The life of blessed Alphonsus Rodriguez, lay-brother of the Society of Jesus, by a lay-brother ...

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Preface

The Life of this great servant of God and true child of St Ignatius, which we now offer to the public, has been compiled from the following sources — (i) A Life written in French by a Father of the Society of Jesus, a translation of which was published many years ago by Messrs. Richardson, at the instance of his Eminence the late Cardinal Wiseman (at that time Coadjutor Bishop of the Midland District), and (2) from a short but well-authenticated Life of the saint written by another Father of the Society, with the authority of the Very Reverend Father General, Vincent Caraffa. This latter was translated, many years ago, into English by the late Father John Haggerty, S.J., but never printed. (3) In addition to the information obtained from these sources, a few extracts have been made from the Life of the Blessed

VIU PREFACE.

Peter Clavety S.%, published by the Fathers of the Brompton Oratory, relating particularly to the connection between our saint and that glorious Apostle of the Negroes, of whom the Blessed Alphonsus may be truly called the Spiritual Father, inasmuch as he was the instrument in the hands of God by which Claver was formed for that arduous apostleship. The whole has been compared with the Acts of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, in the solemn process of the saint's Beatification and Canonization.

This Life is recommended to the study of all Religious persons of both sexes and of every grade; but it will be read with especial interest and profit by those who have been called to the humbler state of Lay-brother or Sister, of whom Blessed Alphonsus may be considered the patron and model, and to whose number the writer of this Life belongs. In it they will find a mine of the richest treasure, pearls of great price, a most perfect and most simple example of every virtue special to their calling, but more particularly of holy and blind obedience, which was the characteristic virtue of Alphonsus. This virtue was declared by

PREFACE. IX

our holy Father St Ignatius in his famous letter on obedience (quoting the words of St Gregory the Great), to be " the only virtue which plants all other virtties in the soul^ and preserves them when planted^ It was by this, the parent and preserver of all virtues, and by his simplicity and vigour in embracing in all things, great and small, the will of God manifested to him by his Superiors, whose voice he regarded as that of God, as also by his constant, steady, and persevering self-denial, love of humiliation, and hatred of himself, that Alphonsus attained to a degree of sanctity so eminent as to be deemed worthy of the honours of the altar, and to be ranked among the Saints of the Church.

None need be discouraged by reading the account of the virtues of Alphonsus, or say, "I cannot attain to this; such virtue is too high for me'* The opportunities and methods of practising humility, obedience, and mortification are so various, that every one may attain to a very high degree of virtue in that sweet and pleasant way. All that is needed for this is prayer for the divine grace, and a goodwill and generous resolution to cooperate with that

A

X PREFACE.

grace in taking up the Cross daily and following the footsteps of our crucified Lord and Master.

Pope Leo XII., in his Brief for the Beatification of St Alphonsus Rodriguez, proposes him to the veneration of the Faithful especially as an example of humility and obedience, for which virtues he wsls remarkably distinguished, and he is a remarkable instance of the fulfilment of that divine decree, " He that humbleth himself shall be exalted." Alphonsus had all the qualifications which might have prompted him to aspire to the priesthood, yet his humility led him to offer himself to God in the lowly grade of a Lay-brother, and God, in return, opened to him His mystical wine cellars, not only raising him to the most sublime degree of contemplation, but gave him the power of communicating the divine secrets to others, of guiding souls to salvation and sanctification, and forming them in heroic virtue. The prayer of the humble man bows the heavens, and is irresistible with God : it draws God down into his soul, and removes all the obstacles to the action of divine grace, while it admits him as a disciple to the school of the Holy Ghost, the best of all professors in the "science of the Saints." As

PREFACE. XI

charitjT IS the virtue by which the soul of man tends to, and is united to, God as its last end. Christian perfection is charity, and he that has perfect charity is a perfect Christian. And although, in the strictest sense, perfect charity cannot be found upon the earth, and we must look for its realization in our eternal home, yet, in a true and proper, though larger sense, the charity of the Saints may be said, even in this life, to be perfect The charity of Alphonsus was so heroic, his love of God so pure and disinterested, that, as is usually the case with virtue which, in a notable degree, transcends the ordinary standard of human excellence, it was the object of suspicion and obloquy during his life. He was ordered by his Religious Superiors to commit to writing an account of that charity which he practised and recommended to others, and in the process of his Canonization this written account was tested by the severest scrutiny of the promoters of the Faith. His account was found to contain three parts. In the first he expresses the gladness and joy of a soul imbued with this charity by reason of which it seeks to please God, and devotes itself perpetually — "night

A 2

:iin PREFACE.

find day""-to the investigation of the means pf pleasing God. In the second he describes himself as so affected by this charity as to lose all recollection, both of his eternal happiness and the pains of hell. In the third he professes his soul, imbued with the aforesaid charity, to have excluded all consideration of bis own interest, that is to say, of the reward of eternal glory.

It was objected, by the revisors of the case, that this description of charity was incompatible with the theological virtue of hope, that it savoured of " quietism," and came within the terms of a proposition condemned by Pope Innocent XII.* But the theologians of the Sacred Congregation triumphantly proved, not only that the statements of Alphonsus were entirely free from the censure of the condemned proposition in question, and every other, but that they described a charity heroic in degree and an act of the purest and most disinterested

PREFACE. XIU

love of God. And they went on to establish the identity of the theology of the illiterate Laybrother on this point with that of St. Francis de Sales,* St Thomas Aquinas,f and Cardinal Pallavicino.J

Another characteristic of the Blessed Alphonsus was a personal and childlike devotion to our Lord and His Blessed Mother, with whom He conversed with a familiarity, as this history records, " such as is wont to unite friends with one another, or rather with an affection like that of a child for its parents " — and indeed, as such he always regarded them — an affection which they rewarded by frequently favouring him by their corporal presence and other marvellous graces. So intense was his devotion to the Passion of our Divine Redeemer, that he was permitted even to participate in those excruciating pains which pierced the Sacred Hearts

t Secunda Secunda, qusest. xix., art. 10.

XIV PREFACE.

of the Mother and Son. In spirit Alphonsus was constantly at the foot of the Cross, and in his perfect detachment from self and the world, he beheld in the death of his I?ivine Lord the end and death of all created things in regard to . himself.

His seraphic devotion to the adorable Sacrament of the Altar was rewarded by a multitude of favours, bestowed upon him by our Blessed Lord before the Tabernacle, and especially at the time of Mass and Holy Communion. That infinite abyss of divine love was the source of all his strength, and the principle of his soul's life. To his spirit the Divine Prisoner of the Tabernacle was ever present as the King of Kings in His glory, surrounded by the Court of Heaven, and the soul of Alphonsus was filled with amazement at beholding the Lord of Majesty hidden, and as it were annihilated, upon a million altars, for the love of His creature, man, whose ingratitude and coldness pierced His tender heart with the deepest affliction. We read that our Lord would frequently withdraw from the soul of His servant that mysterious veil which hides His Divine Majesty from our sight, and receive him into

PREFACE. XV

those inner chambers that are unknown to our senses, in which his soul, melting away within him, was lost in the vast ocean of love.

No ordinary devotion to our Blessed Lady's Immaculate Conception would be remarkable in a Spaniard, but that of Alphonsus to this mystery was quite singular. He saw, by divinely infused knowledge, that great doctrine, now declared to be an article of faith, to be the complement of the crown of Mary's prerogatives, and he did not hesitate to assert that one of the objects for which the Society of Jesus had been founded was the propagation and defence of the dogma. He was no less devout to the mystery of the Assumption, and this history relates some of the marvellous favours which were the reward of his devotion. His other virtues; his humility; his constant recollection in the Divine Presence; his heroic patience; his love of holy poverty; his charity to the poor and sick; his ardent zeal and predilection for sinners ; his esteem for his Religious vocation; his veneration for his Order, its members, and its holy Founder ; his admirable gift of prayer and his instructions concerning it ; and finally, his infused knowledge of spiritual

XVI PREFACE.

things ; are recorded in due order in the course of this life.

None will be surprised to find that one wha had attained to such great virtue and heroic sanctity should have become the chosen temple of the Holy Ghost, and been endowed by Him with every supernatural gift.

To those also whose vocation it is to sanctify themselves in the world, the life of the Blessed Alphonsus will be full of interest and instruction, inasmuch as for the first thirty-seven years of his life he was actively engaged in business, and in the married state. Whatever is instructive and edifying to a Religious, is so in a secondary degree to those living in tlie world, who, although they are not actually bound by the golden cord of Religion, are equally called to perfection in their own state of life.

What a contrast does the life of this g^eat servant of God present to that of the votaries of the world ! While all the world's pleasures, and riches, and honours, pass away like a dream, and its greatest heroes and heroines are no more remembered, or merely leave a barren name on the page of history, this humble Lay-brother, who spent his life in poverty, contempt, and

PREFACE. XVll

self-abnegation and mortification^ is now venerated on the altars of the whole Christian Church, and exalted to the highest honours that Heaven and earth can bestow.

Manresa House, Roehampton.

Feast of Si, Ignatius of Loyola, 1873.

BOOK I. Page Parentage and early years of Blessed Alphonsus . . 2

His wonderful devotion to the ever Blessed Virgin as a

childy and her apparition to him when four years

ofage 2

He studies for two years . 3

On his father's death he leaves his studies to assist his

mother in business 4

He marries 4

He loses his business by reverses and his wife and a

daughter by death 4

He retires from business, and spends three years in acts

of piety and great austerities 4

Devotion to the Rosaxy, and wonderful favours accorded to

him in its redtal 5

Glorious apparition of our Blessed Lord with St Frands

of Assisi and many Saints, and its effect upon him • 6 Devotion to the Passion of our Divine Redeemer, and our

saint's sensible participation in His pains ... 6 Death of his son and last child, and his wonderful heroism

on the occasion • 7

He determines to leave the world and embrace Religion . 8

CONTENTS. XIX

Poit A wonderful vision which led him to the Society of Jesus • 8

He applies at the age of thirty-eight to the Fathers of the Society at Segovia for admission, but is refused on account of his age and want of learning ... 9 He retires to Valencia, attends the Jesuit College there for

two years, to study Latin and try his vocation • . 9 His saintly conduct there ; vocation to the Society as Laybrother ; wonderful attempt by the devil to divert him from it, and his deliverance from the temptation • 10 He applies to Father Anthony Cordeses, Provincial of Arragon, for admission, and is admitted as Laybrother at the age of forty 13

He passes six months' probation in tl^e Novitiate at

Valencia, and his admirable conduct there . . 15

JEfe is sent for his noviceship to the College of Majorca ;

his conduct there 16

He takes his first vows ....... 17

He is attacked with temptations of melancholy . . 17 His miraculous deliverance from them .... 18

He takes his last vows 18

His admirable conduct 19

He is delivered from all scruples 20

Abridgment of his rule of life 20

He performs the office of porter 21

His conduct as such, and his general conduct ... 22

His conduct abroad 23

His method of examen of conscience .... 24 His modesty in taking his meals and rules thereon, and

conduct in the refectory 25

Father Julian's opinion of Blessed Alphonsus ... 26 His humility; self-abjection and humiliations ; his Superiors order hini to note down in writing his communications with God ; his written ideas with regard to bmn^t^ • V\

XX CONTENTS.

Page

His extraordinary and terrible combats with the devils ;

their attempts for seven years against his chastity; our

Lord showers His consolations upon him, and, with

His Blessed Mother, appears to him .... 3^

His strict custody and mortification of senses at home and

abroad 40

Visitations from our Lord and His Blessed Mother, with revelations of favours accorded him during the time of

meals 46

His conduct during hours of recreation .... 47 His mortification, austerities, and love of suffering . . 47 Suffers for ten years severe and extraordinary attacks from the devils during the hour of meditation ; the demons twice attempt to kill him ; his severe bodily suffering . 53 Our Lord and His Blessed Mother appear to him and

console him 57

His patience, with various occasions of its exercise . • 57 His love of holy poverty, and occasions of exercising it . 61 Constant exercise of the presence of God, and his familiar and childlike intercourse with our Lord and His

Blessed Mother 64

His devotion to sacred images and pictures ... 66 In consequence of his bad health he is forbidden to exercise mental prayer; his obedient compliance, and severe struggles in consequence, and divine favours, with miraculous cure accorded him . , 66 His lively sense of his sins, alarms for his salvation, and other anxieties, with assurance of pardon and divine favours shown him, and wonderful visitation of our

Loid and His Blessed Mother 67

His prayer ; admirable instructions on prayer of union . 70 Remarkable favours shown him in prayer; he is transported

into Heaven, raised from the ground, &c. . . . 71

CONTENTS. XXI

Page Miraculous instances of the power of his prayer . . 75

His ardent devotion to the ever Blessed Sacrament of the Eucharist ; visions and favours accorded him before the Blessed Sacrament, and at the time of Mass and Holy Communion .... • • 79

His love for, and tender devotion towards, the ever Blessed Inmiaculate Virgin, Mother of God; his zeal and devotion towards the Immaculate Conception . . 86 Terrible storm allayed by his prayer to the Blessed Virgin 90 Devotion to the mystery of the Assumption, and great , favours accorded him in consequence ; he is translated into Heaven on several festivals of the Assumption ; numerous apparitions of our Blessed Lady to him . 91 His intimate communion with the Blessed in Heaven . 97 His blind obedience, with remarkable instances . • 97

BOOK 11.

His profound infused knowledge in spiritual things; assists at spiritual conferences, and other instances of this knowledge no

He is charged with the training of the Lay-brothers ; is consulted by many on their Religious vocation, and causes many to enter various Orders; some interesting cases given 112

He furnishes the Society of Jesus with five illustrious

subjects 116

A brief account of the intercourse between our saint and his special child of predilection, the Blessed Peter Claver, Apostle of the Negroes ; the instructions for spiritual life given by our saint to his beloved pupil, and wonderful vision in which Blessed Alphonsus is shown the future glory of the Blessed Peter • . 117

XXll CONTENTS.

Page He causes many seculars also to leave the world ; a striking

instance given 130

He uses every opportunity to excite extems to piety . . 130 He does the same for the scholars and the poor . -131 His zeal and prayers for the success of Preachers, with a

remarkable instance of it 132

His ardent love for all sinners throughout the world, and

a vision with which he was favoured .... 135 He is consulted by persons of the highest rank in Church

and State . . . . * . . . .136 Conversation with a holy and learned Religious on the will

of God, &c 37

His charity towards the sick and distressed poor . . 138 Miraculous favours bestowed upon him .... 139 Gift of healing, with wonderful instances .... 140

Gift of prophecy, with instances 146

His visions, in which is shown to him the glory of several

of his fellow-Religious and others in Heaven . .159 His further combats with the devils, and extraordinary and

terrible torments inflicted on him by them, with other

annoyances and temptations, for three years . . 163

BOOK III. He is discharged from the office of porter when upwards

of seventy years of age 168

He composes a small spiritual treatise .... 169 Great infirmities and sufferings with patient joy under them 170 He is again tried for several months with grievous temptations of despondency and with spiritual dryness and desolation, and his conduct under them . . •17' Our Blessed Lady and the Infant Jesus appear to and console him 172

CONTENTS. XXIU

Pagt His approaching death ; he is forewarned eight days before*

hand to prepare for Extreme Unction ; his conduct on that occasion ; his edifying conduct in his sickness ; he falls into a wonderful ecstasy three days before

his happy death 175

His blessed death 177

Description of his person 178

Beautiful appearance after death 179

The body is exposed in the church ; Office of the Dead

and funeral 179

The Viceroy, and all the men of rank, secular and ecclesiastic, with immense multitudes of people, flock to venerate the precious body and obtain relics . • 180 Wonderful miracles wrought before the interment . . 181 In consequence of the prodigies wrought at our dear saint's

tomb, the Bishop allows the people to venerate him . 192 Letter of the Viceroy of Majorca to His Holiness Pope

PaulV. 193

Judicial inquiries for the Beatification ordered by His

Holiness 194

Some interesting circumstances of the life of the saint,

collected from the process of the Beatification • . 195

Account of some miracles proved 203

Beatification and ceremony 204

Beatification is celebrated in many places, and miracles

wrought 206

Brief of Beatification 210

Litany in honour of Blessed Alphonsus, with prayer, and prayer to the ever Blessed Virgin, composed and used by the saint 217

THE LIFE

BLESSED ALPHONSUS RODRIGUEZ.

Book I

God, Who is admirable in His Saints, is often pleased to hide from the eyes of man the most heroic virtues of His servants, in order to environ them afterwards with a glory so much the purer, as it only commences at their death. Such has been the conduct of Providence with regard to the Blessed Alphonsus Rodriguez, a Religious of the Society of Jesus, whose life was very obscure in the sight of men, and whom the Head of the Church has chosen amongst a concourse of personages, illustrious for their sanctity and great actions, to place him in the ranks of the Blessed, having been beatified by His Holiness Pope Leo XII. on the 12th June, 1825. His Canonization, together with that of his spiritual child. Blessed Father Peter Claver, the Apostle of the Negroes, has now been announced, and is expected to be solemnized in the course of the coming year.

B

Segovia, a famous city in Spain, was the birthplace of Alphonsus. He was bom on the 25th of July, 1531, a day consecrated to the memory of St. James the Apostle, whilst St. Ignatius was pursuing his studies in the University of Paris. His father, Diego Rodriguez, an upright merchant, and his mother, Maria Gomez, lived honourably by commerce, though they had to maintain a numerous family, consisting of seven sons and four daughters. Being fervent Christians, they brought up the young Alphonsus with the greatest care, and from his infancy he manifested evident signs of his future extraordinary sanctity. He evinced an innate and powerful inclination to virtue, and a most tender devotion to the Blessed Virgin, Mother of God, whose honour was dear to this child of benediction, even before he was capable of appreciatmg its excellence ; from the earliest age he was observed to seize with eagerness on her images, and to kiss them with the tenderest devotion ; he pressed them to his heart, and they could not be taken from him without causing him to shed tears. On one occasion, when not quite four years of age, perceiving a picture of her whom he already looked upon as his good Mother, and regarding it with the utmost affection, he addressed her in the language of filial confidence, saying, with childlike simplicity, " Oh, if you knew how much I love you! You do not love me so well as I love you." Scarcely had he pronounced these words, when the most holy Virgin, whose motherly affection could be restrained no longer, appearing to him in a sensible

BIRTH AND EDUCATION. 3

manner, and casting a look of tenderness on him, made him this sweet response: "What do you say, my son ? The love that I bear you is so great, that yours can never equal it" He manifested the greatest joy at the very mention of her sweet name, and whenever he saw or found a piece of paper with her holy name upon it, he would put it into his bosom, and treasure it like a precious relic. He was often observed in his childhood to be completely absorbed in some deep trance or absence of mind ; in this state, with his eyes unusually open and fixed, as if gazing on some wonderful vision, his body motionless, he would suddenly ciy out and call upon the Blessed Virgin. His parents, on these occasions, could scarcely by the most violent efforts rt)use him and bring him again to himself.

He was twelve years of age when two Fathers of the Society of Jesus passed through Segovia, and were hospitably entertained at the house of Diego Rodriguez, his father. These Religious having retired for some days into the country to pass them in retreat and recollection, the young Alphonsus followed them there, and learned in his conversations with them several practices of piety, amongst other that of the Rosary, to which he continued singularly devoted during his life. Soon afterwards he was sent to Alcala to study, where he remained only a year. Another account says that he studied humanities and rhetoric for two years in Valencia, leading a most exemplary life in all modesty and devotion. His father dying B 2 in his absence, his mother recalled him home to assist her in the embarrassments occasioned by her widowhood. She married him to a virtuous young person named Maria Luazez, and he continued the business of his father, which was that of a draper. He lived in this state, attentive to his business, but still more so to the interests of his soul, never failing to attend punctually at every divine office and service in the church, and regularly to frequent the Sacraments. But God, desirous of raising him to a more exalted degree of sanctity and perfection, gradually freed him from the obstacles which yet impeded him. His fortune was destroyed by repeated reverses, and more overwhelming misfortunes soon overtook him; death deprived him of his young daughter, whom he loved tenderly, and he soon after lost his wife, who left him a son yet very young. His mother then retired to an apartment of his house with her daughters. Julienne and Antoinette, who both made vows of virginity, and attained afterwards to an eminent degree of sanctity. As for Alphonsus, he lived with his son in another apartment, and thus united, they persevered in the practice of all Christian virtues. He began this new life by a general confession^ which he made to Father Martinez, a Religious of the Society of Jesus, with a torrent of tears, which flowed almost uninterruptedly during three years of the most rigorous penance. Entirely occupied with satisfying the Divine Justice, he joined to the most lively sentiments of compunction, fasts, haircloths, disciplines,

MARRIED AND WIDOWER. 5

and all the austerities which a holy indignation against himself inspired. He often approached the Sacraments of Penance and the most Blessed Eucharist, and prepared himself for them by an almost perpetual prayer, which consisted especially in the fervent recital of the Rosary. He did not perform this holy exercise as a matter of form, pronounced hastily and without recollection of mind; he meditated and relished in his heart the divine mysteries of our holy faith, the chief object of this devotion, whilst his lips repeated the admirable words of the Lord's Prayer and the Angelical Salutation.

The Lord was pleased to testify by a miraculous favour how agreeable this practice was to him. Every time that he recited the Pater noster he saw a fine red rose appear, and at each Ave the same flower seemed to him resplendent with whiteness ; it appeared as it were a sweet blooming crown, which he offered to the Queen of Heaven, and which was a symbol of the fervour of his prayer. It was thus that our Saint attained, by degrees, that high spirit of contemplation, of which the assiduous recital of the Rosary was the principal foundation. This grace accorded to the piety of Alphonsus was soon followed by a second and more signal one, with which it pleased his Divine Master to recompense the long and rigorous penance of His servant. One night that the fervent penitent experienced extraordinary sentiments of contrition, and wept bitterly for his faults, our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him, surrounded by a blessed band of Saints, amongst whom he recognized St Francis of Assist, towards whom he had always a particular devotion. This glorious Patriarch, approaching him, asked the cause of so profound a grief. "0 my holy protector!" cried Alphonsus, "a single venial sin would merit the tears of an entire life, and you ask me why I weep." Our Lord manifested His approval of this reply, and cast on the happy Alphonsus a look of divine love, which filled him with the sweetest consolation. The vision suddenly disappeared, but not so its effects, for from that moment his heart became deeply impressed with an extreme horror of sin and hatred of himself. It was about this period that God inspired him with the idea of devoting himself entirely to meditation on the mysteries of the life and death of Jesus Christ. The sufferings of our Divine Redeemer in His bitter Passion touched in a sensible manner the heart of Alphonsus. He often represented Him in his mind, sometimes crowned with thorns, bathed in blood, exposed to the gaze of the multitude by the Roman President, saying these words — " Behold the Man ; " sometimes loaded with a heavy Cross, and meeting His Blessed Mother plunged in inexpressible affliction ; at other times suspended on the gibbet of the Cross, and a prey to mortal agony.