St. Francis of Paula, Confessor 1508 A.D. April 2      This saint was born about the year 1416 at Paula, a small city near the Tyrrhenian Sea in Calabria between Naples and Reggio. His parents were very poor but industrious and happy in their condition, making the will and love God the sole object of all their desires and endeavors. Their whole conduct was, as it were, one straight line directed to this point. Having lived together several years without issue, they earnestly begged of God, through the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi, a son who might faithfully and assiduously serve Him and become an instrument to glorify His name to Whose service they solemnly devoted him. A son some time after this was born whom they considered the fruit of their prayers. They named him after their patron St. Francis and made it their chief care to inpire him with pious sentiments and give him an education suitable to his holy destination. Francis, while yet a child, made abstinence, solitude, and prayer his delight. In the thirteenth year of his age, his father, whose name was James Martotille, placed him in the monastery of Franciscan friars at St. Mark's, an episcopal town of that province, where he learned to read and laid the foundation of the austere life which he ever after led. From that time, he denied himself all use of linen and flesh meat, and, though he had not professed the rule of that order, he seemed even in that tender age to surpass all the religious in a scrupulous observance of everything prescribed by it. Having spent one year here, he performed with his parents a pilgrimage to Assisi, the Portiuncula, and Rome. When he returned to Paula, he retired with their consent to a lonesome solitude about half a mile from the town and, to avoid the distraction of visits, he shortly after chose a more remote retreat in the corner of a rock upon the seacoast where he made himself a cave. He was scarcely fifteen years old when he shut himself up in this hermitage in 1432. He had no other bed that the rock itself nor other food than the herbs which he gathered in the neighboring wood or what was sometimes brought him by his friends. Before he was quite twenty years old, two other devoutly inclined persons joined him, imitating his holy exercises. The neighbors built them three cells and a chapel in which they sung the divine praises, and a certain priest from the parish church came and said Mass for them. This is reputed the first foundation of his religious order, in 1436. Nearly seventeen years later, their number being much increased, with the approbation of the archbishop of Cosenza, a large church and monastery were built for them in the same place around the year 1454. So great was the devotion of the people that the whole country joined and all hands were set to work, even noblemen sharing in carrying burdens. During the erection of this building, our saint performed several miracles. Among others, a person deposed upon oath in the process of the saint's canonization that he himself was healed in an instant of a painful lameness in his thigh by the prayer of the servant of God. When the house was completed, he applied himself to establish regularity and uniformity in his community, not abating in the least his former severity with regard to himself. His bed was no longer indeed a rock but a board or the bare floor, with a stone or log of wood for his pillow till, in his old age, he made use of a mat. He allowed himself no more sleep than was absolutely necessary to refresh weary nature and to enable him to resume his devout exercises with greater vigor. He took but one repast a day, in the evening, and usually had nothing but bread and water. Sometimes he passed two days without taking any food, especially before great festivals.      Penance, charity, and humility he laid down for the groundwork and basis of his rule. He obliged his followers to observe a perpetual Lent and always to abstain not only from flesh but also from all white meats or food made of milk, such as cheese and butter, and also from eggs, all of which the ancient canons forbid in Lent. In order more effectually to enforce obedience to this injunction, he prescribed a fourth vow by which every religious of his order binds himself to observe it. His intention in enjoining this perpetual abstinence was to repair in some sort the abuses of Lent among Christians. He always lamented to see that holy fast so much relaxed by the mitigations which the church has been obliged to tolerate in condescension to the lukewarmness of the generality of her children. He hoped also, by example, to open the eyes of the rest of the faithful to whom the sight of such a perpetual Lent, compared to their remissness in a fast of only forty days, might be a continual reproach and silent preaching, perhaps more effectual than words. The Saint took charity for the motto and symbol of his order to show it was to be its soul and its most distinguishing characteristic, signifying the intimate union of all its members, not only with one another but with all the faithful by their ardent love of Good, that divine flame which glowed so warmly in his own breast and which he eagerly endeavored to kindle in all others. Humility, however, was his darling virtue. The greater he was before God and the more he was distinguished in the sight of heaven, the less he appeared in his own eyes, and the more he was exalted among men, honored and reverenced by popes and kings, the more earnestly did he study to live concealed and to debase himself beneath all creatures. It was his fondness for living concealed, unknown, and entirely forgotten by all men that inspired him with the design in his earliest years of burying himself in a desert. Regarding this part of his life, we know nothing of his sublime contemplations and his heavenly raptures or of his severe penance, emulating the Eliases and the Baptists because he sought to live hidden from the eyes of men according to that maxim of true humility, "Love to be unknown". Nor did he only seek to conceal himself and draw a veil over his other virtues but also over his humility itself. A humility which sets itself forth with an exterior show of piety which draws respect and receives honor is generally false, only the shadow of that virtue, and in reality a subtle, refined pride. At least it is always dangerous and much to be suspected. But the humility of Francis was both true and secure because hidden. When God discovered him to the world, the saint conversed with it so as always to retain the same spirit. Not yet twenty years old, he was the legislator and oracle of all who approached him, yet he was in no way elated on that account. He assumed nothing to himself and professed that he knew nothing save Jesus Christ crucified and that there is no virtue, no happiness, but in knowing our own littleness and in being humble of heart like our divine Master. By this humility, he was filled with the spirit of God and, by a wonderful prodigy of grace, at nineteen years of age, became the founder of an eminent religious order. Other orders have their principal end and distinguishing characteristics, some being remarkable for their poverty, others for austerity, others for prayer, holy zeal, and so on. That of St. Francis of Paula eminently includes all of the above-mentioned. But, showing how he valued humility, which he most earnestly recommended to his followers as the ground of all Christian virtues, he gave them a name that might express it and begged of the pope as a singular privilege that his religious might be call Minims to signify that they were the least in the house of God. Moreover, as in every community there must be a leader, St. Francis would have the superior of each house in his order called Corrector, to put him in continual rememebrance that he is only the servant of all the rest according to Luke 22, "He who is greater among you, let him be as the least." But the more this saint humbled himself, the more did God exalt him.      The archbishop of Cosenza approved the rule and order of this holy man in 1471. Pope Sixtus IV confirmed it by a bull dated May 23, 1474 and established Franics superior general. This order was then chiefly composed of laymen with a few clerics and only one priest, Balthasar de Spino, doctor of law, afterwards confessor to Innocent VIII. About the year 1476, the saint founded another monastery at Paterno on the gulf of Tarentum and a third at Spezza in the diocese of Coszenza. In the year 1479, being invited into Sicily, he was received there as an angel from heaven, wrought miracles, and built several monasteries on that island where he stayed a whole year. In 1480, having returned to Calabria, he built another at Corigliano in the diocese of Rossano. Ferdinand, King of Naples, provoked by some wholesome advice the saint had given him and his two sons Alphonsus, duke of Calabria, and John, cardinal of Aragon, persecuted him, but his third son, Frederick prince of Tarentum, was his friend. The king, alleging that he had built monasteries without the royal assent, ordered a messenger to apprehend him at Paterno and bring him prisoner to Naples. But the officer, approaching to seize his person, was so moved at his humility and the readiness with which he disposed himself to follow him that, struck with awe, he returned to Naples and dissuaded the king from attempting anything against the servant of God. The holy man was favored with an eminent spirit of prophecy. He foretold to several persons in the years 1447, 1448, and 1449 the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, which happened on the May 29, 1453 under the command of Mahomet II when Constantine Palaeologus, the last Christian emperor, was slain, fighting tumultuously in the streets. He also foretold that Otranto, one of the most important places and keys of the kingdom of Naples, would fall into the hands of the same infidels, three months before Achmat Bacha surprised it on the last day of August 1480 to the great consternation of Italy and all Europe. But the servant of God promised the Christians, especially the pious John, count of Arena, one of the generals of Ferdinand I King of Naples, certain success the year following, when they recovered that city and drove the infidels out of Italy, their victory being facilitated by the death of the Turkish emperor and a civil war between the two brothers, Bajazet II and Zizimes. The authentic depositions of many unexceptionable witnesses, given with all the formalities which both the civil and canon law require, prove these and many other illustrious predictions of the holy man on several public and private occasions with regard to the kings of Naples, Ferdinand I, and Alphonsus II, and Louisa of Savoy, countess, afterwards duchess of Angouleme, mother of King Francis I in France, and many others. Lawrence, bishop of Grenoble, of the most noble house of Alemans in Dauphiné, uncle to the most valiant and pious captain De Bayard, in his letter to Pope Leo X for the canonization of St. Francis, writes: "Most holy Father, he revealed to me many things which were known only to God and myself." In 1469, Pope Paul II sent one of his chamberlains, an ecclesiastic of the noble family of Adorno in Genoa, into Calabria to inform himself of the truth of the wonderful things that were related of the saint. The chamberlain addressed himself to the vigilant archbishop of Cosenza who assured him from his own intimacy with the saint of his sincere virtue and extraordinary sanctity and sent one of his ecclesiastics, named Charles Pyrrho, a canon of Cosenza, a man of great learning and probity, to attend him to Paula. This Pyrrho had been himself healed ten years before of a violent toothache by the man of God touching his cheek with his hand (of which the authentic depositions are extant) and had from that time frequently visited him. The saint was at work according to his custom among the masons who were laying the foundation of his church, but seeing two strangers coming towards him left his work and came to meet them. He made them a low obeisance, and when the chamberlain offered to kiss his hand according to the Italian custom of saluting priests and religious men, he would by no means allow it and, falling on his knees, said he was bound to kiss his hands which God had consecrated for the thirty years he had said Mass. The chamberlain was exceedingly struck at his answer, hearing him who was an entire stranger to him, tell him so exactly how long he had been a priest, but concealing himself and his commission, desired to converse with him in his monastery. The chamberlain, who was a very eloquent man, made him a long discourse in which, to try his virtue, he censured his institute as too austere, spoke much on the illusions and dangers to which extraordinary and miraculous gifts are liable, and exhorted him to walk in ordinary paths trodden by eminent servants of God. The saint answered his objections with great modesty and humility, but seeing him not yet satisfied, he went to the fire and, taking out some burning coals, held them a considerable time in his hand without receiving any harm, saying, "All creatures obey those who serve God with a perfect heart." Which golden words are inserted by Leo X in the bull of his canonization. The chamberlain returned to Cosenza full of veneration for the holy man and told both the archbishop and His Holiness at his return to Rome that the sanctity of Francis was greater than his reputation in the world. A youth, nephew to the saint, being dead, his mother, the saint's own sister, applied to him for comfort and filled his apartment with lamentations. After the Mass and Divine Office had been said for the repose of his soul, St. Francis ordered the corpse to be carried from the church into his cell where he ceased not to pray till, to her great astonishment, he had restored him to life and presented him to her in perfect health. The young man entered his order and is the celebrated Nicholas Alesso who afterwards followed his uncle into France and was famous for sanctity and many great actions.      Louis XI, King of France, a prince perhaps the most absolute, the most tenacious of his authority, jealous of his prerogative, and impatient of control that ever wore that crown, after an apoplectic fit fell into a lingering decay. Never had any man a stronger passion for life or a greater dread of the very thoughts of death. Such was his frowardness and impatience that every one trembled to approach him and did not dare to ask him a favor. He gave his physician ten thousand crowns a month as long as he should prolong his life, and he stood in the greatest awe of him. He shut himself up in his palace or castle of Plessis-les-Tours near the city of Tours. Jesters, buffoons, and dancers were employed to divert his melancholy and peevishness, but in vain. He ordered prayers, processions, and pilgrimages for his health and even against the north wind, which he found injurious to him, and he caused holy relics from the remotest places to be brought to Plessis into his chamber. His distemper still increasing, he sent an ambassador to our holy hermit in Calabria, begging him to come to see him and restore his health, making the greatest promises to serve both him and his order. Hearing that the man of God would not be prevailed on by his promises to comply with his request, he entreated Ferdinand King of Naples to send him. Francis answered positively that he could not tempt God or undertake a voyage of a thousand miles to work a miracle which was asked upon low and merely human motives. Louis did not yet desist but desired the pope to interpose in favor of his request. Sixtus IV by two briefs commanded Francis immediately to repair to the king. Hereupon, the obedient saint without delay set out and passed through Naples where he was exceedingly honored by King Ferdinand. He also visited Rome on his way, where he was treated with the highest distinction by the pope and cardinals. Embarking at Ostia, he landed in France and cured many sick of the plague in Provence as he passed. Louis in great joy gave a purse of ten thousand crowns to him who brought the first news of the saint's arrival in his dominions and sent the dauphin with the principal lords of his court to meet him at Amboise and to conduct him to his palace. The saint arrived at Plessis on the 24th of April in 1482. The king went out to meet him, attended with all his court, and falling on his knees, conjured him to obtain of God the prolongation of his life. St. Francis told him no wise man ought to entertain such a desire. To which he added this useful lesson that the lives of kings had their appointed limits no less than those of his meanest subjects, that God's decree was unchangeable, and that there remained nothing to be done but for his majesty to resign himself to the divine will and prepare for a happy death. The king gave orders that he should be lodged in an apartment in his palace, near the chapel, and assigned him an interpreter. St. Francis often spoke to his majesty both in private and before his courtiers, and always with such wisdom, though a man without learning, that Philip Commines, who frequently heard him, says that all present were persuaded the Holy Ghost spoke by his mouth. By his prayers and exhortations, he effected a perfect change in the king's heart, who, having recommended to him his three children and the repose of his soul, died in his arms, perfectly resigned, on the 30th of August 1483.      King Charles VIII honored the saint even more than his father Louis had done, would do nothing in the affairs of his conscience or even in those of the state without his advice, visited him every day as long as he stayed at Plessis, standing before him as a disciple, and engaged him to stand godfather to his son the dauphin, to whom he gave the name of our saint. He built for him a beautiful monastery in the park of Plessis in a place called Montils and another at Amboise and upon the very spot where he met him when he was dauphin. Going to Rome in 1495, where he made a triumphant entry and was saluted emperor of Constantinople by Pope Alexander VI, he built there on Mount Pincio a stately monastery for this order under the name of the Blessed Trinity and in which none but Frenchmen can be admitted. In his reign, the saint founded the convent of Nigeon near Paris, on which occasion two doctors, who had violently opposed the institute before the bishop of Paris, were so moved by the sight of the saint at Plessis that they entered his order in 1506. Pope Julius II again approved the rule in which the saint had made some alterations. King Charles VIII dying in 1498, Louis XII succeeded him. He at first gave the saint leave to return to Italy but quickly recalled it and heaped honors and benefactions on all his relations. St. Francis spent the three last months of his life within his cell to prepare himself for a happy death, denying himself all communication with mankind that nothing might divert his thoughts from death and eternity. He fell sick of a fever on Palm Sunday 1506. On Maundy Thursday, he assembled all his religious in the sacristy and exhorted them to the love of God, charity with one another and with all men, and a punctual observance of all the duties of their rule. After having made his confession, he communicated barefoot and with a cord about his neck, which is the custom of his order. He died on the 2nd of April in 1508, being ninety-one years old. He was canonized by Leo X in 1519. His body remained uncorrupted in the church of Plessis-les-Tours till the year 1562 when the Huguenots broke open the shrine and found it entire, fifty-five years after his death. They dragged it about the streets and burned it in a fire which they had made with the wood of a great crucifix. Some of his bones were recovered by the Catholics and are kept in several churches of his order at Plessis, Nigeon, Paris, Aix, Naples, Paula, and Madrid. In Tours, the same Calvinists burned the body of St. Martin, Alcuin, and many others. But Louis of Bourbon, duke of Montpensier, governor of Anjou, Touraine, and Maine, a virtuous and valiant prince, soon gave chase to those sacrilegious plunderers and restored the churches and religious places to their former possessors. St. Francis wrote two rules for his friars with a Correctorium, or method of enjoining penances, and a third rule for nuns, all approved by Pope Julius II in 1506.      Vanity and the love of the world make men fond of producing themselves in public, and by having never cultivated an acquaintance with themselves, they shun the very means, look upon retirement as intolerable, and pass their life in wandering always from home and in a studied series of dissipation in which they secretly seek the gratification of their vanity, sloth, and other passions but meet only with emptiness, trouble, and vexation. Man can find happiness only in God and in his own heart. This he flies who cannot bear to converse with God and his own heart. On the contrary, he who is endued with the spirit of prayer finds the greatest relish in the interior exercises of compunction and contemplation and in conversing with heaven. Solitude is his chief delight and his center. Here he lives sequestered from creatures and as if there were only God and himself in the world, except that he ceases not to recommend all men to God. In paying the debts of charity and other exterior duties to his neighbors, his heart is fixed on God and he has purely His divine will in view so that even in his public actions, he deposits his intention and sentiments in the bosom of his God and Redeemer and has no regard to creatures but as he considers God and his holy will in them. "You are dead," says the apostle, "and your life is hid with God in Jesus Christ." from Lives of the Saints by Rev. Alban Butler, 1895

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