of a precept, On a certain day a priest who had come to speak to him had scarcely uttered: Thanks be to God, when the servant of God withdrew, because his superior had told him to go, that they did not wish to speak with him more than two words. Bl. Alphonsus could indeed, with such an expression of two words … have used common sense and epikeia, and conversed longer; but he ought not. For given such precise … terms of a precept, that he should go down to speak two words, in a lawful matter, and one which at any rate could be brought into a precept by the superior in the same rigid sense, it was not only lawful, but also quite meritorious … to execute the superior's precept to the letter, without any further investigation into the cause of the precept Ibid., page 99.. This again six hundred examples of the saints confirm [Cassian, De cœnob. instit., book IV, chapter XII. Rosweyde, Vitæ PP., book V, chapter XV, page 625, number 43; ibid., chapter XIV, page 617, numbers 5 and 6.].

[28] executing commands to a nicety. When on another occasion a certain play was being recited in the college, and the superior had commanded that he open the college door to no one, the bishop chancing to arrive, Alphonsus received him indeed most courteously and reverently, but most modestly signified to him the superior's precept, and asked only that he wait for a while until he went to the superior. He, coming at once, said to the lord bishop that the aforesaid Br. Alphonsus had done this that he might fulfill the precept of obedience to a nicety and precisely. Whence the lord bishop took great example. That religious doorkeeper is by no means to be blamed, since to set an exception to an unlimited, universal, and absolute precept belonged not to the subject, but to the … superior: who set no exception at all. All the deeds of the blessed man being similarly weighed, the sum will be that he obeyed not from any natural defect of reason, but on the contrary from a most perfect use of reason… He knew exceedingly well that the kind of precept is twofold, namely either express or interpretative, .. and he knew that to perfection belongs the second kind of precept, namely of fulfilling any nod of the superior, not indeed of precept, but of counsel; because he knew that to be perfect obedience which obeys in all lawful things Resp., page 107..

§ IV. The spiritual little works of the servant of God. Whether he was the author of the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception.

Bl. Alphonsus wrote many things about spiritual matters, We have said in number 1 that Bl. Alphonsus, at the command of his directors, committed to writing the chief deeds of his life, and also the peculiar benefits granted to him by God. But he wrote many other things, of which scarcely some little leaves have been published, and which have been religiously preserved up to our own times in the college of Monte Sion. And they are so ample that if they were joined to the Accounts of conscience, they would fill no fewer pages than the present volume of the Acta Sanctorum Resp. ad nov. animadv., page 5.. But in them you would seek in vain for polish of speech, apt arrangement of matter, or other endowments of this kind. They smell of a man unacquainted with letters, who often repeats what he has said, brings forward superfluous things, and almost never has a choice of words. Yet it is not to be wondered at that a man so constituted composed so many writings; for St. Ignatius himself introduced into the Society of Jesus the custom that if anyone were enlightened by God with some light in meditations, he should keep it on paper. Moreover Bl. Alphonsus, who molded himself wholly to the nod of his directors, was ordered by them, as we have just said, to write down his thoughts on spiritual matters.

[30] of which the Sacred Congregation of Rites drew up a catalogue, It would indeed be difficult to compose an index of the works of the servant of God, because most lack a title, and also some are nothing but little leaves, or consist of two or three little leaves joined. For that reason we shall give their series as it occurs in the decree of the Sacred Congregation of Rites of the 12th day of July 1717 [Beatificationis et canonizationis ven. servi Dei Alphonsi Rodriguez Summarium additionale, page 2 and following.]. We shall add, where it seems useful, a very brief summary of each, adding the titles by which they are designated by Alegambe, Sotwell, and others. In the index annexed to the decree of the year 1717 these works are enumerated and described as they exist in the copy sent to Rome. Namely all the little works, letters, and manuscripts, reduced into one great volume (of almost, as is said elsewhere, two thousand leaves), … were transmitted to the Sacred Congregation Compare Resp. ad nov. anim., page 5.. And those copies which were kept at Palma in the chamber of Bl. Alphonsus were handed over together with other relics to the rector of the academy of Palma, when at the close of the XVIIIth century the Society of Jesus was expelled from the Spains. At that time these writings were examined and accurately reviewed in a public instrument, of which we have a copy. Hence we shall interpose certain little notes, enclosed in brackets, in the following index.

I. Tratadito de la humildad de corazon A little treatise on humility of heart in quarto, 212 pages.

II. Tratadito de la oracion breve y deboto A brief and devout little treatise on prayer.

First let a man think that God has all our works before his eyes, no otherwise than at the last judgment. Then let him venerate Jesus in his heart, as the angels in heaven. Nor let it escape him that the witnesses of our actions are Mary and the angels. If adverse things afflict anyone, let him say: O God, come to my assistance, or Lord, what wilt thou have me to do, or other things of this kind. It will be most useful also to consider day and night in what way he may from day to day be more pleasing to God, to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and to the saints. And since God searches with what affection a man works, we shall study to perform all works, even the least, as if our salvation or the good of the Church were placed in each of them, or indeed as if this were the last of our life. There is added an examination of the whole life, a manner of piously approaching holy communion, and vocal prayers to be said at first light and through the day. The author also teaches a way of practising mental prayer. After this he proposes what thanks are to be given to God for such great benefits, and what petitions one ought to make through the merits of Jesus Christ.

III. Capitolo primero el punto de nuestro aprovechamiento First chapter, the point of our profiting in quarto, 116 leaves.

IV. Show me thy ways, O Lord. These ways are the exercises to which a Christian ought to give attention, namely prayer, mortification, humility, confidence, charity toward God and neighbor, prudence and piety toward Jesus, the Mother of God, St. Ignatius, the recollection of God's presence, and others. Since he treats of the same virtues in many other places, this little work seems to be a heap of pious thoughts had at different times.

Declaracion de las peticiones del Pater noster Declaration of the petitions of the Our Father in quarto; from folio 5 the leaves are numbered up to 107. This is nothing other than the Lord's Prayer, used according to the norm of the second manner of praying of St. Ignatius. There Bl. Alphonsus now addresses God, now explains what benefits are to be asked for, or sets forth the endowments of the virtues which, with God's help, we shall attain.

VI. La resignacion es en dos maneras Resignation is of two kinds; of which this is the sum: The exercise of the agreement of one's own will and the divine, which is a most certain sign of salvation and of love of the Lord, is acquired especially by consideration of the divine perfections. If anyone practises it, he will clearly perceive the love of God toward men, and accordingly will commit all his affairs to him, will show himself ready to accept all troubles from his hand, and then, tossed by miseries and hardships, will give thanks to God, and will say with St. Paul: I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me. The codex is in quarto, 118 leaves, with an index of chapters.

VII. Tratado con la gracia de Dios Treatise with the grace of God [in quarto, 22 leaves. With which are two treatises, one of the love of God, the other of priests preparing themselves for offering the divine sacrifice].

VIII. Sia exercitio interior Let it be an interior exercise. Here Bl. Alphonsus shows how, that anyone may be able to arrive at the summit of perfection, he ought to keep to the path of virtue and make war on the depraved affections of the soul.

IX. Cosa es muy notoria y clara It is a very notorious and clear thing, and Cosa es muy clara y que se dexa vera It is a very clear thing and one which lets itself be seen [in quarto, inscribed: Libro del ven. Hermano Alonso Rodriguez, dividendo en dos libros (Book of the venerable Brother Alonso Rodriguez, to be divided into two books). The leaves are numbered 87 and then 80].

X. Desde el fin de la Quaresma From the end of Lent.

XI. Abisos para imitar a Christo, para ti Alonso Counsels for imitating Christ, for you, Alonso. In this little work, which seems to be a heap of lights received in meditation, there are proposed the fear and love of God, mortification, poverty, and other virtues of this kind, to be undertaken chiefly for this cause, that Christ the Lord eagerly cultivated them from the cradle up to his death.

XII. Tratado del amor de Dios Treatise on the love of God in octavo, 144 leaves.

XIII. Caridad perfecta se ha de advertir Perfect charity is to be noted in octavo, 64 leaves. Having defined perfect charity, of which he also discourses in many other little leaves, Bl. Alphonsus confirms that humility, mortification, and self-denial have great force for acquiring it; and he teaches that there are three degrees of this charity: to do and suffer all things for the love of God, always and everywhere to comply with God's will, and day and night to think solely of God. After this he writes of the fruits of perfect charity: union, contemplation, and the transformation of the soul into Christ the Lord.

XIV. Haz de mi, mi Dios, lo que te agradare Do with me, my God, what may please you 73 leaves.

XV. Es cosa tan preciosa It is so precious a thing. In this little leaf he treats briefly of mortification, the patient bearing of evils of soul and body, zeal for spreading the divine glory, obedience, and other virtues, as being ways to perfection.

XVI. A letter beginning: La veatissima Trinidad The most blessed Trinity. It is declared how the most Holy Trinity took counsel about redeeming man, and how great was the joy of the angels at the nativity of Christ the Lord.

XVII. Another letter (written at Majorca on the 25th day of July 1608), beginning: Pax Christi. Por haverme mandado Peace of Christ. Because you have commanded me. He who wishes to go by the way of perfection is enjoined not only to strip himself of love of himself, but also to show blind obedience to his directors, and assiduously to repress his vicious nature.

XVIII. Another letter (written on the evening of St. James of the year 1610), which begins: Pax Christi. Lo que vuestra reberencia Peace of Christ. What your reverence; it exhorts Bartholomew Valperga, a Carthusian, always to walk in the presence of God.

[31] and she recognized their sound doctrine. And all these works written in Spanish the Sacred Congregation of Rites on the 19th day of January of the year 1715, at the prayers of Gregory de Velasco, priest of the Society of Jesus, procurator of the assistancy of Spain and postulator of the cause of beatification and canonization of the servant of God Alphonsus Rodriguez, entrusted for examination to Cardinal Ptolomæus, ponent of this cause. Having heard his report, the sacred Congregation decided on the 12th day of June 1717, since nothing reprehensible occurred in the writings of Bl. Alphonsus, that it was possible to proceed further. To which sentence, on the 10th day of July of the same year, Clement XI assented Resp. ad nov. anim., pages 2 and 4..

[32] Other little leaves remain, But in that index not all the writings were expressly named which the most holy man left at his death. These must be added:

XIX. A little leaf which begins with these words: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory? Explaining this sentence, Alphonsus shows from the resurrection of Christ how pious men, after many hardships endured for Jesus, at length enjoy eternal joys.

XX. Another little leaf makes clear that for attaining humility of mind knowledge of oneself is necessary. And this will be had by whoever asks it of God, and, afflicted by adverse things, looks seriously into his own mind, and has his desires subdued. Then he treats much more fully of humility of heart and its effects.

XXI. In another writing the servant of God shows how priests ought to conduct themselves from first light, that they may worthily offer the most holy sacrifice of the Mass. (Compare above, number 30, VII.)

XXII. There are also extant little leaves on modesty, obedience, patience, abnegation, and the other virtues. Among the writings found in the blessed man's chamber are recorded, besides the Accounts of conscience (compare above, number 1 and following), certain manuscript books, which are said to be Bl. Alphonsus's and which we shall indicate below, in setting forth the fates of the relics.

[33] and letters, XXIII. Further, among the works of Bl. Alphonsus we cannot but number several of his letters, which would perhaps never have come down to us, if they had not been inserted in the Life composed by Francis Colin. The first of these he gave to a certain religious anxious about his salvation: where, having examined the reasons for his anguish, he raises up the oppressed man Colin, Vida del ven. Alonso Rodriguez, folio 172 and following.. The second he wrote to a certain religious who feared for his vocation, and he counseled him to commit his cause to God, in which way he would attain peace of soul Ibid., folio 177 and following.. There remains also a letter of Bl. Alphonsus given to his sisters Ibid., folio 178 and following., in which he strongly exhorts them to love God more from day to day, indicating as suitable arts innocence of life, consideration of the divine perfections, frequent asking of this virtue from God and assiduous exercise of it, and lastly forgetfulness of oneself and of created things. In another letter he congratulates his sister Antonia that she has been held worthy to suffer many hardships for Christ Ibid., folio 154 and following.. There are also extant three letters to a certain novice; the first of which shows that mortification is to be joined with prayer; in the second he greatly commends humility; and in the third he proposes the manner of acquiring it Ibid., folio 158 and following.. The same author has preserved for us a small part of the letter which the blessed man gave to Fr. Paul Maldonado, the confessor of his sisters, indicating how they ought to endure hardships for God's sake Ibid., folio 157 and following..

[34] Sotwell reviewed his works. There are finally some little works of the pious author, by what title they are indicated by the Sacred Congregation of Rites I should not dare to determine. For I have at hand only the Italian version of the writings, which very often lacks titles. Add that Bl. Alphonsus almost always treats of the same virtues, so that not infrequently different works could be inscribed with the same name. Further, this series of the little works of Bl. Alphonsus is shown us by Sotwell [Bibliotheca scriptorum Societatis Jesu, page 40. Compare Colin, Vida del ven. Alonso, folio 144.]:

Of prayer, and admonitions for living and dying well. Of knowledge of self and progress. Of humility and other virtues. Of humility, patience, and obedience. Of the esteem of the Society of Jesus. Of disposition for the Eucharist and of giving thanks.

Of the love of God. Of piety toward Mary. Of contemplation, mortification, humility, and other virtues.

A book of various treatises, at the beginning of which the petitions of the Lord's Prayer are declared.

Of the presence of God. Of twofold resignation to God. How the soul leaves itself. Of prayer and mortification.

Of the manner in which the soul grows in virtue and holiness. Of the signs of one's own predestination. Of mortification and other virtues. Likewise to priests for the celebration of Mass and to scholastics.

Of the treasure of labors. Of the threefold vow of Religion. Of the soul and the beauty of virtue. Of the foulness of sin.

A book inscribed: Not to be a judge of the rule, but an observer. Likewise of the presence of God. Of the examination of conscience.

Of the love of God. Of the virtue of obedience and others.

Admonitions for imitating Christ, for you, Alphonsus. Of charity. Of the union and transformation of the soul into God. Of prayer and true knowledge of self.

Documents for temptations: where of the presence of God. Of knowledge of self and humility.

He also wrote the progress of his life, when he rendered an account of conscience to his superiors in writing.

[35] of the Office of the Immaculate Conception These things in addition are said by Philip Alegambe Bibl. script. Societ. Jesu, page 22. and after him Nathanael Sotwell Bibl. script. Soc. Jesu, page 40., and other authors: He wrote at the command of the Blessed Virgin (as the opinion was) those prayers with which he was accustomed to greet her daily: which, afterwards printed, are in circulation. These are:

The Crown of the most dear and most loving Lady, the mother of God.

Litanies of the same.

The most holy Office of the most pure and immaculate Conception of the same Mother of God.

But this Office we cannot ascribe to blessed Alphonsus. For the blessed man was too little lettered, as is clear from his genuine writings, to compose so beautiful a work. Besides, Francis Colin, his biographer and disciple beloved above others, most expressly indicates that the Little Office was written by another than Bl. Alphonsus Vida del ven. Alonso Rodriguez, folio 213 and following.. If he had thought him the author, he would surely not have forgotten to hand so great a praise down to memory. Add that those prayers are passed over in silence by the Sacred Congregation of Rites in examining the series of the pious author's writings. Indeed Bl. Alphonsus himself in setting forth the fates of his life, although he reports that the Mother of God said that his zeal for spreading the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception was very pleasing to her, yet nowhere suggests that he is the author of this booklet. Nor must it be omitted that Antony Balinghem, a member of the Society of Jesus, who in the year

1624, and thus in the seventh year after the death of Bl. Alphonsus, wove the Little Office into his book on Marian hymns, affirms that he excerpted it from certain very ancient hours in Spain, and gives it the title Office of the Immaculate Conception, which was revealed as by far the most acceptable to her by the Virgin herself to Bl. Alphonsus Rodriguez of the Society of Jesus, who was accustomed to recite it every day Parnassus Marianus, page 37 and following.. Antony Balinghem therefore was persuaded that this pious booklet had been composed by another than the blessed man. To this opinion new weight is added by the fact that the earlier editors (in the years 1621, 1630, etc.) testify [Compare below, Appendix on the Little Office of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.], some that they took the Little Office from certain ancient hours, others from certain very ancient hours: which manner of speaking indicates a time more remote than about the year 1577, from which namely Bl. Alphonsus (who died in the year 1617) was accustomed to recite the Little Office. And these things demonstrate that the Office of the Immaculate Conception is not to be ascribed to the blessed man.

[36] he is not the author. In the Majorcan Process indeed a certain witness mentions the Office of the Conception composed by the said Br. Alphonsus; but, as is said in the Responses to the new animadversions, number 15, this mere statement of a single and illiterate witness … cannot be of so great moment, that one should not rather stand by the more likely and more certain assertion of better-informed witnesses, who say that the venerable Alphonsus was indeed a devout copyist and propagator of this kind of Office, but not its author. To cite one or two, Fr. Andrew Moregues, who over the space of many years had familiar conversation with the servant of God, testifies that he made many copies of a certain Office printed outside Spain. Likewise Fr. William Custurer: The book of the Office of the Immaculate Conception, written by the said venerable man, as is stated, is by no means known to me… I have only heard from my elders that he was accustomed to recite a certain very ancient little office of the Immaculate Conception Respons. ad novas animadversiones, page 6 and following.. But since those prayers as used by Bl. Alphonsus are scarcely known, and have perhaps never been published by anyone other than Francis Colin, we shall place them before the reader's eyes in the Appendix.

§ V. Honors paid to Bl. Alphonsus after death. The cult begun ceases. The progress of his beatification. He is celebrated at Rome, Segovia, Palma. A letter of the Majorcans to the people of Segovia.

Almost immediately after his death he began to be depicted in images In the last illness of Bl. Alphonsus, and indeed shortly before his death, a certain skilled painter fashioned the lineaments of his face. Shortly after his death this and similar images were eagerly sought not only by the Majorcans but also by the inhabitants of other regions. Indeed from Belgium Father Diego Sala sent a likeness to Spain, formerly for four years housemate of the holy doorkeeper in the college of Monte Sion, then confessor and preacher to Charles Coloma, prefect of Cambrai and chief captain of the district of Cambrai in ancient Belgium, who died at Madrid on the 23rd day of October of the year 1637. The one who had received this image, Father Peter Gil, priest of the Society of Jesus, provincial superior of Aragon, who died in the year 1622, adds in the Process of beatification: From the city of Mexico Father Mallol wrote to me… that they had his image there in great veneration in our college Summarium, page 141. Compare the manuscript Spanish Life, chapter XXV.. Omitting many others Hamy, Essai sur l'iconographie de la Compagnie de Jésus, page 157., it is well to mention the likeness which we have before our eyes, drawn before the seventh year from the death of Alphonsus by Antony Wierix; and that which John Valdor published at Liège in the year 1639.

[38] and with votive offerings Other painted tablets on which the benefits obtained were expressed soon hung at the very tomb of the servant of God. The witness is Father Gil, of whom we spoke before: who, when he visited the college of Monte Sion, saw and counted the votive gifts, namely small retables, and other things presented, which various persons offered: I found, he says also, and counted that today the tablets of miracles are thirty-four, a little more or less, and a certain small coffin for the dead, with four small bundles, and the silver votive gifts are twenty-five, and the wax ones sixty-eight …, and the wax candles … are sixty-four, a little more or less Summarium, page 142..

[39] Bl. Alphonsus began to be venerated; Since therefore Bl. Alphonsus, having departed this life, obtained from God outstanding benefits for many citizens of Majorca, almost immediately after his death, in the year 1617, a modest cult was legitimately offered him. Of which matter this is the history. When many pious men complained vehemently of the Society of Jesus, because in honoring Bl. Alphonsus it did not allow private veneration to be exceeded, Michael Julian, rector of the college of Monte Sion, went to Simon Bauzá of the Order of Preachers, bishop of Majorca, that he might examine the virtues and miracles of the servant of God with a view to public and ecclesiastical cult. The bishop assented. Meanwhile the bishop of Segovia made a similar investigation in the native town of Bl. Alphonsus. But the Majorcan inquiry was not yet completed, and there it was already most manifest to all that the servant of God because of his eminent virtues was enjoying the eternal sight of God in the heavens. And Bishop Simon Bauzá, being also persuaded of this, granted permission, before six months had passed from the death of Bl. Alphonsus, to Peter Onuphrius Veri and Jerome Dezcallar, canons of the cathedral church of Majorca, and also to many noblemen, to expose the image of the holy Brother over his tomb for the veneration of all [Marimon, page 1072. Colin, page 131. Breve relacion de la vida y virtudes del ven. Herm. Alonso Rodriguez, Majorca 1627.]. In granting this power Simon Bauzá did not offend the ecclesiastical discipline of that time. But that Bl. Alphonsus might be entered by apostolic authority into the number of the saints, the processes made from the year 1618 to 1620 in the cities of Majorca and Segovia were entered in the Acts of the Sacred Congregation on the 19th day of November of the year 1622: this done, at the petition of Philip IV king of Spain and of all the estates of the whole kingdom of Majorca, a rescript of the Sacred Congregation of Rites appeared on the 22nd day of March of the year 1625, that it sufficed for the witnesses to be examined by apostolic authority Novissima positio super dubio an constet de virtutibus, etc., page 1..

[40] [which cult nevertheless ceased in the year 1625, because of the decree of Urban VIII.] In the meantime, when the Roman Pontiff Urban VIII on the 13th day of March of the year 1625 had prohibited that men deceased with a reputation for holiness be honored with public cult, unless they had been entered or inscribed by apostolic authority in the catalogues of the blessed and saints, or were venerated by the common consent of the Church, or by immemorial course of time, or through the writings of the Fathers and holy men, or by the very long-standing knowledge and tolerance of the apostolic see or of the ordinary, and the cult of Bl. Alphonsus was established on none of these grounds, it was necessary to remove from his tomb, as being in a chapel, the image of the servant of God, no less than the votive offerings for benefits fixed there: a thing which the Majorcans took most ill.

[41] The introduction of the cause of Bl. Alphonsus is sought; This decree, however, did not take away the hope of seeing Alphonsus inscribed on the roll of the blessed after a few years. For Urban VIII on the 20th day of December of the same year 1625 enjoined that a Commission for the introduction of the cause of the venerable Alphonsus be formed: which, according to the practice then in force, was directed to the three senior auditors of the Roman Rota, John Baptist Coccino, dean, Alphonsus Manzanedo de Quiñones, patriarch of Jerusalem, lieutenant of the said Rota, and Philip Pirovano, auditor of the same Rota. By whom, after the inquiry had been completed by examination of witnesses in the City by apostolic authority concerning the fame of holiness in general, on the 31st day of July 1626, there were afterwards issued under the date of the 31st day of October of the same year remissorial and compulsorial letters for constructing by apostolic authority two processes on the virtues and miracles in particular of the said venerable servant of God Ibid.. This news was received at Palma with incredible joy Furió y Sastre, Vida del B. Alonso, page 258. Colin, folio 138., which was certainly not lasting.

[42] but the Roman curia refuses until the year 1673. For when two processes in particular had been constructed by apostolic authority, one in the city of Segovia, and the other in that of Majorca, and sent to the City, and respectively entered in the Acts of the sacred Congregation, namely the Majorcan under the 23rd day of August 1628, and the Segovian under the 14th day of July 1630, Urban VIII in the year 1634 issued a new decree, forbidding the Sacred Congregation to proceed in causes of canonization or beatification, unless fifty years had elapsed from the death of the person in question. Hence it came about that the inquiry into the virtues and miracles of Bl. Alphonsus was deferred to the year 1667. Meanwhile, however, when Cardinal Franciotto had from the 16th day of March of the year 1652 been made relator of the cause, in the place of Cardinal Boncompagni long since dead, an instance was presented for a commission for the resumption of the cause, on the 20th day of April 1652 (for Urban VIII had ordained that causes introduced before his decrees should not thereafter be proceeded with, unless a faculty had been obtained from the pontiff): the same was referred to the preparatory Congregation, and again on the 28th day of August 1655 to the Congregation before his Holiness.

[43] Thence in due order among the Venerables, But various delays were again interposed, which for brevity's sake we shall merely indicate. Because the sacred Congregation doubted whether after the decrees of Urban VIII the Majorcans had abstained from the public cult of Bl. Alphonsus, on the 17th day of June 1673 it committed to the bishop of Majorca that he diligently inquire into this matter. When from his report it was clear that the servant of God was honored by no cult there, on the 18th day of December in the year 1684 Pope Innocent XI signed the commission for the resumption of the cause. In the year 1685, that there might be no impediment to the beatification of the servant of God in future, every kind of cult was removed from his tomb. In the year 1688 the Sacred Congregation declared that the validity was established of the remissorial and compulsorial processes of Majorca and Segovia made between the years 1628 and 1630. In the year 1695 there came under inquiry the Accounts of conscience which Bl. Alphonsus wrote at the command of his rectors; likewise in the year 1710 his other writings. The Sacred Congregation pronounced, in the year 1717, that nothing had been found in the Works of the servant of God by which beatification would be hindered. Finally, after various congregations had been held, in which both the processes made earlier and the holiness of the servant of God itself were examined again and again, in the year 1760 the supreme pontiff Clement XIII judged that the virtues of Alphonsus in the heroic degree were established. This decree filled the Majorcans with such joy that they thought it a benefit granted to each one singly, and it was sung

in many churches the hymn Te Deum, in the presence of the secular and regular clergy, the magistrates, and the people; and the town itself was illuminated for two nights with festive lights. Likewise the Society of Jesus took care to have these words inscribed on the image of Clement XIII, placed at the entrance of the court where the chamber of Bl. Alphonsus was, as we read in Furió y Sastre:

To Clement XIII, supreme pontiff, who approves, confirms, and praises the whole Society of Jesus, its institute and ministries, and afterwards * numbers the venerable Alphonsus Rodriguez among the heroes in virtues, as a monument of love, gratitude, and service this likeness was placed by the Balearic College of Monte Sion of the same Society in the year 1764 Vida del B. Alonso, page 260..

[44] then in the year 1825 he was entered among the Blessed, Concerning the miracles of the servant of God deliberation was made, as is customary, in three assemblies: the first namely, under pontiff Clement XIII, on the 26th day of June of the year 1767, before Cardinal Mark Antony Colonna; the second, under pontiff Pius VII, on the 10th day of June of the year 1823, Cardinal Julius Maria de Somalia reporting; the third finally before pontiff Leo XII, on the 15th day of June of the year 1824, where the cardinals and consultors of the Sacred Congregation of Rites unanimously agreed in approving two miracles for the beatification of the servant of God [Ph. Del Pace, Compendio della vita del B. Alonso, page 68. Compare Positio super dubio de miraculis.]. One of these was the instantaneous and perfect healing of Antonina Blanquera from an enormous hemorrhage of the womb accompanied by very grave symptoms, with very swift restoration of strength; the other, the instantaneous and admirable expulsion of a dead fetus, lying so transversely in the womb of the woman in labor Margaret Compagn that, one arm having prolapsed, it could by no means be delivered naturally. The opinion of the sacred Congregation of Rites was ratified on the 31st day of July by the Roman pontiff himself, and that in the principal church of the Society of Jesus, at the tomb of St. Ignatius, which is thronged by the frequenting of peoples. In an assembly held before the same pontiff on the 21st day of September of the following year, the Fathers of the Sacred Congregation of Rites unanimously declared that the venerable Alphonsus could safely be granted the honors of the blessed Del Pace, Compendio, etc., page 70.. Having weighed these things, Leo XII on the 29th day of the same month pronounced that it was safely possible … to proceed to the beatification of the venerable servant of God Alphonsus Rodriguez. On the 20th day of May of the year 1825 the Roman pontiff solemnly entered Alphonsus Rodriguez into the number of the blessed, and granted that on the 30th day of October of each year the office and sacrifice be celebrated both in the diocese of Segovia … and in the diocese of Majorca … and in the universal Society of Jesus Bullarium Romanum, volume XVI, page 316, Rome edition of 1854..

[45] with the customary pomp. On the 12th day of the following June, with the great favor of all orders, the beatification of the holy man was celebrated at Rome in the Vatican basilica. Above the door of the church, adorned with festive furnishing, there had been exposed a picture showing Bl. Alphonsus, from whose face the Mother of God wipes the sweat. The interior of the basilica was resplendent with reliefs and inscriptions expressing both his life and his miracles. Hither the cardinals and consultors of the Sacred Congregation of Rites betook themselves in the morning, to hear the eulogy of Bl. Alphonsus and the apostolic letter of his beatification. After this, when the image of the holy man had been uncovered, to the sound of cannon and bells the hymn Te Deum was sung. Then the most illustrious lord Filonardi, archbishop of Athens, when an oration had been recited in honor of Bl. Alphonsus, offered the divine sacrifice with most elaborate pomp. In the evening the supreme pontiff Leo XII, attended by a crown of seventeen cardinals and other dignitaries, came to the basilica in the Vatican, and there, after supplications had been made to God before the Most Holy Sacrament and before the image of the Mother of God, he venerated the likeness of Bl. Alphonsus. To him Aloysius Fortis, general superior of the Society of Jesus, and Vincent Zauli, postulator of the cause, offered the Life of the blessed Brother. And all these things were according to the Roman customs.

[46] at Segovia and Palma, The people of Segovia too congratulated their holy fellow-countryman. Of whom, although few things have become known to us, yet we know from the letter of a pious man who was present at the solemnities at Segovia that in the church formerly of the Society of Jesus, now of the episcopal seminary of that city, and especially in the cathedral church, which shone with festive fires, the 30th day of October of the year, as I think, 1825 was celebrated with the greatest devotion. Then too there was begun in the same place that Sodality of Bl. Alphonsus to which many of the people of Segovia gave their names. With his painted images or statues too the principal sacred edifice as well as the church of the Carmelites and the church of the seminary were piously adorned. But nowhere did such joy burst out as among the Majorcans, as will now be made plain. The glad news of the beatification, brought to the city of Palma in the evening of the 23rd day of July of the year 1825, kindled the zeal of the inhabitants. Two days after, on the very birthday of Bl. Alphonsus, an immense number of men, who had been warned the day before by the ringing of the bells of all the churches, came together in the principal church with overflowing joy to give thanks to the Lord. Where both other things and the hymn Te Deum were sung by the secular and regular clergy. A public supplication was also held through the church, the senate of the island, the prefect (capitan general captain general), and the Fathers of the Society closing the procession. From then on all the authorities, both ecclesiastical and civil, applied their diligence to celebrating the beatification magnificently.

[47] the Society of Jesus Meanwhile in the splendid chapel of the church of the Society of Jesus named after Alphonsus a monument was erected, with a tablet of jasper and other polished stones, on which the Palma author asserts that this was inscribed [Furió y Sastre, Vida del B. Alonso, page 269 and following. Compare Descr. de las islas Pithiusas y Baleares, page 44.]:

OSSA B. ALPHONSI RODRIGUEZ

S. J. A LEONE XII P. M.

S. S. CONCED. DECIMO KALS

NOVEM. MDCCCXXV.

[The bones of Bl. Alphonsus Rodriguez, S.J., by Leo XII, supreme pontiff, S. S. conceded, on the tenth day before the Kalends of November 1825.]

There was placed a most precious urn, in which through crystal is seen a likeness of the corpse, wreathed with a silver diadem, clad in a full-length tunic of black shaggy silk: it contains the bones of Bl. Alphonsus. In front was set up an altar on which the divine sacrifice might be offered. And throughout the whole church, magnificently adorned just like that chapel, the deeds of the servant of God were exhibited by pictures painted by Salvator Torres, temporal coadjutor of the Society of Jesus, with Spanish verses also added to explain the subject of each. On the right, in the first chapel, Bl. Alphonsus was depicted as a small boy pouring out prayers before Jesus and Mary; in the second, refreshed by the vision of Saints Dominic Guzmán, Francis of Assisi, and others; in the third, taking the vows of the religious life; in the fourth, caring for the sick brothers and for that reason enriched with rewards by Jesus and Mary; at the gospel horn, in the chapel nearest the high altar, one could see the Blessed Virgin wiping the sweat from the forehead of her servant, as he climbed the steep slope of Bellver; then the blessed man scourging his bared shoulders with an iron chain; further on, wrestling with demons and raised up by Jesus and the Mother of God; finally in the last chapel, near the doors, there was expressed his glorious passing to heaven. And not only were the façade and windows of the same church adorned for three nights with fires and transparent pictures; but near the very door of the house, of which for many years Bl. Alphonsus had been the keeper, his ancient statue was placed, and distinguished with festive lights, poems, and votive offerings made for benefits obtained. Nor did the interior of the college shine any less.

[48] and all orders Not the Society of Jesus only, but all orders labored each for themselves that that new saint might triumph as amply as possible in the city of Palma. The witness is the magistracy itself, in a letter given to the senator of Segovia; which we have translated almost whole from Spanish.

Most Illustrious Lord,

When on the 6th day of August of this year I signified to Your Lordship with how great joy I was filled by the decree of the 20th day of May of the same year, by which the Most Holy Father Leo XII had inscribed the venerable servant of God Alphonsus Rodriguez of the Society of Jesus among the blessed, I had no doubt at all that this was one of those auspicious events which Your Lordship and we ought to hold most at heart, and a cause of the highest joy to both. You have obtained this from divine Providence, that so great a man was born in your city: and we possess his venerable body. These sacred remains, on the day appointed by himself, namely the 21st of October, after noon, the lord vicar general, administrator of the diocese, translated from the chamber in which the servant of God died and lay for many years, into the urn of his magnificent chapel… There were present as witnesses the most eminent governor of Majorca, the city prefect, many canons, the magistrates, and other dignitaries, who, as His Holiness enjoined, bore the relics from the chamber to the urn, with lighted torches, to the chant of psalms, and burning incense in their honor. Finally there was sung the proper prayer which His Holiness had likewise prescribed.

[49] with the greatest splendor On the aforesaid day, the 23rd of October, in the late evening, before so great a multitude of men that in the most ample church of Monte Sion of the Society of Jesus way could scarcely be made, the vicar general himself drew back the veil with which the urn was covered, the prayer and antiphon being meanwhile sung which the most holy Father had ordered to be recited in honor of Bl. Alphonsus. From there they went to the principal altar of the church, and the likeness of the blessed man that was there was also uncovered, and the hymn Te Deum was sung to the music. When these things had been performed, the ecclesiastical and secular superiors approached to venerate the precious relics. On the following day, the 24th, the divine sacrifice was offered, we and the venerable chapter of the church assisting together… In the evening the hymn Te Deum was sung through the good offices of the most illustrious chapter, which betook itself from its church to Monte Sion: there, the magistrates also being present, compline was sung. On the other day, the 25th, in the morning, the venerable canons again performed the sacred rites in more august form, we assisting. On these three days the bells sounded throughout the whole city and festive lights gleamed. At the doors of all the parish churches, at the thresholds of all the convents of both sexes, there appeared altars and images, in each of which a part of the life of blessed Rodriguez had been depicted, and which, lights being set beside them, shone through the whole night. Most of the neighbors too adorned their windows with lighted lamps, signifying in this way in how great memory and honor the servant of God was among them.

[50] they celebrated festively, The Fathers of the Society of Jesus held as festival days the 26th and 27th,.. on the former of which the Friars Preachers, on the latter the Friars Minor offered the divine sacrifice in the church of Monte Sion and spoke in sermon. Finally on the 30th day, the last of those which had been appointed, the pupils of the schools of the Society kept festival: at the altar a certain Father sacrificed in the place of the rector of the college, a member of the Oratory of St. Philip speaking from the pulpit. Add that on the 26th, toward evening, the Friars Preachers, to do honor to him who had recently been entered into the number of the saints, went with great pomp from their convent to the sacred edifice of Monte Sion, chanting the rosary to music. There were present royal volunteers

leading men. Further, on these five days chosen orators preached most eloquently, striving with all their power to set forth to their hearers the virtues of our saint. Him we have thought of and venerated as our fellow-countryman, ever since he came here, and we have seen many miracles wrought by his intercession… In him let us all place our hope: for he remembers the region which he knew and defended while yet alive.

Palma of Majorca, on the 3rd day of November of the year 1825.

[51] for many days. The ceremonies sketched in this letter have been described more fully by the recent author of the Life of Bl. Alphonsus Furió y Sastre, chapter XXX and following.: from which we shall excerpt some things. Toward evening therefore of the 23rd day of October, the columns of those in supplication (among whom were Michael Serra y Dameto, vicar general and, the bishop being then absent, administrator of the diocese; Jorge de Puigdorfila and other canons; Joseph Maria de Alos, who presided over the whole province of Majorca, with the other magistrates), made their way with great splendor to the chapel of blessed Rodriguez; where they uncovered his body, as was said above. At the solemn Mass of the following day, during which, in the place of the gradual, Spanish verses about the holy man were sung, there were present four members from each of the religious families having a seat in Majorca. The eulogy was spoken from the pulpit by Simon Bordoy, parish priest of St. Eulalia. This and the other feasts were celebrated with incredible attendance, there flowing together not only the inhabitants of the city, but also those of other parts of the island. On the 25th, again amid musical harmonies, the divine sacrifice was offered, and compline said in the evening, there being present not a few other religious, and also Gonzalvo Ferragut, provincial minister of the Friars Preachers in the kingdom of Aragon. He also on the following morning performed the sacred rites with most elaborate pomp, before the senate of the city and four members of each of the religious Orders. The expense of this day was borne by the convent of the Friars Preachers, and that of the 27th day by the convent of the Friars Minor. In the last day of the feasts, the 30th of October, there took part not only the religious delegated by each of the monasteries, but also the prefect of the island, the procurators of the city, and very many other dignitaries. The Fathers of the college also liberally gave alms to the needy. At the same time too, namely from the 23rd day of October, the front of the senate house was decorated with likenesses of citizens of Majorca who excelled in ecclesiastical or military honors, or in fame of holiness: among these the first place was granted to Bl. Alphonsus. On the 23rd, 24th, and 25th days that building, the cathedral church, the royal and episcopal palaces, the hospice of Saints Peter and Bernard (in whose oratory beneath the altar table the little cap of Bl. Alphonsus was placed among lighted lamps), and all the monasteries and colleges of the city shone with festive fires, and were adorned with images of the blessed man.

* so in the edition.

§ VI. The relics of Bl. Alphonsus. Their review, translation, and recognitions.

The relics of Bl. Alphonsus Bl. Alphonsus had scarcely breathed out his soul, when pious men sought after and preserved the things he had used, as precious relics: and not only in the island of Majorca and in Spain, but also in Italy, in Belgium, and in the Indies; such as the Fathers of the Roman professed house of the Society of Jesus, Father Diego Sala, confessor of Charles Coloma, Father Mallol living at Mexico, and many others Compare Summarium, page 140 and following.. The witness is Father Julian himself, who on the day when the holy Brother died sketched his life Compare below, page 604.. And in what way the Fathers of Majorca preserved the precious relics is clear from the document which Peter William Custurer drew up in the year 1722, at the order of Francis Sierna, vice-provincial and visitor of the province of Aragon of the Society of Jesus.

[53] first buried in the church of the college of Majorca, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. By the tenor of the present public instrument let it be evidently clear and known to all that in the year from the Nativity of the Lord one thousand seven hundred and twenty-two, on the ninth day of the month of June, I, Fr. Peter William Custurer, named for this purpose, deputed as notary and escriban scribe of this matter by the reverend Father Francis Sierna, vice-provincial and visitor of the province of Aragon of the Society of Jesus, give faith that it is established by an attestation and public instrument, made on the twelfth day of August of the year one thousand six hundred and fifty-six by the reverend Father Gregory Janer, priest and resident in this college of Monte Sion, that the bones and relics of the venerable Brother Alphonsus Rodriguez, formed coadjutor of the Society of Jesus, were laid up in the floor of the presbytery before the door next to the tomb of the founder of this college, beneath the pavement of the same presbytery of the church of the college of Monte Sion of the same Society of Jesus; and that they remained there from that time until the present, without any cult; and since they have remained for so long a time in an underground and consequently damp place, and it being * very dangerous that the chest in which the aforesaid bones had been placed, being of wood, should have rotted, and hence the venerable bones themselves; it seemed good to the said reverend Father Francis Sierna, vice-provincial visitor, that they should be transferred from there to a more suitable place.

[54] they were translated in the year 1722, The matter having been maturely considered with the reverend Father John Angelo Valero, now rector of the same college, and with other senior Fathers of the same college, it was resolved that a small leaden chest be made, and the venerable bones of the said Brother Alphonsus be placed in it, and be transferred from the underground and damp place to the chamber in which the said venerable Alphonsus Rodriguez dwelt while he lived and died, which is in the lower passage next to the archive of this college. To which end a place was worked in the pavement of the same chamber, of stone, and to be closed with a stone and with it. I give faith therefore that the same ninth day of the same month and year was designated, and the evening hour …, for carrying out the said things. When therefore the aforesaid day and hour arrived, the aforesaid pavement of the presbytery of the said church was opened, the doors being closed, there being present and employed as witnesses: the reverend Father Francis Sierra, visitor, the reverend Father Raphael Valles, the reverend Father John Angelo Valero, rector, the reverend Father John Antony Ferrando, the reverend Father Raphael Valles , the reverend Father Blaise Balausat, Brother Emmanuel del Corral, Brother Antony Bennasser, Brother Antony Villa, Brother James Ripoll, Brother James Poquet.

[55] because of the excessive dampness of the place, And there was found a wooden chest, inside which another small chest, also of wood; and, as was suspected, both chests were found rotted and almost consumed. And thus it was clear to all that what had been prudently feared had come to pass. This small chest was drawn out from the said underground place and carried by the hands of the reverend Father visitor himself, others helping, to the said chamber next to the archive of the said college, and was placed on a table, the chamber was closed before the said witnesses, and a precept of holy obedience having been imposed by the Rev. Father visitor not to touch the said small chest, the following day and the ninth hour were designated for opening the small chest, for seeing and venerating the said bones, for counting them, and for transferring and enclosing them in the small leaden chest already prepared. When then the designated day and the hour likewise designated arrived, the said chamber was opened before the same witnesses and almost all the Fathers and Brothers of this college; the outer chest also was easily opened; and when it had been laid open , and likewise the second one also of wood, there appeared another small leaden chest, closed all over with tin, and so penetrated by dampness too, that various holes appeared, the lead having been reduced to powder; and when the small leaden chest also was opened, in which the venerable bones of the said venerable Brother Alphonsus were contained, the bones were found so penetrated by dampness that the linen cloth with which they had been covered did not appear at all, but they were covered as it were with a thin mud from its rotting, and the reeds by which the cloth had been applied to the bones were wholly decayed; so that it was a wonder to all that the dampness had been so great, and so efficacious *: and again it was made manifest how necessary it was to draw out the venerable body, and to transfer it to a more suitable place.

[56] an accurate review having been made And this having been seen, the reverend Father visitor commanded that the venerable bones be spread out on a table covered with a clean cloth. This was done by the hands of the visitor himself and of other priests, and when they had been cleansed of the putrefaction of the cloth and the reeds and of the dampness, they were left on the same table until they should dry; and a precept of holy obedience having been imposed by the reverend Father visitor not to take anything of that venerable body, the chamber was closed. Finally, when the eleventh day of the said month and year arrived, at about half past the fifth evening hour, before the same witnesses, to whom were added Father Diego Garcia, Father Francis Miguel, Father Peter Maura, Father Bartholomew Antony Fullana, the magnificent lord Doctor Michael Fullana, Doctor of both Laws, for the purpose of enclosing the said venerable bones in the newly made small leaden chest, and of shutting it within the stone place made in the pavement of the said chamber, and the small leaden chest having been adorned within with green silk, the following bones were placed in it by my hands (William Custurer then continues in Spanish speech, whose words we render in Latin):

[57] into the chamber where he had ended his life. 1° The head without the jaw, without molar teeth or others. 2° A glass vessel in which were the viscera and five stones found in the bladder; there were added small pieces of flesh and skin, placed in a smaller vessel: and it is established by the instrument which was made in another translation, on the thirteenth day of September of the year 1646, that these were found at the bottom of the chest in which the said venerable bones had been until this time. 3° Four great bones of the shins and thighs. 4° Two slender bones of the shins. 5° Two bones of the hips. 6° Two large bones of the shoulders. 7° The lower jaw. 8° The sacrum. 9° Seventeen ribs. 10° Twenty-three bones of the backbone. 11° A bone about one half-foot long, of this form S, which is between the neck and the shoulder. 12° Forty-five small and large bones, from the knees, ankles, heels, hands, and feet.

Then he continues in Latin: All which bones of the venerable Brother Alphonsus Rodriguez, the same in substance and number, with fitting decency, sedulity, and devotion, were reverently laid up in the small leaden chest: which, closed on all sides and sealed with tin, was placed by the hands of the said Rev. Father visitor, other Fathers helping, in the said small place, and the place was closed with a great stone, covered on all sides with lime and plaster, by order of the same Rev. Fr. Francis Sierra, vicar provincial visitor, until divine providence dispose otherwise. Of which deed the aforesaid were present as witnesses, and I, Peter William Custurer, priest of the same Society of Jesus, and witness of the whole deed and scribe notary designated and appointed for this matter and * above. Done at Majorca in the same college of Monte Sion of the Society of Jesus, on the eleventh day of the month of June, in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-two. Peter William Custurer, priest of the Society of Jesus, and appointed and designated notary of this matter

[58] In the year 1767 a new recognition But after the Society of Jesus was exiled from Spain in the year 1767, the Majorcan members were bereft of the remains of their holy Brother. For the marquis de Alos, to whom the administration of the religious' goods had been entrusted, decided, together with the bishop of the Majorcan Church Francis Garrido de la Vega, afterwards archbishop of Cordova, that the body of Bl. Alphonsus and the other relics, and the writings pertaining to his beatification, be entrusted for keeping to Francis Ferrer de San Jordi, canon, rector of the academy of Palma. In which matter in the years 1769 and 1770 several public instruments were drawn up by the notaries Matthew Estada, John Armengol, and Benedict Vert, of which a copy exists in our museum. As we learn from it, in order that the handing over of the relics be duly made, there were delegated: by the bishop, Felix Joseph de Aedo y Espina, vicar general; by the marquis de Alos, Antony Bisquerra, assessor Furió y Sastre, page 262.; by the senate of Palma, Francis Boix de Berard y Cotoner, marquis de Villafranca de San Marti, count of Santa Maria de Formiguera, Nicholas Dameto y Gual, decurions (regidores aldermen); by the academy of Palma, the doctors Joseph Borras, John Baptist Mas, John Amengual, William Bestard. There are also named as witnesses James Ignatius de Oleza, Francis Set, and Francis Alemany. The relics were therefore reviewed, and found to be the same as those indicated in the instrument of the year 1722 Furió y Sastre, page 262.. There were also examined whatever things were in the chamber of Bl. Alphonsus: of which it has seemed good to indicate here some, as recorded by the public notaries.

[59] with a review of the things in the chamber; The tomb in which the body of the venerable man is said to be laid.

A cabinet in which are preserved his garments, both inner and outer, and a part of the bed that he used.

Small particles of his body enclosed in two glass phials.

One hundred and fifty-eight silver gifts, in weight fifty-one ounces.

A statue of the venerable man…

A likeness of Christ (Ecce homo) which is said to have spoken to Alphonsus.

Many images offered to the servant of God for benefits obtained.

There are then enumerated very many books, written or printed, of which some contain various acts of the beatification, others the Life of Bl. Alphonsus, others his works (those namely which we distinguished above by notes enclosed in brackets Compare above, number 30). It seems not out of place to bring forward some of these.

A manuscript book in quarto, whose title in Spanish is: Tratado de las virtudes del venerable Hermano Alonso Rodriguez de la Compañia de Jesus [Treatise on the virtues of the venerable Brother Alonso Rodriguez of the Society of Jesus]. It is the autograph itself and has 119 leaves, with an index of chapters. There is contained in the same volume a letter which seems to be of Bl. Alphonsus himself.

A manuscript book in quarto, inscribed: Cuenta de la conciencia y vida del Herm. Al. Rodriguez Account of the conscience and life of Br. Al. Rodriguez. It begins: Memoria de algunas cosas, etc. Memorial of some things, etc. It was written by the venerable man himself. 266 leaves are numbered.

A manuscript book in octavo, whose beginning is: Libro del ven. Herm. Rodriguez de la Compañia de Jesus, sacado palabra por palabra de su proprio original [Book of the venerable Br. Rodriguez of the Society of Jesus, taken word for word from his own original]; 250 leaves, with an index of chapters.

A manuscript book in quarto: Cuenta de la vida y conciencia del ven. Herm. Al Rodriguez Account of the life and conscience of the venerable Br. Al. Rodriguez. Likewise three treatises, the first on priests, the second on scholastics, the third on the three vows of religious; 203 leaves; at the end an index of matters.

A manuscript book in octavo; Libro segundo manual del ven. Herm. Al. Rodriguez a la letra transladado Second manual book of the venerable Br. Al. Rodriguez, copied to the letter; 60 leaves.

A manuscript book in quarto: Relacion de la vida y virtudes del Herm. Al. Rodriguez Report of the life and virtues of Br. Al. Rodriguez; written by the confessor Father John Matthew Marimon. It is the author's own copy. 540 pages, with an index. The first nineteen paragraphs of the same work exist also in another codex.

A manuscript book in octavo, in which this is written: Libro primero manual del Hermano Alonso Rodriguez First manual book of Brother Alonso Rodriguez; 166 leaves.

A manuscript book in 12mo, in which is written: Del Hermano Alonso Rodriguez Of Brother Alonso Rodriguez. An index is prefixed. Then: Libro primero espiritual, etc. First spiritual book, etc.; 208 leaves.

A manuscript book in 12mo, which is the second volume of the work above. After the index it begins: Libro segundo: De algunas cosas particulares, etc. Second book: Of some particular things, etc.; 140 leaves.

A manuscript book in 12mo; at the beginning are 12 useful leaves, the first of which begins: A hora de maytines: amantisimo y dulcisimo Señor, etc. At the hour of matins: most loving and most sweet Lord, etc. There follows a writing in which the Devotions of Bl. Alphonsus are shown, and certain other things, printed and manuscript.

A manuscript book in octavo: Libro segundo manual, etc. Second manual book, etc. It begins: Salmo noventa: cum ipso sum in tribulatione Psalm ninety: I am with him in tribulation; 84 leaves.

Several bundles of papers on the miracles, relics, and beatification of the venerable man. One of which contains a recognition of the garments and a recognition of the writings, both made by Fr. Michael Torbavi.

Eight writings on eight inspections of the relics.

A bundle whose title is: Copias y cartas originales escritas à Su Santidad pidiendo beatificacion del ven. Herm. Al. Rodriguez [Copies and original letters written to His Holiness asking the beatification of the venerable Br. Al. Rodriguez]. The letters are thirty-six.

Letters sent to Bl. Alphonsus and copies of letters written by him.

A bundle of papers pertaining to the life of the venerable Brother: some of which seem to be of the report of his confessors themselves.

Two codices in which were transcribed certain letters of the venerable Alphonsus and other works.

Besides, a codex in octavo, 18 leaves, whose beginning is: Mucho tiempo habia que andaba con muchos escrupulos de conciencia For a long time I had gone about with many scruples of conscience; the last words: I will do all things not from my own concupiscence, but from God's good pleasure.

A very old little cap preserved in a certain casket, wrapped in paper, with a note which begins: Dudose si este bonete es del venerable It was doubted whether this cap is the venerable man's.

Other parts of garments are also extant.

[60] likewise in the year 1812 all things were visited, When in the year 1812 the buildings of Monte Sion had been adapted to military uses, on the 27th day of March of the same year the sacred relics were visited and diligently enclosed by John Muntanery Garciá, vicar general of the bishop of Majorca Bernard Nadal y Crespí, there being present Mark Ignatius Rosselló, rector of the academy, the marquis de Reguer, head of the senate of Palma, Joseph Cotoner Salas, William Ferragut, and others Furió y Sastre, page 263 and following..

[61] and the relics were arranged in the form of a body; When the Society of Jesus had been restored, the matter of the beatification of Bl. Alphonsus soon began to be taken up again. Wherefore the sacred treasure was inspected on the 10th day of March of the year 1825 by Bartholomew Barceló y Cardell, vicar general of the bishop of Majorca Compare ibid., page 265., and in the same year, on the 24th day of September, by Michael Serra y Dameto, likewise vicar general and administrator of the diocese, there being present Fr. Peter Sancho in the place of the rector of the college of Monte Sion and other alumni of the Society, and many men outstanding in nobility or office. At that time the bones were arranged in the form of a human body, a face and hands fashioned in wax being added. And this likeness, clad in shirt, gown, cloak, shoes, and stockings, and holding a rosary in the hand, was laid in a sealed chest. Then, using a recognition made on the 11th day of January of the year 1824, the vicar general examined very many garments, various particles of the body, and other relics, which he pronounced to be of Bl. Alphonsus. But about the ancient little cap which was attributed to the blessed man nothing was decided. The witnesses were (each of whom received something of the relics) Joseph de Alos, prefect of Majorca; Joseph Cotoner Salas, moderator of the senate of Palma; George Puigdorfila, canon, George Barcelo, physician, Bartholomew Ripoll, surgeon, William Torres, John Antony Sancho, priest of the Church of Palma.

[62] which into an urn of marble and crystal, placed in a chapel of the church A little later, on the 21st day of October of the same year, the sacred body was translated from the chamber of Bl. Alphonsus to the chapel of the church (with that splendor which we have indicated above), and laid in an urn of white marble, closed with crystal panes. Besides the administrator of the diocese, Michael Serra, there were present (as is clear from an authentic instrument) Joseph Maria de Alos; John Sureda, marquis de Vivot; Santiago Gomez de Negrete, royal procurator of Majorca; John Joseph de Negrete, auditor of the royal council of Majorca; Sebastian Socias, canon and vicar general official; Francis Muntaner, marquis de Reguer; Joseph Cotoner Salas, Nicholas Dameto, and Ramon Villalonga, moderators of the senate of Palma; Francis Truyols, archdeacon of the Church of Palma, and many canons and priests of the same.

[63] and well closed, they were at length brought. Finally in the year 1867, the Fathers of the Society of Jesus, having returned a few years before to their former domicile, when they noticed that the crystals by which the urn of Bl. Alphonsus was closed had been so badly fitted that, small cracks gaping, the dust was doing no little harm to the precious wrappings of the bones, asked the bishop of Majorca that the matter be remedied. The prelate, Michael Salvá y Munar, came therefore to the church of Our Lady of Monte Sion, and when he had examined the sacred relics, he granted that they be transferred by the Frs. Joseph Fonda, Raphael Llina, Ignatius Gazo, of the Society of Jesus, and Michael Peña, beneficiary of the cathedral church, into the old chamber of Bl. Alphonsus, and that there, until the urn was repaired, they should rest in a wooden chest. This, seals having been impressed, he entrusted for keeping to Raphael Llina. The witnesses were, besides those just cited, Francis Truyols, dean of the Church of Palma; its archpriest, Melchior Vidal y Salvá, and many canons; Francis Cotoner Salas y Chacon, marquis de Ariañy; Ferdinand Cotoner Salas y Chacon, senator of the kingdom; William Descallar, marquis de Palmer; and other dignitaries. Most of the same were present at the translation performed on the 2nd day of October of the year 1867. For after the reliquary had been repaired and adorned, the marquis de Ariañy bearing the expense, the body of Bl. Alphonsus was carried from the chamber to the chapel of the church with great splendor. At these solemnities presided Michael Salvá y Munar, bishop of Majorca, and Matthew Jaume y Garau, bishop of the Church of Minorca.

[64] His writings too are preserved. Nor are the sacred bones of Bl. Alphonsus alone in great veneration among all, but honor is also paid to the writings which he wrote with his own hand, and which, as we read in lesson VI of the proper Office approved by the Roman pontiff, are clearly filled with heavenly wisdom. They are preserved almost all in the house of the Society of Jesus at Palma, and a great part of them in the blessed man's former chamber. In the same place (as was written to us from Palma) on the walls beside the chamber of Bl. Alphonsus hang many tablets (ex-voto) which manifest the graces obtained by his intercession. It remains that these graces, together with the virtues of the servant of God written out by the historians, be set before the public. In the first place we publish the report of Father Michael Julian, then the book composed by Father Louis Janin. But since in this work some things are obscure or imperfect, we shall also make very much use both of the Acts of beatification and of various Lives, and especially of those written by the domestic companions and intimate friends of Bl. Alphonsus, Francis Colin and Matthew Marimon. From these somewhat dissents the author of a Life rather old,

written in the Spanish language, which is presented by manuscript codex 8927 in folio of the royal library of Brussels Vida del venerable Hermano Alonso Rodrigues de la Compañia de Jesus.. But it has very unfortunately happened that it has come down to us mutilated: there survive only the first book (leaves 1–93) and the first chapter of the second book. By whom this history was composed (in very many places similar to the elucubration of Father Eusebius Nieremberg [Ideas de virtud en algunos claros varones de la Compañia de Jesus, page 626 and following, Madrid edition of 1643.]), I cannot determine; although I think it is the one attributed to Father Albinianus Rajas Compare above, number 8.. That this booklet, which we shall call the manuscript Spanish Life, was composed not so long after the death of Bl. Alphonsus, and indeed with the intention of being put to print, seems to be gathered from the words of the author himself. Some passages of the same Life we shall communicate to the reader in the Annotations.

* read esset

* so the codex.

* so the codex.

* putrefacta codex.

* admirationis codex.

* so the codex.

* perhaps for ut.

BRIEF LIFE OF BL. ALPHONSUS

BY FR. MICHAEL JULIAN

rendered from Spanish into Latin.

Alphonsus Rodriguez, temporal coadjutor of the Society of Jesus, on the island of Majorca. (Bl.)

BY MICHAEL JULIAN.

SINGLE CHAPTER.

The birth of Bl. Alphonsus, his virtues, death, and burial.

Alphonsus Rodriguez died on the 31st day of October, The day came on which it pleased God our Lord to reward the holy labors of our good Brother Alphonsus Rodriguez: he died on the 31st day of October, the vigil of All Saints, a quarter of an hour after midnight. He was in the eighty-seventh year of his age, the forty-seventh of his religious life in the Society, and thirty-two years ago he had been received among the formed temporal coadjutors ^b. Born at Segovia, he came to Valencia, where, having for two years given attention to the art of rhetoric, living a most pious and modest life and showing himself to all as an example of virtue, he was called by a miracle to the Society of Jesus, and obtained that he be enrolled among the temporal coadjutors. In the same year he was sent to this college of Majorca. But since I have no doubt that someone will write his Life at length, of the very many things I shall touch only on certain ones, leaving the rest to be narrated by his future biographer.

[2] renowned for lowliness of mind, for mortification, From the first day therefore on which the venerable Brother began to serve God in the Society of Jesus, he proposed to dedicate himself wholly to the Lord; of whom he asked that he might exercise him through perpetual pains and labors. In cultivating all the virtues he made himself so notable that he was always an example of them complete in every point. So great was his lowliness of mind that he esteemed himself the greatest sinner of the whole world, and although he knew from God that he would attain eternal salvation, and would not pass through the fire of purgatory, he was nonetheless accustomed assiduously to weep over the offenses he had committed. He grieved and took it bitterly if he was held in honor; and he greatly wondered that any men should wish to deal with so sordid a thing, such as he thought himself. Outstanding in him was exterior and interior mortification, and in everything he eagerly sought what most displeased the flesh. Disagreeable foods, if ever they were unwittingly offered, he ate as quickly as possible, fearing lest they should be taken away from him. Other penances too, afflictions of the body, hairshirts, scourgings, and abstinences he practised. Indeed in this very last year in which he was sick he asked me for leave to abstain from food on all fast days. Besides, he confessed that three times in the week, in the time of his infirmity, he had torn his body with scourges. Likewise he applied himself fervently to prayer. For to this he gave the entire day and many hours of the night: nor did he cease from it in the very servile works; while he occupied himself in these with the greatest modesty, his mind was not turned away even in the least from the divine presence.

[3] obedience, Of so singular an obedience was he that you would scarcely find the like in anyone in our age. One of the directors of Alphonsus, wishing once to test it, ordered him to set out for the Indies. He at once complied, and would have carried out the commands, if the doorkeeper had not refused to open the door. When I afterwards asked him how, furnished with no provision for the journey, and not knowing whether he would find a ship, he would have undertaken the voyage, he answered that he would have set out with firm hope that God, whose person superiors bear, would supply necessary things and the ship itself; and that if this had not been at hand, he, relying on holy obedience, would have committed himself to the waves. Likewise for many years he opened and closed a certain door, as often as he went in or out by it, that is, very often; because a superior had once asked him: "Why do you not close this door?" Something similar happened to me, on the day on which I arrived here coming from the mainland. Vehemently desiring to see him and to enjoy conversation with him, for a whole hour and more I held discourse with him on divine things, as he was accustomed, although he was vehemently afflicted with fever. I asked him whether his head ached, and when he affirmed that it did: "Be silent then, my Brother." To this saying he complied with such scrupulousness that through the whole night he uttered no word, although often asked by the infirmarian how he was. When he did the same on the following day, and the infirmarian had said that at such a time it was lawful to answer, the more so since necessary things were being treated, he denied that this could be done without the order of Father Rector. I was therefore sent for, and he addressed me in these words: "If you permit, reverend Father, I will give an answer to the infirmarian and the physician, when they ask me how I am." And when I inquired why he hesitated to answer: "Because, he said, reverend Father, yesterday you told me not to speak any more."

[4] zeal for souls, He burned also with zeal for the salvation of souls, and that as his condition allowed. Certainly during the thirty years in which he was doorkeeper of this college, winning an excellent reputation for the Society, and edifying all, by pious conversations, by modesty, by good example (in which way he preached), he rendered excellent service in recalling souls to right ways, bringing those who dealt with him to piety and holiness of life. Besides, that all men scattered through the world might apply themselves to the true religion, he prayed to God without intermission, and that with the greatest ardor; indeed he offered himself to bear the torments of hell for eternity, that the soul of even one of the most miserable slaves, of the Moors or Jews, might be joined to Christ. This zeal so pleased God that, showing to the venerable man all the men of the world of both sexes to be looked upon, he declared him worthy of no less a reward than if he had brought this whole multitude to Christ.

[5] modesty, piety, and prudence. As to his modesty, no one ever detected anything in him that offended this virtue even in the slightest. For he walked with lowered eyes, looking forward only so much space as his own body would have filled in length. He did not turn his eyes here and there; and in the space of forty years he did not once direct them on a woman, although, ministering daily at Mass, he gave water to drink to all who received the Holy Eucharist. He was most observant of the law of silence, so that, however assiduously he dealt with those of the household or with outsiders, he was never heard by anyone to utter an idle word. To speak of God he held as his delight, and if conversation were begun about other things, sleep at once seized Brother Alphonsus. His conversations on heavenly things were so pious that many most religious men of this island opened to him their inmost sentiments of soul, or consulted him in doubtful matters. From his commerce with God he had attained the greatest knowledge of divine things; so much so that in certain books which he left written by his own hand he discourses so magnificently of the virtues that he easily surpasses many other learned authors treating the same subject. Because of this divine wisdom it came about that viceroys, bishops, royal counselors and ministers, magistrates, knights, and other noblemen went to him very frequently; indeed many of them dared to undertake no business of great moment without first using the counsel of the holy Brother. By his candid, simple, perfect speech he gave courage to all. Having heard him, they cast aside every doubt, and rightly, since they knew that those who followed his admonitions had never been disappointed of their hope.

[6] following all the most perfect things, He cultivated religious poverty in a wonderful manner, and only then truly rejoiced when he experienced its effect. He was in pain if the worst things of the house were not given to him. A needle found by chance he would not have taken for himself without license. It delighted him to bear some want in garments, in his chamber, or in food. Since he diligently guarded the gates of his senses, he could not but imitate the purity of the angels, and attain that cleanness both of body and of mind which our blessed father Ignatius requires of us. He never fixed his eyes on anyone, and he long lamented this, that he had once thoughtlessly cast them on a coach. And to speak of his virtues in a word, he lived the life of an angel rather than of a man. For neither I, when in these past years I had familiar dealings with him, nor those Fathers who lived with him for twenty, thirty, or forty years, detected any fault in his manner of acting, or any offense however slight, indeed any less good affection. That the things which he did could be done more perfectly, no one would have wished to say. For even though the world together with the devil assiduously assailed him, nonetheless he never ceased seeking the most absolute virtue and the greater glory of God. These words he always had in his mouth, and much more in his heart. All the rules he kept so faithfully that he would have preferred to be torn to pieces than to neglect even the least of them. Nothing was more precious to him than to follow in all things the common life, as they say. Hence he grieved much when in the last years of his life, in which he was most gravely sick, he had to sit at the table of the sick, especially when exquisite foods were set before him.

[7] he strove in vain to lie hidden. Add that he strove with all his power to hide his virtues from others. But in vain: for those of the household and outsiders so esteemed him that not a few of ours came here from the mainland with the greatest joy, for no other reason than to have the opportunity of seeing him. Likewise not rarely laymen and churchmen of great authority came to our college, that they might consider him a little with their own eyes, and they could not but wonder with how great sedulity he acted as doorkeeper, duly answering those who came as the matter required; diligently satisfying the wishes of all, and summoning those whom outsiders desired to meet.

[8] His commerce with God and with the saints. And doing these things, he little by little ascended to perfect and most ardent charity toward God. With which he burned so vehemently that if the divine majesty had not kept him safe, he would have breathed out his soul from excessive love: this (together with many other things which we have reported) in writing with his own hand

he testified in an account of conscience, which, according to our rules, is to be rendered twice a year by the religious of the Society of Jesus to the superior. For more than ten years ago he was ordered by his directors to manifest his affairs in writing, that they might be better understood and more certainly known. He enjoyed very frequent commerce with the angels and saints, mingling conversations with them both in heaven and on earth. Of these heavenly ones he had selected twenty-four, to each of whom a single hour of the day was assigned, that he might deal with them and commend himself to them. Even when he had fallen asleep, he awoke at the beginning of each hour, and performed that office of piety. God, granting on a certain day the reward of this devotion, lifted him in spirit into heaven: where he saw all the blessed, and knew both their names and their proper deeds and merits, as if he had lived his whole life with those saints.

[9] to the Blessed Virgin, From childhood he loved the Blessed Virgin from his heart; who always conferred the greatest benefits on him. Hence on a certain day, dealing with her in a most friendly way, and burning with love of her, he said among other things: "I love you, my Lady, more than myself. I love you, my Mother, more than you love me." The best of mothers, ill bearing this speech, appeared to the boy: "It is not so, Alphonsus, she said: I love you more than you love me." With the Mother of God and her Son he lived most familiarly, just as friend with friend, or a specially beloved son with his parents; and he held them truly in the place of father and mother. They often accompanied him by bodily presence, and indeed once entered his heart. Of them he spoke with such sweetness and piety that he stirred up this affection in others. He urged all, setting aside their own affairs, to strive to serve solely Jesus and Mary, his sweetest loves (these were his words); adding that such patrons would take the best care of their advantages, both of body and of soul.

[10] he was most devoted to her conceived without stain. For more than forty years he recited daily the Office of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary ^c: to which mystery he was borne with peculiar zeal. And he heard from the Mother of God herself on a certain day that that devotion was most acceptable to her. When therefore he exhorted all to embrace it, he said once to me and to other members of the college who were with us that one of the causes for which Christ the Lord instituted our religious order, namely the Society of Jesus, was this, that it might make known and defend the immaculate Conception of his mother. And he uttered this with so great a fervor that no one ever noted a greater in him; and he added that he had brought these things forward not of himself, but had received them divinely. Likewise he recited the rosary of the Blessed Virgin so frequently that his fingers were found after death to have grown callous from the continual telling of the beads. Innumerable other things about his glorious deeds and charisms, his distinguished virtues and revelations we pass over, as being to be reported in the history of the venerable Brother; which among the Lives of the most outstanding saints will be one of the most singular and illustrious. Indeed if I were to try to review these things, I should be much longer than the character of a letter allows, and should moreover say too little, both of God's largesse toward his beloved servant and of the liberality with which he responded to divine grace. Wherefore I shall set forth in few words only his last illness, death, and burial.

[11] He bore his last illness patiently, Although from his first arrival in this college, forty-seven years ago, Christ our Lord tried him (as he himself had asked) with every kind of labor, namely permitted him both to be assiduously vexed and tormented by demons for many years, and from time to time to be tried by grave illnesses, yet in the last years before his happy departure he afflicted him with especially grave ailments. For he felt most bitter pains from the lowest to the highest parts of him, especially in the year in which he died: at that time, besides the other infirmities and those proper to old age, he began to be so vehemently tormented with the disease of the stone that for a whole year he had to lie in bed, and indeed for the last three months without motion, always on the same side. Meanwhile, thinking only of divine things, he earnestly asked God, not that he take away or lessen his troubles, but rather that he increase them and add new ones. Of his pains he spoke with the greatest joy (as he had been accustomed in his whole life), adding that no one was happier than a man whom God presses with many infirmities, provided that he bear them patiently; since in this life there are no gifts more excellent than those which the Father so largely conferred on his only-begotten Son. He added that if it were possible for angels and saints to envy anyone, they would surely be jealous of men who suffer many things. In short, of no matter did he ever speak with such elation; and what he thus praised in speech he had first experienced in fact: for by his patience he was another Job.

[12] desiring to suffer greater things. Therefore he complained, while he was in this illness, both that we took too much care of him, whom all ought to forget, whom all ought to avoid like a dead dog, and that he was not allowed to keep fasts and to cut himself with voluntary torment. When I sometimes persuaded him to taste preserves, sweetmeats, and other things of this kind, he constantly answered: "Believe me, I beg, reverend Father, these very sweet things are a pain to me, and my pains are very sweet things to me." To those asking him how he was, he always said: "I am comfortable now, such is the goodness of God." When he was alone, he enjoyed great solace, although affected with so many evils; and with the greatest gladness he dealt with his father and mother, Jesus and Mary, addressing them in words full of love, and often repeating what he had been taught by our Lord himself: "Jesus and Mary, my sweetest loves, for love of you may I suffer and die! May I be wholly yours, and by no means mine!" When the infirmarian asked him, now scarcely able to utter a word, what he felt: "A great love, he said, of self." Some days before his happy death he was seized by so vehement a fever and his pains grew so strong, that he seemed soon about to die: nonetheless he said these things again and again: "More, Lord, more!" At the opportune time and with his accustomed piety he received as Viaticum the most holy Body of Christ, on which for many years he had fed at least three times in the week with the greatest devotion, even in the last year of his life, in which he was kept in bed. We also anointed him with the holy oil. Nor did he cease to bear his pains with even mind, indeed to beg greater ones from God.

[13] He died piously, He who through his whole life had treated the Fathers with the greatest reverence observed this toward them even in this last infirmity; so that, when he saw any one of them, he uncovered his head, although he was very near death and could scarcely move his arm. On the 29th * day of October, a Saturday, after noon, now about to die he was flooded with gladness, God standing by his promises, and he was rapt into a most sweet ecstasy, such as he had more than once experienced in this last year; and in this he remained for three days until his last breath. His face, especially from the time when he labored under ill health, was usually very pale, even when he was more comfortable. But from the beginning of this rapture it shone with a very beautiful color and gleamed like an angel: which was the exterior effect of that love with which his breast was burning. In the ecstasy itself he sometimes exclaimed: "My sweetest Jesus! My best Mother!" At midnight, when from some signs (such as the swelling of the breast) he seemed to be very near death, and all the Fathers and Brothers of this college standing by, when the most holy name of Jesus had been repeatedly uttered, and the likeness of Christ hanging on the cross shown to the dying man, he opened his eyes, which he had now held shut for three days, and fixed them, brighter and more cheerful than when he was in good health, on the image of Jesus: kissing whose feet, he said most sweetly: "Ah! my Jesus!" and gave back his spirit to God, on the vigil of All Saints, after midnight.

[14] held thereafter in great honor, The virtue of the good Brother was so well known that not only from our province, but also from the Castilian, Baetic, Portuguese, and Indian provinces, many, having heard the fame of his holy life, wrote to me, again and again asking for something of his relics. Both they themselves and not a few other men outstanding in nobility, laymen and churchmen, grandees and cardinals, gave letters to him, commending themselves to his prayers, in order by this means to procure his handwriting for themselves. The Fathers and Brothers of the college, who had the best knowledge of him, showing their goodwill toward him, rejoiced that they had been present at his happy death, and had been able to touch their rosaries and instruments of penance to the corpse.

[15] especially in the island of Majorca. Then God must be said to have fulfilled his promises; for he had promised his servant that great honor would be paid him in this island. In very truth, as soon as the death of the good Brother Alphonsus Rodriguez was made public this morning, so great an affection for him appeared that almost all the inhabitants of the city ran together to venerate the sacred body, to kiss the feet and hands: among whom the king's vicar with his counselors, the canons, the religious, the noblemen. After noon, when the college and church had been filled with the multitude of men, we carried the body into the church and laid it in a high place: the crowd had so increased that a way could scarcely be made through it. Hither came all the religious families, to chant the accustomed responsories; namely the Friars Preachers, the Brothers of Mercy, the Friars of the Order of Minors, the Carmelites, the Augustinians, the Trinitarians, and the Minims, with their superiors or provincial superiors: likewise a little later the whole chapter of the cathedral church, and the clergy of all the parishes, the cross being carried at the head of the procession. It is incredible how many men tried to touch their rosaries to the sacred remains, or to cut off part of the garments; how many sick persons strove to touch the body. To satisfy all, four or six of our fathers constantly gave their services, with whom two Fathers of the Order of Preachers, providing for their own and others' piety, were at hand. Yet all these together could by no means satisfy the people's devotion. It was glorious to God that men hindered by the crowd threw rosaries and medals from every side, that they might touch the sacred body.

[16] The funeral rites are celebrated with a great attendance. We performed the office of the dead according to custom ^d, the king's vicar, the chapter, and the magistrates being present. Night was now approaching when a sermon was given from the pulpit for a quarter of an hour: in which only his chief actions were celebrated, and the hearers were invited to return on the next Friday. And this is worthy of note, that during the whole time of the sermon and the office, no one dared to cover his head before the lifeless body, or to utter a word; and although the church was filled with as great a multitude as it could hold,

and a greater than it ever held, yet all things were done in such silence that you would have thought the church empty. When we wished to bury the body, nothing more was possible than to lay it down within the walls of the house, and that with great labor: we dismissed the people, offering this pretext, that they could be present at the Brother's burial on another day. We at length laid him in the tomb at the tenth hour of the night, because it could not have been done in another way. His face and hands remained flexible, just as if he had been alive. Although because of the most holy life and death of the excellent Brother, and also of the revelations made to him by God, we are morally certain (in the manner in which we can be certain of such things in this life) that he entered heaven and did not pass through purgatory; indeed that he occupies there a most glorious seat, which he merited by his lowliness of mind; nevertheless, not to fail in my duty, I ask Your Reverence to order that for the refreshment of his soul the accustomed suffrages of the Society be made in your college ^e, and that all of us who dwell here be commended to God, that we may imitate that pattern which God has set before us in the good Brother Rodriguez. God preserve Your Reverence. Majorca, on the 31st day of October 1617.

[17] All run together to his tomb. After I had written this letter, at the earnest request of many of the highest men of the island, on the 3rd day of November, a Friday, in the morning, we amply celebrated the funeral rites, a panegyric oration also being delivered. Scarcely had day risen when so great a multitude ran together that our church, although it is not small, could not hold a fourth part of it. There were again present the king's vicar, his counselors, the canons, the grandees, and the most honorable men of the whole island; and the bishop himself would have been present, if he had not been held by sickness. There were also men greatly devoted to the excellent Brother, who sent wax candles to be lit at his tomb. When, the solemn office having been performed, a sermon was given from the pulpit, the hearers did not know what they should more admire, whether his virtues, or the divine charisms, or his efficacious intervention with God and his mother. And now laymen and churchmen, Brothers and Sisters of almost all the Orders, vehemently beg of me something of the relics of the good Brother, for devotion's sake. To his tomb ^f (namely under a small vault near the altar of the Blessed Virgin Mary) a great number of men run together, because report has it that many miracles have been wrought there in these days. When we have ascertained these, I shall narrate them to Your Reverence.

Michael Julian.

ANNOTATIONS.

* read 28

LIFE OF BL. ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ, CONFESSOR OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS

BY FR. LOUIS JANIN OF THE SAME SOCIETY.

Alphonsus Rodriguez, temporal coadjutor of the Society of Jesus, on the island of Majorca. (Bl.)

BY JANIN. BOOK I.

CHAPTER ONE.

The birth of Alphonsus and his life in the world.

Bl. Alphonsus is born at Segovia in the year 1531. Rodriguez, a Celtiberian, of Segovia by homeland, came into this light in the thirty-first year of the last century, on the eighth day before the Kalends of August, sacred to the honors of James the apostle ^b. Having received the name of Alphonsus in baptism, he seemed at the same time to have drawn from it a perpetual tenderness of love toward the mother of God, and even then as an infant, as often as he heard the name of Mary, he began to leap for joy all over, and to hide in his bosom as a most dear pledge little images of her, wherever he could get them. So good a soul was cultivated with special care by James Rodriguez and Maria Gomez, most excellent parents; and they so carried on a not unprofitable trade ^c as to enrich themselves and their seven children ^d above all with eternal gains; of whom the second-born Alphonsus was being prepared by God for great things. Foreshadowing these were either visions or dreams often presented to him at four years old; whence they can scarcely be believed accidental. For with his mind estranged from the senses, his eyes open and rigid, and loudly crying out to the Virgin mother, he did not come to himself by any shaking of the body, nor indeed by blows and the plucking of his hair; he saw meanwhile, as he afterwards narrated, as it were a grain of mustard seed coming forth from his breast, and gradually rising, when it had lifted itself as high as the clouds, spreading out into the amplitude of a capacious church; which I should not think it rash to explain of his great progress and of the perfection and fame of his complete virtue, shown so long beforehand.

[2] Thereafter, when grown up, he gave attention to letters for some time at Alcalá ^e; Bereft of wife and children, whence, recalled to household affairs ^f, he married Maria Suarez as his wife ^g, and intent on commerce was harassed by various misfortunes ^h. But his wife having died, and his affairs and business slipping backward, that life began to be wearisome ⁱ to the man, compensating the troubles of so many years with so malign a yield. Hence turning to the divine benefits, and thinking that he had responded to them with a barren soul, he was broken with grief and tears day and night, asking from God pardon for his offenses, and with great desires bringing forth * a new kind of life. When one night, as he was praying, Christ stood beside him, surrounded by a company of about twelve saints, he recognized of them only Bl. Francis, whom he cultivated with peculiar zeal; and being asked by him why he wept so much, sighing deeply, he said: "How can I hold back my tears, knowing that my God has been so often gravely offended by me, when even slight offenses against him are not sufficiently expiated by mourning extended until death?" And here the heavenly appearance ceased to be seen; but there clung to Alphonsus, with incredible delight, a hatred of any sin so immense that, its danger being thereafter presented, he would ardently ask rather to be thrust down into eternal pains with the demons than to sin against God even slightly. Upon the measure of this hatred there followed a not unequal flame of tormenting himself, and of washing away the old stains by new punishments of himself daily. To this were added contempt of all things, and fear of the eternal perils which are innumerably wrapped up in their alluring and deceitful brevity; horror of the divine judgment, and of the most severe account to be required of him; finally a most thoroughly meditated confession of his whole life, which was at once followed by the deliberation of entering a religious Order, where he might live entirely for God and his soul. But this impetus of mind being delayed by his little son, whom, surviving of his three children, a father's care could not abandon, he said: "Lord, if you see that the boy will one day be your enemy, forestall this crime by a speedy death; and while he is innocent, and yours both by age and by grace, claim him to yourself for ever." The divine goodness assented to its servant, and on the night immediately following showed him the boy in a vision, as if laid out for burial; and after a little, a month not having elapsed, he was in fact carried to the grave ^k.

[3] he gives himself to piety and penance. Alphonsus then, free and now his own master, determined to transfer himself entirely to God; and putting his hand to the work, to break his body with unaccustomed labors; to torture it without end or measure with scourges, fasting, a hairshirt reaching down to the knees, and other pains; to be assiduous in partaking of the mysteries of penance and of the divine Eucharist. Among these things, on the feast of the Blessed Virgin called of the Snows ^l, when he had given himself wholly to her with certain and sweet confidence in her singular protection, from then on he experienced her as liberal in an altogether unhoped-for and peculiar manner: and in the beginning indeed, as he told the beads of the rosary in prayer, there appeared a purple rose, when he recited the Lord's Prayer; and a white one, when the angelic salutation; both however of equal beauty and fragrance; and offering these to the Virgin he saw that the gift was approved by her. Afterwards from Antonia and Juliana, his sisters, who lived as virgins at home with him, he learned in telling the rosary to think of the life and torments of Christ. Then having advanced to the form of praying which is carried on in the mind, and soon to the height of contemplation, he was received by the excellent Lord so familiarly and pleasantly that he sometimes spent whole days in prayer, immersed for at least four or five hours in the mysteries, teaching, and examples of Christ. But he was especially affected by his torments; and while he turned these over in his mind, he even experienced them from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, feeling himself fixed with Christ to the cross, and meanwhile burning with the fire of divine love; and indeed he left it written by his own hand that in thinking of the punishments of Christ he was accustomed to feel a part of them, and to be wholly transformed into him by the greatness of love and of pain alike: for God by the benefit of love pours himself into us just as fire is blended with wood and iron. Drunk with this new wine, Alphonsus was stupefied at all other things, and sometimes in looking up to heaven was seized there in mind, and with difficulty was held on the ground.

[4] [In the year 1563, on the feast of the Assumption, he is refreshed by a most beautiful vision.] In about the year one thousand five hundred and sixty-three, on the very sacred day of the Virgin's reception into heaven, when in our college at Segovia, with most careful preparation, refreshed by the divine banquet

he was giving thanks, he saw an innumerable court of blessed spirits standing by the Virgin, while, placed by the eternal Father on a high throne, she was adorned with a crown of inestimable price; and himself, taken by the hand by her, with his guardian angel and Bl. Francis as companions, offered to the eternal Father as a most pleasing and acceptable gift. And so vivid and so great was the light of this spectacle that he did not know afterwards whether he had seen it placed in the body or out of it; recalling in mind only this, that he had been lifted with incredible swiftness beyond the clouds and the known bodies, and, an immense journey suddenly accomplished, had stood in a most beautiful place, thronged with heavenly courtiers; and that he now plainly did not understand how men could be affected by the mire and chaff, such as he saw all those things to be which delighted them on earth as very pleasant and most precious. When Fr. John Baptist Martinez, whom he used for confessions, had heard these things as they had occurred, and that Alphonsus, about to depart from the church, had scarcely found the door, and had been seen in the streets scarcely master of himself, he ordered him henceforth to avoid those abstractions of mind in public; which, although he strove bravely to do so, yet sometimes their impetus was such that he could not resist it. Among these divine benefits of favor, moreover, he sought in his mind into what religious family he should especially withdraw, to live to God far from the crowd and from dangers. By what signs this was shown to him must next be narrated.

ANNOTATIONS.

* read parturiens

CHAPTER TWO.

Alphonsus embraces the Society of Jesus, and is sent to the island of Majorca.

Bl. Alphonsus, not admitted into the Society at Segovia, In the year ^a in which Alphonsus first gave himself more thoroughly to God and eternal things, he saw one night, whether in sleep or in an image of the mind, the sky fouled by a dense cloud of black birds, and disturbed by a wicked clamor: from another side there flew up as it were a dove, distinguished by its whiteness, its breast inscribed in silver characters with the sacred name of Jesus, which by itself threw down that whole rabble of troublesome birds, and shook them to the ground in the manner of hail. The man of God, wondering at so unequal and so bloody a conflict, renewed a second and third time, and at so unhoped-for and glad an outcome, consulted his confessor, the said Father Martinez, on what it might mean. He, having taken time, and having much sought the matter from God, the father of lights, at length answered that he would give his name to the Society, that he would fight grave battles in it with the demons; but that his chastity, armed with the name of Jesus, would carry off noble victories from them; which we shall see in the sequel. But indeed the Fathers of the college of Segovia judged a man of that age and unlettered unfit for the offices of the Society, although they wonderfully approved his virtue and most ardent zeal for the name of Jesus ^b.

[6] he seeks Valencia; Wherefore, having settled his affairs at home and wholly renounced them, he hastened to Valencia to Fr. Louis Santander ^c, hoping for fairer treatment from him. Louis, rejoicing at the arrival of so upright a man and one once very well known to him, confirmed him in his purpose, and, having examined his ardor, thought that he would be of useful service in the Society, if he were first initiated as a priest before he entered the novitiate. Eager therefore for his vow and for obedience, Alphonsus, being thirty-nine years of age, by the study of grammar ^d, as he had been ordered, prepared himself for sacred orders and frequented school with boys; but with as much progress in the love of God and in self-abasement as with none at all in letters; to which both his age stood in the way, and his disgust at all things except divine ones. Whence, entrusting himself to his directors, he asked to be admitted into the Society, in whatever grade and place they might wish. But the demon, foreseeing already from these beginnings how much of damage was being woven for him, strove to upset this design of his, under the feigned appearance of something better.

[7] where he is urged by the demon to the eremitical life. There was at Valencia a fellow-pupil of Alphonsus, very like him in every practice of virtue, piety, and austerity, so far at least as could be commonly understood. With

him, a very close friend, Alphonsus communicated about entering the Society, which had long been settled in his mind. He indeed at first praised the purpose of religious life; but disapproved of its manner in common, and preferred the solitary, and so set its riches, delights, and security against the company of many that he seemed another Pambo speaking from the desert. On the following day, when he had betaken himself to San Mateo, which is a village near Valencia, and had put on the hermit's habit, he soon invited Alphonsus by letter that, if it irked him to follow the one going before, he should at least visit for some days, and come to share in the sweetness in which he was wonderfully melting. Alphonsus, interpreting this as the charity and friendship of his companion, came, when he heard himself most vehemently urged by him to take up the same institute, but in vain. For pleading that there were some things at Valencia that he must necessarily arrange first, he returned there, his persuader warning him to dispatch himself from them more quickly. But on the return, as he withdrew from the village, so noticing that he was more coldly affected toward solitude, he began to be pricked with a scruple at having treated so great a matter without consulting his confessor. When he had distinctly narrated everything to him, and had been taught by him the goods of community and the safe resources of soul for salvation, which through the care of those who rule, the examples of the brothers, the practice of all discipline and of the virtues, the merits, labors, and prayers of all, pertain to each; that those who live as solitaries would certainly lack these; that lastly those who inhabit solitude do all things by their own private judgment and right, whereas those who have chosen monasteries do them from the will of God as enjoined by his vicars; Alphonsus, falling down, said: "Since my own will is to me the origin and cause of all danger, and the divine will of all security, I wish, as long as I shall breathe, abjuring mine, to stand everywhere upon the divine ^e."

[8] He is received into the Society This profession of soul, so fervently uttered, God rewarded with such firmness that from then on he never wavered in it, and nothing pleased him, unless from the will of God. Then, his confessor exhorting him, he asked the Virgin to obtain for him the Society of her son, if that should be pleasing to her son; and he understood by an interior admonition that this was the mind of God, that he should join himself to it. Wherefore at his request Antony Cordeses ^f, a man of the highest and most perspicacious virtue, who was then over ours in Aragon, admitted him, almost against the resistance of the Fathers whom he had in council, who did not approve that the Society be burdened with a man of forty broken by voluntary pains. These Antony, moved by a greater force than he could restrain, prudently satisfied, saying that he received him for this reason, that the Society might not lose a saint. Having returned home, and making ready for departure, Alphonsus, at the first dark, heard himself called out to, and having opened the window, seemed to distinguish the voice of his hermit friend, but so changed by anger and rage that he recognized it only imperfectly. He reproached Alphonsus with many revilings for his levity, perfidy, desertion of the hermitage and the habit, which he had a little while before bound himself by promised faith to embrace. To these Alphonsus returned not a word; but noticing without obscurity a device contrived by the demon, he closed the window, gave himself to prayer, and spent the rest of the night in it.

[9] as a temporal coadjutor. In the morning, hastening to the college, with great feeling of gladness of soul he was enrolled for the novitiate ^h as a domestic helper ^g. There, tested as usual by pious meditations and by a holy retreat, in which he might review his past life, he was put to daily ministry; and he decided that nothing more pleasing could be offered to God by him than if, after completing the task of prayer, he spent wholly on humble offices whatever time remained to him. Their laborious diligence and abjection he offered to God in place of the voluntary pains which his directors withdrew from him because of the weakness of his body. For, turned to God in a tranquil desire of obeying, he said: "You know, O Christ, how greatly I hate this wicked flesh and desire to vex it in every way: but the guidance of those by whose judgment you have willed me to be ruled is worth more to me." And he was so observant of our laws and of every rule, even in the least things, that in all the forty years and more that he spent in the Society, he never knowingly departed from it.

[10] His simple vows taken in Majorca, For the rest, after a few rudiments of his novitiate, destined in the month of July for the island of Majorca, situated near the boundary of Africa and Spain ⁱ, he arrived there by the feast of St. Lawrence; and at once he conceived in his mind that he would never go away from there; and he stayed for forty-seven years, gladly also for this reason, that he was far from his homeland and kinsfolk. But here the man, who reckoned that he was giving his service to God and God's servants, while nothing seemed too much to him, nothing difficult, was overcome by an immense fear, proceeding from his deep contempt of himself: for he thought that one guilty of so many offenses, and of so little worth, could not long associate with men so upright and fruitful. But this very vehement agitation he calmed by praying, having drawn from heaven a certain hope of persevering in the Society and of closing his last day in it. When his vows had been taken in the year one thousand five hundred and seventy-three, on the fifth of April ^k, he remitted nothing of his novice's fervor, equally hostile to himself and to idleness, equally friendly to modesty, charity, brotherly observance, and the other virtues.

[11] by alternate turns he is tried and refreshed by God. To these he was spurred by the fear of the horrible pains which await religious violators of their institute; nor did he look upon the punishments of hell as from afar, but perpetually as placed under his eyes, and from time to time in some manner (God so willing) he tested them in himself. For in sleep and awake he was cruelly tortured in soul; and meanwhile calling on God in vain with much groaning, he was left destitute of all solace. In place of which he then wholly committed and sacrificed himself to the divine will, praising its counsels, and subjecting himself entirely and fully to them. Having gone through this struggle, he was for some time refreshed by wonderful consolation, Christ presenting himself visibly to him, and wiping away sweat and mourning with serene joys. From death, judgment, the expiatory flames and those of hell he himself drew lively sensations, and impressed the same on others in speaking. Often he begged for a holy fear of God and of offending God, often that a light be poured on him, in which he might perceive his open and hidden blemishes, blush at them, confess them, wash them away. To his asking God granted so clear a knowledge of himself that he shuddered at his miseries, and all other things, compared with God, he saw as nothing. Hence a distrust of salvation sadder than usual, not indeed because of the torments, in which he acquiesced in God's judgment, but because of offending him, and of everlasting exile from his love. This tempest of some days God likewise calmed at his asking, sending in a splendor which he saw as an extraordinary thing gliding down from heaven; which, the darkness having been put to flight from his soul, made him so certain of the divine protection that if any fears struck him afterwards, by the remembrance of this hope given him by God he soon dispelled them. And let us see what long and savage whirlwinds intercepted him while he was sailing so prosperously.

ANNOTATIONS.

were described by Orlandinus at the year 1545 Historia Societatis Jesu, volume I, page 121..

CHAPTER THREE.

He carries off an outstanding victory from the assault of the malign enemy.

Bl. Alphonsus repels the attacking demons a first time, This battle lasted seven years; the field was the soul and body of Alphonsus; the cause, chastity; the enemies, innumerable demons conspired against it ^a. The conflict was so atrocious, the assaults of the demons so bloody and unheard-of, that words failed Alphonsus with which to express them, and he wrote that no torments could be endured in life which he would not suffer more gladly than experience anew an arena so formidable and horrible. Yet, led into it by God, he gave great and exceedingly arduous proofs of charity toward him, dedicating to him body and soul to the marrow with full right. Whence he merited such ready help from him that he always conquered, and, rendered more courageous, boldly challenged the demons, a new Antony: "Where then, he said, is your strength? Is it thus, so great a crowd against one, and with so nerveless an effort? It is now clear how much you are nothing, when a weak and vile little man, but fortified by the grace of Christ, puts you to headlong flight." Then congratulating God: "Yours, O Christ, is the victory, yours the glory of the enemy laid low: we, sluggish and weak, can do all things with you. The Lord is the protector of my life: of whom shall I be afraid? If armies in camp should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear." And the savage sweat of the terrible battle was soothed afterwards by such an abundance of heavenly sweetness, whose force he could not bear, that he exclaimed: "It is enough, Lord." And it was a miracle that he retained his soul, as in the struggles that had gone before, so in these gladnesses that followed.

[13] a second time But the demons, provoked by contempt, took counsel about renewing the battle, and making a fresh attack on him about the middle of the night. This being divinely foreseen by him, he immediately took refuge with the Virgin mother, then with all the patron saints and blessed, that they might obtain for him the pains of hell (provided only without guilt) rather than that he should be allowed to hurt the most excellent and most beneficent Lord. When he was equipped with these arms, at the agreed hour the demon came with attendants in immense number, and in visible and palpable form: Alphonsus was dragged by them here and there through the chamber, was seized, afflicted, enticed by the seductions of female forms, which the most impure spirits had put on themselves; against which he closed his eyes and mind in vain, since by the more vivid allurement of the unspeakable images the dire enemy raged more madly in his soul. Amid these things Alphonsus called, and there was none to answer; and deeply overwhelmed in the mire of the deep, he tried in vain to emerge. Remedies fled from him as he sought them, and the Virgin mother grew deaf to his prayers, and the saints called to his help neglected him. God himself turned his averted eyes elsewhere, and the more vehemently he was asked, the more he left his miserable little servant to a doubtful and fearful hazard. Yet by his secret and hidden protection he constantly held the citadel of his mind untouched, and from its high watchtower unconquered he looked down below him on the fury of the enemies and on his hardships and pains. But from this he was for some days so worn down, discolored, and weak that he seemed just about to breathe out his soul; but with courage so increased and heightened that he made no more of all that is demons than of flies, although the assaults which he suffered from them, he said, were graver than the pains of death, and he would rather choose to burn alive with flames in the midst of a pyre than, hemmed in by a blackening mass of those specters, to contend for a doubtful palm with a great and very slippery danger of offending God: for this above all the demons were laboring at, that Alphonsus should sin in some way against God.

[14] and a third time. When this turned to the contrary, and he was enriched with merits and strength of virtues, they attacked him by another way, and said: "Do not think that you will escape us: day and night we shall be hostile, and we shall force you to comply with us, or we shall kill you." This speech, clearly perceived by Alphonsus, was by them no otherwise put into effect, they themselves for some time pressing upon him so stubbornly as to leave no portion of quiet or sleep. But he, casting his soul upon God, said: "Gladly, Lord, the death which they threaten, and whatever torments they can inflict, and even the very fires of hell I will gladly suffer, before I depart a nail's breadth from your love." Then to the infamous spirits: "Go on, he said, and rage at your pleasure. Behold, I am here, ready to the last day of judgment to satisfy your madness, by bearing whatever you threaten for the love of my Lord Jesus Christ." This so liberal and generous devotion of himself suddenly scattered that whole band of furies, as is clear from a leaf distinctly narrated in his hand. And to him Christ, giving himself to be seen, said: "By that ardor of your charity, ready and most prepared for any harshness, you have unnerved all the force of the demons."

[15] [Having gone through this struggle, he is refreshed by a vision of Jesus and Mary.] These darknesses, then, and deadly conflicts were followed by a great light; and the tranquil pleasantness of serene peace refreshed not the soul alone, but also the body, its companion in the battles: for when he piously and lovingly remonstrated with God in the words of Antony: "Where were you, my Jesus, when I was attacked by so many evils and pains? Why did you leave me alone in them?" Christ said: "What do you fear? I will never leave you, most dear son;" and he deigned him the happy sight of the sacred wounds. The Virgin mother too came to her victorious client, and said: "I love you, my son Alphonsus." From these so singular tokens of divine benevolence and of certain defense, and from the alternation of battles, it is incredible how much strength he drew, how many grades of great virtues he attained.

[16] He takes the vows of a formed coadjutor, already a saint in appearance and fame. Finally, received by the last vows of the helpers ^b into the body of the Society in the fourteenth year from his entry, he resolved that he must apply himself with greater effort to filling up the measure of the state he had taken up; of which there exists a certain writing of his exhorting himself to this effect: You must strive with all care to please God, so that you do or look at nothing at all, however slight, unless with leave asked of him; that you seek nothing in anything outside him and his glory. Besides, the exterior aspect of Alphonsus was so disciplined that it moved those who beheld him to piety and imitation. Commonly he was celebrated as a saint in people's talk, and he was employed with God as no vain intercessor for obtaining medicine for souls and bodies. Now what was the vein of this treasure, so rich and various, how opulent and easy, must now be told.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER FOUR.

Of his admirable affection toward the Eucharist.

Bl. Alphonsus daily renews his vows during Mass; Among the many who were accustomed to be present that they might enjoy the pious spectacle of Alphonsus serving Mass (and he served as often as he could), Catherine Sansalonia, a woman of distinguished and known virtue, saw twin rays burst upward from his face ^a, and narrated this to her confessor. And indeed Alphonsus was filled and kindled by that all-consuming and nourishing fire, especially after the consecration; at which time also he renewed his religious vows ^b, using this formula which follows: "How many times, eternal Father and Lord, have I bound my faith to you that I would live poor, chaste, obedient, according to the institute of the Society! How many times have I negligently fulfilled this faith! Spare me, most clement Lord and Father of mercies, and grant that for the future I may keep them more perfectly for you. Grant that I may always tend toward this, which is most glorious to you; grant that I may please you as much as I desire and as much as I ought. And again I promise and vow to your divine majesty, before the Virgin mother and my lady and the whole heavenly court, poverty, chastity, and obedience, according to the constitutions of the Society of Jesus your son. And I as a suppliant, Lord, ask of you, that as you have deigned to confer grace for dedicating this my sacrifice to you, so you would bestow abundant grace for perfecting and completing it; and if this my service, such as it is, has any value before you, may it be received by you as a monument of a soul grateful for your most holy Society granted to me; in which you know, Lord, how gladly I live, and how I prefer this one benefit to all, whatever from all mortals

can be desired or imagined. Would that, affected by so great a good, I might love you with immense love! Likewise for other things, with which without end or number I am overwhelmed by your liberality, I give infinite thanks."

[18] at which time he is enlightened by divine light. And as he sometimes renewed these things according to custom with inmost affection, an unwonted splendor pervaded him, in which both those benefits of having entered the Society and the others toward him, on the one hand indeed in God's munificence *, on the other from the abjection of his whole self a poor little man, he threw himself at his feet, acknowledging himself unequal to giving thanks. To him in a by no means obscure voice God said: "Continue to lie thus at my feet; for so all things will go well for you." But fearing lest there should be in this admonition some deceit from the demon, he was ordered by God to fear nothing, only to obey what was commanded; and from this he then certainly perceived that deceit was far from those words. It would be long to tell how many, how fiery affections he kindled in the different parts of the Mass, how many things he then implored from God. There was a time when he earnestly asked of him that he might be wholly his, and that he might possess him wholly by sovereign and lordly right; and he heard him soon answering that this was something great and precious, and to be procured with great difficulties; yet by the way he had begun let him bravely follow; nor would divine help be lacking to him. Being likewise doubtful about the author of this voice, he was confirmed by another, by no means doubtful, forbidding him to fear, since he was walking rightly.

[19] the Holy Eucharist, in which he more than once sees the Lord, Once while ministering at the sacred table to a throng of people, he saw in each of the hosts which the priest was holding out a most beautiful little child ^c smiling at those receiving. He saw also on another occasion Christ deigning the kiss of peace and an embrace to John Aquira, a man of great but most scrupulous virtue, very sad for this reason, and offering the sacred rites apart, because the day before, while he was distributing the Eucharist to some in the church, a particle had fallen to the ground. The unhoped-for news of this spectacle flooded John with wonderful joy, when at the rector's order Alphonsus secretly disclosed it to him. Lastly he saw, likewise ministering at the holy altar, Christ standing where the Gospel is read, such as he once went about preaching in cities and villages; and the latent divinity shone forth with such gravity of eyes and of serene countenance that it both enriched the docile servant with the greatest gladness and instructed him in modesty: for by the mere recollection of this for twelve years he was thoroughly composed, and refreshed with new fervor.

[20] he receives with incredible devotion, Now with what preparation and how manifold he approached the banquet of Christ; with what equal sorrow and shame, as if he were the most wicked of men, he washed away his small blemishes in confession; and having received the body of Christ, how deeply he was plunged in the ocean of so great a benefit, who could sufficiently explain? since he himself could scarcely do so ^d. A thing worthy of imitation, which he was accustomed to report to the scrupulous: that when he entered the Society, in order to shake off once for all a disease of that kind, he wrote a most thoroughly meditated confession of all his past life; that being asked by his confessor, in preparing similar greater confessions which he had previously made, whether he had perhaps erred in anything, or knew anything to have been omitted by him through forgetfulness, he denied it; and that he was accordingly ordered by the same man to tear up the paper and to be content with the customary confession. This done, he said that he was thereafter freed from all that anxiety, God requiting his obedience with this easy quiet of mind. It seemed to him that in a certain most vast hall of his breast he received all heaven with its king Christ Jesus, and that some stood at his nod, others spoke thanks and praises, and many made melodies in wonderful song, and some congratulated him as a companion and housemate. From which there is no one who may not sufficiently conjecture what a burning of love was necessarily stirred up in his soul. Of which he himself, writing, says: In the very reception of Christ the immensity of his goodness is known, and it is proved by the thing itself that by no eloquence can there be set forth the greatness of the good which the soul then enjoys, surrounded by choirs of blessed spirits adoring and celebrating their creator.

[21] by an apparition of the Mother of God In the sixth year of this century, on the second day of Pentecost ^e, as he was praying before the most august sacrament, which was exposed for adoration in our church, God insinuated himself in an ineffable manner, of which he could utter only this: that from the sacrament Christ with great splendor had penetrated into his soul, and in not so brief a delay had inflamed it with such charity that, for the fire by which he was consumed, he felt his strength leaving him. And when he asked that he not be allowed to acquiesce in these things so unwonted, if they covered anything proceeding from elsewhere than from God, the most holy Virgin, appearing, said: "Why, son, do you not trust me?" and added: "Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk, and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon;" and finally: "In their hands they shall bear thee up, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone." Lastly, to crown the inexplicable delight, she willed that these words be sung for her servant by a symphony of angels: "Because he hoped in me I will deliver him," and what follows from the same psalm; after which the heavenly pageant vanished.

[22] and not rarely honored with an apparition of Christ. In the three days before Ash Wednesday, unequal to the divine love, to his own abjection, and to his gladness, he was accustomed to be present at the divine Eucharist, and he not rarely saw the most blessed Virgin, surrounded by a crowded company of angels, standing beside the Creator. Once before the octave of the Lord's Body, prostrate on his knees, and attentively thinking how vile he was, he was suddenly attended by angels in visible form. On another occasion, as he burned with prayers before Christ and with desires of receiving him, Christ did not bear that he be frustrated of what he wished, but just as iron by a magnet, so he allowed himself to be seized by his heart, so manifestly that Alphonsus perceived him by sense present within him. As he was about to sit down with the other Brothers at the divine banquet, he had invoked for this, for them and for himself, as he was accustomed, the special help of the Virgin mother, of Saints Joseph, Joachim, Anne, and of all the heavenly ones, when behold, the mysteries being completed, he saw by a light that had glided down to him from above God dwelling in each of the Brothers with incomparable majesty ^f. And it was customary for him after the sacred banquet to recite the hymn of thanksgiving, Te Deum Laudamus, and to be admitted into the secrets of God, known to few mortals; and more often to be approached by Christ and his most holy mother, between whom he saw himself in the middle, they standing familiarly by him with his own eyes. At so many gifts of God, so unusual, he blushed, a lynx-eyed inspector of himself, and earnestly begged from God rather hardships, contempt, and such an opinion among men as would hold his affairs and visions for empty things. But from what we have said it becomes clearer than the sun with what accurate zeal and inflamed veneration he cultivated the most august Eucharist, and what fruits, how abundant and admirable, he carried away from it.

ANNOTATIONS.

* supply dives

CHAPTER FIVE.

The daily order of the life of Alphonsus.

Bl. Alphonsus by morning prayers I shall briefly touch on what I have found about this, that those for whom more suitable things are not otherwise at hand may take example from it. He had so divided his whole day into various offices of piety ^a that no hour was empty of them, and none did not have someone of the saints as protector. Roused in the morning by the sound of the bell, as if God were calling, he hurried forth from his little bed. Soon he applied himself to thanksgiving, to the love of God, and to the purpose of bearing many things for his sake, and of serving him thereafter more fervently. Then, fortified with the cross, the single persons of the most august

Trinity he adored, and praised its beneficence, his preserver, in the Church's known hymn; and when he had woven this through to the words: Vouchsafe, O Lord, this day to keep us without sin, then, with eyes intent on death, he reckoned that day would be his last. There followed the litanies of the Virgin ^b and other things of that kind as preludes to meditation; in which, having asked leave to speak with God, he begged from God a fourfold love: of God, of Christ, of the Virgin, and of the neighbor redeemed by the blood of Christ.

[24] he adds many other prayers. He sedulously administers the office of doorkeeper. He added through the day the rosary of the Virgin and a good many prayers, with which, together with the office of doorkeeper ^c, he kept himself always most occupied. For since it was all the same to the most compliant Alphonsus whatever he was ordered, provided only he was ordered, he filled the office of doorkeeper in the college of Majorca as long as he could stand on his feet, but with such an example of lofty and solid virtue that it did very much good at home and abroad. He thought the ringing of the bell the voice of God, and he answered within himself eagerly: "Here I am, Lord; for you have called me;" and running up he imagined in his mind that he was opening the doors to God as he entered: therefore (he adds in certain notes of his, from which this has been learned) you will receive the one knocking, you will hear him, you will address him, as God, not as a man. And the same you will have to observe when you open the door to those of the household about to go out. Hence that equable and perpetual kindness of his, diligence, quiet of mind, affability, and speech far from idle rumors, seasoned with pious salt, by which he led many to contempt of the world, to changing their ways, and finally to religious Orders; hence Christ was sometimes seen by him with his most holy mother, attended by choirs of the blessed ^d; hence his assiduity in praying. For whatever time remained, he gave it wholly to prayer; and even now the corner is held in honor to which he was accustomed to withdraw to pray.

[25] Outside the house he is most modest. When about to go out of the house, he first went to Christ in the church ^e, and said: "If you foresee, Lord, that you will be hurt by this my going out, although undertaken from obedience, take away my life now; for you alone are my life, and it is fixed in me rather to meet a thousand deaths than to displease you even in the least." Then to the mother of God, after certain other things, he added these words: "Show thyself to be a mother, may he through thee receive our prayers, who, born for us, deigned to be thine." Outside, a religious gait, silence of heart. The same conversation with God as if he had been at home; a collected modesty, a most disciplined eye ^f, so that in forty-four years he never directed his gaze at a woman's face, although he was often compelled to address many; but he dispatched himself from them mostly both briefly and with * speech about the vanity, uncertainty, brevity, and dangers of this life, and about eternal things, judgment, hell, and the like.

[26] He diligently examines his conscience. In reviewing his conscience by the twofold examination which is prescribed to us, setting Christ before his eyes, as the master and mirror of his soul, he admonished himself seriously and distinctly: See whether you represent his looking, hearing, gait, modesty? Whether you so take sleep, food, reproaches? So seek the honor and glory of the eternal Father? And weighing his blemishes on a severe balance, he was gravely ashamed and repentant of so long and so favorable a time spent thus far in the Society with such slight fruit. Besides this he called every hour to censure as soon as it had passed, and grieving reproved himself, if he had passed over in it any occasion of virtue and merit; and he summoned the Virgin and the saint patron of that hour to the help of his amendment. He let no hour slip without some act of honor to the Mother of God, whose bond-slave he gloried to be; and if he had been forced to omit any such task of one hour, he discharged it in the next following. And how he exacted all his affairs on every side toward perfection is gathered from certain notes of his, where he thus determined within himself: Do nothing for the sake of getting it over, but fulfill each thing as perfectly as possible, and in imitation of Christ Jesus, as nearly as you can; as if on each thing the sum of your salvation and of the divine glory turned. After which he adds a method of dedicating these things to God at the beginning, middle, and end.

[27] In the refectory he is wholly in God; Having entered the refectory, he piously offered to God with himself what was set before him; and having commended to the Mother of God the spirits that are purged by the purifying flames, he mingled tears with his food, and sometimes stopped for so long that the recollection of eating had to be recalled to him by the rector's admonition. Of which, I suppose, must be explained what he left written about himself, as if about another, saying that he was accustomed at table to be filled by God and the Virgin mother with so many holy delights that speech could not attain them; that his food, moreover, was as that of a man placed outside himself, serving necessity with no savor, and meanwhile, while he ate, suspended in the highest contemplation. Thus far he, of himself, as is believed. And indeed it happened to him, while he sat at table fixed in the thought of the most holy mother, that with a pious impulse of soul he thus addressed her: "Ah! you, O Lady, if ever I might see you in heaven!" To whom the Virgin said: "Alphonsus, you will see me in heaven." O promise of immense joy, and consolation worthy of the best of parents; by whom he was held so delicately and tenderly that nothing was so difficult that he did not trust to wring it from God at her asking. For the rest, when more vigorous in years (for when worn out by age, he had lost all sense of taste by the practice of abstinence), if he greatly desired anything of what was set before him, he did not even touch it, he fed on the less agreeable, using no condiment ever to soften them; and he was so sparing of food and of such moderation in eating that he was clearly reckoned to feast in the sight of God.

[28] who reveals to him that all those present are predestined. As thanks were being given after food, looking at ours standing around with an eye of charity, he burned with an immense desire of one day beholding all of them alike in the company of the blessed; and he learned that he would attain his wish: for as he was returning late to supper, it was disclosed to him from heaven that all were destined for heaven, and were to be seen by him there. Although he held this for certain, yet on another occasion the same was confirmed to him by God. Indeed on a certain day, as thanks were similarly being given after table, he received divinely that not only those who were present, but whoever were then enrolled in the Society, were to be reckoned in the number of the blessed, provided that they constantly persevered in it; and this was impressed on Alphonsus with such certain persuasion that the man, otherwise a most zealous concealer of singular charisms, either to raise the sorrow of certain persons or to support their wavering, sometimes clearly narrated it to them ^g. This thing, though it may be most wonderful, yet may seem less unaccustomed to those who recall what once the same God, equally powerful and good, promised to the holy patriarch Benedict about the first three centuries of his Order.

[29] How he listens to conversations foreign to pious matters. He was greatly affected when talk about God was introduced; but readier to ask and hear than to speak and teach. But if anyone brought in empty talk, he gradually turned it aside to usefulness, so far as the reason of decorum allowed; or he fell asleep at it, both because he was most disgusted by such things, and because, spending the greater part of his nights in praying, he was troubled by sleep during the day. Sleep indeed he took in a chair until the sixtieth year of his age, and that very brief, and not empty of the soul's conversation with God. But not to go through the other things common in the Society, although performed and kept by him with no common virtue, let us set down an unusual battle fought by him for a long time with great forces and at last ended with great rewards.

ANNOTATIONS.

* dum in the edition.

CHAPTER SIX.

Of the grave vexation which he suffered in praying for ten years from the demon, and of the troubles of illnesses.

Bl. Alphonsus, praying in the morning, is tormented by demons. The soul and vigor of the day for Alphonsus was his morning prayer. The demons therefore, attacking these golden conduits of living water, hoped by cutting them to subdue Bethulia. And so as often as he had bent his knees to pray, he was at once seized by an unknown disease, but one which was plainly sent in by the demon: for it was so bound to the morning prayer that when this began, changed, ended, the disease at the same time began, changed, ceased. The signal for prayer sounded to Alphonsus as a signal of war ^a: for at once he was twisted and racked with most exquisite pains throughout his whole body; as he went on, the torments grew, and the battle grew fiercer with the struggling. For he struggled with charity and patience, persistently praying to God as he could, that nothing else be done with him but what was most pleasing to his majesty: that his one wish in this life was to suffer for God's cause and grace. Meanwhile the battle raged, the crosses grew heavier, and sometimes the rage of the butchery was so savage that he seemed about to breathe out his soul, if the hour of prayer were stretched a little further; sometimes he threw himself on the ground as one given up and dead. But indeed after the stroke of the bell by which the same hour is accustomed to be marked as elapsed, as at a signal for retreat, he rose well and eager, just as vigorous for all the duties in the rest of the day as if nothing had happened to him. Indeed he sometimes wondered at very many things done by him most uprightly and most swiftly, which he had not hoped to be able to do in so brief a time; and suspecting in them a certain higher hand, he said: "How, immortal God! could so many things be accomplished so quickly?" God repaying the sweat of the labor endured with this solace too, and with the easy communication of himself.

[31] After ten years, although laboring with other diseases, But when the ten years in which this war stood had rolled by, then indeed he was most pleasantly refreshed from heaven, and drew wonderful sensations from the knowledge of God and of himself. Yet to these delights the gravity of his ill health by no means gave way, by which his body, long since broken by voluntary pains, was almost continually pressed, an immense field for virtue and holiness. For when the rector asked, he disclosed to him that he suffered at night such pains as if his whole body were being cut up with a razor. And to the same man asking how he was: "I labor *, he said, Father, under a most bitter torment of stomach, stone, and colic pains, and other evils; all which however I do not hold for diseases, but gladly enjoy them, and would live altogether in sorrow, if God were to take these away from me." For that reason he covered them in silence, because they were familiar and accustomed to him: for the rule orders only that the keeper of the sick be warned by those who are ill beyond the usual.

[32] he was often wonderfully delighted by God. But as it is the style of the most provident goodness to alternate bitter things with sweet, he diluted these hardships of Alphonsus with manifold sweetness, now indeed consoling him by himself and face to face, now checking them, now healing them thoroughly without a physician. And he, a victim of the divine will, immolated himself wholly to it, to be consumed by the fire of pains. Once while he was doing this, behold there came Christ with the Virgin mother, with such an abundance of splendor from the face of each that it obscured the candle lit on the table. Both stood in the view of Alphonsus as he lay, and filled both his mind with inexplicable delight, and his body with health, and with a cheerfulness no less than if he had never been tried by disease before. A Father next to his chamber, wondering at persons speaking in the silence of the dead of night, opened the door to find out who they were, and here the heavenly spectacle withdrew. Nor was the richness of this gladness contained within Alphonsus, but it burst forth; and so for some days he spoke of God so magnificently that the astonished hearers hung upon his speech, as of a man fallen from heaven; and such was the surging of divine love in him that, unless it had found an outlet to show itself outwardly, it seemed about to choke him.

ANNOTATIONS.

* labore in the edition.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

Freed from the office of doorkeeper, he is tormented by the demons a third time, etc.

[Bl. Alphonsus, relieved of the office of doorkeeper, attentively gives himself to God] Through these turns of war and peace, of health and disease, Alphonsus arrived at the sixtieth year, at which it pleased that he be removed from the care of the door and employed on lighter things, to which his weak old age was equal, and that, having discharged the offices of Martha, he should now be almost perpetually at the feet of Christ with Magdalene strenuously at leisure ^a. At that time he composed an ascetical treatise at the order of his directors, in a simpler and open style indeed, but full of the highest senses, and most worthy of its author. Further, to him attentive to and dwelling on these goods there was supplied such an affluence of eternal gladnesses that, not containing it, he asked God to be more sparing of himself. Unfit through his decrepit strength for serving at the sacred rites, yet from the choir gallery he was present at all things celebrated in the church of the college. He had so accustomed himself to the present God that he could not be torn from him. The rector, thinking that he was being exhausted of his strength by this strain, ordered him, leaving God for God's sake, to relax his mind in daily things. He obeyed on the spot, earnestly applying himself to transfer elsewhere his thought wrenched from God. Meanwhile he felt God calling, and stopping his ears, he excused himself by the devotion of obedience: "Pardon, Lord, I am forbidden by the precept of obedience to admit you as you knock." But God knocked with so much the greater force the more devoutly and reverently he was shut out; indeed he entered the inmost parts of the one resisting. Alphonsus saw that he was in vain;

he explained the matter as it stood to his director; who permitted him to a greater and better master and lord.

[34] at first he is forbidden, but soon permitted; In the third year of this century ^b, when for some days now he had been excused from meditation by the rector's prescription (because he lay gravely ill of fever), having recovered a little he obtained only this, that he be allowed to recite the rosary to the Virgin. As soon as he undertook to do this, at the same time struggling in vain for some hours to draw his soul away from the most sweet contemplation of the present God, he was compelled to yield to God thrusting himself upon him, testifying that force was being done him by God, while otherwise he wished to obey his directors. And indeed it was already midnight, when he was still laboring in getting through the rosary. This struggle of his service God rewarded with a most placid sleep, such as he had not slept for many years. Then indeed, his senses being taken captive within and without, his mind, rapt on high in contemplating and loving God, kept watch, so much the more abundantly as it then, free from the ministry of the senses, came nearer to the liberty of separated spirits. Besides these delights of the upborne mind, his health too was restored to his body, which the physicians had thought lost through the violence of meditating. Taught by this conjecture, the rector observed that to be torn from divine things, which he extorted from God and from himself with the greatest force and with difficulty, harmed Alphonsus more than to apply himself to those things to which he was seized by a gentle, but powerful and plainly inescapable force.

[35] which the demon, bearing ill, The demon burst with rage at these successes. So, distrusting his exhausted arts, he attacked him in another way. As he was going up the stairs he blew on him such a stench that he fell in a faint; but, having invoked God to his help while he fell, he felt himself held back by the shoulders, lest he be dashed by the headlong fall. On the following day, and on the same stairs, thrown down with violent impetus, he lay for some time as dead, and to those suspecting that it had been done by the demon ^c, and inquiring the next day how comfortably he had rested the night before, he said: "I was tormented with such pains that scarcely anything more atrocious could be found among those below;" and to one of the Fathers ^d he said that during that illness he had been vexed by the demon with such a barbarity of torments and temptations, the like of which he had never experienced; and that while his failing body was being pressed with dire punishments, his soul too had its own most savage crosses, so that no part or faculty of him was free of deadly pains. Nor did their rage stop here, although he had soon recovered from the wound which he had received on the head in falling: for the demons prolonged it for three whole years, God adorning the triumphs and crowns of his servant out of their fury and attacks. Thus, while serving the priest at the altar, cold beyond his custom, and vainly invoking with the darts of prayer the favor of heaven to which he was accustomed, while he adored Christ in the elevated host, he received the oracle of one warning him to be ready to bear great labors with prompt and eager soul: that there would be a grave hardship, but with a grand reward; for that he would be with him at the last hour of his life ^e.

[36] torments him incredibly for three years, Made aware of the future by this voice, and at the same time armed with confident strength, he devoted himself to God, ready to endure anything for his love; at the same time with great daring he challenged those below, secure of divine help. As if roused by this, a gloomy mass of evil demons surrounded the man, terrified him with the faces of wild beasts which they had put on, cut him minutely into pieces (so the thing seemed to be done), so that no part of his body was free of most bitter torment. Alphonsus, troubled in nothing by the monsters, in nothing by the pains, assiduously implored Jesus and Mary, until, his strength cast down by the long conflict, the despairing enemy, confessing him victor, hid himself. But not many days had gone by when he returned to put forth his last efforts, and to vomit on Alphonsus alone the collected cruelty of the old tyrants against the holy martyrs. Therefore, fire, iron, and all other apparatus of punishments having been brought through the darkness of night into his chamber, the demons seized him as he lay, and threw him into a boiling cauldron; drawing him out they burned him with white-hot plates; then they cut him with razors and axes; afterwards also they tore his torn bowels from his body.

[37] at length put to flight by Christ. Not yet sated with these torments Alphonsus asked for graver ones. Finally, the skin having been stripped off, and the bones bare, he was covered with burning coals, and the pain of this punishment was so atrocious that, his courage failing, he tearfully asked help from God, and obtained it at length after a long enough contest; Christ, appearing to him, put an end to it, and that crowd of dire butchers having been put to flight, and the wounds of Alphonsus healed, restored him to health of body and quiet of mind, grateful indeed for the help received, but suffused with shame, that he who had so often offered himself to bitterer things had been compelled, with sinking courage, to implore it. How these things were done will perhaps be inquired by those who have paid less attention to such battles of the great Antony and of other saints besides. However the matter was carried out, it is enough that, awake, prudent, sensible, he suffered those pains which we have touched on in passing, plainly true, although wonderful. And thus far indeed the time of wars with the malign enemy, long surely and bloody ^f. From here until his death the demons did not dare to renew them, having experienced Alphonsus fortified with an unusual protection of heaven. Although from time to time they made noise, more from desire to disturb than to conquer; for about thirty years ago, that is in the seventeenth year of the century, which was the last of his life, he was harassed by a very troublesome distrust of salvation, arising from fear rather lest he had committed some fault than from elsewhere. While the reasons of eternal mercy turned over in his mind did not drive this away, lifting his eyes he begged the help of God, and at once he heard the desired voice rebuking the spirit of error by which he was tossed: "What are you doing here? Alphonsus has long been mine." By which, the doubtful state of fearful thoughts being dispelled, he recovered the most sweet serenity of his former quiet.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

Of the last illness and death of Alphonsus.

Bl. Alphonsus, seized by a pernicious illness, Alphonsus, so weary of human things, gaped wholly after God alone. That he might merit him more excellently, by divine counsel it came about that there should not be lacking to him occasions of crowns, which in this last act of his life he might weave for himself the fuller. God had promised him an illness that would yield to no remedies, but to death alone ^a: the event made the oracle good. He was torn repeatedly by a most intense feeling, one which could have brought death to anyone however robust; sometimes he was wholly destitute of strength; then, these being recovered in a moment, he seemed to be refreshed for new hardships. His one medicine for these evils was to deal with God, and to beg of him greater labors, a more perfect love of him. This he certainly obtained abundantly, for a long time most bitterly vexed not only in body, but also in soul ^b. For he who was accustomed to refresh him with such various signification of special favor seemed both to have gone far from him and to have forgotten him. That familiar and sweet savor of sufferings did not flow, nor did the desires and vows of hardships so often uttered; in their place sorrow and sad sickness, and sluggish weariness claimed for themselves the whole man without and within. Besides this the darts of sacred prayers and the forms with which he both occupied the day and roused his languishing soul had so left his memory as if he had never learned them ^c. At length, after the second month now of such nausea, he was revived by the glad presence of Christ Jesus and of his most holy mother, with such an influx of heavenly joy as far and greatly surpassed the pain gone through. Yet he did not interrupt during this last illness the course of his accustomed piety, so far as memory allowed, nor his accustomed diligence in it, nor the reading of pious books, in which he thought that he heard God speaking. Finally when he was sinking to his last, the Fathers suggested preparing for the struggle with the protection of the holy oil, since he was already fortified for it with the other sacraments.

[39] he is refreshed with heavenly joy Rejoicing indeed at this news and assenting to the admonitions, he seemed however by the indication of his countenance to say that he would survive some days. And to the priest anointing him he responded no less tranquilly than if he were about to move into another room. The torments likewise which had come upon him, most fierce, he received with incredible patience, as old guests very dear to him. To the keeper of the infirmary, inquiring obliquely and covertly, he signified quite plainly that within eight days he would be with God; and to the same man asking how he was, because he was seen with a more troubled countenance, he answered that he was laboring under a grave φιλαυτίᾳ, and indicated that he was very vehemently tormented in soul. Yet that manifest faith might not be absent from the promises, from which he had expected consolation from God in death, three days ^d before he departed from life, all pain altogether vanished, a deep peace held his soul, the highest quiet his body, a venerable dignity his very face, strength his countenance, a perpetual and constant evenness his pulse. Immersed in God and far from the senses, he enjoyed, as was believed, divine embraces; but with such a profusion of heavenly delights that from them pious stirrings of soul overflowed into those standing around, with whom the chamber was filled. And as all ours grieved at the loss of so illustrious a virtue, he opened his eyes, closed until then, and those whom he could not greet by word he greeted with a cheerful look full of holy benevolence.

[40] and he dies piously. At length, on the last day of October, sacred to the vigil of All Saints, his former torments returning upon him, he consoled them only by uttering the most august name of Jesus; for God did not wish that those whom he had had in life as perpetual companions and familiars should be lacking to him in dying. So of his master and Lord

by the example, whose wounds as he hung on the cross he looked at and tried to kiss, on the very bitter cross of pains, pronouncing the most sacred name of Jesus, he breathed out his most brave and most pure soul, in the seventeenth year of the present century ^e, at eighty-seven years of age, already advanced by three months and five days. The look of his face was more beautiful in death than in life, inspiring religious stirrings in those who looked on, far from that horror which dead bodies are accustomed to arouse. Alphonsus was of moderate stature, but somewhat bent by old age, lean, robust, with a bald and venerable head, with a dignity of countenance that called forth observance and benevolence, a forehead wrinkled by years, an aquiline nose, large and sharp eyes, a moderate gait, sparing of food even by nature, with speech as sweet as it was efficacious and strong, and copious on divine things, of a ready, shrewd, mature, and prudent mind ^f.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER NINE.

Of the events after the death of Alphonsus.

The veneration of the whole city toward the body of Bl. Alphonsus, by prodigies At the sign of the passing of Alphonsus, a noble matron, most observant of our church and of it, saw long before dawn, from the windows of her house, a most beautiful light as of the rising dawn hanging over the neighboring college; the same was seen also by a maidservant, whom, not believing her own eyes, she had called as witness. The matron learned a little later of the death of Alphonsus, and from that splendor conjectured his glory. Thereupon great gatherings ^a of all orders were made into the college, the royal procurator, who was then also viceroy, the canons of the greater church, the consuls, the tribunals, the religious Orders, highest and lowest alike, venerating the body of the man of God in rivalry. Among these a certain priest ^b, who intended cautiously to feign a kiss of the hands (which he condemned being shown to a layman), approached, lest he should otherwise be noticed; and while, on his knees, he selected for the kiss the feet of Christ (whose cross Alphonsus held inserted in his hands), he touched the hands too with his lips by accident. But behold, the dead man opened his eyes, and looked at the man with a pleasant smile, to whom at the same time the black garment of the deceased suddenly appeared changed into a shining and white one. And here the priest, vehemently upbraiding his error, could not be satisfied with repenting, standing by, pressing the hands, feet, and whole body of the deceased with pious kisses, and warned more than once to give place to others, he could not be torn from him; and what ought to be reckoned more excellent, besides constant zeal thereafter for the servant of God, he put on far different ways of living, about to embrace a religious family altogether with great hatred of the world, if he had not been called back from it for just causes. And of so strange a thing he hung up a memorial at the tomb of Alphonsus on a painted tablet.

[42] was attended. Some affirmed that, while he was being carried out into the church, they perceived a fragrance of odor such as is by no means perceived on earth. Others noticed that, while many flies settled on the ground, none settled on the venerable body or on the funeral trappings. To avoid the force of the crowd and to satisfy piety, placed on a hastily made platform, it was frequented by the influx of all conditions of the city of Majorca; and it was honored with admirable events, a great proof of divine power. For while, as happens, kerchiefs, flowers, and rosaries ^c were being touched to the sacred deposit, a candlestick with a lighted torch was knocked down with a plainly harmless blow on the head of one man, whose head would otherwise have been split both by the fall and by the weight ^d. Health of the eyes was restored to an infant, as soon as his mother Saura, wife of Lawrence Martin, when she could not do so herself, through one of ours applied them to the hands of Alphonsus; for at once, the torment and the intolerance of even the least light being driven away, which drew continual wailings from the boy, he uncovered his eyes vigorous and rejoicing in the light, and sound for the future. Likewise to Antonina, infant daughter of Sebastian Socias and Mariana Sequia, by the application of a small band brought from contact with Alphonsus, sleep was first procured for the night and, the fever driven away, health the next day.

[43] While the funeral is being celebrated, new prodigies take place, Held in suspense by the spectacle of wonders, by report and by desire, the people did not disperse even far into the night: wherefore it was spread abroad that he would by no means be brought to the tomb that night. The crowd being thus somehow loosened, the body was, though with difficulty, carried back within the college; and because a greater disturbance was feared for the next day, the plan being changed, it was closed in a coffin with glad tears, and laid in the chapel of the Assumed Mother of God ^e. Meanwhile a solemn funeral was prepared for the following Friday. To this the whole city ran together. Father John Torrens, intimate with Alphonsus, gave a funeral sermon on his praises, and he was heard for an hour and a half with no weariness of the people. On this very day William Descallar, of the chief nobility, sent a torch; and when it had burned through all the morning hours in honor of the funeral, he received it back of the same weight, as was first found by the wax-chandler who had let it out for use, and afterwards examined by a careful balance in the same place. And so the nobleman preserved it with great veneration.

[44] and many women put off their vices. A younger widow, in word, gesture, and habits freer than the character of a good example allowed, although she was frequent at the sacraments, and was lashed by the assiduous scourge of conscience toward a more becoming modesty, having heard the sermon which I have mentioned on the merits of Alphonsus, besought God through those merits that an unconquered strength might at length be supplied her for subduing herself; then to the servant of God: "You, you, she said, I implore, holy Brother, to obtain this strength for me, that I may not henceforth become a deadly snare to others and a rock of scandal, but may begin to serve God wholly." God ratified the woman's prayers, and she from that time, hating her former license, led a life fruitful in holy works. Another, while present at the same sermon, begged with weeping strength from the servant of God for breaking the rage of hatred with which, for injuries received, she so abhorred her brother's son that for this reason she abstained from her customary frequentation of the sacraments, and, every remedy being rejected, she was thought to be raving rather than angry. Alphonsus heard her praying, and suddenly wiped from her soul all memory of the injury received and of the hatred borne. A certain woman, long entangled in an ungovernable love of a ruined man, mourned her cowardly wicked unhappiness. She on that very day and amid the funeral rites of the servant of God ardently asked liberty from him, and she felt an interior answer that what she asked would be granted. But not daring to hope for this as long as the tyrant survived whom she alone in her sloth had imposed on herself and cultivated, sad and anxious she urged the divine mercy to put the final hand to its work; and again having heard the answer of certain confidence, on returning home she learned that her shameful lover had for no certain cause boarded a ship and left the kingdom. So at last she began a life worthy of a Christian.

[45] Another incredulous woman is punished and healed. I shall close this chapter with an event so much the brighter as a greater perfidy and impiety stood against it. In so great a gathering, zeal, and admiration of the whole people for honoring the virtue and funeral of Alphonsus, a certain woman hardened her mind to believe neither so many other eyes nor her own concerning his affairs; and invited to add new holiness to her prayer beads by contact with Alphonsus, she refused, saying that she did not wish them to be touched by corpses: that there was no lack of the blessed in the heavens to whom she might commit her vows. Indeed two months having elapsed, seized by a savage pain of the body, when other aids were of no use, she contemptuously rejected a particle of the relics of Alphonsus offered by her husband, a pious man; but, the torment growing fiercer and now plainly intolerable, she was compelled at last to apply it to this: and O the goodness of the divine mercy and of the servants of God! it suddenly drove away all sense of it. Her mother, summoned, saw pus burst from the affected part and flow in such abundance that the sick woman's garment had to be changed. She, afterwards wholly healed, greatly repenting of her incredulous foolishness, showed herself grateful for the benefit by venerating Alphonsus.

ANNOTATIONS.

attendance of all orders celebrated the funeral rites, Fr. Michael Julian has written Compare above, page 604., innumerable witnesses concurring Summarium, page 129 and following.. The prodigies then wrought and briefly indicated by our author are narrated more fully by Frs. Colin Vida del ven. Alonso, folio 123 and following. and Marimon Relazione della vita, etc., page 1044 and following., and many also in the authentic Acts.

CHAPTER TEN.

How many and how great were the witnesses of the virtue of Alphonsus.

Witnesses of the holiness of Bl. Alphonsus were both many religious men, Although Alphonsus was in Majorca in so great an opinion of virtue among all that he was commonly named a saint, yet the considered and sagacious judgment of certain persons has more authority for forming the estimate of his virtue. ^a Vincent Mas, of the sacred Order of Carthusians, distinguished among few for the name of holiness, roused by the fame which was widely spread about Alphonsus, and having conversed with him at leisure on matters of the soul, withdrew from meeting him astonished, affirming openly before many that what he had previously heard of him was nothing, in comparison with the holiness of virtue and the treasures which he had detected lying hidden in him. Mark Antony Creus, of the most holy family of the Dominicans, known throughout the whole island for integrity, learning, and the office of inquisitor, although he had not had much to do with Alphonsus, yet as often as he met with ours, always asked whether the holy doorkeeper was well, and never mentioned him without praise. Likewise Raphael Serra, a Minorite, a man of great erudition and perfection, thought excellently of Alphonsus. To him, when he asked from what country he was, he said: "My native homeland is heaven;" how many years he had lived: "I could number them, he said, if I had spent them for God, as was fitting: because I have not done that, I cannot say how many they have been." On another occasion, when he inquired whether, given the option, he would prefer to be received into heaven on the spot, or to remain longer here on earth, he said: "I would wish that to be done which might please God." But when he pressed him, what if God put this in his hand, Alphonsus replied: "I should wish nothing, Father, but what pleases God; for to please God is greater than whatever I may be able to possess in heaven, if I do not please God there." Peter Serra, Raymond Veri, and Francis Paceus *, jurists, and of great dignity, consulted Alphonsus in perplexing business, and not only about the concerns of their souls, as one whom they knew to be instructed by God. There are still living those who say that, while they were going to school and observing him with boyish curiosity, they sometimes saw him raised some palms from the ground. John Ribera, patriarch and archbishop of Valencia, who had joined nobility, wealth, and dignities with the highest endowments of an eminent prelate, frequently visited Alphonsus by letters, which he gave to him and received about his interior progress of soul.

[47] and the viceroys of Majorca and other leading men, The viceroys of Majorca ^b held him in great esteem, and sought his prayers. John Gutiérrez Flores, inquisitor in the same place, desired his life to be prolonged, that he might see him dying. His successor, Isidore of St. Vincent, most gladly communicated his mind with him, and preserved his letters as relics. Alphonsus Lasso Sedeño, bishop of that Church, called him a saint. Gaspar Borgia, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, who kindled the light of the purple with his merits, when he was at Rome, took it to heart to write letters to the holy old man, and in turn earnestly to ask letters and prayers from him; and it was above all to be wondered at that holy, prudent, learned men, conspicuous in authority, did not disdain the company and counsels of a simple layman, and were persuaded that their successes depended in great part on his prayers to God. Peter Zaforteza, prefect of Majorca for the king, in the second month after the death of Alphonsus wrote the following letter to the supreme pontiff: Most blessed Father, in this kingdom of Majorca, the care of which now rests upon me, at the request of the Fathers of the Society of Jesus a public inquiry has been instituted by the authority of the bishop into the happy life, death, holiness, virtue, and miracles of the venerable Brother Alphonsus Rodriguez, domestic helper of the same Society, through whom God has conferred many benefits on this kingdom, and is hoped to grant them hereafter. Wherefore this kingdom owes much to the servant of God, often bound by his patronage and favor in things regarding soul and body. And these goods grow daily to the glory of God, and prove the holiness of the venerable Brother, and compel me accordingly, cast down at the feet of Your Beatitude, in the name of this whole kingdom, and by reason of my own private office, as a suppliant to ask that you also deign to promote these fruits of piety, and to confirm by apostolic authority the honors which are paid to the servant of God on earth; that his tomb may be frequented by the faithful with more certain confidence. This grace to itself this kingdom will receive to be cherished in immortal and grateful memory, and we shall pray God to keep Your Holiness long unharmed, and to go on increasing his gifts in you for the good of the Christian Commonwealth. The Kalends of January 1618. I pass over the zeal of noble women, Margaret Liquerquia ^c, Joanna de Velasco, duchess of Feria, and Joanna Villaragut, who among the pictures of the blessed venerated in her house the image of one still living: which many also did constantly in the district of Valencia, Aragon, Cossetania or Catalonia.

[48] besides witnesses of the household. There is no reason why I should fear to add judgments of the household to those of outsiders, in this respect so much the truer as they have been gathered with longer, more curious, and more timid diligence, and in that sort of matter where all things are feared, all things are sifted, nothing is believed sufficiently clear, because of the shifting sports and deceits of the malignant and of the human spirit; of which nevertheless no trace in the affairs of Alphonsus was found by the most learned men among ours and those distinguished for great perfection. A great testimony surely, and I do not know whether a greater can be found for Alphonsus: that in those very forty-seven years no one was found among the most perspicacious men at home, the rectors intent on this matter, his companions and housemates, to whom the character of his holiness was suspect, and who did not think magnificently of it. Antony Cordeses, having admitted him already then as a saint into the Society, held him as such perpetually. Peter Villalva, most experienced in divine things, when he had thoroughly examined the secrets and inmost sentiments of Alphonsus, approved them; and the same was done by Antony Yuagnez, but in a certain more excellent manner. For although he had presided over a province in Spain, and had filled the office of visitor, yet to Alphonsus the doorkeeper, as often as he came to him, he rose, nor sat down or covered his head before he had gone out of the room, although under another appearance he disguised this honor which he in fact showed him. Of the same man Jerome Rocca, whose most simple candor, joined with most prudent holiness, the Society always occupied with cares of great moment, said in a certain exhortation of his that he had met with a man to whom the divine goodness gave a share of itself no less sparingly than to the greatest of its servants. Peter Villar, in virtue by no means inferior to Alphonsus, having inspected the college of Majorca and returned to the mainland, gave thanks to God, the author of the sublime gifts which he had detected in Alphonsus, and he rejoiced that he could now testify. Lawrence of St. John, setting out to Majorca as vice-provincial, was about to lead him away with him from there, that he might do good to other places too by the illustrious example of absolutely perfect piety, if he had not feared the offense of the citizens, who were not going to suffer themselves to be bereft of so great a pledge. John Ricus carried about in his bosom a letter of his while he was still living, as a most efficacious amulet. The rector of the college of Majorca Peter Gil, a man of most approved virtue and prudence, and hence best acquainted with Alphonsus, made much of him. And long after, returning to the same place from the office of provincial, he affirmed on oath many things about his holiness. And Peter Justus, in the twofold inspection of that college which he carried out, saw so many things in Alphonsus that, a man most sparing of words and praises, he praised him wonderfully. But let these suffice out of many; now let us look separately at the singular glories of his virtues.

ANNOTATIONS.

* read Pacecus or Pacheco.

BOOK II. OF THE VIRTUES OF THE VENERABLE BROTHER ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ OF THE SOCIETY OF JESUS, DOMESTIC HELPER.

Alphonsus Rodriguez, temporal coadjutor of the Society of Jesus, on the island of Majorca. (Bl.)

BY JANIN. BOOK II.

CHAPTER ONE.

Of prayer.

Bl. Alphonsus, having entered in due order on the unitive way, This fountain of the lights which we look up to in Alphonsus we rightly set before them: namely the gift of praying and contemplating. Of the very lofty degree of which, to which he had then come out, putting forward the person of another, he thus writes: "After that man had weighed the gravity of sin by long meditation, and had mourned his past falls for three years (which are the parts of the expiatory life ^a), he then treated for some years the life, torments, death, and resurrection of Christ Jesus (which is proper to the illuminative life), and was carried up to considering and perceiving the excellence of God, manifold in the simplicity of infinite perfection; by which knowledge love is inflamed and rises into the embraces of God. By the practice of this study he burned vehemently into the love of God, arising from the very clear knowledge of himself which God had poured upon him; for by the thought of the immense goodness of God, and of the infinite love with which he loves him, and in addition of his infinite nature, perfect in innumerable glories and names, and finally of the very many benefits long since received from him, he was suspended from the lowest things and more closely joined to God by love."

[50] he is rapt by divine love, "Then, having passed beyond this way of discursive reasoning, he dwelt in the will, and occupied it wholly with the chaste loves of God now known, kindled with an incredible desire of bearing many hard and harsh things for the grace of a Lord so good and merciful. He experienced here the same besides, that the nearer his soul raised itself to God, the more deeply it was pressed down into itself, and cast itself down ^b. Wherefore, thrown at the feet of God, he exclaimed with mind and voice: May I know thee, may I know myself! By which sentiment of soul he seemed to himself to be carried beyond all that is created, and to know many things about divine things; indeed to be dwelling with God in a certain separate region, from which he could perceive God and himself in great light. Nor did he dart himself toward God by the vigor of the understanding in reasoning and meditating, but only by the aid of light sent in, in which he likewise looked at his miseries. And God so opened himself to him that he thought that by this very manner he opened himself to the blessed in heaven. Therefore, sometimes boiling with love, he burst forth with these words to God: My beloved! my desired one! you wholly mine, and I wholly yours; and his whole heart, possessed by the supreme and infinite good, burned with its infinite love. Indeed the greatness of love between God and the soul is ineffable; and since it has nothing but what is conceived by mind and spirit, only those who have experienced it know its savor ^c."

[51] and he lives immersed in God, "Through this the soul, having imitated the Thrones, as through the knowledge of God and of itself the Cherubim, finally growing by loving and proceeding upward, becomes at last like the Seraphim; and, passed in affection beyond whatever is not God, it hides itself in God, and alone deals privately with him alone. Placed on this summit, it is now touched by no sense of labors, however great and various they may assail it; but what is of itself difficult, this the force of love makes easy for it. In the impatience of which it sighs, weeps, cries out: Love most high, heavenly! blessed! precious! sublime! divine! And kindled by these flames, it encloses its God in its breast, and with wonderful pleasantness day and night it converses with him, enjoys him thoroughly, is exhilarated, burns, is delighted by praising and celebrating. Lastly, forgetful of all earthly things and even of itself, it is wholly in actually loving God, whom it beholds present, to whom alone it lives, and by whom it is filled, so that it can truly profess: I sleep, and my heart watcheth. Further, he who has attained this state prays most sweetly and most attentively, with no fatigue of head or breast. By this way God led that man, and his best and most powerful remedy against any adversities was to deal with God, whom he used as physician of mind and body at once. And this is the condition of the soul which the immensity of the divine essence absorbs, such as was the man about whom I write." Thus far Alphonsus of himself, feigning another. By which, as by a sharp touchstone, whoever attends will admit that his spirit was abundantly proved: that one unskilled in letters writes on the secrets of theology the same things as the learned and holy, having namely the same master and teacher as they ^d; further that from those visions or lights, and from any other grace of a privileged gift, Alphonsus burned more vehemently to bear hard and shameful things for the name of Christ, and carried back desires for the divine glory more quickened and more active; a more vigorous zeal for increasing and perfecting virtue; a tenacious purpose of choosing even the very pains of hell rather than committing anything against God; a perpetual strain of conquering and treading down himself, and a most tranquil serenity of conscience; and what is a more certain proof of the divine spirit, a most vile estimate and contempt of himself, and a most diligent concealment of singular goods.

[52] even outside the house. Although their impetus was sometimes such as to betray him even against his will; for when he had been given as companion to a priest about to attend a dying mother, after the commendations of the soul he stayed on his knees, although all the others had risen. He appeared to them to be deprived of his senses, and like one dying in countenance; and they feared that some deadly accident was suddenly extinguishing him. But the Father denied that anything was to be feared, saying that Alphonsus was praying, not worse. Meanwhile the talk on matters of the soul was drawn out at length, and when now a good part of the night had slipped away, Alphonsus returned to himself, and as if the commendation of the soul had only then been concluded, he thought that he was rising with the others. Similarly on another occasion, accompanying a Father, he stopped before the doors of the chamber, and with his gaze fixed on a picture of Christ brought forth by Pilate, he had scarcely bent his knees when he was rapt out of himself, retaining no sign of one who feels: the others went out of the chamber, to give place to the priest who was to hear the one lying there; Alphonsus stayed, and, the confession having been completed and the household greeted by the Father, warned about departure, he neither heard the one speaking nor noticed what was being done. Here, concealing what the case was, the Father went back to the sick man's bed, and, having resumed the conversation, drew it out with those standing by, until after much time Alphonsus, rising, returned with the Father to the college; nor did he afterwards learn anything from him, or from the familiars of that house, about what had happened to him.

[53] Having contemplated heaven in wonderful ecstasies, And sometimes the force of contemplation was so great that the mind, eager for heavenly things, lifted the body on high with itself and suspended it some paces from the ground. But the ecstasies of Alphonsus had one thing by no means common in common life, namely that in them, lacking the use of the senses, he nonetheless perceived the sound of the bell by which he was called to open the door; and he ran as to the voice of God, never with any error of inadvertence. But these were the first rudiments , after he had delivered himself to God. In the course of years and by the perpetuated fellowship of divine familiarity he afterwards attained this, that, however fixed in high contemplation, he neither was deprived of the function of the senses nor failed in the duties of obedience. Once it happened to him, as he was praying, that he was snatched away into the company of the blessed, and that he distinguished them as clearly as if he had been brought up ** with them from boyhood. Narrating another thing about himself he says: "A certain man, assiduous with God, spent all his time in loving the same. He, as soon as he had raised his mind to him, was at once kindled with love of him; and the same man, often in praying, was rapt on high with such force of spirit and swiftness that from the rapidity of the ascent he seemed to himself to go beyond heaven, and to stand in a certain splendor surpassing the rays of the sun ^e." It happened also in the fourteenth year of this century, at the beginning of January, that Alphonsus, borne into heaven in spirit, spent some days there, received with altogether unheard-of benevolence into the middle between Christ and the Virgin, of which favor he himself carried away a great fruit, a new ardor for bearing any crosses, that he might gain possession of the goods he had looked upon.

[54] He sees God more clearly than usual, and feels the Blessed Virgin coming. Finally he received this likewise, plainly unusual and granted to very few, that, carried over to the same place, he looked upon the essence of God, not indeed openly, as it is seen by the blessed, but as if there had been drawn back (so he explained as far as he could) the former of the two veils which hide it from mortals: yet that the happiness of the sight of it through the thin mist of the interior veil was so great that it could neither be narrated in words nor comprehended in thought ^f. Moreover, whatever things he obtained beyond the custom and measure of common beneficence were mostly given to him while praying. This he did always, but especially in the last years of his life, in which exterior occupation did not interrupt his mind attentive to God; and although broken by diseases and pains, he was vigorous for prayer, and used it for the relief of soul and languid body alike. A pious word, a pious image, the occurrence of a pious thought bore him on the spot to God; and it happened that, explaining the state of his soul to the rector of the college of Majorca, when he had named the Blessed Virgin, he was pleasantly dissolved into rising tears, and said to the rector: "I feel her coming; she is here, she is here." The rector, thinking that he should give way to him, at once went out of the chamber, not to deprive him of meeting with such loveliness; and he himself came to a share in the good gift, being also refreshed by that fire with which the breast of Alphonsus overflowed.

[55] Even in sleep he is united to God. Nor only when entangled in exterior ministries did he dwell with a soul inwardly free and solitary with God; but even when his limbs were bound by sleep, his wakeful soul went on weaving the prayer begun before he fell asleep. Of this by no means common grace, one going beyond the order of nature, he himself makes mention, under the name of another, writing thus: "To that man, he says, the Lord granted this also, that even sleeping he truly prayed, and mingled conversations with God; nor could he be induced to believe that he was at once dreaming and truly dealing with God: for since nothing else in life is pleasant to him, nothing in which he may delight, except the cultivation of the divine presence and pious dealing with God concerning his affairs, God so readily gave a share of himself to him everywhere." So he. And indeed he was heard when he was telling his most holy loves in his sleep. This kind of praying, namely through sleep, if it were given to anyone, he thought should be highly valued, because of the liberty of the soul then almost disentangled from the body and cleaving to God alone, whom it sees present, while all other things lie hid and are silent ^g. And that no one may think this beyond belief, Solomon certainly prayed while sleeping; and the holy patriarchs and prophets transacted many things with God in dreams; indeed ecstasy itself is a certain sleep, induced by the force of the mind, calling away with itself all the aids of the spirits from the service of the senses.

[56] By mental prayer Now since the method of pouring out prayer is various, Alphonsus used the following, as piety suggested. The first was to set himself before God, then from his loftiness and goodness to draw a stunned reverence for him and a blush at his own abjection. The second, the majesty and riches of the divine nature being spread out before his eyes, to congratulate God, to rejoice, to love. The third, to represent to him his miseries and sad poverty, as to a most loving father of sons and uniquely dear to them, the sole physician of the evils by which they are tossed and groan, and confidently to ask remedies from him. The fourth, of God

to roll at the feet, and to wish to conquer himself in some matter ^h, that he might please God: which form of praying, as being most pleasing to God and most fruitful of solid love toward him, so he said was very rare; since almost all prefer sweet things to the bitter things which are here to be chewed and swallowed. The fifth consisted of desires, the soul tearing itself away from all things, that it might transact its affairs with God without witnesses and, having undertaken a certain wrestling with him, extort what it asks. This manner of praying he reckoned so excellent that he judged it to belong to angels rather than to men.

[57] and he excels in vocal prayer, I pass over the set forms of prayer which are recited with the voice, and among them the winged darts of brief prayers, which he darted to heaven with such force that he was heard sighing from afar from the privacy of his chamber, especially at night, when he thought that place and time were free of witnesses. Besides these the rosary of the Virgin, while running through which he was often enriched by God with many benefits; among which this is recorded, that when sometime, mourning and afflicted, he had fled to its recitation for a remedy, and to those words: Holy Mary, mother of God, he had added: remember me; she appeared to him coming from heaven to console his troubles; which although it was seen in the mind, he nonetheless obtained the same fruit as if it had been really done, and all his sorrow was plainly dissipated. At another time, while he was paying the same rosary to the Virgin with immense affection, he suddenly saw heaven part, and thence Jesus descending to him with his most holy mother, filling for himself his heart, the best part of his inflamed breast; so however that his mother was not excluded, but entered into the other side of his breast ⁱ.

[58] not on that account less humble and fearful. Nor were these things, although wonderful and almost unheard-of, so done in an image or in the mind's praetorium that they wholly escaped the sense; for for full twelve years from then he felt the presence of such guests (more or less, as he was disposed in soul). What joys he melted away with from this may in some way be thought, but I do not consider that they can be told. Hence certainly he became both much better known and more despicable to himself; so far was he from swelling with pride, always fearful lest a deceitful snake lurk in things of this kind. Wherefore he denied that holiness was contained in such things, but in the charity of God and neighbor, self-abasement, patience, obedience, and the other virtues, of which Christ has drawn examples for us, by no means liable to deceit. Indeed once, as he panted with great cares after the perfect service of God, he was met by an inner monitor: "More slowly, Alphonsus, more slowly. Why do you torment yourself so much in vain, about to lose all things afterwards, and to fall the more shamefully the more brightly you now shine to men?" Struck by these terrors and long doubtful, he entrusted that sadness to the Virgin, simply asking help from her. To him the Virgin said: "Where I am, Alphonsus, there is nothing for you to fear;" and by this lovable consolation she calmed all his surging. Shut up on another occasion in almost the same crisis of fear, and forbidden by an open and distinct voice to hasten in the way of the Lord, to whose end he would not arrive, he soon betook himself to the Virgin, like a little son to his mother. And she, raising him by the sight of herself, ordered him to be confident: that she would take peculiar care of him, and bring help to him as he labored; let him only go on eagerly serving Christ her son.

[59] He reads pious books. Thus far we have noted of what kind was the virtue of prayer in Alphonsus, by those signs which cannot proceed except from one lofty and wonderfully distinguished. And it was helped by the pious and slow reading of pious books, some of which he always held in his hand, that is, interspersed with little meditations. Whence this also came about, that speaking on divine things and sacred history he could seem an eminent theologian; although the fecundity of this speech arose from a richer fountain, namely the anointing of the spirit and close relationship with God. And having experienced how much good there was in reading such books, he took care that they should never be lacking at the door, chiefly with this design, that they might be turned over by the outside scholars while waiting for something else; which was to the grand profit and salvation of many. Now since from the practice of prayer the sight of the divine presence arises and looks to it, lest this chapter be drawn out too long, we defer that to the following.

ANNOTATIONS.

* rudimentis edition.

* discernere edition.

sint added in the edition.

CHAPTER TWO.

Of the perpetual practice of the divine presence.

He deals familiarly with Jesus and Mary. How anxiously Alphonsus took care not to be drawn away from the divine presence by the intervention of anything is gathered from a certain pious commentary of his, where, assuming the person of another, he writes of it thus: "He is wholly in the company of Jesus and his mother; he tells them whatever things pertain to his soul and body, he seeks help from them that all things may be most pleasing to God, and this is his one wish." And a little later: "This familiarity with Jesus and Mary was tempered by holy fear. He addressed them; and with great affability they answered his questions, and explained what they wished done; nor did they flood him with less sweetness than a suckling infant is accustomed to draw from its mother's bosom. Then if anything doubtful, if anything troublesome had occurred, he referred it on the spot to Jesus and Mary, by whom at once all obscurity was driven away with new light."

[61] How the presence of God can always be enjoyed In a certain sacred conference, when ours had said various things about keeping the sight of God perpetually, Bartholomew Coc, rector of the college, added that such a perpetuity broken by no intervals belongs to angels, not to men: whom innate frailty, the assaults of enemies, and the figures of things thrown in their way on all sides necessarily distract from that thought; but that such is the force of heavenly grace that by its protection these impediments can be for the greatest part conquered. Thus an end was put to the discussion. But asked about this conclusion of his

afterwards by Fr. John Aguira, his very close friend, what he thought, Alphonsus most modestly answered that the rector's opinion had come to him as quite new, since nothing was so difficult that God's grace could not attain it; nor did it seem likely that that continuity of the divine presence had never been given to any of the saints on earth. And when he asked how that contemplation went with himself, he admitted bashfully (taken by the unforeseen question) that he was distracted from it in the day for as much time as is given to reciting the creed. And yet these were his beginnings, not yet admitted by long practice of contemplation into the recesses of the heavenly wine-cellar, as was afterwards done. And manifesting himself sometime to the rector he told him that the divine sight was rarely and briefly snatched from him, even while he was mingling and conversing with others.

[62] he himself teaches. Of which truly wonderful art (if indeed divine things admit of art) a threefold manner has been excerpted from his notes. The first uses the memory, and, bearing God always in its eyes as onlooker with the Blessed Virgin, seeks nothing so much as to comply with them in all things, with great contempt of all things that do not serve this. The second ^a employs the intellect, fully aware of God dwelling in each one. The third consists in the will, praising and loving God with continual affections; nor can forgetfulness of the beloved take hold of the lover. And Alphonsus very often and very wisely admonished (himself, I think): If you always walk with God, you will love God very much; for God's cause you will both do all things and gladly bear them, and you will direct all your affairs to his love; and he added that by the practice of the divine presence it came about that the soul bore itself before God with great veneration of God and contempt of self, and, keeping from itself every small stain of sin, also kept its affections from all things and fixed them on the sole abundance of the highest good ^b.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER THREE.

Of the immense sorrow with which he expiated his sins.

His sins, which he knew were forgiven, A most tenacious hatred of sin ^a was begotten in Alphonsus by that familiar exercise of always having God in his eyes. And in the beginning indeed, after his entry into the Society, burning with immense sorrow for what he had committed in the world, and greatly doubtful about having obtained pardon, he was confirmed in this manner. As he was preparing himself for holy communion, and could no longer put it off or go to his confessor, there occurred to him some very slight thing, by which he was most vehemently tossed as by no slight offense. Shut in by these straits and at a loss for counsel, he begged it from the most blessed mother of God, showing himself readily prepared for proclaiming the confession of that offense at all crossroads, if anything from it would come to the divine glory. And here the Virgin, not suffering her servant to be tormented any longer, showing herself to be looked upon with a placid countenance, made him secure of the pardon obtained, not only of that offense which he feared, but altogether of all, and not only as to the guilt, but also as to the pains; and to crown her clemency, Christ, appearing, threw his arms around his neck, and, pressing him to his most holy breast, deigned him a kiss of peace, the oracle of the mother concerning pardon being confirmed, and great hope being added of enjoying immortality with him ^b.

[64] he wept for them his whole life. Twin to this is what likewise happened, while he was laboring greatly in I know not what scruple of his former life; for casting himself on God, he said: "What do you require of me, Lord? What do you order to be done? Where at last will this tossing break itself? Nothing is so hard that I would not seek it for your sake; but I should wish to be freed from this disquiet for this reason, that I fear lest it has come about by some fault of mine." To this prayer a wonderful serenity at once succeeded, and he knew that he was being distracted by an empty fear. There followed from this such peace of soul and such security of divine grace that he did not believe there could be greater in this life. Wherefore, seized with disgust of all things, he desired nothing apart from God and heavenly things. Lastly on another occasion, as he was thinking of the offenses of his youth and his ignorances and the ways of the world, and comparing them with the majesty of God, there came over him such a horror of himself that he thought that a most foul stench breathed forth from his body, and turning to prayers, cries, and lamentations, as if now on the point of standing before God the judge, he filled all things with groaning and sighs, asking that he be forgiven what he had committed against God, and that a constant service in the worship of God be added to the pardon. Besides, recalling also those things which he had done more negligently in the house of God, after so singular a beneficence of his, he kindled his sorrow with new mourning, the Lord meanwhile being silent, and taking in his complaints with a deaf ear, complaints which yet proceeded from no other source than from God's gift. But Alphonsus by knocking, weeping, pressing with sorrow and tears strove to extort a favorable answer, when at length he heard a clear and distinct voice repeated to him three times: "Alphonsus, pardon of your sins was long since given to you." By which words he was so affected for eight days that, melting with inexplicable joy, he seemed to himself truly about to say with the apostle: I live; now not I, but Christ liveth in me. O if we would follow the man keenly repenting, that we may follow him rejoicing so pleasantly and solidly!

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER FOUR.

Of his zeal for afflicting the body.

With scourges, with fasting Alphonsus, beholding the liberality of God toward him so peculiar and so abundant, burned implacably to avenge on himself the injuries once inflicted by him on his goodness. And while he was at his own disposal, he had neither measure nor limit in raging against himself; but having then obtained obedience as the arbiter of himself, better surely than victims, he went to the rector every month, that he might obtain from him a certain faculty of afflicting himself for that month. And when sick he sent to the same man someone to obtain the same for him: and if the character of the illness stood against these, he asked that they be exchanged for others of another kind, which could easily be performed by a sick man. Yet he never so satisfied himself that he did not always anxiously wish for something more laborious. Indeed a few years before he died, * he could scarcely move his feet and arms, so broken and weak he was, he admitted to the rector that he was accustomed to use scourges on himself three times in the week, much complaining that his arms did not sufficiently obey, and that the scourge was now worn down by use; which he therefore asked to be exchanged for a harsher one. At eighty years of age he eagerly asked fasts from the rector with arguments heaped up and composed ^a, and he extorted them again and again, and he exulted over what was granted just as if he had been favored with a grand benefit. The same was noted in other vexations of the body, when he had obtained them. No day, while he was well, did he let go by without honoring it with some open mortification, partly providing for the increase of his own virtue, partly that of others. For that reason when decrepit he admitted nothing beyond the common usage, thinking that the vigor of the common rule should be preferred to private discomforts.

[66] and he chastises his body in every way. But when better in years and strength, he denied his body whatever delighted it, and heaped on it whatever afflicted it ^b. So, going anywhere, of two ways the more troublesome pleased him; of different weather the rainy, the freezing, the sweltering pleased him; of the various positions of the body, the most uncomfortable: for he so sat that you would have thought him more vexed than resting; so stood as to rest on one and the weaker leg; so washed his hands as to take account both of beloved poverty and of conquering himself: for since from a double spout placed at the entrance of the refectory, one poured back water copiously, the other drop by drop, for thirty years and more Alphonsus was never seen to wash except at this thin one, to which moreover no one else came. He never used any relief through heat or cold, except the recollection of the eternal fire among those below, saying that before it these troubles of ours are quite tolerable; and that summer and winter alike are most sweetly tempered by the heat of divine love. I shall not speak of flies and such things, most importunate at Majorca and in hot places,

that so far as religious courtesy allowed he did not drive them away from himself at all, lest I be said to pursue slight things, although I know well that they will judge them grave who shall be willing to test this on themselves for even three days only; but I say that Alphonsus was so constant and deadly an enemy and perpetual tormentor of himself that it could be believed that he had by habit conquered the very faculty of fighting with himself, and did this not only from a purpose of virtue, but by an instinct of nature.

ANNOTATIONS.

* supply quum

CHAPTER FIVE.

Of contempt of himself.

Bl. Alphonsus, despising himself From the time when Alphonsus first devoted himself to God, he attained from him a perspicacious knowledge of himself; in which he detected so much good that he spent the greatest part of the day in turning over in his mind his private miseries, sins, want of virtues, and the foulness of his whole self. Yet from this he was lifted higher to knowing and loving God: and it came about, while he was reading a book on contempt of self, that he received a wound of divine love, to the violence of which mortal infirmity would have yielded, if it had not been sustained by him who had inflicted the wound. At that time he looked more plainly and more deeply within how vile he was, how despicable, how wretched and of no worth, and viler than nothing ^a. Whence that opinion of his, that it is born of perfect love of God that one knows himself inwardly, and lives dead to himself and to the world, and chooses to seem to others ^b such as he seems to himself, namely stained and filthy, spattered with sores; and that he counts honor paid to him as disgrace and derision ^c. His companions indeed he so observed that at home and abroad, as often as they met him ^d, he said sighing to God: "When shall I ever be like any of these?" and, believing himself guilty of any punishment, he cast his eyes repeatedly to heaven, exclaiming: "I have sinned against heaven and before thee;" and: "I am not worthy to be called thy son, Lord, have mercy." From so clear a perception of himself he nourished also a great horror and hatred of himself, as of a stinking tomb and most foul sewer, so that he could not bear himself without grave nausea. Hence that weariness and contempt of all things, reckoning and feeling all things insipid, and consoling himself with the affection of Jesus and Mary alone.

[68] because of defects of body and soul, This will to press himself down was helped by a stench of the body, which, following rather than born of a long catarrh * with which he had labored, was made clear from this, that it was not perceived by others, while he alone was so dreadfully blown upon by it that he was both most grievous to himself, and wondered that he was not expelled far away from ours, but eagerly approached, and frequented with every service and kindness, although, as he thought and as he judged by smell, he was infecting the air with the stench of his breath. And interpreting this as the marsh of his sins, from which that pestilence exhaled, and blind to the rays of the highest virtues with which he eminently shone, he was especially fixed and perspicacious only in discerning his own blemishes. Wherefore that grand and illustrious opinion of him he called an altogether unbearable error of others, and he sedulously prayed God that he might be held by all such as he himself was within; and not being able to attain this by himself, he rejoiced at least that he seemed in God's eyes in no way other than he was ^e. He said that the claws of lions and tigers were in human praises, apt and intent for the plundering of virtues.

[69] he does not suffer himself to be praised, When he had been given to a certain Father as a companion to a sick man, he was asked by the household of the sick man to commend him to the Lord, because the Father had said that his companion's commendation would avail more with God than his own. He took the honor paid to him most ill; and when they excused the act and asked his pardon, he blushed the more, as if a man of so little worth and price could not be hurt by anything that was to be purged by asking pardon. Kisses of the hands, offered, as happens, very often to his virtue, he avoided as much as possible, with a prone bending of the body down to the ground. To Margaret Liquerquia ^f, a noblewoman, who had obtained from the rector a pious conversation with him, and who begged his hands for a kiss, so far was he from complying that rather he prostrated himself on the ground suffused with shame, but with such prudence and simplicity as greatly moved those standing by. Of the letters on matters of the soul which he often received from leading persons, he cut off the signature, that no honor might come to him from the name of those giving them. Yet he kept the same letters for the blank backs, on which, providing for poverty, he noted certain pious things. A well-worn saying of his was that the servants of God are disturbed when they are praised, and are more badly affected by their stench, which they always have in their nostrils, almost in the way that vessels smelling of stinking liquid, if you turn or shake them, exhale more foully. Consulted sometimes by priests, as being skilled in difficulties of soul, in which they hesitated perplexed, he blushed, affirming that it was his part to be taught by them, until the interposed authority of a director forced him to comply with them. Then indeed he brought forth from his treasure secret riches, with which he might enrich others too. This also was a mark of his beloved humility, that, not unacquainted with the Latin language, he had no Latin book except the Office of the Virgin; and he abstained from them so scrupulously that, ordered to compose pious treatises, he asked that the sentences of Scripture which he needed be given him by priests in writing, nor did he allow himself to excerpt even those pointed out, denying that it was fitting for a layman to touch sacred books, much less to read them and excerpt anything from them.

[70] and he shuns the extraordinary gifts of God. That he not only abhorred honor paid to him by men, but also declined the extraordinary gifts of heaven, is an immense sign of contempt of self. For although * he always suspected some deceit in them, and defended himself from them with God: "For I so love you, my most beloved spouse, he said, that I dread nothing so much as the danger of offending you; which although I do not think is hidden here by the demon, yet I can be deceived in this judgment; and so I withdraw more safely into detestation of my crimes." And plainly, as far as he could, from him pursuing and heaping his unusual benefits on him, but in vain, he withdrew ^g: for the divine goodness followed him everywhere with heavenly visions, oracles, joys, ecstasies, however much he might hide himself in the lowest abyss of his infirmity. But those gratuitous and unwonted gifts of God, as I have said, although he shunned them from fear of deceit, yet taught by the practice of so many years about their excellent author, fruit, and purpose, he would easily have rejoiced in them and acquiesced not unwillingly, unless, thinking most abjectly of himself, he had judged that they were due to better men; that he, vile and wretched, was unworthy of such peculiar graces. How kindly God enriched the modest, simple mind of his servant, eminently conscious of its want, as a most pure vessel, with the most precious ointment of singular gladness and graces. Of which, plainly sincere and heavenly, there is no more certain proof than the desire of casting himself down that grew and was kindled stronger daily from it, and the incredible zeal for pressing down these divine gifts in humble hiding places. In which he was so cautious that he lived more than thirty years in the Society, with a reputation indeed for heroic virtue, but almost without any trace of so many wonderful charisms, nor was anything about them received from his mouth, unless when, compelled by custom and rule, for the sake of obedience ^h and counsel, he set them forth to the directors of his soul (from which it came about that some things have spread among the common people only with such credit as those things can have whose certain author is not published), or, urged by charity toward someone gravely afflicted, to steady his wavering he disclosed something of himself under the name of another, and this both soberly and briefly, nor beyond what the measure of necessity allowed. For the rest all his talk dwelt on the brevity of life, the straits of death, the severity of the last judgment, prayer, contempt of self, and the like; about visions divinely sent, and other things which commonly produce wonder, a wonderful silence. Outside, only his most upright and unbending vigor in religious discipline was accounted a miracle, and the most illustrious agreement of his will with our common manner of living.

ANNOTATIONS.

he says, pursues itself with hatred… It knows clearly that all those who praise and honor him, and make any estimation of him, are deceived; because if they saw in him what he himself sees, they would pursue him with hatred rather than love, and would speak ill of him, and not well; and they would not wish to see him, nor would they wish vellet in the edition. to be near him. Because of which he goes as if trodden under the feet of all the living, even the lowest, since he himself is the lowest and worst of all the men of the world [Summarium, page 187; compare pages 180, 185, 207. Resp. ad novissimas animadv., page 57 and following.] … He would not wish that anyone should remember him, as the vilest, lowest, and most perverse thing in the whole world… He would wish to flee from himself, if it could be done, in the way in which one would desire to flee who had some great enemy Summarium, page 191. … It also causes him annoyance and serves him as ignominy, when anyone greets him before being greeted by him; and it is just as if a worldly man were given a slap Ibid., page 254; compare pages 226, 243, 255..

* pituitam in the edition.

* perhaps to be read quasi

CHAPTER SIX.

Of his zeal for holy poverty.

From love of poverty This citadel and mother of religious Orders Alphonsus held so dear that he gladly and cheerfully went without not only comforts but necessities, being accustomed to say that the faithful consort of poverty is endurance or mortification. To which opinion he added that the soul is by nothing more strongly disentangled from love of fleeting things than by voluntary poverty, as being content with God alone. And indeed from his first approach to God, before he joined himself to us, he had stripped himself of all goods ^a, that he might the more readily follow the spouse and master of poverty. And having been admitted into the Society, he bore himself as a beggar, mercifully received for God's sake to whatever sustenance of life. And so from his mouth there never came mine and thine; never any word about food, clothing, chamber, except of thanks; never any demand for anything he lacked (and he lacked something not rarely), since he thought it a kind of theft sometimes to take back the care of himself made over to God and his vicars. When a stool, the only one he used, was by chance removed from his chamber, he suffered its lack for a whole year; until, that is, the recollection of returning it of his own accord came to him who had taken it. When a woolen mat too was removed, he slept on the bare boards, and would have had them for a bed perpetually, if * the minister of the house had not noticed the error.

[72] he chooses vile things for himself, In food and clothing he selected every worst thing, and passed over the most comfortable; he was not brought to put on new garments except by the command of one ordering it: and then indeed, insulting himself to himself: "Is that comfortable enough, Alphonsus? What do you think? O bad disciple of the best master! And have you come to this at last, wretch, among so many servants of God, blessed in poor attire, to shine in new clothing, surely unworthy for them to share with you the treasures of religious poverty? In heaven, come tell me, what may he expect, whose labor is rewarded here? Give to God at least this will, which obedience forbids you to put into effect, and among companions cheerful and glad in tattered clothing, blush, adorned with new, and go about sad, compensating the loss of poverty by patience." I know that I often set down slight things, but I know that by sensible cultivators of refined virtue these things, so slight and to the common people nothing, are held as truthful proofs of hidden extraordinary virtue. Alphonsus was accustomed to hand his pen for trimming to a certain scholastic of ours; he, from the observance with which he cultivated the old man, and because the pen was worn, substituted a better one for this, which he kept for himself: when Alphonsus at length noticed this, he denied that it was permitted by our rule; and to the objection that there should be no scruple in so slight a matter, he in turn objected that in the words by which we are forbidden to accept anything without the order of rectors, even slight things are comprehended. To be sure, there is no ascent to great and arduous virtues except through anxious and minute diligence in small things.

[73] using nothing without license. When rosaries sent from Rome to Majorca, little images, Agnus Deis, and things like these were being distributed, what fell to him he immediately brought to the rector, and sought from him the faculty of dividing them among others. Only once was it noted that he was attached to anything; for when about to change his chamber, he wished to take away with him a little image of the most blessed Virgin, discolored by age and dust, and it was believed that he had received some singular thing through it from heaven, since otherwise he would by no means have wished it. When, now decrepit, he was compelled by lack of teeth to eat the better part of the bread, and those at table, when the bread set before them was at times softer, the crust being removed, substituted it for that on which Alphonsus had come, after he detected this he judged it to be against the rule, which would have nothing given or received without the rector's leave, and he did not allow it to be done in future: so faithful and great are the servants of God in the least things also ^b.

ANNOTATIONS.

* perhaps for nisi

CHAPTER SEVEN.

Of the obedience of Alphonsus.

Bl. Alphonsus obeys his superiors That pious simplicity and diligence of the saints in obeying so shone forth in Alphonsus that he could seem excessive in it ^a, if he had seen anything but obedience in obedience. For both the aim of the one ordering, and his mind, and the very things ordered, make us in this kind sometimes more sharp-sighted: to Alphonsus nothing occurred, except only this, that he should undertake the orders; not the cause, not the end, not the fruit of the orders, not the person of the one ordering, but God, whom he discerned in him by clear faith, almost in the way in which the angels see him in heaven; those who imitated whose swift service, free of the delay of arguments, he said, overcame by a certain unhoped-for miracle of divine help difficulties of commands otherwise insuperable. Hence therefore, since in complying he attended to nothing but compliance, it came about that he did many things which those attentive to various cautions condemned as imprudence either childish or stupid; and they called this the obedience of beasts of burden, which by the impulse of no reason, at the sole voice of the driver, move forward and stop their step. For once, yielding his place to the rector ^b as he came to the sermon, and warned, as courtesy allows, not to move from his place, the weak old man stood upright on his feet even when all had long since slipped away to dinner; and at length, called, just as he was with his cloak, without cap and gown, he ran to the refectory, lest by turning aside for a little to his chamber to take these up again he should delay his obedience. On another occasion after supper, while a letter was being read announcing some pious things, the sign for going back to the chamber having been given, the rest stayed, because the rector also was present, and he did not wish the reading begun to be left off: Alphonsus alone rose, to go away; he was ordered to remain, and he remained in place until the following day, when the morning rouser in the rector's name warned him to take himself to bed.

[75] to the word, Michael Julian, the rector of Alphonsus and a great esteemer of him, had forbidden him to speak, as he then labored under an acute pain of the head, which conversation aggravated; he kept silent into the next day, when the keeper of the sick said: "Not even to me, Alphonsus, do you speak, whom you ought to obey while you stay here?" Then it was understood that the cause of the silence was the rector's counsel, which Alphonsus had taken for a command, the words too being cut to the quick. Likewise when a very familiar priest ^c came to visit him as he was in worse health, the rector permitted him to go to the door, and to satisfy the priest in two words: he went: "Thanks be to God," he said in greeting, and soon returned to his chamber; but when the matter was known, the rector wished the accustomed time to be given by him to his friend.

[76] then in executing his office, On a certain day he had been forbidden to open the door to anyone at all, lest it be disturbed by the throng

premature of a tragedy to be shown some hours later; meanwhile there arrived attendants of the viceroy Manrique, who was coming with the nobles, they knocked at the door, pressed, shouted that the viceroy was there, that he had been invited to attend, that he was waiting with his court and his brother: Alphonsus was deaf to all things, who had once prepared himself for cases wholly like this in a careful meditation on obedience; but at length the rector came and excused the obedience of Alphonsus thus shown, because of which also the viceroy and the nobles made more of him than before ^d. Toward nightfall on some occasion, when he was discoursing magnificently with others on the zeal for obeying, the rector ^e said: "These things are beautifully said: let us come to the matter, my Brother, and to deeds. I order you to go to the Indies." Here at once, wearing his gown as is usual at home, the good old man, having said farewell to them, flew to the door, rang the bell for going out; the doorkeeper was there, privy to everything; he asked whether he had open letters for the journey, and when he said no sent him back to the rector to ask for them. He returned and asked so candidly that it was clear that he was asking in earnest. "So you were going without provisions for the journey and without letters?" said the rector. But he said that these things had not come into his mind; for if God was sending him, he would surely see to these.

[77] then in illnesses Many things of this kind could be narrated, proceeding from that bare zeal for obeying which I have mentioned, interrupted by no thoughts of further prudence. I add another, the stronger the more wonderful, and I close ^f. He had come near to dying by the draught of a medicine prescribed for him by a certain rector; not long after, when another was intended for him by the same man, he hesitated, anxious about the danger to his life, of which his bitter experience made him suspect ^g; but yet he decided courageously to drink the medicine, and blaming his hesitation in complying, he offered himself to God as ready for all things, even if danger of life and most savage pains threatened: immolating himself to God by this rite, he recognized in a clear light then granted him that this his obedience had come as most acceptable to God, and it seemed to him that by that deed he had acquired greater merit with God than by any things uprightly and piously done thus far in his life. This his kind of complying, moreover, was supported by a secure trust in the most sharp-sighted divine Providence; by which also, seeing that the disadvantages which could have arisen from a blind will to obey were kindly met, he was the more vehemently confirmed in cultivating and retaining it. In those things however which were opportune to nature he acted somewhat hesitantly, fearing lest he be serving the body rather than obedience. Wherefore once, torn by great pains beyond the usual, he hesitated a little whether he should indicate this, as the rule teaches, to the prefect of health; but thinking that he should obey he indicated it, and afterwards perceived that the deed was approved by God, and learned from him that it had been of greater merit than if he had borne those pains in silence for many days: for with him the sacrifice of the will is worth more than the sacrifice of the body. What shall I say of that distinguished obedience which a man of such age, experience, name, and commerce with God rendered to the directors of his soul, certain that God would by no means permit him to be deceived by their guidance?

[78] and in the spiritual exercises. Withdrawing with other Brothers to the exercises of St. Ignatius, and warned about the method prescribed for observing them, he set forth to the director what he felt to the contrary, that he could with difficulty restrain himself from being rapt into the affections: when he nonetheless stood (to test, I suppose, the virtue of Alphonsus) by his own opinion, he at once obeyed, and, checking the flight of holy affections to which he was accustomed, he clung to the form of meditation which is carried on by reasoning; from which he drew so many delights of soul, and such great peace, that he had no doubt that by this as by a seal that manly purpose of his of obeying was sealed by God. Nor is it unlike what happened to him, when, sick, he abstained at the rector's command from the communion before granted to him, holding it enough to receive it on Sundays alone with the lay Brothers; for he learned from God a manner of receiving the Eucharist by the mind alone, in which he perceived by sense that he bore Christ and his most blessed mother in his heart, and he was filled with wonderful delights. I pass over other proofs of an obedience too perfect perhaps to please the common people, but it is better to have pleased God. From this moreover it appears that the truly extraordinary things which he kept saying about obedience were not thrown out rashly: namely that it is the briefest and readiest road to holiness; that it is the preserver of religious discipline; that he who perfectly holds it is a mirror of holiness and an incitement both to those of the household and to outsiders; that he whom it fails will yield no fruit, but will be both a harm to himself and to others, and an impediment to the religious family to which he has devoted himself; that God himself orders, not a man, as often as anything is ordered by directors, and that the will ^h and voice of them and of God is the same. And this he had let down so deep into his breast that it seemed to him that he could be called away from complying by the fear or love of no one ⁱ: that the cautious forestalling of absurdities which can follow from swift and blind obedience belongs to the one ordering, not to the one obeying. Finally, while in other matters Alphonsus was most prudent, he ran forward like a boy to do what was commanded, no account being taken of manner or time or any other thing, but only of the one ordering as of an oracle; at the hearing of whom all things became so plain to him that he found nothing difficult, provided only that it was ordered, secure namely of God commanding in those who preside ^k.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER EIGHT.

Of his perfect chastity.

Bl. Alphonsus does not look at women. Let there be commended above all in Alphonsus his illustrious zeal for chastity, in that for all of forty-four years he saw purposely the face of no woman, although at home and abroad, in church, at the door, in the city, in business, innumerable occasions pressed him to this, and in a manner compelled him ^a. Once from a window of the college he had looked hastily and confusedly at a certain woman: the innocent act he expiated with the repentance and penalty of many years, heaping reproaches on himself and pulling his hair, as often as he passed the same window ^b. I shall be silent about not a few things of this kind, which anyone will easily attain from this indication. I suggest only what he prudently wished to be noticed by the servants of God: namely that while dealing with women they are not much moved: that otherwise it would come about that the trouble of resisting would become a lesson in recoiling ^c, but that then the sight alone suffices the demon; and that when they are praying and set apart within the narrow bounds of the cell the poisons of images drunk in by the eyes come back, which they must defend themselves from with great conflict and difficulty; wherefore nothing is rarer and wiser than to avoid their stroke and contagion by a religious blindness. Having earned, moreover, as victor as many palms as we have said he carried off from the most impure demons in the seven years hostile with battles, always distrusting himself, everywhere cautious, everywhere anxious, although now assailed by no impure thought, he resembled an angel in chastity. Many times in the day he renewed his fixed purpose of sooner choosing the torments of hell than of sprinkling a stain on this virtue.

[80] All the delights of sense Relaxations of soul customary even for perfect men he studiously avoided. In those forty-seven years which he spent in the Society, he once only sought the faculty of going out of the house; and this only to satisfy the piety of someone, apart

desiring * to confer with him about matters of the soul. From the beauty of villas, the pleasantness of gardens, the summer coolness of the fields he of his own accord debarred himself, a follower of truer delights in God. He never looked out from the attic room under the roof, never from the windows, never watched the solemn furnishings of the church and schools, never enjoyed the greenery and beauty of the house's villa, although he was quite often sent there with others; but he so returned with fasting eyes that he could not say what he had seen; finally he carefully aimed at this one thing, that he might take no delight with his eyes. And if anyone brought idle things or things somewhat unjust to another's reputation to his ears, he turned them aside if he could; if not, wrapping himself in his interior solitude, though most mild he showed that these things displeased him. What of the fact that the musical harmonies which were arranged in our church on the more celebrated feasts through the year, although very pious and most pleasing to him, he eluded by attention to more solid things and by hatred of pleasant ones? What of the fact that a flower never appeared in his hands or in his chamber, unless sometime it was brought in for him when sick by the keeper of the infirmary? He gladly went to hospitals and prison, and performed all the vilest ministries about the sick; he reckoned his cell a tomb, life an exile, the religious institute a station on the way to heaven, and thought it most absurd if among the dead, among exiles and thorns, he should seek odors, delights, and flowers.

[81] he rejects, In taking refreshment, besides those things which we touched on in the previous book, for thirty years he never used salt. That he might not indulge this taste in himself, since he was very much delighted with oranges, he resolved to abstain altogether, and he always abstained, unless the prefect of health or the superior of the college commanded the contrary; for then he ate them as sent from God. Things set before him sometimes beyond the custom he only tasted, lest he be believed singular among many. While eating he always turned over something pious, but frequently death and the bones of corpses, among which he sometimes imagined himself taking food with such expressive images of the mind that nausea arose in him from it. A pottage had by chance been cooked, which the rector at once noticed was both bitter and dangerous, and he ordered it to be removed. Alphonsus, although he shrank from eating it and even from its smell, had already devoured it almost entirely; from which he soon suffered sharply in the stomach for some days with fever. And to such frequent material of the cross divine providence assented for his desires and prayers; before which he as a suppliant assiduously pressed that it should not go on preserving his life, unless for the proof * of pains and endurance.

[82] Asked by one of the Fathers, his familiar, from what source had arisen the dripping of noxious humor, even at the cost of his health. by which he was dreadfully affected while he lived, he answered that it had been sent by God: "But as far as I can make out, he said, it arose also from the very unhealthy chamber in which I have dwelt for many years. I have not sought a change of it for this reason, lest so kind an opportunity should fall from me of suffering something for Christ and for the expiation of my offenses; and if the chamber was to be changed, this should be done not by my nod but by God's, whom I had resolved to follow everywhere. But behold how many both more robust and more comfortably housed in this college have died, while I live through these discomforts, surviving none the less, and may God bring it about for his glory. Believe me, my Father, nothing is so important as to commit oneself wholly to God, and to receive from his hand whatever may befall; for his care of us is so much the greater, the * more negligent we are of comforts for his sake." I have accomplished, I think, what I promised about the chastity of Alphonsus, when I said and showed that he was the unconquered, inexorable, and most cruel enemy of his body; for perfect chastity is not only to abstain from pleasures and to hate them, but moreover to wear down the body with a constant and perpetual cross.

ANNOTATIONS.

* cupienti in the edition.

* perhaps for augmentum

* quando in the edition.

CHAPTER NINE.

Of the interior cross, and of affections subdued.

Bl. Alphonsus, burning with desire of suffering, The servant of God was no less in dashing against the rock and slaying the affections of the soul than in subduing the body. And so he subdued them so much that, rejoicing in an even peace, he was disturbed by no misfortunes. Let pains rage, let adversities storm, let prosperities stand by, the same countenance persisted in both for soul and body, nearer the angelic than the human, and more calm in the very tempest. And in the beginning indeed, since he was by nature prone to anger, he broke it with great effort, so that thereafter whatever had tried his patience and provoked his bile he received most placidly, as not pertaining to him at all; indeed those troublesome to him in word or deed he embraced in mind as brothers, and cultivated them with every service ^a. Nothing was more important to him, nothing more precious than troubles and the suffering of every kind of hardship. This he strove for from God with many tears and sighs, and he seems to have obtained it largely for all the time of his life, as we have seen not obscurely from the foregoing. Yet this command of virtue over himself and over sad things and torments he by no means attained immediately from the beginning. For when he had first devoted himself to the Lord, he bore most ill any hard and harsh things inflicted otherwise than he wished, and he vehemently shrank from them; then gradually enticed by the reward and sweetness of patience, he began to desire its field, and to ask experiments from God, and to beg labors, vexations, troubles, and to commend to him those from whom they proceeded with a mind the more inclined, the more cruelly they tormented him. And in these this was his prayer to God: "I thank you, I praise and bless you, my God, for these honoraria sent by you, by which it is given me to suffer something for love of you."

[84] he rejoices in torments of soul and body, For he had persuaded himself that what befell him of grievous things did not draw their origin from men or the evil demon or from elsewhere; but that they were sent by God, the best parent ^b, for the grand good of the soul, that by them greatness of soul, patience, the imitation of Christ Jesus and the other virtues were exercised, and the divine will complied with: by which reward indeed bitter things became sweet, harsh things were softened. When harassed by anyone he said: "Him, Lord, I desire to be dear to you as earnestly as I can, from whom I receive so much good, that I may suffer something for love of you; wherefore I reckon him a friend and benefactor," and he always offered something to God in the name of those whom he felt to be his persecutors. Once when he lay gravely ill, and mute through the dryness of mouth and throat, one of those present asked how he was in that burning and in the troubles sent by God. At the name of troubles and pains, Alphonsus, until then speechless, with his head raised, began in a loud voice to discourse on the endurance of labors and the riches of patience, to the equal admiration and example of his hearers; and on another occasion, lapsing into the same discourse, he affirmed that he knew a man (wholly meaning himself) to whom adversities were as prosperities, hardships as honoraria and singular benefits, by which namely he was more closely joined with God; and that the same was tormented by prosperous and pleasant things, refreshed by pains, and recreated by calamity. After a most bitter and sleepless torment of the head he had rested for a quarter of an hour; the Brothers standing by, suspecting the force of the disease from the inflammation of his face, asked whether he had rested at all: "I slept, he said, for a quarter of an hour, and I regret the fact, because I gained nothing meanwhile." To a certain person on another occasion: "O how great a good it would be, my Brother, if one either never needed sleep, or indeed while sleeping always suffered something grave, which the will, ratifying it for love of God, might bring into the account of merits!"

[85] and he returns good for evil. In religious families too one is not rarely a cross to another, although most upright and excellent, but of a certain opposite temper and discordant prudence. Some disapproved of the blind obedience of Alphonsus, and indeed by finding fault they brought him a harvest of patience. The Father minister of the college was being visited on familiar terms, but more often than was right, by a pious and friendly man; Alphonsus was ordered, on his returning, to admit him if he came alone, if accompanied to put him off to another day with some excuse sought: I suppose, that access might be blocked to promiscuous and useless conversations with our sick. Alphonsus did what was commanded, but the sick man learned of the deed, and took it so angrily that he gravely upbraided him for scrupulosity and imprudence, while he remained nonetheless silent, peaceful, and smiling with a sweet countenance; and since at the beginning of this illness there had been presented to Alphonsus the appearance of him laid out on a funeral bed according to the rite of priests, on occasion of this reproof his ardor grew for seeking health for the sick man by prayers. At length then, as he prayed, he was shown alive again, but as if led out of the tomb after four days; and it was signified by an interior sense that he would have died within four days, if the prayers of Alphonsus had not stood in the way: that now by their grace some years were granted to him. On another occasion, rebuked for a not dissimilar observance of a too rigid obedience, and sad from fear of fault rather than of men, he withdrew to pray; when behold he saw in the air as it were a star shining, descending into him with a most swift gliding, and entering deep into his soul; and he felt himself from it so kindled with love of neighbor that he did not believe that it could be extinguished or cooled by any injuries, or he be held back from helping his neighbor with every power.

[86] He is unworthily pricked by a barber. To this domestic harvest of patience there was sometimes added an external one, the more bitter because it came from a worse mind. There was among the barbers who on an agreed day gave their service to the college a youth stupidly insolent. He bloodied the mouth and head of Alphonsus with scissors and razor, and he was so little touched by the glad patience of the good old man that he even boasted of that impudent ferocity of his, and, chastised by the words of those hearing, he answered that he did not feel the pluckings of the scissors and the snips of the razor, and gave no sign of pain. Indeed the continued injury of this shameless butchery Alphonsus bore so cheerfully that for the space of some months he always silently committed himself to the same man on his repeated return ^c. The insolent youth, in no way softened by this goodness of the excellent old man, at length felt God the avenger of his servant, and, struck by iron, lost the use of his wicked arm. Being no better even for this wound, and thinking himself no longer safe at Majorca, he sailed to Italy; where he perished stabbed with daggers, yet duly cleansed by the sacraments; which was the mercy of God, granted, as is credible, to the prayers of Alphonsus.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER TEN.

Of patience in illnesses.

In his continual illnesses he is most patient, It was a saying of Alphonsus that the mind divinely conscious of the goods which lie hidden in illnesses feels no trouble from them, although the body feels and aches; but gladly gives thanks to God, that he seems to remember it, thrusting on it such ready occasions of proving and * perfecting its charity: which indeed from entry into the Society until his death he most bravely performed ^a, living in an almost perpetual gymnasium of illnesses. Once indeed when as he lay savage torments wretchedly racked him and grew heavier under the physician's prescriptions, the physician was called in the dead of night; he came, and dictated new remedies, which, because they were not in the house, were sent for from outside; but here Christ, standing by Alphonsus, kindly reproved him, warning that our trust must be fixed in God, not in created things; and when the medicines had now been prepared, the sick man suddenly recovered, nor did God wish his health to be attributed to any other than himself ^b. At this he did not dare to open his lips or raise his eyes, but, suffused with the greatest shame, he resolved within himself, renouncing any human aid, to depend entirely on divine providence; and he constantly held this decree of his mind up to his death. Indeed, advancing further, he decided also to deny himself in future groans and innocent complaints, because they were certain vents of inwardly boiling pain, and lessened the weight of its merit; for when once he was torn in dire ways by the force of the disease, and was calmly calling on Jesus in broken little words, the keeper of the sick, as these were repeated, having lightly touched him with a jest as delicate ^c, he took the jest well but seriously, as thrown by God, and, confessing the truth, resolved to betray his pain thereafter by no sign, but from whatever source it had arisen, to consume its rage shut up in his breast. And so, torn by various troubles and illnesses, he consoled himself only by the inmost exercise of hidden virtue and by desires and wishes for bitterer things.

[88] especially after seeing Jesus scourged. After this so strong and courageous purpose, Christ showed himself to be looked upon by him, naked, torn, swollen with bloody weals, and with that appearance which impressed on his soul a living image of the pains which he himself had once borne on the cross; and to the vision he added an exhortation steeped in much tenderness to eager labors and endurance of pain, roughened by no signification of voice or countenance. The wonderful pleasantness of this vision produced in Alphonsus a greater thirst for adversities, and the memory of the purpose he had uttered, recalled in his mind, conferred on him new strength and spirit for containing complaints and groans, as often as his afflicted body was goaded into them; and for piously uttering the same, as often as he (which was very rare) was free of torment. For then, sadder, he feared lest by some fault of his he be deprived by God of his dearest crosses, or lest indulgence be given to his sloth. It happened also that, burning with fever and finding no part of rest by day or night, yet he applied himself no less diligently to his accustomed prayers, as far as he could. Sunk at once in these and in weariness and pains, one night, wondering at being in the church, and on bended knees and in the very place where he was accustomed to pray, he was astounded, neither knowing nor feeling how he had been transferred there, except that he affirmed that it was by no means done in a dream, but by divine benefit; and indeed soon breaking out into divine things in a flight of high contemplation, he gained the sight and address of Christ and his most holy mother for a long enough time, such as a son enjoys in conversing with his father and mother, by whom he certainly knows that he is loved. Of this wonderful meeting moreover he bore fruit, an increase of great love toward them, and of bearing many grave things for Christ ^d.

ANNOTATIONS.

* lacking in the edition, supplied by conjecture.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

Of distrust of himself.

He avoids the snares of the demon, who foretells his future glory to him, This gem he had gathered from his own mud clearly and deeply looked into. All things he referred to God, to himself nothing but sin and nothingness; but trusting in divine help, he judged nothing impassable for him, nothing too arduous. There was a time when he was assailed by the demon with those thoughts, by which he could scarcely think that the servants of God could be more dangerously entangled. For there were thrown up to him the honors which he would have after death in the whole island, from which immense glory would return to God, wonderful in his saints: besides this that the fame of his virtues would be poured out throughout the whole breadth of the world, his name scattered through all Christendom; his tomb celebrated by the influx of peoples and by vows; his patronage by innumerable clients, his prayers by miracles to be wrought for the salvation of souls and bodies; and that in turning over these things in his mind nothing less right was underneath: for all these would at last go out to God, as they had come from him, to the increase of whose glory he ought to lend himself readily and eagerly. The demon pressed the breast of the servant of God with an undetected stroke, but poisoned and deadly, if there had not been present in him greater sagacity for guarding than in the malign enemy for lurking. Therefore Alphonsus from this shining display of his feathers, which the wicked actor led around before him, immediately plunged his eyes into the stinking and rotten bilge of his whole self, and knowing that he was useless for any other things than sinning, he besought God that he would mercifully turn away from him the wrath which he himself went on provoking, making himself guilty of all pains: and with these arms indeed he came off unharmed, and inflicted besides a great wound on the enemy, but in fraud and rage

none the less stubborn, and from that anxious diligence of Alphonsus in casting himself down constructing new engines.

[90] or who praises his humility, For this he suggested, that it was the more admirable in so great a virtue to think so humbly of oneself, the more deserving of greater reward with God, whose custom it is to lift the humble on high. But here the despiser of himself, no feigned athlete of true modesty, calling Christ and the Virgin to his help and protection, by their most ready aid drove the enemy away from him, and dissipated these mists spread over him like smoke, with so sweet and firm a quiet now and in future that he was not assailed thereafter even by the first thoughts of any petty glory. The greatness of this benefit was always most dear to Alphonsus, who kept saying that against these motions nothing is stronger than knowledge of oneself and distrust, nothing than confident refuge with Christ Jesus and his most clement mother, into whose most safe and placid bosoms the breath of vanity by no means reached.

[91] and who tries to cast in doubt. With the same shield moreover Alphonsus eluded the demon, who was provoking a fight about the divine judgments and that dark destination of souls to their eternal lots: Why does God destine this one, not that one, to heaven, when he could equally destine all? Why does so different a temperament urge and seize these into vices, those into virtue? Why is the baptism of cleansing and with it felicity denied to so many infants, and freely granted to others? Why does he assign to everlasting punishments these suddenly cut off by a deadly fall from a sudden blow, after a life most holily spent; while those, after a detestable and wicked life, an unexpected ray of divine mercy, absolving them from all crimes by a very brief sorrow, transfers in a moment to blessed immortality? To these things the excellent old man, with his eyes closed, said: "God, supremely good, supremely wise, loves us with infinite love, and from his vast and infinite bosom has its origin whatever he decrees or permits, in which lie open to all mortals the remedies prepared for evils; I am a worm, I am vile, dust, ash, and mud, and nothing ^a." Afterwards, addressing God: "I am not my own, he said, but yours, O Lord, your work, and a figment drawn by your hands; to these I commit myself wholly; act, turn me, as you please. Whatever you decree concerning me will please and delight me." Upon this at once, withdrawing into his nothingness, like a bird into its nest with the vulture pursuing, he hid himself in the inmost part of his heart; and from this perhaps, as he was accustomed to say, he found more certainly that temptations of that kind are conquered by flight: and he gathered from that victory such sweetnesses and secrets of divine things as he could not explain in words.

ANNOTATUM.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

Of his illustrious piety toward the Virgin mother.

Often having conversed with the Blessed Virgin, The worship, zeal, and sentiments of soul with which he venerated the mother of God ^a we have partly from what he wrote, partly from what the Virgin conferred on him. For thus, narrating of himself as of some other person, he says: "While thanks were being given after table, he seemed to himself to stand beside the Virgin, who deigned him her familiarity, and he received in command from her to note in writing the prayers which he was accustomed to recite to her; and doubting about some deceit, he was confirmed by the same, warning him again to do this for the glory of God. And what he was in the custom of reciting to the Virgin for many years were first of all the crown of prayers, which he ran through with great sweetness; then her most holy litanies; besides these the Office of the most holy Conception, which likewise he holds in memory; finally twelve Salves and as many Aves, for renewing every hour of the day the memory of her Conception, and for obtaining protection from her son against sins. While he discharged these tasks, he was wonderfully inflamed in her worship and love and he enjoyed thoroughly the most pleasant conversations with her." So he, so devoted to the Virgin that once, scarcely master of reason by age, he thus addressed her: "Ah! if you loved me as much as I love you, Virgin, how happily I should live!" To whom she said: "You are mistaken, Alphonsus; I love you more than you yourself love me ^b." And when he was mature in years and in the practice of virtues, it is incredible with what tokens of peculiar benevolence she favored him. For on one occasion she said: "Alphonsus, there is no reason why you should doubt about my love toward you, since I am so greatly loved by you, and the reward of love is to be loved in return." On another: "How much I love you, Alphonsus, my son! how much I love you!" Sometimes: "Ah! with what ardor of charity, Alphonsus, son, I seek you!"

[93] and wonderfully refreshed by her, Among which things anyone will easily conjecture with what joys the breast of Alphonsus was dissolved. And repeatedly, as he asked something of her for himself or others, she answered: "Alphonsus, where I am, there you have nothing to fear: for I care for and protect your affairs." Sometimes: "I will do what you ask." At times ^c: "The faith which you keep with me, shall I not repay to you?" Nor did Alphonsus fear these things so new as new, accustomed to converse with the Virgin mother just as friends bound by long intimacy deal with one another. Nor did this love stop at words, although most precious. To Alphonsus also, while he was accompanying a priest to the fortress for offices of piety and sweating vehemently from the labor, the Virgin mother stood by in her now known appearance, and wiped with a most white cloth the sweat, and the tears which he had abundantly poured out on the way in praying. Meanwhile his more robust companion went ahead, discharging his task of hours as he went; but Alphonsus, refreshed by the heavenly vision and by fresh vigor, came out at last onto the hill at a more comfortable pace ^d. Nor must it be omitted that, while the priest was performing his duties there, Alphonsus was noticed by boys looking at him dealing with God apart: doves sat securely on his arms and head as on the branches of trees; he himself never raised his eyes from the ground.

[94] he sees her triumph in heaven, and the Immaculate Conception Five or six years before the end of the last century, on the feast of the Assumption of the Mother of God ^e, toward the setting of the day, having begun to contemplate her triumph in his chamber, he was at once a spectator and a part of it: for with the most blessed angels he ascended as a companion of the triumph into heaven; which, suddenly opened, received the Virgin with great applause. There he looked on the palace of the supreme king, heard the harmonies of the blessed spirits, and was astounded at the magnificence of the triumph; how long, in the body or out of the body, he could not report, being wholly occupied of course in gaining such goods. And since he wonderfully observed the honor of the Mother of God conceived, he affirmed that it was greatly pleasing to Christ if Christians thought and spoke illustriously of the most pure holiness of her conception: for all the glory of the mother returns to the son; that this veneration of herself was altogether made much of by the Virgin; that pious zeal for spreading ^f, publishing, and celebrating this with every splendor was most approved, that it produced great fruits in souls, that it was a great support of virtue and especially of chastity; and a certain pledge of the never-failing patronage of the Virgin: for by this kind of piety she was in a manner bound to give that. Now though he was a friend of modest silence, where yet he heard anything contrary to the devotion of this mystery, he burned up beyond his custom.

[95] he defends. He calms a tempest. And treating of this in certain writings he says: "I know that the Virgin was conceived without stain of origin; and this, because I have received it from the Virgin herself, I affirm, and I would even go and preach this at all the crossroads, if it were permitted through Father Rector." And he adds that among other ends the Society of Jesus was founded by God in the last century for this one, that it might teach, spread, and defend this glory of the Virgin with singular care. At Majorca about the eighty-seventh year of the same century, the honors decreed with great pomp for the feast of the Conceived Virgin having been duly performed, the island of Majorca began to be shaken on land and sea by a horrible tempest, and to be turned upside down. For which danger, since there was no refuge, nor did it press the citizens more mildly at home than abroad, the fight was made by prayers and vows alone ^g. And here the rector of the college, by chance coming upon Alphonsus, said: "Why do you delay, my Brother? Go, I pray, and beseech God to restrain his wrath." Alphonsus at once ran, one of his companions following rather curiously: a wonderful thing! he had bent his knees, and had stretched his hands to heaven scarcely so long as the angelic salutation could be recited three times, when, the winds falling, its serenity returned to the sky and safety to the island.

ANNOTATIONS.

1868, on the road which leads to the fortress commonly called Castillo de Belver, in memory of the vision of the most blessed Virgin to Bl. Alphonsus; toward whom some, in their affection of devotion, plan to erect a greater one as soon as possible.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN.

Of the veneration of images and of the esteem of the Society.

Bl. Alphonsus religiously venerates holy images. Over the doors of the college hung a face of the Savior, very piously painted; there was read also the following distich, likewise more pious than elegant, inscribed on the picture:

For what the image teaches is God, but it is not God itself.

Look at this *, but venerate in mind what you discern in it.

While Alphonsus was especially affected by the veneration of this image ^a, he learned from its mouth in distinct words the sense of those verses; taught by which, as soon as sacred pictures met him, he transferred his mind to the things which the painting expressed with such intensity as sometimes took the sight of the images away from him. A likeness of Christ bound to the column he had fixed inside the doors of the college, and looking at it sometimes more ardently than usual, he was so inflamed in soul by the contemplation of that mystery that his face shone from the light of his mind, and two shining rays burst upward from his eyes. A witness of the fact was a household servant, Bernard Marin, who was meanwhile waiting for a priest, before whom he might lay down his sins. In the last year of his life he frequently spoke with a little image of the Virgin, and in his torments drew great consolation from looking at it. But in the last half year he at the same time discerned it and stood before her in mind in heaven, with no use even of the interior senses, with no sense of pains, in the highest delight of that good of which he then had a foretaste as a pledge.

[97] He loves St. Ignatius and his Society from his heart. Toward St. Ignatius, founder of the Society, he was wonderfully affected, an illustrious esteemer of his holiness and most eager imitator; and a most zealous observer of the institute. Hence that perspicacious blindness of his obedience, of which we spoke; hence the fruitful sermons about him, which he gave in the refectory at the rector's order ^b; hence the words which, tacitly speaking of himself, he consigned to writing: "Christ visited him with his most holy mother and our father St. Ignatius, and with other courtiers of the blessed palace;" and elsewhere: "The companion of Jesus and Mary was St. Ignatius, and angels in great number." The health, almost despaired of, of Catherine Sanmartina, a noblewoman, the rector at her request commended to Alphonsus. Having poured out prayer, Alphonsus answered that she was to be healed on the fifth day; and sent to console her, and to sign her with the handwriting of St. Ignatius, having spoken much of God and patience, after some prayers recited with her household and the handwriting placed on her, he went away. He had scarcely stepped out when the sick woman was better than she had been before the illness ^c. And as Alphonsus made the Society of the greatest account, so he held it uniquely dear: whence that fear of his, of which we have spoken above, for many years, lest he be driven from it for his blemishes; and although he held the disturbances of the soul plainly subdued, yet examining with what sentiment he would seem to bear dismissal from the Society, he could not acquiesce in the case, and digest so great a loss ^d: for, enlightened from heaven, he had without doubt perceived how dear to God and precious the Society was. And looking up sometimes at the shining sun, and at the vital and propitious rays, darting instincts and joys in every direction through the whole world, he heard that the Society was of such a kind, as by teaching, example, and labors to embrace, illumine, and kindle all things, and to burn them happily with the flames of divine love ^e; and that the strongest aids by which it might achieve and promote this its purpose were in solid contempt of self and in ready obedience; which two could not perfectly stand without the company of the other virtues.

ANNOTATIONS.

* eam in Colin.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

Of the charity of Alphonsus toward God.

From love of God he shudders at sin, By this census of the virtues which we have touched on thus far he procured for himself the inestimable ruby of divine charity, and since he was perpetual in loving God, he performed this chiefly in three ways. The first kept his mind fixed in knowing and loving God, without any train of arguments and support of reasons: which contemplation suspends the soul in admiration and love of the beauty and excellence of God, and, immersed in God, shuts it out from the office of the senses ^a. The second, with the entrance of the heart always passable and open, invited the beloved to deign to rest in it. The third set the soul before God like a suckling infant, as before its mother in whose presence it rejoices and leaps. Burning with these fires, he asked of God rather the pains of hell (provided he were innocent) than that he should suffer himself to fall into any, even a slight, offense ^b; and he had noted in his own hand the saying of a learned and holy author: That the angels, if the option were given, would more gladly go without their felicity and undergo the punishments of the demons without guilt, than gain that blessed immortality with offense to God. Which desire he thought was one of the very perfect; and with all his powers of soul and body he applied himself to those things which were most pleasing to God; and to please him so pleasant

did he find, that forgetful of all things he remembered this one thing, and said that for that delight he would not feel the eternal pains among those below, if he knew that by bearing them he was doing a thing pleasing to God.

[99] and languishing with the desire of pleasing the Lord and longing to die, But he added that these things were little perceived, except by those long exercised in this kind of piety; that God measured his care of our affairs and of us and his protection according to the measure of the vigilance and fervor with which we strive to please him; and that the force of this striving and desire was so great that those who burned with it were not terrified even by perpetual torments. Whence that prayer of his: "If I am to be more pleasing to you, Lord, among those below, thrust me down there, but with your grace; because beyond love and service of you I wish nothing." Lying ill two years before his death, he opened to a certain Father visiting him that, although he was vehemently tormented, he was refreshed with great consolation and burned with an incredible desire of pleasing God, and of learning whether there was anything besides by which he could be more acceptable to him, even if death were to be met by him a thousand times ^c. And when he asked at some time that it be indicated to him by the Lord God by what thing he could more pleasingly serve his majesty, the Lord answered: "Be of even mind, eager and glad: things are going well for you, Alphonsus, nor is there anything for you to fear." The same he heard from the Virgin mother, who added besides that she was taking care of him. And when he put forth this most ardent furnace of the highest charity into affections and words, he knew divinely that by the frequent repetition of that impelled love he was in a brief time enriched with greater merits than by other things long uprightly and piously done. Amid these burnings of love it was frequent with him to repeat: "Jesus and Mary, my sweetest loves, for love of you may I suffer and die! May I be wholly yours, nowhere mine!" and at times such was the violence of this flame that unless God singularly preserved him he could not have kept his life. On a certain day he was reading a treatise on contempt of self, when he was overcome by sleep beyond his custom, if indeed that was sleep and not ecstasy, since it had no cause from nature, and he really felt himself pierced by so vehement a stroke of divine charity that both his strength and the pulse of his artery sank, and life itself seemed about to fail immediately. Nonetheless with an effort he roused himself, and prolonged his conversations with God, doing and asking this, that that love might be increased until he died of its beautiful wound ^d. And although he by no means won this, yet a little later, while he was present at Mass, kindled with desire of the same blessed death, he suddenly conceived so much love that, as he himself said, divine love wholly filled his heart, and he spurned all things apart from God and what pleased God. Of himself indeed he wrote that he so loved God that he loved nothing besides in things, and used nothing except by his prescription.

[100] he loves nothing except so far as it pertains to God. This immense love moreover God repaid to him with infinite munificence; and he in turn from the fountain of inmost charity turned back upon him the rays of thanks, gladness, humility, and all virtues: "Why, he said, my Lord, do I not burn with infinite love of you? Why do I not die? Why can I not return immense thanks for your immense benefits? Ah! If I might die for love of you! O that sweet and blessed death! O lovable life! to die to all things and even to myself, that I may live to you alone, and in you, through you, and with you!" And since he dwelt so chastely and entirely in the love of God that he looked in it to no reasons of his own, but to those of God alone, whatever pleased God, whatever profited the things created by him, all that, because it was God's, he considered his own, and placed it among the benefits properly conferred on him. He gave innumerable thanks daily for the goods heaped on Christ the man, on his most blessed mother, on the angels and men; and, unequal to the burden, he presented the collected merits of all to God in the place of thanks. But to report the ways which he had found of this perpetual sacrifice of praise and love, as charity is most ingenious, would be foreign to the brevity of speaking and writing always dear to me.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

Of love toward the neighbor.

Most zealous for the salvation of souls, From the love toward God which we have explained, a moderate love toward men could not be born, in whom he attended to God himself. Whence it is likewise clear how truly he wrote of himself, his person being disguised, that he (whom in writing he had in view) desired the salvation of souls with such compassion and anxiety that he was not equal to bearing the surge of affections *, unless God turned his mind from that thought to other things, otherwise about to die of ungovernable sorrow and certain anguish. For since he had in some manner divinely perceived by how infinite names and titles infinite love is owed to God, what horrible punishments eternally await those guilty of mortal fault, what immense rewards await the religious and innocent, he burned with an insatiable desire that the latter should belong to all, that the former should involve no one, that God should be honored everywhere with sincere services: and such was the ardor of this love that he would have held it as a very great benefit, if he could put it into effect, although only on this condition, that he should endure the pains of the damned, as long as it seemed good to God, but without guilt ^a. Hence that anxious zeal of his for the conversion of so many men, straying from religion, from the divine law. Burning with these wishes on some occasion and most vehemently desiring to inflame all mortals by his exhortation to serving God, he perceived divinely that by these so fiery and efficacious desires he had gained no less merit and reward than if he had led all from their error and crimes to Christ and to penance. So great is the force of interior charity in a mind even simple and untaught, and amid daily ministries seriously seeking the conversions of souls!

[102] he deals wonderfully with each. To this looks what he handed down of himself, namely that he in spirit spoke with individual men at the same time, and with the mind of each of those who were then alive, about the brevity of fleeting life, the eternity of pains and of glory, the goodness of God, and the infinite titles of loving and observing him, that by this speech he might drive them to God and salvation ^b. And when he was asked in what manner and order such unusual things had been done, he denied that the manner had been manifested to him. Yet they seem to have been done without any exterior or interior sense, by the sole aid of the mind, either using images of things infused by God, or representing many things at once by one or a few, such as are accustomed to be at hand for angels. And he said that by this love of God and neighbor there is no graver torment of the soul, for one reckoning how many thousands of men fall daily from their paternal heaven, and are swallowed by hell; and that he would suffer all the pains of the damned, only without fault of his own, as long as God wished, and indeed eagerly, that he might save even one destined for them.

[103] He helps preachers with his prayers. To this thirst for the salvation of others are referred the prayers which he poured out assiduously for preachers of the word of God, and with wonderful outcome. Ignatius Blanco was to preach at Majorca, and although in every respect eminent, he was at first heard with moderate fruit. But having conceived a worthy estimate of the virtue of Alphonsus, he asked that his sermons be kindled by his prayers; and to Alphonsus as he prayed it was answered that they would be very fruitful; but that if the preacher had only God before his eyes and the profit of souls, they would be yet more fruitful. When Alphonsus had reported this to Ignatius, adding also upright counsels on that matter, Ignatius both on the following day and in the rest of the time of the great fast produced such gatherings, conversions, and fruits that he wondered at himself, and always thereafter relied much on the prayers and counsels of Alphonsus ^c. The same in the ninth year of this century, and Melchior Mirelles ^d, about to speak to the people in different churches,

sought the help of Alphonsus. To him, as he interceded for them with the mother of God, there was presented the appearance of the two Fathers standing on bended knees on either side, and of the same mother placing her parted hands on the heads of both. This token of dear protection the outcome by no means belied; but it appeared more evidently in Ignatius: for when, as the spring fast was impending, a hostile catarrh so affected his throat that he could scarcely draw breath, much less speak readily, yet when he had gone up into the pulpit, with so free and loose a voice he went clearly through the whole sermon, as if he were held by no catarrh; but outside the pulpit the humor went on taking the use of his voice away. This trouble held him all the days on which he was not to speak to the people; and if on some days he spoke twice, so many times he kept a faithful truce with that overflow of humor. For the same man, who would otherwise have become useless, he obtained by entreaty from the Virgin mother some years of life and health (the number of which could not be read, torn in the paper left by him), when he had laid that health low by intemperate assiduity in study. Ignatius is believed to have learned the number; for those five years in which he thenceforth preached with immense fruit he was much in the sharpest affliction of himself and in prayers, with so great an abundance of tears that, praying in the choir, he was compelled to catch them with a cloth placed beneath, lest anyone should afterwards form a conjecture about them from the wetness of the place. Among his distinguished virtues there shone the veneration of the mother of God, whose bond-slave he gloried to be, and as a token of this dignity he perpetually wore, while he lived, a small chain bound on his foot, as a fetter. A not dissimilar charity of Alphonsus toward souls was experienced by John Torres. For when, unprepared for a sermon promised for a celebrated day, he sought the protection of the Virgin, he was ordered by her to be certain of John's excellent and most outstanding sermon. And he, relying on those prayers, going up into the pulpit, spoke with such ardor and with such command that you would have thought that the sentences were dictated to him, the gestures moved by a divine impetus, nor did unequal fruit follow.

[104] By his conversations he leads many to cultivate virtue, Moreover this flame for the salvation of others, feeding on the soul of Alphonsus, added such efficacy to his speech that some affirmed on oath that they never withdrew from him without a new desire of higher virtue ^e; others, although both learned and grave, wondered that a simple and decrepit old man, ordered to address ours at table, breathed the small torches of divine love with his whole mouth and breast; many consulted him with the same confidence as if they had gone to all the most lettered men, and to those most erudite in the government of souls. In a sodality of leading men, when he had answered about a certain pious difficulty, a man of chief nobility, age, and virtue did not restrain himself from rising and proclaiming openly that he at last was a theologian of God, and that this was true knowledge which the good Brother handed down, received from the companionship of God in prayer ^f. But at his door, in the gathering of pupils of every kind, was the strongest harvest of his charity. There, while he applied various aids to various persons according to the temper, condition, and strength of soul of each, yet he tried to turn no one from that form of religious institute which he had first come to love into another, or to persuade anyone to this Order rather than that, but he followed God who shone before, and whither he called young men, thither he strove to bring them, and he brought indeed very many ^g.

[105] to embrace the religious life, or to leave off marriage. To Anna Valperga, a virgin of great honor and endowed with great gifts, complaining, as she was accustomed, that her brother was vehemently opposing her giving her name to the nuns, he confirmed that this would shortly be done, and that that very brother, who was then so greatly resisting, from a persecuting Saul would turn out a Paul, and, having embraced the religious life, would constantly persevere in it. He was Bartholomew Valperga, once a boy in the schools not rarely trained in piety by Alphonsus, then drunk with very great hopes and with the smoke and din of the court. But Alphonsus, who knew other counsels of God concerning him, when he had been invited to a conversation and had gone on at length about his high fortune, hoped-for honors, the present favor of the powerful, the riches and magistracies now on the point of being his, took him at length by the hand, and, unrolling those vanishing clouds and hollow dreams and flattering nothingness, yet supported by atrocious dangers, so changed the man that, returning the next day, he no longer made noise of the court and the trifles of honors, but sought the most desired servitude of God alone, and wholly converted suddenly into another man at home and abroad, he entered the sacred family of the Carthusians, while his sister Anna shut herself in the monastery of St. Magdalene, the outcome in both cases making good the words of Alphonsus. This was afterwards handed down in writing by Bartholomew himself to the rector of the college of Majorca. Jerome Morant too was brought forth for our Society by the admonitions of Alphonsus; and his prayers procured him for martyrdom, which he met among the Mexican Indians by the cutting off of his head, when by great virtues and singular harshness of life he had already gained there the surname of Holy Father. I pass over Raphael Oller, a distinguished laborer, and Salvator Custurer, whom Alphonsus by praying obtained from God for the Society ^h. And a novice who, having already received back his clothes and having taken leave of the rector, was going away, when he said farewell to him too, he took pity on and commended to the Virgin. When the Virgin had once and again answered him that he would by no means go away, and he nonetheless pressed, she said: "Behold, I declare a third time that he will by no means go away." The wretched man came to himself with much groaning and, weeping, promised constancy, made stronger by that weakness. I complete this book with a rare example of the efficacy which God brought to bear for the charity of Alphonsus. The nobleman Peter Santacilia ⁱ had met him, and as he was very familiar with him, was communicating his mind to him about a second marriage (for his wife had died). Here Alphonsus, holding his friend's hand, having spoken many things strongly about the point of life, about heaven, about the titles by which we are bound to God and Lord, said: "With what counsel do you think that God has taken away your wife from you, unless that you may serve him free and wholly? Why do you seek again the chains removed, and why do you not enjoy the liberty offered?" Peter returned home, took the habit of a cleric, studied grammar at thirty years of age like a boy; and, made a priest and a spur of outstanding virtue to all Majorca, he remained perpetually so grateful to Alphonsus that he gloried in him as the father of his soul and of its tranquillity ^k.

ANNOTATIONS.

all on every side ran to him in afflictions of every kind, and sought from him solace, or a remedy, or at least the efficacious aid of his prayers; and he was at hand for all, not without an effect of extraordinary Providence for the most part following, for the profit of the neighbor Ibid., page 153 and following.. Nor did he less assiduously exercise the spiritual works of mercy Ibid., page 157., for he went about through the city and in the churches teaching the Christian doctrine to boys Summarium, page 76; compare page 74 and following, 82., explaining how they should duly receive the sacraments, recite the rosary and other prayers. Indeed precepts written by his hand he distributed among boys, unlearned men, and many scholars. Those whom he could not help in another way he helped at least by assiduous prayer, especially if anyone had done him a grave injury Summarium, pages 81 and 83.. But, dealing at home and with ours, he gave the most illustrious proofs of charity of all, in each of the offices which he filled in order. In the beginning namely he was the sacristan's helper and companion of those going out, then doorkeeper for more than thirty years. And when in the seventieth year of his age he had the use of a body not sufficiently firm, he carried out lighter offices, accompanying the Fathers on the road, helping the doorkeeper, and doing similar things. Meanwhile for many years he presided over the novice Brother coadjutors, and as moderator presided over the recreations of the scholastic Brothers. With how great a patience and benevolence, with how great a love and zeal he acted these parts, all the witnesses of his holy life declare with one mouth [Colin, folios 13, 103 and following. Elenchus, page 165 and following. The manuscript Spanish Life, book I, chapter XII.].

* effectuum in the edition.

BOOK III. OF THE WONDERS OF ALPHONSUS.

Alphonsus Rodriguez, temporal coadjutor of the Society of Jesus, on the island of Majorca. (Bl.)

BY JANIN. BOOK III.

CHAPTER ONE.

Of the salvation of certain persons of the Society disclosed to Alphonsus from heaven.

Bl. Alphonsus sees in the heavens Bartholomew Coc, Although no one will deny that all the things in Alphonsus which have been sampled so far out of many are wonderful, yet those which follow will perhaps stand out more illustriously, and will affect the reader more pleasantly. Bartholomew Coc ^a, rector of Majorca, was breathing out his soul amid the prayers and tears of ours, and he was already duly fitted for death with the sacred aids of the Church, when Alphonsus saw heaven part, and those things being there adorned with great splendor which served for receiving with solemn pomp an immense guest. This vision lasted a quarter of half an hour, and Alphonsus understood that so great an honor was being prepared for Coc because of the distinguished and long labors which he had rendered to the glory of God by living, ruling, and preaching.

[107] James Ruiz, In the same place on the Kalends of June, in the first year of the beginning century, James Ruiz, temporal helper, had closed his day, so much the better known to himself and God as he was of his own will more obscure amid the soot of the kitchen. Alphonsus was present with the dying man, and began at once, as soon as he breathed out his soul, to recite for him the crown of prayers to the Virgin. He had run through it twice, and had begun it a third time, as is the custom, when he felt himself impelled by a new ardor (a close and familiar proof of peculiar favor from God), rapt in mind to heaven, and standing before the most blessed Virgin; at whose side, detecting James, he took incredible delight from so great a glory of so humble a Brother and friend. He nonetheless went on weaving the third crown, that he might satisfy the common duty toward the deceased, although not without some scruple of soul, until he was ordered by the Virgin to cease, and rather to desire for himself the prayers of James as necessary; and when he hesitated in doubt, whether a timid humility should hide this vision or pious charity toward the blessed Brother disclose it, he was taught by the same Virgin that it would be more glorious to God if he opened the whole matter to some persons, as he afterwards did. Nor is it so wonderful that James was honored after death with so sublime a degree, since besides his singular contempt of himself, mortification, and poverty, he spent in honoring the mother of God with various offices of prayers whatever time remained to him after the task of obedience. Alphonsus himself testified that he had for almost thirty years never asked the faculty of going outside, or of any other recreation, however religious, that he had lived an enemy of comforts and forgetful of himself, and most sweetly rejoicing in his own poverty.

[108] John Ricco, John Ricco ^b ceased to live at the end of the fifth year of the century, when he was presiding over the college of Urgel. When this news was brought to Majorca, where John had once twice ruled the college, Alphonsus at once, pouring himself out in prayers for his very close friend and intimate acquaintance, saw him present with a most glad and most beautiful aspect, and with his whole body, but especially his face and head, wonderfully crowned with the rays which he darted forth, and he heard from the same that he had been placed by God higher than the angels of the first order. By this oracle and sight the esteem of his friend's virtue grew in Alphonsus, so that he quite often implored his help as of a saint; and as often as he did so, so often he saw him with the same aspect, intimating by the eagerness of his face how much he loved him, and how much he desired to have as a companion of felicity him whom he had had of sweat, cross, and victories.

[109] Mark Puigdorfila, Mark Antony Puigdorfila *, a nobleman of Majorca, in the flower of age, wealth, and delights, after overcoming many machinations of parents, companions, and demons, had embraced the Society, and was spending his first year in philosophy, when he perished by illness. And he was of such tenderness of conscience that, when he was stabbed by the goads of scruples, he inquired of his confessor whether he might by the prayers of Alphonsus ask immunity from them without suspicion of φιλαυτίας and of excessive love toward himself. And when he learned that he could, he asked, and obtained so full an immunity that he died most tranquilly. Alphonsus attended him perpetually, and consoling the soul of the deceased with peculiar suffrage, he saw him blessed and eager in heaven, and, by the sign of a grateful countenance, receiving the prayers poured out for him, and adding that they would shortly be joined in place: which happened after two years. But in the meantime the same man often showed himself to be looked upon by Alphonsus in the same figure.

[110] and his three sisters. I shall add one or two things, because they are akin to what has been said, although they seem to pertain less to the Society. Alphonsus had two sisters ^c, both virgins, both from their tender years to the seventieth * of their age most constantly engaged in every kind of holiness: to whom Segovia served for a desert, their house for a monastery; affliction of themselves, prayer, and the pious labor of their hands for work; God for all familiarity. Antonia was the more sublime in virtue, and in mind more like her brother Alphonsus; to her, since she was greatly devoted to our Society, God presented in a vision a great multitude of the blessed in heaven from it, shining with wonderful splendor; once also Alphonsus placed at Majorca, from whose face a ray reached as far as her at Segovia. When she was near her end the other, named Juliana, asked her not to leave her alone on earth. Antonia promised, and stood by her promise; for having died on the seventh of July, in the fourteenth year of this century, she had Juliana, who had meanwhile adorned herself with greater striving in all virtue than before, as companion after two months, and the whole city followed the funeral of each with great honors, distinguished men of the chief nobility also carrying on their shoulders, God adorning their solitude while they lived with this celebrated pomp of public light after death. Alphonsus therefore, fully acquainted with these sisters, and first introduced by them formerly into the novitiate of piety, made much of them within himself, and not only called upon God for them many times daily, but strove besides to obtain by entreaty from him that they should pass straight from the workhouse of this life to heaven, exempt from the purifying flames. To him God (so great was his goodness) said: "I promise, Alphonsus, that they will be exempt;" and after their death he showed them to him burning with precious attire and wonderful brightness, happy on bended knees before the throne of God, and he kindled him with new desires of that blessedness which they enjoyed. A third sister likewise of great virtue, joined to a husband, named Manuela, who died at Madrid, he commended to the Lord, and he heard that at that point of time, exempted from the places of cleansing, she was already rejoicing in heaven. Thus the divine liberality repaid the charity of Alphonsus toward the dead, that by the spectacle of immortality it at once provoked and fed his desires for it ^d.

ANNOTATIONS.

* Puigdor, filius in the edition.

* supply annum

CHAPTER TWO.

Of the salvation of certain others known by him, and of an obscure but true answer concerning the voyage of twelve of ours.

Bl. Alphonsus is assured of the eternal salvation of the viceroy John Villaragut of Valencia, viceroy of Majorca, its preserver and father, a very grave illness

overwhelming him, kept the whole island alike anxious and sad, at the danger of so good a parent and happy and upright governor; but above the rest his wife Joanna Pardo, foreboding her solitude far from her homeland. And so she begged the rector of the college to enjoin prayers on Alphonsus for the health of her husband. While Alphonsus employed these with great zeal for the sick man, but with greater for the divine will, behold he beheld his corpse, as if already dead, supported in the arms of the Virgin, saying that she was receiving him into her protection. These words, the viceroy having died very piously not long after, were so explained to him by God as to indicate by no means health, but an opportune death, and one then to be wished for because of imminent dangers known to God ^a.

[112] and of others. On another occasion, taking pity on the family of Margaret Despuig as she breathed out her soul, afflicted with weeping and groans, he fell on his knees, beseeching that Margaret's life be prolonged, if it should be for the glory of God; and he heard distinctly that the option of what he wished was given to him ^b; but that the sick woman would never be better prepared for dying piously. Augustly venerating so abundant a condescension, he committed all things to the divine will. When he prayed also that some years be given to William Morant ^c for the consolation of his widowed mother, it was answered that William would then die, because this would be supremely advantageous to his soul: and so he closed his life most illustriously and Christianly.

[113] The prophecy of a second voyage, But what follows the depraved understanding of men, not the thing itself, made for the innocent Alphonsus for some time lamentable and dishonorable. The Fathers had decided to put twelve of ours ^d on a ship for the mainland, which, great, and excellently fortified with arms and soldiers, and laden with most precious goods, was being sent by the viceroy of Sicily; nor were they thought likely to get a safer occasion against the pirates who then held the sea hostile. Yet the judgment of God was sought through Alphonsus, and to Alphonsus as he prayed a voice answered that it would be a golden voyage. Confirmed by this voice the rector ordered his men to embark. They set sail, Alphonsus accompanied them as they departed with prayers and eyes, until the ship suddenly ceased to be seen, but did not take away from him as he looked the hope of a prosperous landing. But indeed it seemed one thing to men, another to God; and it was, by the holy, clement, right, and merciful judgment of God and the Lord, a rich and truly golden voyage, whatever men thought of it. The ship came into the hands of the famous pirate Simon Danzer ^e, Dutchman and Turk, after a bloody fight; the Christians were thrown into chains, ours were led off to Algiers as slaves; with how great a sorrow of all, how many sayings and complaints against Alphonsus, how great a crop and harvest of the same man's patience (for he had very often wished to be held a deluded man), it is easy for anyone to determine; but difficult how great riches of salvation that voyage brought to the Christians then at Algiers in immense number, laboring under an immense want of divine things; how great an abundance of merits to ours while they served there, what fame to the Society, what a yield to Alphonsus of charity, and of the greatest virtues and works. He understood that this was that golden voyage, when he piously complained to God that he had been permitted to err in its explanation.

[114] the event confirms it otherwise than he had thought. Wonderful and uncomprehended are the counsels of divine Providence. It was fixed with it to rescue so many souls placed at Algiers from destruction by the virtue of ours: to this the deliberation of the Fathers, to this the hope of the most well-equipped ship, to this the diligence of Alphonsus (although they were doing something else) his goodness was directing ^f. And from the time when news of so unlucky a misfortune was brought to Majorca, Alphonsus was wholly in consoling, strengthening, raising them by letters, in commending them to God and the Virgin by vows and prayers (for he wrote to them that he prayed for them more than a hundred times a day); she, presenting herself sometimes as he prayed, pledged that they would be a care and in her heart: which she indeed performed eminently, when to a man all, among whom were three novices still of weak age, after great troubles from the barbarians, temptations, dangers, the unfamiliarity of an unknown sky, illnesses and labors, within about the tenth month, their liberty having been redeemed, set sail for Spain; and they were already coasting the land near, when, the wind soon blowing back, within one night they were driven back to Majorca, that by their sight they might wipe away the mourning which their absence had created ^g. But in this harbor, so cheerful because of their arrival and crowded with citizens, one of the novices came not far from making shipwreck: so violently was he driven headlong by the caresses and tears of paternal and maternal affection, unless he had been strengthened, as is credible, by the patronage of Alphonsus with God. For to the rector, warning him to bring help to the one in danger, he answered confidently, forbidding him to be anxious about him; that, safe in the arms of the mother of God, though all hell should roar and rage against him, he would come out victor, nor would the Virgin suffer her client to succumb. And to a certain Father on the following day, fearful and giving up the purpose of the novice as if already a deserter's, he said: "And do you believe this, my Father? It is by no means as you think: he stands in his place, and let us give thanks to God and the Virgin, by whose help he has defeated an army of demons this past night (for that night, on the very ship to which he had fled from the paternal house, his father, having followed him, was most vehemently assailing him); and he will soon be here with his companions, and will refresh us with his triumph." And he was present for a while, until a better wind called, and, the stubborn enticements of his parents having been broken by his constancy, he even carried off their pious assent and blessing, and giving himself back to the sea he reached the mainland safely with the rest.

[115] He obtains the perseverance of a tempted novice. That this moreover was the victory of Alphonsus is conjectured from this, that he himself, praying at home, beheld in his soul whatever was being done in the harbor; and at the beginning indeed he saw the Virgin mother with a severe look, as if turning away from what was being asked; the novice likewise sad before her, as if he were undertaking something against his will. Hence the young man's soul was suspect to Alphonsus (and indeed he was wavering). Wherefore applying himself more keenly to prayer, as the fervor of praying grew, so the Virgin's brow was smoothed, and the novice appeared more eager, until at length he heard from the Lord that the matter was beyond hazard, and that what he asked was granted him; and he saw an armed cloud of demons overhanging the ship, which, when the novice had answered his father soliciting him to defection, was suddenly blown apart; and, his mind having been lifted up among those above, he came to a share of the festive gladness which the angels celebrated to God over the victorious novice ^h. I do not set down other things in a like subject which show less wonderfulness, but I add things akin to these concerning what he foretold.

ANNOTATIONS.

CHAPTER THREE.

Of certain things foretold by Alphonsus, and known beyond human custom.

Bl. Alphonsus foretells the good fortune of a certain magistrate, Francis Pacheco, an examining judge of the royal chancery among the Majorcans, removed from his place and office by the arts of rivals, was gravely distressed by the near loss of his reputation and property. Sentence had been pronounced against him by the king. To return to the court to prove his innocence was costly, full of danger, and vain because of the power of his adversaries and the perils of the journey; to remain was shameful and ruinous to his fortunes. When he had narrated these things familiarly to Alphonsus, as he was accustomed, and had sought help from God through him, returning the next day he was ordered by him to go boldly, and to hesitate in nothing: for the business would proceed both easily and happily, and when it had been concluded to his wish, he would shortly return to Majorca; let him only trust in God; and that he himself meanwhile would be mindful of him in prayers. Compelled rather than persuaded by these words as by the admonitions of an angel, he went. Against all hope, and against the will of his wife, that very night he set sail for Madrid. Arriving at Valencia in a few hours, he learned that the rival most to be feared by him had fallen from favor. When he came to the court, he at once found all things so plain and free, so propitious the ears and minds of the ministers, that, the matter being concluded in a few days, restored to his rank and reputation, and full of greater hopes, he was shortly at Valencia. There by some silent force and unaware of the future he took back his baggage already entrusted to a ship, and he put off his departure for a little. That ship having been swallowed by the sea with all its passengers, he, appearing not much later at Majorca by a comfortable voyage, could not be satisfied in proclaiming Alphonsus, and in recounting what had befallen him as long foretold by him ^a.

[117] and his sentence in a lawsuit, When the same man was afterwards about to pronounce sentence against the college in a very grave case ^b, the rector ordered Alphonsus to sustain that case by praying, and to ask from God what right required. Alphonsus reported, after consulting God, that if the judge were further instructed on the equity of the matter, he would pronounce in our favor. But the judgment was to be delivered on that very day and almost at that hour, and it seemed too late to wish to thrust new informations on the judge, and to remove those he had conceived. Alphonsus nonetheless urging, they went; the case was set forth more accurately with easy access and hearing, Francis changed his plan, and, the matter being more clearly examined, adjudged the suit to the college; for Alphonsus, when he had handed it into the hands of the Virgin, had learned from her that if Francis were diligently instructed with more certain arguments, it was to be concluded with such an outcome.

[118] the imminent return of two clerics, Leonora Armadans ^c, a noble matron, was being consumed by miserable mourning for the death of her son, whom, returning from Rome and enriched with a chief dignity of the Church of Majorca, shipwreck had sunk in sight of his homeland, and with him fifty Spaniards, likewise favored with ecclesiastical benefices at Rome by the pontiff. Alphonsus, taking pity on the most afflicted matron, implored consolation from the Virgin mother; and thereupon going to the rector, he foretold that a solace of her sorrow would shortly come to Leonora: namely that the kinsmen whom she had at Rome, one a canon, the other adorned with the office of sacrist (which is reckoned a chief one at Majorca), would return shortly after, as they did in fact return.

[119] the various fates of a certain sick man, One of ours lying dangerously ill he at last drove to give a letter to the provincial about a change of air, by whom he would at once be summoned to the mainland, and would there recover health; and he wished him warned that he would be harassed in the Society by some troubles, which were to have a convenient end not long afterwards. He wrote to the provincial, he was summoned, he recovered his health; but dismissed through the mistaken accusations of some, he spent five years outside the Society, and, the truth at length revealing itself, he returned to it, and lived religiously in it.

[120] the prosperous journey of many travelers, Michael Jerome, an honorable and upright man of Majorca, had set sail for Valencia. His sister, by some hidden presage from no cause, believed that he had fallen among the Moors. But to her, ungovernable in solitude * and narrating these fears, Alphonsus said: "Be of good courage; for although the ship has been in danger, and sharply attacked by the Moors, it now holds Valencia unharmed." That this had been so, as he explained, was afterwards learned. Ours certainly reckoned that Peter Justus, the provincial ^d, after inspecting the college of Majorca, had fallen into the hands of the Turks, because in a brief space after he had departed they had been seen with a galley towing a light ship. And here, amid the utmost consternation of all, the rector addressed the cheerful Alphonsus: "What is the meaning of this, my Brother, that you alone do not feel so savage a misfortune of the provincial?" "On the contrary, replied Alphonsus, it is in no way otherwise with him than we would wish. He has already reached Barcelona safe and well with his companions, and that by a prosperous voyage and with the mother of God ruling the helm." Which a letter delivered afterwards confirmed. A new rector was expected at Majorca, Michael Julian, a man of outstanding piety, and it was said in the hearing of Alphonsus that he could not land, unless the wind changed. But he answered that he would be there as soon as possible; and when it was urged that it could not be done, he confirmed two and three times that it would be; and in fact he was there on the following day, having wonderfully got through a foul tempest.

[121] and the liberation of a captive. An honorable matron very observant of Alphonsus told him of her husband's prison, of an infamous and ruinous case, of the want of help and counsel. To her as she wept the excellent old man, collecting himself for a little, said: "Do not fear: shortly this flood will subside, and tranquillity will return to you as you wish." And so within a few days she received her husband free from prison with reputation and property intact.

[122] He obtains benefits from God and foretells them. Sineu, a village of Majorca, blazing with bloody discords, two of ours who had been sent there wrote to commend to Alphonsus, because the angers of those at variance could not be healed by human diligence. Alphonsus prayed at the rector's command, and he learned from the Virgin, to whom he was supplicating, that the zeal of the parties had now been reconciled among themselves, that peace had been established, and that at that very moment of time a certain man was being sent from there to announce how the matter had succeeded. This Alphonsus told the rector. The man's arrival shortly after confirmed it. The same man on another occasion, while he was by chance walking at home, was struck by a blind voice exhorting him to pray God for John Aguira, his very close friend, who was laboring in great peril. Lying down therefore on the ground, he asked many things, offered, did, and at length learned from heaven about the remedy which he had obtained. When he opened these things after one month to the provincial in explaining his conscience, he learned from him in turn more distinctly that John's danger had been of despairing of salvation and of falling into madness, arising from a most scrupulous temperament ^e.

[123] Many other things he knew divinely, To this pertains the matter of the horrid cloud, teeming with hail and destruction, which on a certain day so shook out all its fury on the vineyard of the college that it seemed to have been gathered for this alone. Within it Alphonsus discerned a legion of demons insulting him, because with God's permission they would avenge in the vineyard the distrust of the rector, too anxious in a great dearness of provisions about feeding his men, although otherwise his virtue was not common. So far is it of importance to the divine goodness that we should confidently be in its care, and think of it in goodness! This Alphonsus indicated to John Torres, director of ours in spiritual things at Majorca. A priest of the Society narrated that it had been said to him by Alphonsus, even when seven years old, that he would succeed his uncle, already old, in the Society. Eight years had flowed by when God breathed that impulse on him as a youth. To him as he entered the college, in order to communicate to the rector what he kept pressed alone within his mind, Alphonsus as if reading his soul said: "How much more advisedly you have done than your brothers, deciding to follow Christ crucified;" and with a little more he spurred him on as he ran, adding that all things, with God's help, would turn out prosperously for him. The youth admitted that what he had disclosed to no one he was astounded could be known by him, and for this he sought his prayers. A cleric was bringing to Alphonsus a greeting from his very close likeness and familiar, Vincent Mas the Carthusian. Forestalling him Alphonsus said: "What does our Vincent command?" The cleric, wondering, said: "But who told you that I had seen Vincent, and bring a greeting from him?" At which he, smiling, as he was accustomed in such things, turned the conversation elsewhere ^f. I pass over things shown him under various images, which can also be variously explained, as of the sharp and long struggle in dreams with the demon, before he gave himself to the Society, and the sweet and stable victory after the struggle, with flowers, the whiteness of a coverlet, and other emblems suited to signifying the progress of his life; of the most monstrous beast in the kingdom of Granada and a church of the Virgin ^g, profaning the holy altar by using it as a manger, similarly shown to him sleeping, when on the day before he had earnestly supplicated God for the Church of Spain.

[124] indeed his own future glory. I complete what looks to this subject with an outstanding vision which God showed him when he was already old, tried, tested, and exceedingly skilled in recognizing divine voices, a year before his death. For as he prayed in his chamber, he unfolded before him the island of Majorca and its parts, and each of the places that could be seen in any way * within many months and with idle eyes; and he said: "Look diligently at this circuit of land: this is the theater of your praises after death. You will be celebrated through the whole world, and you will be asked for help by the vows of innumerable men; because for your sake I will give them this with frequent miracle." To which Alphonsus, as if guilty of a great crime, suffused with blushing, said: "To me, Lord, these things, so vile, so worthless, so deeply buried in nothingness, to me this fame, these honors? I who have nothing from myself but misery and fault: yours are the other things, if there are any; to you all glory, and perfect service to your most holy will in all things which you deign to intimate." Further, with how great a magnificence the all-powerful and excellent Lord fulfilled the faith of this so great promise, the next chapter will in part narrate ^h.

ANNOTATIONS.

compelling him, narrates how he also rescued John from other dangers: whom namely he had divinely known would be seized by the Turks, if he boarded the ship as he was thinking. But he commended him in particular to the Virgin Mary, and it came about that the Father's departure was deferred. And the ship, as he had foreseen, was captured Summarium, pages 63 and 177. Colin, folio 91 and following..

* perhaps sollicitudinis

* cumque in the edition.

CHAPTER FOUR.

Of the things which God wonderfully wrought exteriorly through Alphonsus.

Bl. Alphonsus brings help to his clients in peril of liberty, Bartholomew Collado of Majorca, doctor of law, was returning to his homeland from Catalonia; and overtaken by a great Turkish ship, armed and crowded, so near that he already heard the Turks speaking, he bent his knee with the few companions who were present, invoked the saints, and among them Alphonsus still alive, and set forth his merits to God. Whence, enriched with great hope, he saw a dense cloud suddenly rise: which so covered the vessel that, passing the Turks concealed and safe, it came out safe to Majorca.

[126] in a fall Hieronyma Suñer had been thrown to the ground by the sudden terror of a coach coming upon her from behind. As she fell, calling on Alphonsus, from whose tomb she was coming, she said: "Help me. This fall cannot be deadly to me, since today I have entrusted myself to you;" and he plainly helped, and animated her by the sight of himself. The coach therefore having been driven over her, when she was thought crushed and dead, she was lifted up well in every part, affirming that she had been preserved by Alphonsus, in whose chapel she had been present that day at three Masses. This is noted to have happened in the year one thousand six hundred and twenty, on the twenty-first of January.

[127] in a grave And in the month of December of the previous year, on the thirteenth day, Balthasar Puigdorfila falling from a high place, his mother, since she could do nothing else, commended to Alphonsus; and he who was falling headlong struck not his head, as the character of the fall required, but, his head being turned upward, another part of his body, and that so harmlessly that his mother, running up, carried him off unharmed.

[128] after receiving a deadly wound, John Veri ^b, a nobleman of Majorca, was shot at with a firearm by a fugitive slave whom he was seeking, and the physicians affirmed that the wound received in the arm was mortal. The sick man asked that Alphonsus be sent to him, hoping that health would be procured for him by him, and, soon rejoicing that he had arrived, he pressed him to sign the wound with his hand drawn in a cross, and, seizing his hand as he vehemently refused, he himself applied it to the wound. Thereupon the pain lessened, the arm now moved, his confidence increased, and when the same hand was applied again health returned. Which Alphonsus, on departing, truly confirmed to John would shortly be perfected.

[129] in a difficult childbirth. A woman in labor amid great pains and greater danger had a surgeon present, who, as soon as the mother had expired, was to cut her and take out the infant for baptism. Alphonsus was present with a priest of ours, and his charity felt with no unequal pain the savage torments of the wretched woman and the peril of the fetus. Returning home, he hid himself in his chamber, and conceived inflamed prayers for both. The woman meanwhile was delivered by so easy a birth that, four days after, Alphonsus, passing by, saw her occupied in spinning with other women. Yet what follows is more wonderful ^c.

[130] On invocation of the blessed man there are delivered a dying boy, Peter Morant lay ill of smallpox, which that year brought certain death, and, now on the seventh day with closed eyes and sleepless, he was given up by the physicians. The boy's mother asked of the rector of the college, who was visiting her for the sake of consolation, something of the things which had been in the use of Alphonsus, and she extorted it at length for this reason, that she was persuaded that her son's life turned on it. A linen little cap being therefore sent, she ran up and placed it on his head, saying that she was bringing him health. Wonderful to tell, the boy at that same moment lifted himself up, and, crying out twice: "Brother Alphonsus, Brother Alphonsus," asked for his clothes, asserted that he was well, and plainly he was well then and there, the physicians being astounded.

[131] a pregnant woman, Margaret Puigcervera, given up by the physicians because of a fetus lying transversely now for ten days, the household hoped might be helped by the relics of Alphonsus. A Father being therefore called from the college, he had scarcely applied them to her when, the fetus dead for three days having been expelled, the mother gradually recovered.

[132] a newborn girl, The newborn daughter of Catherine Ferrer a disease arising on the tongue had kept from milk now for six days, and the physicians saw no remedy. A vow having therefore been uttered by the mother of going to the tomb of Alphonsus for a novena, the infant, restored to milk and sleep, was well thereafter ^d.

[133] a woman unable to bring forth, To the wife of Hyacinth Aulexius, a nobleman, in danger with her fetus, a friendly priest applied a piece from the shirt of Alphonsus, and, as he had given hope, delivered her; and the mother was wholly preserved, and the offspring had life only so far as to be cleansed at the sacred font.

[134] a deaf woman, Catherine Comes, deaf from illness, was distressed above all that she could not hear preachers. In that sorrow, falling at the tomb of the venerable Alphonsus, and turned toward a neighboring picture of the Virgin mother, she said: "Queen of heaven and earth, who have given to your client the health of so many men, give him, I beseech, mine also, and free me from this deafness. I, mindful of so great a benefit, will piously venerate his tomb for nine days." Upon this she carried herself back home, not doubting of the grace obtained, and by the now glad words of her household she perceived that she had been thoroughly healed.

[135] Antonina Blanquera, seized with a flow of blood, To Antonina Blanquezia ^e, exhausted by a flow of blood, the physicians had pronounced her last, and had ordered the sacraments to be summoned, by which she might be prepared for death. Antony Torres, who was accustomed to hear her confession, came when called, but by the persuasion of a good angel bringing with him a piece of the shirt of Alphonsus, with certain confidence of health to come from him; and likewise he ordered the sick woman's familiars to trust confidently. He heard her confession as he could, and when he had placed the relics of Alphonsus in her hand, she was at once flooded with so pleasant a gladness of soul and body that she could scarcely contain it: the blood stopped, the paroxysms stopped: "Jesus, she said, I am healthy." When this was attributed to delirium: "Indeed, she said, I am in my senses and well, if ever before." She confessed, and on the next following day, refreshed by the sacred mysteries in our church, she gratefully supplicated the venerable man. And on the night after, she saw that Brother * in a dream with the most august mother of God, from which she took immense delight in soul.

[136] Anna Compagn, disabled in her arm, Anna Campania, daughter of Bartholomew, was tortured for the eighth month now in her left arm, and all remedies had brought no remedy or relief, when *, about to seek it from the tomb of Alphonsus, she threw a cloth on it, and having taken this back after a long enough prayer, on returning home she wrapped her arm in it. Whence at once its motion, and the driving out of the torment, and gradually, with no further medicine, health ^f.

[137] a dying little girl, To the little daughter of Michael Trobat dying in a village the little cap of Alphonsus, lent by Catherine Fiol, most observant of the excellent old man, brought forth sudden health ^g.

[138] a scrofulous youth, A youth from our schools, dear to Alphonsus for his virtue, had his neck very badly affected by scrofula. Hoping for medicine for this in France, he was twice thrown back to Majorca by contrary wind, and, the disease having been increased by that tossing, he met Alphonsus for the sake of consolation; who, moved by the young man's sorrow, forming a cross with his hand over his neck, healed him for ever, and dismissed him with silence imposed by him in vain.

[139] a nobleman in want of money, A certain nobleman, but destitute of means and counsel, narrated to Alphonsus his need and the straits of his family, not so much for the sake of seeking help as of relieving his sorrow. The old man warned him to trust in God, that the matter would be in his heart before God. And so it was that from that time he began to return to a better state, and in ways indeed plainly unexpected, and he even won a suit shortly after, from which thereafter he not so inconveniently supported his family according to his dignity.

[140] Michael Julian, tried by disease, Michael Julian, ruling the college of Majorca, was most sharply vexed by disease. He ordered the now decrepit Alphonsus, while he was being led by the keeper of the infirmary to Mass, to be brought in to him into his chamber in passing, and he asked him to beseech from the mother of God, through her unspotted Conception, health for him. Alphonsus promised, and spent the following night in praying. To whom the Virgin said: "I undertake the care of him for whom you ask, and he is being restored to health." On the next day Michael, healthy and well, celebrated the benefit ^h.

[141] Hieronyma Berard, a noblewoman, was exercised for a whole year by very troublesome pains from an overflow of humors, a noble sick woman remedies having been tried in vain. Piously applying to the torment a kerchief touched to the relics of Alphonsus, she recited the Pater and Ave three times; she had not yet finished when, an immense sweat suddenly breaking out over her whole body, it wholly and plainly freed her from pain. Which the physicians denied could be done except by miracle ⁱ.

[142] and her nephew, The same kerchief, placed on a boy of two years, her brother's son, restored him to health from a fever by which he was almost breathing out his soul. For his eyes being at once opened, he asked for food, which for many days he had taken none of, nor was he afterwards tried by fever.

[143] a woman laboring in the stomach, Petronilla Torres was held by a six months' trouble of a sick stomach. When the linen little cap of Alphonsus, extracted from a confessor with much importunity, had been applied to this, it was put to flight on the spot. Two years later the same little cap, applied by her mistress, restored her, placed out of herself by pain * of the head and fever, to sleep, to health, and to herself.

[144] another woman feverish, Anna Figuerol a malignant fever was dreadfully torturing in the head, when with assiduous sleeplessness and of food

loathing. After various medicines and the vein cut twice, she was advised by her sister to call Alphonsus to her help, some of whose benefits she narrated to her. Then indeed the woman, accusing her negligence, sent her son of six years ^k to the church, to recite the rosary to the Virgin at the tomb of Alphonsus. He went, returned, and handed to his mother the rosary medicated by contact with the tomb. She, piously applying it to her head, fell asleep, and awoke free of pain, and going on to beg of Alphonsus that he would complete the benefit begun for her, she saw him present with such an affluence of light that he seemed to have brought pure day into the darkness of night. She pressed her asking, that he would be touched with some compassion for her little children. To her Alphonsus, kindly assenting, went from her eyes; and she felt herself as well as if she had never been sick before.

[145] a boy of twelve with a flow of blood Paul Vidal, twelve years old, was being exhausted of strength, and almost of life, by an abundance of blood broken from his nose. To him Leonora Valencia, a noblewoman, since the physicians were accomplishing little, applied a small piece from the shirt of Alphonsus: by which the blood was checked, and from this such confidence in the boy, that when his nose dripped a few drops after some days, he implored the same hand, with so propitious a success that he never in future labored under that eruption.

[146] and seized by fever, The same boy experienced medicine from the small piece of the shirt in a malignant fever; for by this at once sleep, and afterwards health, was procured for him.

[147] a woman suffering from an abscess, Antonina Colomer, having suffered for two years a certain carbuncle and foul abscesses, was helped by no medicines. Wherefore a vow having been uttered of venerating the tomb of Alphonsus for some days, she began to be healed, and while she gradually satisfied the vow, so gradually she plainly recovered.

[148] another after swallowing a leech in drinking, Isabella Puigcervera, from a leech swallowed in drinking, was gnawed and maddened by torments so atrocious and so long, that she was duly absolved by a priest as now on the point of dying. Here her mother, wailing, said: "O holy and blessed Brother, why do you desert me in so great mourning, why, so often called, do you not hear? I promise that I will spend Fridays on bread and water alone, if my wish is granted." Upon this Isabella, casting out the leech from her mouth, and hurrying from her bed, went back well to her household service.

[149] a three-year-old infant, Gabriel Vasquer, three-year-old son of Bernard, sick, went from bad to worse under various remedies. So his mother Joanna Catalana, her eyes raised to heaven, said: "To you this glory is owed, Alphonsus, holy Brother; thus far having trusted in physicians, now I place all hopes in you, I will show a novena of veneration at your tomb, I will have a Mass offered for you there, and I will dedicate a votive tablet as an offering for the benefit." Not yet had she finished the vow with her mouth, and she was enjoying the vow. For while she was thus praying, the boy was made wholly healthy, and smiling at his mother, what he could not do with his tongue he signified with his countenance; and the strangeness of the thing was increased by the fact that, when his mother asked who had healed him, he answered stammering: "Brother Alphonsus Rodriguez has restored health to me."

[150] and women in childbirth. A decrepit old man ^l, fixed almost perpetually to his bed, was often visited by Father Michael Males, his kinsman, and because he was near the college, he used Alphonsus as companion for the most part; the esteem and veneration of whose virtue among the pious family brought it about that no one besides dared to use that chair in which he had been accustomed to sit, as long as the priest dealt with the sick man. But it happened that in the house a woman who had formerly experienced difficult and dangerous births hoped that this would be happy for her. About to give birth therefore she sat down in it, and suddenly delivered of an easy fetus, she gave cause that the fame of the thing, with the chair itself, spread from there through the whole city, with most favorable success in many births. Certainly for one woman seven sons had already perished amid most bitter pains of giving birth, who in that chair suddenly brought forth one safe, she herself safe and well.

[151] The garments of the blessed man are pleasantly fragrant. I shall seem perhaps to say many things, since wonderfulness is lessened by multitude; yet I omit many, and I briefly conclude this chapter with this one only. An honest and pious woman was washing the college's linen with two daughters. As they were intent on the work there blew on them from the linen an unusual fragrance of odor. While more curiously examining its origin in each piece of linen separately, they noticed that it breathed forth from one shirt only and from a linen little cap, which, set apart from the others, they then found had been Alphonsus's; and from that time they distinguished his linen by the odor, in all the three years in which he survived.

ANNOTATIONS.

* Fratri in the edition.

* quam in the edition.

* dolor in the edition.

CHAPTER FIVE.

Of the things which God wonderfully wrought interiorly and in souls through Alphonsus.

At the prayer of Bl. Alphonsus many are freed from temptations, These things, among sensible judges of great matters, are so much greater than bodily ones as they look to a better life. Among them let the first be concerning a certain man miserably tossed by a very troublesome temptation. For Alphonsus, moved by his sadness, prayed God as a suppliant that it be transferred to himself, and he understood that in his place he would have to get through a trouble in no way milder. And so he was torn for many days by a most acute pain of the stomach, but that man was wholly freed, for whom he had asked quiet from God. A priest of ours called to a sick man found him so deranged of judgment concerning his salvation that he was believed to be driven by a demon ^a. Alphonsus, the priest's companion, withdrawing into a corner, asked with tears from God light and penance for the unhappy man: whence, changed into another, and committing himself wholly to the Father, he purged his soul by sacred confession.

[153] likewise a certain village from discords, A rich village in Majorca was being ruined by mutual factions and homicides , nor did the fear or authority of magistrates avail among them, since the guilty protected themselves by the steep of a mountain, impassable to royal ministers and officers. What the viceroy believed alone remained, he committed that province to two of ours, that they might tame the ferocity of the people by the command of the divine word. But they, knowing the difficulties which no one thus far had been able to struggle through, easily obtained from the rector by entreaty that the business be committed to the great favor of Alphonsus with God and the Virgin. Alphonsus applied himself seriously to prayers, set forth the calamity of those souls to the Lord, and employed the mother of God as patroness for winning the cause: when behold, the two Fathers having meanwhile set out to the convulsed and torn people, now nothing fierce, nothing unbending and intractable, indeed nothing private met them: all things were mild, inclined, compliant, and obedient to the common good, to public concord, each one's private reasons set aside ^b. Of which matters the Fathers were elected by common consent arbiters and hence judges, dispensers, and lords with supreme power: and that for the future all fibers of the old dissension might be cut off, a good old man, the parent of both, went to summon two youths, who were fleeing the search of the lictors among the rocks of the crags. To him, after he had gone through the hidden places of the mountains in fruitless wandering, a boy with a hasty and eager face, meeting him, asked what he was seeking there, and when he turned the question elsewhere, because he suspected that it had been thrown out for exploring the hiding places of his sons, the boy added: "You are seeking your sons, go on there into the next place," and he indicated the place where he would find them, and immediately vanished from his eyes. The old man therefore, having led them back to the village, brought it about that they too should return into favor with God, the king, and the people: and since at the beginning the Virgin had given Alphonsus her word that what he so greatly desired would be accomplished, she opened to him the matter completed and the day and hour of the peace ratified, and ordered him to be without fear.

[154] a leading man from sadness and illness, On another occasion a man of leading condition met the servant of God, for relief of the immense sadness which pressed his mind, and of the illness with which his body was seized. Grieving with the grieving man, he revived him with good hope, and, having raised him by good admonitions, promised that he would commend him to God. While he did this with his accustomed ardor, he was refreshed three times by the Lord with the desired answer, namely that medicine had been made for that evil, and that it was wholly healed: which he himself learned a little later from the same man, grateful and cheerful.

[155] others from neglect of eternal salvation, A certain old woman of eighty ^c was held by an incredible and hardened neglect of her salvation. Neither her virgin daughters, nor religious men called to the house accomplished anything, until, a vow of visiting the tomb of Alphonsus for eight days having been conceived and fulfilled, the pious virgins wondered at their mother tranquil, and desiring that a priest of ours be summoned. Before him the burden of her conscience having been laid down with much sorrow of soul, in the remaining months in which she survived she frequented sacred confession every eighth day. Not unlike this is the matter of a most shameful man, whose wife delayed to seek help from Alphonsus, fearing lest his shameful deeds be stronger than her prayers. But sometime, having entered our church, and the place itself giving courage, she implored the servant of God to be propitious to her husband. Returning home from there, she saw him (what he had never done before) turning a rosary in his hand; she brought in some talk about God, with a docile enough hearer. In short, a little later the wretched man went to the college, and with a great and not empty desire for a Christian life in future, purged his mind by sacred confession.

[156] or from other great dangers. A younger widow, demanding back moneys owed by a nobleman, a most wicked man tried to ravish. She, seeing no escape, uttered a novena vow to the tomb of Alphonsus; and soon a cleric, knocking at the door, compelled the most impure man against his will to open it. Thus, free and victorious, her chastity flew to the tomb of the man of God. One of our Brothers, hearing Alphonsus assiduously praising the treasures of adversities, and saying that it could not be that the upright should be wholly without them, said: "But I do not grasp these things, and I am held indeed by a great zeal for pleasing God, but I feel nothing that gives me trouble. The very necessity of obeying, and the course of religious discipline, which tires some, bring me no labor." "Well, said Alphonsus, do not grieve for that reason: there will be a time when they will bring it, and it will be not long after." Nor indeed did he wait long, when he was tossed by such troubles of body and soul that he greatly needed the strongest patience, by impure burnings moreover day and night so stubborn that they were calmed by no prayer. Alphonsus therefore having departed from life, whom when sick he had long served, being implored in aid, he girded on a rope which he had quite often seen in his hands, and by this as by an eternal bond he seemed to have restrained the temptations, and he was afterwards immune from them.

[157] The image of the blessed man is exposed, the bishop assenting. When this so manifold and so great liberality of God toward men had been obtained and poured out by the commendations of Alphonsus, their piety toward him was vehemently increased, and, ours being timid and unwilling in a matter of so great weight, Peter Onofre and Jerome Descallar, doctors, canons, with the assent of the most illustrious Simon Bauzá, bishop of Majorca, hung his picture at his tomb ^d. This the divine goodness adorned with many wonders and votive offerings. All these things moreover, consigned by public authorities, were transmitted to Rome with letters of the Catholic king, the viceroy, and the bishop; in which they supplicate the supreme pontiff that he deign, for the glory of God and the increase of Christian virtue among the peoples, to inscribe Alphonsus in the number of the blessed. To whom I venerably devote and dedicate this little work of mine, such as it is, for obtaining a purged death and a tranquil virtue, praying that it be not imputed to me as a fault, if I wear down his wonderful life by my talent or refute it by unlike ways of living.

ANNOTATIONS.

* homicida in the edition.

* domarint in the edition.

SUPPLEMENT OF THE MIRACLES OF BL. ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ

from the Process of beatification and from other reports, manuscript and printed.

Alphonsus Rodriguez, temporal coadjutor of the Society of Jesus, on the island of Majorca. (Bl.)

BY R. D. B.

§ I. Wonderful works wrought while Bl. Alphonsus was still alive.

Bl. Alphonsus, whose benefits many have committed to writing, The benefits which, at the entreaty of Bl. Alphonsus, God conferred on men, and many of which seem to be held for true miracles, we cannot by any means go through one by one. For between the years 1617 and 1620 it happened more than a hundred times that, by the use of his rosary, of a small cloth which had been applied to the face of the dead man, or of other relics, childbirths were wonderfully helped Colin, folio 131.. Nor is there almost any kind of disease from which the most kind patron did not free his clients Compare Ant. Boissieu, Vie du vén. Alphonse, page 539 and following.. Which both many other things demonstrate, and the innumerable votive tablets exposed in his honor [Compare Resp. ad animadv. super dubio de miraculis, page 1. Summarium de virtutibus, page 143 and following.]. Of so many wonderful works, wrought while Bl. Alphonsus was alive or when he was already dead, we shall set forth in this place some which do not occur in the book of Father Janin, following especially the Acts of beatification, the writings of Fathers Marimon and Colin, and the narrations of other grave witnesses. There exists in manuscript codex 8927 of the royal library of Brussels a Spanish report, with this title: Miracles of Bl. Alphonsus Rodriguez. Miracles which have most recently been brought to the lord bishop of Majorca (in the year 1618) and approved by the most illustrious prelate. They were copied by James Sala from a letter which, as he had promised Compare above, page 604., the rector of the college of Majorca, Fr. Michael Julian, gave. There are narrated there the healings of Father Julian himself, of Antonina Blanquera, of Anna Figuerol (compare above Janin, Life of Bl. Alphonsus, book III, chapter IV), and in addition of a certain nun suffering from cancer, whom we do not see mentioned elsewhere. In a Flemish writing of the XVIIth century which is shown by manuscript codex 18885 of the same library there appear four wonderful events which took place immediately after his death; then the healing of Antonina Blanquera, of Anna Figuerol (compare Janin, book I, chapter IX, book III, chapter IV), and of a woman suffering in the breast. The same cases are narrated in a Latin manuscript report of the XVIIth century, which is contained in codex 8927 of the Brussels library. There we read besides: The miracles which we have here recounted have been confirmed by many proofs and sworn witnesses…

[2] while still alive he heals a man with fever, Let us take our beginning from those prodigies which are reported to have been wrought in the city of Majorca while the servant of God was alive. Gabriel Montener, priest and rector of the parish of St. Eulalia, testified this in the Majorcan process: I remember a certain N. Colomer who, while he was very sick and I had ministered to him the most holy Viaticum, a little later raised himself from bed, burdened with an immense fever and intolerable thirst; and in this manner he betook himself to the porter's lodge… of the college, and asked of the said Brother for the love of charity that he give him a little water with his own hand, because at home the sick man's people would not give him to drink; and the said Brother, giving the sick man water, had said to him: "Bend your knees and pray to the Blessed Virgin, and drink." All which he had done and had drunk, as far as he could, and in an instant he had risen healthy and without fever. And that same Colomer reported this to me, and I reckon that this is a true miracle. The healed man himself, confirming these things on oath, adds that they took place in the year 1600 [Summarium super dubio de virtutibus, page 24 and following. Compare Nieremberg, Claros varones de la Comp. de Jesus, page 662.].

[3] he draws water in a prodigious manner; Another wonderful thing Bl. Alphonsus discloses in an Account of conscience: It happened to this person that when a certain sick man needed cold water, and there was in a certain very deep well a certain earthen vessel for the purpose of cooling the water, … this person did not wish to draw water, thinking that the aforesaid sick man (for he was not lying in bed, but was a convalescent) could … draw the aforesaid vessel from the well. Nevertheless that person conquered his repugnance, and went, and drew out the vessel of water. God permitted that the wood came out (tied to the rope by which the vessel was to be drawn back), so that the vessel could neither be drawn out, but remained * in the well. Yet God wished to console the sick man, because it came out as if through the air, without being tied, although it was of great weight; and it came all the way up, so that this person could take it by hand. For the well was very deep, which is the well existing in the hen-yard of the college of Majorca Summarium, page 177 and following..

[4] he repels famine; In the year 1613, as the Majorcan historian Jerome de Alemany sets forth at length Compare Furió y Sastre, Vida del B. Alonso, page 163 and following., the island was brought to an extreme want of crops, and a yet graver famine was feared for the following year. Already some inhabitants had emigrated; the rest for the most part fed on vile and sordid foods; indeed not a few perished consumed by hunger. To repel so great an evil, public supplications were instituted in honor of God and the saints. But when the scarcity of provisions nonetheless grew heavier, the director of the college set before Bl. Alphonsus the straits of the citizens, and commanded him to go to the Lord in prayer. Seized by mercy, the pious old man prayed and groaned day and night, until it was said to him by God: "Do not give yourself to anguish, Alphonsus: what is necessary for life will be at hand, although labors will not be lacking." That the Lord stood by his promises was soon clear from the singular manner in which supply was furnished. For from other regions grain was brought so opportunely that when it had begun to fail in the island, a ship would enter the harbor with two or three weeks' food: to this then other cargo ships succeeded. By which it came about that the Majorcans were not brought to the extreme peril which they feared. Besides, beyond the opinion of all, there was an excellent harvest in the following year and so outstanding a grain supply that, holding this for a prodigy, the inhabitants gave thanks to heaven with processions and festive days. Many ascribed the benefit to the holy Brother; whose fame and veneration then spread widely Ibid. Colin, folio 83 and following..

[5] he heals an infant Bartholomew Frias, two years old, laboring most gravely with fever, his mother carried to the holy doorkeeper of the college, to ask help again and again. At length wearied by her prayers, and informed that this was the woman's only little son: "Be of good courage, said Alphonsus, the infant will not die." When at the same time he had impressed on him the sign of the cross, the fever at once ceased [Colin, Vida del ven. Alonso, folio 98. Compare Furió y Sastre, Vida del B. Alonso, page 195.].

[6] and helps twice the rector of the college. Father John Torrens, a man eminently learned and religious, swore that at the entreaty of the servant of God he received two singular benefits from the Lord. Namely when because of infirmity he could not perform the same things as the other inhabitants of the house, and took this most ill, especially at the time when he presided over the college of Monte Sion, Bl. Alphonsus by his prayers obtained for him as much strength as was necessary for keeping the common manner of living. The same man, a few days before the time of Lent, during which he had thought to speak on divine things, was seized by a pain of the head and most burning fever, which seemed both likely to last long and to prevent the Father from sacred sermons. The holy Brother, informed of the matter, prayed God; and he had scarcely begun, when a deep sleep overwhelmed the sick man. Roused from which at length, he suffered now nothing of fever, nothing of pain. The physician, astounded, yet wished to keep Father Torrens in bed. But he, having experienced that he had not been healed by human art, rose, offered Mass; he preached for forty days, and thereafter got through other labors Colin, folio 99 and following..

[7] A sick woman is healed By the use of a certain girdle of Bl. Alphonsus, which she had obtained with difficulty, Joanna Font y Moranta was freed from pains of the shoulders and loins, and she asserted that others had recovered in the same way Ibid., folio 100..

[8] and an asthmatic priest. James Bastard, a priest, beneficiary of the principal church of Majorca, was asthmatic and was burned up by fever. When at length, remedies having been applied in vain, he had obtained a certain little cap which Bl. Alphonsus had used for some time, he fitted it on his head late in the evening with confident mind, and at the same time vowed that he would celebrate Mass in the church of the Society of Jesus, if he were recovered from the illness. Soon he slept so deeply that the household, detecting no cough and no motion, believed him dead. But he rose wholly healthy, and to fulfill his vow went to the college, he who before could scarcely walk on foot Ibid..

* remanere in the edition.

§ II. Benefits obtained from God at the intercession of Bl. Alphonsus, when already dead, but not yet entered in the number of the blessed.

A nun suffering from cancer recovers, In a certain great monastery of Majorca a nun was wasting away from day to day, whose breast was seized by cancer. When this was restored by no treatment, the physicians warned the sick woman to prepare herself for death, which was believed to be not far off. Thus despaired of, the virgin commended herself with the highest confidence to Bl. Alphonsus. As soon as she did this, she was made healthy, and she now detected in herself no trace of cancer, as if she had never labored under this evil Royal library of Brussels, manuscript codex 8927.. The author of the Spanish report from which we have excerpted the narrative adds that this is one of the miracles which were brought to the bishop of Majorca, and which being approved, the likeness of the holy Brother was hung at the tomb.

[10] and a ruptured infant. Gabriel Genouard, an infant of seven months, son of Gabriel Genouard and Maria Anna Avolos, tortured by a horrible hernia, touched by a small cloth which had been applied to the body of the venerable servant of God exposed in the sacred edifice, at once came out perfectly healthy [Summarium, page 147. Compare Marimon, page 1059. Colin, folio 126. Arcangelo Arcangeli, Vita de ven. Alfonso, page 249 and following, Rome 1761.], as many witnesses confirmed from sight. This happened before the year 1621.

[11] By the use of relics of Bl. Alphonsus many sick are delivered, Gabriel Berga, laboring under a very grave infirmity, was healed by the application of a small handkerchief of the venerable servant of God Summarium, page 148.. Paul Avila, an infant, from a fall and a great contusion of the head remained almost dead, so that he could not even utter a cry. But a candle having been lit by his mother (Anna Blanca y Avila) at the tomb of the venerable servant of God, on returning home she found, wondering, her little son healthy and playing with his brother Summarium, page 148 and following. Compare Colin, folio 132.. The father and the surgeon report from sight, … the said boy's grandmother from sight.

[12] a man with the stone, Francis Gapo was dreadfully vexed by the disease of gravel, or stone. But when he applied to himself a girdle of the measure of the body of the venerable servant of God, at once the pains ceased, and for the future

he suffered no such disease any more Ibid., page 149..

[13] a woman in childbirth, Margaret Compagno, in a most laborious childbirth, was brought almost to death, because the fetus had put forth only an arm, black and swollen, without the other parts of the fetus being able to come out to the light for about twelve hours Summarium, page 149.; hence at the order of the physicians she was anointed at least with extreme unction (for she had finally lost speech too), and was deplored by all as now very near death. Destitute … of human aids, she herself from the beginning, and then her husband and others of the household, took refuge in Bl. Alphonsus; and they took care that a relic of him be brought home as quickly as possible from the college of the Society of Jesus through Father Fiol. When it had been brought, and the antiphon Salve Regina had been reverently recited by all on bended knees, and the intercession of the venerable Alphonsus implored, scarcely had the relic been applied to the body of the woman in labor when at once and in an instant she brought forth the dead fetus, and she herself came out free from the impending and inevitable danger of death [Informatio super dubio de miraculis, page 14. Compare John Lapi, Dissertatio super miraculo tertio, page 40.]. The fact was narrated, besides many eyewitnesses, by Margaret herself, wife of Bartholomew Compagno, carpenter, of the city of Majorca, on the 12th day of the month of April, in the year from the Nativity of the Lord 1619; and she refers it to the first Saturday of Lent just past Dicta testium super miraculo tertio, page 35., that is, to the 16th day of February of the year 1619. We have already said before that this miracle too was approved for the beatification Compare Philip del Pace, Compendio della vita del B. Alfonso, page 69..

[14] another suffering in the breast. Another woman, tortured for two whole months by sharp pains of one breast, distended with swelling, and hardened as if it had grown callous, when she had tried human remedies to no purpose, at last turned her mind to the entreaty of Alphonsus, since splendid proofs of certain hope were at hand in others. She applied to the breast a piece of his cloak which she had obtained, and she crowned her piety with the Lord's Prayer. Nor was that expectation of hers frustrated. The blessed Brother was even readier in bringing help than the woman had shown herself in entreating. For she had not yet completed the prayer, when the swelling was seen to subside, and the ulcer having been torn open, to flow with pus on the ground. Here anxiety was increased, lest the whole breast, rotted inwardly, be dissolved by a similar plague; but by that care the miracle too was increased, and by the miracle the joy. After two days both edges of the ulcer closed, so that marks remained as witnesses of the miracle, none of pain. What of the fact that, having run with corruption for two days, on the third day it began to flow with milk? Thus mother and offspring alike were rescued from danger, the former of death, the latter of hunger. With this narrative, copied from the Brussels manuscript 8927, agrees the Flemish report shown by codex 18885. Further that mother, Francisca Alamanis, wife of Antony Ginard [Colin, Vida del B. Alonso, folio 129. Summarium super dubio de virtutibus, page 149.], seems to be the same as the woman who, Janin says, at first despised the help of Bl. Alphonsus, but then, the torment growing fiercer, suppliantly implored it Book I, chapter IX..

[15] A merchant is healed, having seen the servant of God; When he was near death, Peter Mulet, a merchant, who, thirty years before, applying himself to studies in the college of Monte Sion at Majorca, had treated Bl. Alphonsus with great love, received a small piece of his garments and, wearing it, fell asleep. The servant of God, appearing to him in sleep, restored him to health, and at the same time recalled to his memory a certain devotion to the Blessed Virgin which he had once taught him Colin, folio 129..

[16] a leading man, a vow being made; When William Abrin Dezcallar, one of the leading men of Majorca, was mortally sick, his wife with one of her kinswomen vowed to Bl. Alphonsus novena prayers, a Mass, and a votive offering to be fixed at the tomb. As soon as they placed on the sick man a linen little cap which the holy man had used, behold, he drew his eyes down, ate, took rest, and the physicians pronounced him healed. Besides, the daughter of the same William, at the entreaty of the servant of God, obtained a certain miracle Ibid., folio 132..

[17] a sick young man, a votive offering being promised; The elder son of Gabriel Ferragud, a citizen of Majorca, was vehemently laboring in the side and stomach. He together with his mother and his brother the canon promised that they would visit the tomb of Bl. Alphonsus: where they would offer a gift of silver, and would have a Mass celebrated, if the sick man should recover. Soon they obtained their wish. A little later, the sister of the healed young man, seized by fever and vomiting, the same vow being uttered, was delivered Ibid., folio 132 and following..

[18] a ruptured infant, before the year 1628, Antonia Pisa in a most dangerous childbirth experienced wonderful and sudden help by a small handkerchief of the venerable servant of God Ibid.. Raphael Villanova, son of John Villanova and Francisca Gil, a boy of four years, had contracted a horrible hernia from birth, and by invocation of the venerable servant of God, and by his appearing to him, at once came out healthy, without any trace of the immense disease Ibid.: which healing is to be referred to the year 1627 Compare Arcangelo Arcangeli, Vita del ven. Alfonso, page 263 and following.. And of those which have been recounted above, the miracles of Gabriel Berga, Paul Avila, Francis Gapo, Francisca Alamanis y Ginard, Anna Balester, Eulalia Vilary, Antonia Pisa, and Raphael Villanova certainly took place before the year 1628, as being mentioned in the apostolic process of Majorca constructed in the year 1627. Where too it may be seen by how many witnesses, and those eyewitnesses, most of these narrations are supported.

[19] and another sick man, Bl. Alphonsus appearing; In the annals of the college of Majorca it is read at the year 1623 that a certain sick man, deserted by the physicians and already fortified with the holy oil, asked for a small particle of the relics of Bl. Alphonsus: that on the following night he appeared to him, together with the Mother of God and St. Ignatius; and that the most blessed Virgin said: "Fear nothing, son: I am here to help you." From which the sick man began to be restored, the physician asserting that the healing was to be attributed to miracle Antoine Boissieu, Vie du vén. Frère Alph. Rodriguez, page 538..

[20] women burned up with fever In the year 1623 a certain physician testified by a public instrument that his mother, sisters, and cousin, burned up with fever and raving, recovered as soon as they received relics of Bl. Alphonsus Boissieu, page 539.. The scribe of the Majorcan inquisitor was freed from a vehement pain of the eyes as soon as he placed the little cap of the holy man on his head Ibid..

[21] and a matron laboring in the hand. Another healing is narrated by Fr. Julius Cordara in the History of the Society of Jesus, at the year 1631: The whole Balearic island, but especially the chief city of the island, resounded with many and various miracles, by which the name of the venerable Brother Alphonsus Rodriguez was daily made illustrious; and from that more frequent gatherings were made daily to his tomb for the sake of seeking help. Of many it is well to add one in this place. The hand of a certain matron had swollen by an influx of noxious humor, with such a feeling of pain that she took no portion of rest. A surgeon cut the swelling with iron; but when no corruption flowed from it, he increased the pain by the wound, and did not mitigate it. Wherefore he prescribed I know not what fomentation, to be applied to the hurt hand; by which, if the deadly humor could not be driven out, at least the pain would be eased and the wound healed. But the woman, who had often employed fomentations of that kind with no success at all, preferred to employ certain leaves of laurel, which had once touched the body of the venerable Alphonsus. She therefore covered her hand with these and bound it with a band, and at the same time bound herself by a vow, if she should recover, to go for nine continuous days for the sake of praying to the tomb in which the servant of God lay. On the next day the surgeon returned, examined the hand with the band drawn back, and, detecting no trace of either wound or swelling, which he by no means hoped, cried out a miracle. And when he learned from the woman what those leaves were with which he found the hand wrapped, he affirmed the miracle the more certainly, because in those things there was by nature no virtue, either for healing wounds, or for dissipating swellings of that kind. The matron therefore, as in a matter by no means doubtful, bound by her vow, began at once to visit the tomb of the venerable man, and she deposed the whole matter as it had happened in testimony Historia Soc. Jesu, volume II, page 523, Rome 1869..

[22] He exercises command over demons. Nor in the Balearic islands alone were many wonderful things wrought. At Fortanete in Aragon, when a certain Father of the Society of Jesus was driving out a demon by exorcisms from the possessed body of a woman, he inserted into his breviary a paper, on which he had secretly inscribed the name of the venerable Brother. The devil, ordered to read the contents, and having long resisted, at length admitted that there had been written the name of Brother Alphonsus Rodriguez, who had died in Majorca with a reputation for holiness; a most devoted servant of the Virgin and adorned by her with many benefits. The priest added: "By his virtue therefore go out." The woman wept, and soon said that she was much relieved, and that six demons had fled from her because of the holy man's entreaty; to whom she desired to be commended again, that she might be wholly delivered Colin, folio 134..

[23] On his invocation captives are delivered, Two Majorcan merchants had been led into chains at Murcia, and although innocent, condemned to death. Yet the punishment was deferred, because they had appealed to the king. The wife of one of the captives, informed of this, vowed that she would go daily to the tomb of Bl. Alphonsus, until her husband was released from custody; and after his liberation she would have this shown in a painted tablet. A little later it happened at Murcia that the prisoners could easily take the keys of the prison, and, the door being opened unknown to all, flee safely. They attributed the benefit to the venerable Alphonsus, and fixed the promised picture at the tomb Ibid., folio 134 and following..

[24] and a sick woman is healed. The fame of the holy life and miracles of Alphonsus traveled through Flanders and the neighboring regions, since they were proclaimed everywhere by the prefect of Cambrai, Charles Coloma, his wife Margaret de Liedekerke, and their sons, of whom the elder, Antony and Charles, had had the holy man as tutor Ibid., folio 137.. The report flowed to the soldiers of the garrison stationed in the castle of Cambrai. When some on a certain day had read a manuscript report on the virtues and prodigies of the man of God, one of them narrated the miracles to his wife; who was laboring most vehemently and dangerously with an inflamed breast, and who had been helped by no aid of physicians. At her husband's exhortation, the woman bent her knees and earnestly begged health from Bl. Alphonsus. This done, the pain went away, and the breast was so restored that after four days milk could be offered to the infant Ibid., folio 134..

§ III. Miracles wrought after the beatification of the servant of God.

A priest at Aix, deserted by the physicians, is recovered from illness, At Aix in France, in the minor seminary of St. Louis, the feast of the beatification of Alphonsus was to be celebrated on the 19th day of January of the year 1826. There was living there at the time a priest, Louis Rondot, thirty years old, previously indeed affected with sharp troubles of the lungs, but then laboring under a most grave abscess and daily coughing up pus. For thirteen months he had been so dangerously sick that the physicians, first at Paris, then

at Aix, denied that he could be healed, and no treatment was now employed. Such being the case, on the 12th day of January of the year 1826, the rector of the seminary urged the sick man henceforth to place all hope in Bl. Alphonsus, a small particle of whose relics he gave him. Confident in soul, he vowed that he would write the Life of the servant of God, if by his help he were brought to health. On the 18th day of January, at night, he took himself to bed by the rector's counsel, and at once he was tossed by the surge of the disease for about three hours. But about midnight, although for three months he had been unable to take sleep lying in bed, he slept until the second hour of the morning. Awakened, he now felt no pain, and to the director, who had attended him all night, he said: "I am healed." Then he slept until the fourth hour. Then rising, he dressed himself and offered Mass in the church. For the rest of the day he did everything that the other inhabitants of the house did, and for about eight hours he remained in the church, although the cold was excessive. Being now firm in body and freed from his cough, in the evening he gave a sermon from the pulpit, and that with full voice. Authentic testimony of this prodigy was given, on the 23rd day of February of the year 1826, by the very well-known physician of Aix, Monsieur d'Astros. During all the time of Lent which followed, Father Rondot kept the fast and three times in the week spoke on divine things; and thereafter, although pressed by assiduous and great labors, he was in excellent health. Some time later, publishing in a printed book the life and miracles of his holy patron, he discharged his vow. And that the memory of the prodigy might remain for ever, a chapel sacred to Bl. Alphonsus was erected in the church of the minor seminary of Aix. Besides, a legitimately drawn report of the miracle, fortified by the testimonies of very many, was sent to Rome Vie du B. Alphonse Rodriguez, page 297 and following, edition of 1836..

[26] likewise a nun at Saumur, At Saumur, in the hospital, a certain nun, whose name was of St. Joseph, recovered by miracle at the beginning of the month of March of the year 1826. The sick virgin for two years had very often eaten raw vegetables and drunk vinegar: hence an inflammation of the bowels and soon a present danger to life. Besides, in the month of December of the year 1825, seized by a vehement fever, she used no other food than the pressed juice of fruits: and if perchance there was any sediment in this and she swallowed it, she was tortured in the intestines. As the disease grew graver, she was now sustained only by taking daily one spoonful of milk mixed with water. On the 3rd day of the month of March Messieurs Tochet and Gaulay, chief physician and surgeon of the hospitals of Saumur, testified in writing that the sick woman, while she was staying in the infirmary, was wasting away from day to day; that she could be in some way restored (if indeed any hope still remained) only by seeking a healthier air in the country; and that there was need of haste. She set out therefore to the country, but already on the 6th day of March she was brought back to the hospital, because she was near death and wished to breathe out her soul in the presence of the Sisters. On the next day novena prayers to Bl. Alphonsus were begun, and Sister St. Angela, who presided over the nuns, persuaded the dying virgin to creep into the choir of the church and to try to be present at Mass. She went, confident in soul, and, having received the Holy Eucharist, and having given thanks for half an hour, to the superior asking how she was she said: "Well; during Mass the fever went away." To the same exhorting her to try to eat something, she complied; she swallowed an egg, took food three times on this day, walked in the garden and through the house, with no hurt at all. On the next day and thereafter, although it was then the Lenten fast, she kept the common manner of living of the nuns. On the fourth day after she served food to the Sisters in the refectory, and through the whole following week she read a book at table with full voice. When on the 15th day of March she showed herself to the physicians, they were astounded, and although otherwise not too credulous, they said that three things indeed were required that an event be rightly called a miracle: namely a wholly certain disease, sudden healing, and constant health; that of the two former it was established; but that as to the third there was need of an interval that it could be determined. It can now be determined, said Louis Rondot, when in the year 1828 he was writing his book; for through two years the Sister's health persisted excellent Ibid., page 303 and following..

[27] a deaf weaver at Laval, When on the 30th day of October of the year 1826, at Laval, in the church of the Society of Jesus, the feast of the holy man was celebrated for the first time, and his painted image was placed for veneration, a weaver who for fourteen years had altogether and most certainly lacked the sense of hearing commended himself from his heart to the servant of God: behold, on returning home, he had plainly recovered the use of hearing. This, besides himself and his wife, was affirmed by nine eyewitnesses, as is clear from an instrument then drawn up. Besides, that weaver, who for many years had not taken part in the sacred mysteries, performed all the duties of a good Christian, from the time when he was so wonderfully healed Ibid., page 309 and following..

[28] a woman disabled in the arm, In the same city of Laval Petronilla Roux, wife of Michael Tarrière, a workman, was laboring under a defect of the body which physicians had many years before pronounced incurable: namely she was disabled in her left arm, the limb was numb, and the bone itself was infested with caries. Going to God in prayer she asked that, at the entreaty of Bl. Alphonsus, her arm be restored to her, by which she could procure a livelihood by labor. The Lord being thus implored, the wounds formed a scar, the arm was made flexible and so sound that the woman could use it for the hardest labors and for bearing very heavy loads. Of this healing, obtained about the year 1828, no fewer than a hundred witnesses could have been produced Ibid., page 310 and following..

[29] and many others; To these it is well to add what the Fathers of the Society of Jesus at Laval wrote in the year 1835: Nor does it console us a little besides, since with our own eyes we see here the piety and confidence of the people toward our Blessed Alphonsus glow and increase. Whom, given an altar in a chapel adjoining our church, the pious people do not cease to venerate with wax candles lit in his honor, and to invoke with perpetual novenas, and to court with thanks to be heaped up in return. For many benefits are daily owed to him, whether interior ones, of which the confessors themselves are aware, or also exterior ones, if not to be held for ascertained miracles, certainly most like to miracles. And especially for difficult childbirths he proves his most ready help, and his three relics, which we hold destined for the sick, almost always run about, all who are in any peril snatching them in turn, with hope never disappointed Litteræ annuæ Societatis Jesu in Gallia, 1814–1835, page 393..

[30] a feeble nun, Sister St. Luke, a nun in the monastery of St. Charles at Lyons, because she had long been disabled and numb in her extremities, could not move herself and was kept in bed. Three physicians were of opinion that the illness could not be removed. In the year 1826, unknown to all, the virgin venerated Bl. Alphonsus by novena prayers, and did not recover. On a certain day, while again, with the approval of the superior of the nuns, she was performing a sacred novena, she asked to be carried into the choir of the church. But, trying in vain to rise, she failed in body. A little later she tried anew, and behold she was healed. She went to the church, bent her knees, prayed, ran through the house; and from then on she has enjoyed so good and sound a health that she can excellently perform the laborious office of seamstress. The event was confirmed by all the inhabitants of that house; and to the report from which we have copied these things there is added the testimony of the physician: I, the undersigned, testify, as physician of the nuns of St. Charles, that the things narrated above are true. Lyons, on the 26th day of June 1826. Brette, physician. And this Louis Rondot narrated in the year 1828 Rondot, Vie du B. Alphonse, page 312 and following.. And in the year 1867 the general superior of the nuns of St. Charles wrote to us that Sister St. Luke was still in good health and, although advanced in age, was duly carrying out her office.

[31] and another nun at Antwerp, despaired of. In the year 1863 a wonderful benefit was bestowed on Sister Mary Alphonsus de Liguori, born at Antwerp; then in the thirty-seventh year of her age and for fifteen years now a nun of the Antwerp convent of Colettine Clarisses. Although from the time when she gave her name to the Order she had never been dangerously sick, yet she was repeatedly vexed by those pains of the stomach which seemed to the physician undoubted symptoms of a defect in the stomach; and this the more certainly because some years before the same man had treated the nun's father, laboring with a scirrhus in the gullet, of which he perished. When, at the beginning of the year 1863, the disease of Sister Mary de Liguori broke out, and when it grew graver daily, a most diligent treatment began to be employed. But it came to nothing. The sick woman wasted away more and more; she took no food, no drink without giving it back in vomiting; her strength failed more from day to day; and, the physician at length giving up all treatment and as it were despairing of her health, a present danger to life seemed to be at hand. Then they exhorted Sister de Liguori to commit herself by novena prayers to Bl. Alphonsus. After hesitating for a little as in a lost case, she nevertheless complied, and, because of her weakness, recited daily only one Pater and Ave. Behold, she who on the eighth day of this sacred novena still seemed the image of a breathing corpse, sustained only by a little water, and shortly to be strengthened by the aids of the dying, on the following morning, Saturday the 5th day of December, as she received the Holy Eucharist lying in bed, said that she was healed; at the ninth hour she leaped from her bed and hastened into the choir of the church, to be present at the offices; then she took food and soon followed the common manner of living of the Sisters, wholly healthy and robust. The matter having been examined, the physician pronounced that this sudden and constant healing could be attributed neither to art nor to nature, and was greater than human powers. An inquiry was therefore set up on it, and, an examination having been held, witnesses heard, an authentic report was sent to Rome, where for many years now the canonization of Bl. Alphonsus had been requested.

[32] The canonization of Bl. Alphonsus is requested. For in the year 1831 a suppliant petition was offered to the sacred Congregation of Rites that as soon as possible apostolic processes on the miracles, which God has already deigned to work by the intercession of Bl. Alphonsus, should be duly made for his canonization. Where we read this: The Cardinal relator (the bishop of Palestrina, Pedicini), who keeps the deposit of letters of many cardinals of the Holy Roman Church and bishops, and of superiors of religious Orders, and of the most ample senate of Majorca itself, will deign to teach your Most Reverend Eminences that it appears from the same letters that, as Bl. Alphonsus daily bestows heavenly benefits with a large and generous hand on those imploring his help, and has deigned to produce splendid prodigies not only in the City, but also in his homeland, that is at Segovia, and in the island of Majorca, where he finished his life, in Spain, in France, in Sicily; so the fame of his holiness is more and more increased and amplified daily among the faithful peoples, so that

the faithful seek out on all sides his printed images; and those which are exposed in sacred places they approach as suppliants to visit, they bring gifts, they hang up tablets in signs of a grateful mind, and with common wishes they long that he be heaped with new honors of the Church. And with how great a fame he is venerated here in the City, it will be right to call you yourselves as witnesses, most eminent and most reverend Fathers, who well know that the whole City, almost torn from its seats, flowed together to the church dedicated to the Most Holy Name of Jesus, when in that place for three days the solemnities of the beatification were celebrated; and you can see with your own eyes in the same church, at the image of the same blessed man exposed near the sacristy for public veneration, crowns and silver gifts hanging on this side and that, candles offered burning almost every day, and a devout multitude of the faithful praying on bended knees and gathered there, almost daily hindering the steps of those passing Supplex libellus pro obtinenda commissione reassumptionis causæ, Rome 1831..

APPENDIX ON THE OFFICE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION USED BY BL. ALPHONSUS.

Alphonsus Rodriguez, temporal coadjutor of the Society of Jesus, on the island of Majorca. (Bl.)

FROM THE PRINTED EDITION.

Among the many Offices used from ancient times in honor of the Virgin conceived without stain, that one must be mentioned in this place which was not indeed composed by Bl. Alphonsus Rodriguez Compare Preliminary Commentary, number 35 and following., but recited daily for forty years. Indeed ordered by the Mother of God to spread these prayers, as Francis Colin narrates Vida del ven. Alonso, folio 72., he very often copied them with his own hand and gave them to very many pupils going to the schools of the college of Majorca. When the pious Brother had died and the revelation of the Blessed Virgin had been made public, the Office was printed in very many places and disseminated through Europe. Certainly it came out in the year 1621 from the press of Plantin at Antwerp Exercitium hebdomadarium, collected by John Wilson., with these words added: Imprimatur… Fr. James Blasæus, bishop of Saint-Omer. He died on the 21st day of March of the year 1618. Both in this and in the other editions which followed in the years 1624, 1630, 1635, etc., the booklet is said to be published as it is found in certain very ancient hours. However that may be, already in the year 1615 it had been approved by Pope Paul V, says Colin, not as it was recited by Bl. Alphonsus, but with three narrations removed which had been taken from a certain spurious writing of St. Anselm, and which had long been called in doubt by some, and defended by others. Again in the year 1678 some words were changed, when the Little Office (as many authors set forth at length) was prohibited, but a little later permitted anew, and reduced to this form in which it is generally used today [Compare Gravois, De ortu … cultus immac. Conceptus; page 171. Malou, L'immaculée Concept., volume I, page 200. Compare E. Waterton, The history of the immaculate Conception of our blessed Ladye.]. In what places the prayers written out by Bl. Alphonsus differ from this, it remains for us to indicate.

AT MATINS.

HYMN.

Hail, lady of the world,

Queen of the heavens:

Hail, Virgin of virgins,

Morning star.

Hail, full of grace,

Bright divine light;

To the help of the world,

Lady, hasten.

After your invitatory

Begun,

The drowned priest,

Given to Acheron,

Thence kindly drawing him out,

You warn that, changing

His state, he celebrate

Your blessed conception.

V. Thy mercy, Lady, is great upon me.

R. For thou hast delivered my soul out of the lower hell.

V. Lady, hear my prayer, etc.

The prayer used was the same as now, except that instead of holy and immaculate Conception there was said only holy Conception.

AT PRIME.

HYMN.

Hail, wise Virgin,

House dedicated to God,

Adorned with a sevenfold

Column and a table:

From every contagion

Of the world preserved,

Holy in the womb

Of your parent before you were born.

From eternity the Lord

Foreordained you

Mother of the Only-begotten

Word, by whom he created

Earth, sea, and sky;

You he adorned, beautiful,

As a spouse for himself, in whom

Adam did not sin.

V. He himself created her in the Holy Spirit.

R. And he poured her out upon all his works.

AT TERCE.

There is no difference.

AT SEXT.

HYMN.

Hail, Virgin who bore a child,

Temple of the Trinity,

Joy of the angels,

Chamber of purity.

Solace of mourners,

Garden of delight,

Palm of patience,

Cedar of chastity.

An abbot in a little boat

Is tossed by the waves:

Happy, crying out to you,

He is inspired from heaven

That your Conception

Be devoutly venerated.

The sea at your command

Is soon calmed.

V. Thou rulest the power of the sea.

R. And the motion of its waves thou appeasest.

V. Lady, hear, etc.

AT NONE.

HYMN.

Hail, city of refuge,

And fortified tower

Of David, distinguished

With bulwarks and arms.

When, taking a wife,

A levite in the temple

Had paid none to you,

You address him thus:

Am I not most beautiful?

Say therefore why,

Having dismissed me, you wish

To espouse another to yourself?

Do not act thus;

But serve me,

And take care to celebrate

My conception.

V. Thou art all fair, etc.

AT VESPERS.

There is no difference.

AT COMPLINE.

There is no difference.

COMMENDATION.

As suppliants we offer

To you, kind Virgin,

These canonical hours:

Make us in the way

To be led with prosperous course, etc.

ANTIPHON.

This is the rod in which there was neither knot of original nor bark of actual fault.

V. In thy Conception, O Virgin, thou wast immaculate.

R. Pray for us to the Father, whose Son thou didst bear.