Saint François Jérôme (de Geronimo ou de Girolamo)
Jésuite italien (✝ 1716)
Il était originaire de Tarente en Italie.
Jésuite, prédicateur réputé et très écouté, il favorisa l'apostolat des laïcs et de nombreuses œuvres sociales au service des malades, des jeunes et des vagabonds.
Il fut canonisé en 1839.
À Naples, en 1716, saint François de Geronimo, prêtre de la Compagnie de Jésus, qui se donna pendant plus de quarante ans aux missions populaires et au soin pastoral des abandonnés.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : http://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1134/Saint-Francois-Jerome-(de-Geronimo-ou-de-Girolamo).html
François de Geronimo est né en Italie en 1642 et mort à Naples le 11 mai 1716.
Il fut canonisé par Grégoire XVI en 1839.
Il était originaire de Tarente en Italie.
Jésuite, prédicateur réputé et très écouté, il favorisa l’apostolat des laïcs et de nombreuses œuvres sociales au service des malades, des jeunes et des vagabonds.
Saint François de Geronimo, prêtre de la Compagnie de Jésus, se donna pendant plus de quarante ans aux missions populaires et au soin pastoral des abandonnés.
SOURCE : http://www.jesuites.com/2013/01/saint-francois-de-geronimo-sj/
Prêtre s.j.
Source principale : wikipédia.org (« Rév. x gpm »). ©Evangelizo.org 2001-2016
San Francesco de Geronimo e la profezia su
Sant'Alfonso Maria de Liguori, quadro conservato nella Cappella di Famiglia a
Marianella (Na)
François de Geronimo prédit aux époux Liguori, que leur enfant Alphonse vivra vieux, sera évêque et saint.
St. Francis de Geronimo
(Girolamo, Hieronymo).
Born 17 December, 1642; died 11 May, 1716. His birthplace was Grottaglie, a small town in Apulia, situated about five or six leagues from Taranto. At the age of sixteen he entered the college of Taranto, which was under the care of the Society of Jesus. He studied humanities and philosophy there, and was so successful that his bishop sent him to Naples to attend lectures in theology and canon law at the celebrated college of Gesu Vecchio, which at that time rivalled the greatest universities in Europe. He was ordained there, 18 March, 1666. After spending four years in charge of the pupils of the college of nobles in Naples, where the students surnamed him the holy prefect, il santo prefetto, he entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus, 1 July, 1670. At the end of his first year's probation he was sent with an experienced missioner to get his first lessons in the art of preaching in the neighborhood of Otranto. A new term of four years spent labouring in towns and villages at missionary work revealed so clearly to his superiors his wonderful gift of preaching that, after allowing him to complete his theological studies, they determined to devote him to that work, and sent him to reside at Gesù Nuovo, the residence of the professed fathers at Naples. Francis would fain have gone and laboured, perhaps even laid down his life, as he often said, amidst the barbarous and idolatrous nations of the Far East. He wrote frequently to his superiors, begging them to grant him that great favour. Finally they told him to abandon the idea altogether, and to concentrate his zeal and energy on the city and Kingdom of Naples. Francis understood this to be the will of God, and insisted no more. Naples thus became for forty years, from 1676 until his death, the centre of his apostolic labours.
He first devoted himself to stirring up the religious enthusiasm of a congregation of workmen, called the "Oratio della Missione", established at the professed house in Naples. The main object of this association was to provide the missionary father with devoted helpers amidst the thousand difficulties that would suddenly arise in the course of his work. Encouraged by the enthusiastic sermons of the director, these people became zealous co-operators. One remarkable feature of their work was the multitude of sinners they brought forth to the feet of Francis. In the notes which he sent his superiors concerning his favorite missionary work, the saint takes great pleasure in speaking of the fervour that animated the members of his dear "Oratory". Nor did their devoted director overlook the material needs of those who assisted him in the good work. In the Oratory he succeeded in establishing a mont de piété. The capital was increased by the gifts of the associate. Thanks to this institute they could have each day, in case of illness, a sum of four carlines (about one-third of a dollar); should death visit any of the members, a respectable funeral was afforded them costing the institute eighteen ducats; and they had the further privilege, which was much sought after, of being interred in the church of the Gesù Nuovo (see Brevi notizie, pp. 131-6). He established also in the Gesù one of the most important and beneficial works of the professed house of Naples, the general Communion on the third Sunday of each month (Brevi notizie, 126). He was an indefatigable preacher, and often spoke forty times in one day, choosing those streets which he knew to be the centre of some secret scandal. His short, energetic, and eloquent sermons touch the guilty consciences of his hearers, and worked miraculous conversion. The rest of the week, not given over to labour in the city, was spent visiting the environs of Naples; on some occasions passing through no less than fifty hamlets a day, he preached in the streets, the public squares, and the churches. The following Sunday he would have the consolation of seeing at the Sacred Table crowds of 11,000, 12,000, and even 13,000 persons; according to his biographer there were ordinarily 15,000 men present at the monthly general Communion.
But his work par excellence was giving missions in the open air and in the low quarters of the city of Naples. His tall figure, ample brow, large dark eyes, and aquiline nose, sunken cheeks, pallid countenance, and looks that spoke of his ascetic austerities produced a wonderful impression. The people crushed forward to meet him, to see him, to kiss his hand, and to touch his garments. When he exhorted sinners to repentance, he seemed to acquire a power that was more than natural, and his feeble voice became resonant and awe-inspiring. "He is a lamb, when he talks", the people said, "but a lion when he preaches". Like the ideal popular preacher he was, when in the presence of an audience as fickle and impressionable as the Neapolitans, Francis left nothing undone that could strike their imaginations. At one time he would bring a skull to the pulpit, and showing it to his hearers would drive home the lesson he wished to impart; at another, stopping suddenly in the middle of his discourse, he would uncover his shoulders and scourge himself with an iron chain until he bled. The effect was irresistible: young men of evil lives would rush forward and follow the example of the preacher, confessing their sins aloud; and abandoned women would cast themselves before the crucifix, and cut off their long hair, giving expression to their bitter sorrow and repentance. This apostolic labour in union with the cruel penance and the ardent spirit of prayer of the saint worked wonderful results amid the slaves of sin and crime. Thus the two refuges in Naples contained in a short time 250 penitents each; and in the Asylum of the Holy Ghost he sheltered for a while 190 children of these unfortunates, preserving them thereby from the danger of afterwards following the shameful tradition of their mothers. He had the consolation of seeing twenty-two of them embrace the religious life. So also he changed the royal convict ships, which were sinks of iniquity, into refuges of Christian peace and resignation; and he tells us further that he brought many Turkish and Moorish slaves to the true faith, and made use of the pompous ceremonials at their baptisms to strike the heart and imaginations of the spectators (Breve notizie, 121-6).
Whatever time was unoccupied by his town missions he devoted to giving country or village missions of four, eight, or ten days, but never more; here and there he gave a retreat to a religious community, but in order to save his time he would not hear their confessions [cf. Recueil de lettres per le Nozze Malvezzi Hercolani (1876), p. 28]. To consolidate the great he work tried to establish everywhere an association of St. Francis Xavier, his patron and model; or else a congregation of the Blessed Virgin. For twenty-two years he preached her praises every Tuesday in the Neapolitan Church, known by the name of St. Mary of Constantinople. Although he engaged in such active exterior work, St. Francis had a mystical soul. He was often seen walking through the streets of Naples with a look of ecstasy on his face and tears streaming from his eyes; his companion had constantly to call his attention to the people who saluted him, so that Francis finally decided to walk bare-headed in public. He had the reputation at Naples of being a great miracle-worker, and his biographers, as those who testified during the process of his canonization, did not hesitate to contribute to him a host of wonders and cures of all kinds. His obsequies were, for the Neopolitans, the occasion of a triumphant procession; and had it not been for the intervention of the Swiss Guard, the zeal of his followers might have exposed the remains to the risk of desecration. In all the streets and squares of Naples, in every part of the suburbs, in the smallest neighboring hamlets, everyone spoke of the holiness, zeal, eloquence, and inexhaustible charity of the deceased missionary. The ecclesiastical authorities soon recognized that the cause of his beatification should be begun. On 2 May, 1758, Benedict XIV declared that Francis de Geranimo had practiced the theological and cardinal virtues in a heroic degree. He would have been beatified soon afterwards only for the storm that assailed the Society of Jesus about this time and ended in its suppression. Pius VII could not proceed with the beatification until 2 May, 1806; and Gregory XVI canonized the saint solemnly on 26 May, 1839.
St. Francis de Geronimo wrote little. Some of his letters have been collected by his biographers and inserted in their works; for his writings, cf. Sommervogel, "Bibl. de la Comp de Jésus", new ed., III, column 1358. We must mention by itself the account he wrote to his superiors of the fifteen most laborious years of his ministry, which has furnished the materials for the most striking details of this sketch. The work dates from October 1693. The saint modestly calls it "Brevi notizie della cose di gloria di Dio accadute negli exercizi delle sacri missioni di Napoli da quindici anni in quâ, quanto si potuto richiamare in memoria". Boero published it in S. Francesco di Girolamo, e le sue missioni dentro e fuori di Napoli", p. 67-181 (Florence, 1882). The archives of the Society of Jesus contain a voluminous collection of his sermons, or rather developed plans of his sermons. It is well to recall this proof of the care he took in preparing himself for the ministry of the pulpit, for his biographers are wont to dwell on the fact that his eloquent discourses were extemporaneous.
Sources
Copyright © 2020 by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
(also known as Francis Jerome)
Born at Grottaglie, near Taranto, Italy, in 1642; died 1716; canonized in 1839. Francis was the oldest of 11 children. Once he had received his first communion at age 12, he was received into the house of some secular priests. Recognizing his intelligence, the fathers promoted him to teaching catechism, and he received the tonsure at 16. He accompanied one of his brothers to Naples. While his brother wanted to study under an eminent painter, Francis went learn canon and civil law.
In 1666, he was ordained a priest under a special dispensation because he was under 24. He taught in the Jesuit Collegio dei Nobili for five years. At 28, having persuaded his family to consent, he entered the Society of Jesus. During his first year of novitiate, he was severely tested by his superiors, but he received their complete approval by the time he finished, and they sent to help the preacher Father Agnello Bruno in his mission work. For three years the two worked tirelessly and with great success, primarily among the peasants in the province of Otranto. Francis was then recalled to Naples, finished his theological studies, and was professed.
He was appointed preacher at the church known as the Gesu Nuovo in Naples. From the start, he attracted huge crowds. He was commissioned to train other missionaries and conducted at least one hundred missions in the provinces. His very effective preaching was marked by brevity and vigor: He was, it is said, 'a lamb when he talks and a lion when he preaches.' In search of sinners he penetrated into prisons, the brothels, and the galleys, and continued his missions in hamlets, back lanes, and at street corners. He converted 20 Turkish prisoners on a Spanish galley.
One of his most interesting penitents was a Frenchwoman, Mary Alvira Cassier. She had murdered her father and served in the Spanish army, impersonating a man. Under Francis, she repented and became very devout.
He rescued many children from dangerous surroundings, opened a charitable pawnshop, and organized an association of workingmen to help the Jesuit fathers in their work.
Although Francis was credited with miracles, he disclaimed that they were due to his own powers, attributing numerous cures to the intercession of Saint Cyrus, for whom he had a special devotion. He died at age 74, after a painful illness, and at his funeral all the poor of Naples thronged around his coffin. His remains were interred in the Jesuit Church of Naples (Attwater, Benedictines, Walsh, White).
SOURCE : http://www.saintpatrickdc.org/ss/0511.shtml
Uno dei ritratti più antichi del santo (1771) conservato a Napoli nella Quadreria dei Girolamini e maschera in cera del santo realizzata il giorno della morte e conservata nel santuario di Grottaglie
But not only was virtue thus the inheritance of our saint, and as it were the natural growth of his soul, but it sprung up therein with an energy that early developed the rich qualities of the soil it occupied. A judgment beyond his years, a sweet submission and obedience to his parents, a virginal modesty, and an ardent love of prayer and retirement, marked the childhood of the saint, and betokened his future greatness and sanctity. At a proper age the holy youth was admitted to the sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist; from which moment his hunger and thirst for this sacred banquet constantly increased, drew him to its participation as often as possible, and nourished in him that love for our Lord, which kept him ever in communion with the Spouse of souls. His pious parents were careful to cultivate the extraordinary talents with which God had blessed him, by procuring him early instruction. He was taught the rudiments of the Latin tongue, which he acquired with surprising facility; and so quickly did he learn, and so correctly retain, the truths of religion, that already, in his tender years, he commenced his apostolic career, by teaching the children of his own age their catechism. When he was sixteen years of age, his parents, ever watchful over his interests, sent him to Taranto, that he might study philosophy and theology in the schools of the Society of Jesus. Here his exemplary conduct won for him the esteem and affection of his venerable archbishop, who, more and more persuaded of his worthiness, advanced him successively to the minor orders, subdeaconship and deaconship. With the consent of his parents he went to Naples, in order to acquire the canon and civil law, at the same time that he prosecuted the study of theology. But what Francis had most at heart-to complete the dedication of himself to God-occupied his first thoughts on arriving at Naples. Wherefore, procuring dimissorial letters from his archbishop, and a dispensation from the pope, on account of his age, he received priest's orders from the hands of Don Sanchez de Herrera, bishop of Possuoli. Deeply penetrated with a sense of the awful responsibility he had assumed, and the exalted dignity with which he was invested, Francis, although pure and holy and studious before, became now more watchful, fervent, and assiduous, and dreaded lest the shadow of imperfection should obscure for a moment the virginal purity of his soul. And though he lived in the world as one not belonging to the world, still he was now anxious to quit it entirely, and to betake himself to some solitude far removed from its dissipations and the breath of its polluted atmosphere, where he might have full leisure to attend to his advancement in learning and sanctity. Heaven granted the wish of its favored servant. A prefect's post became vacant in the College of Nobles of the Society of Jesus. Francis applied for, and obtained it. The youths who were submitted to his care, were not slow to discover that a saint had been set over them. His countenance and demeanor, his amiable manners and sweet and pious conversation, the austerities and mortifications which all his efforts did not entirely conceal, soon manifested the exalted degree of perfection which he had attained.
After five years' residence there, in the situation of prefect, our saint, in his twenty-eighth year, felt a sudden and strong inclination to enter the Society. Indeed, he had all the qualifications requisite to become a member, and though the idea presented itself to him for the first time, his mind was prepared to receive it with avidity, from the sentiments which he had long cherished, and which his education among the Jesuits, and his long connection since with the order, had considerably strengthened. But now an obstacle arose, which it cost the saint no little pains to overcome. This was his father's opposition to the step. He wrote Francis a long and vehement letter, full of pathetic remonstrances, which the saint so affectionately and eloquently answered, as at least to subdue his reluctance, and induce him to acquiesce in the will of God. Thus all difficulties being removed, on the eve of the Visitation of Our Lady, in the year 1670, being then in his twenty-eighth year, he repaired to the house of probation to perform his novitiate.
No sooner did Francis find himself admitted among the novices, and bearing the sacred habit, than his soul burst into lively effusions of gratitude; and with such zeal did he apply himself to the duties now imposed upon him, that the master of the novices soon perceived what an acquisition the Society had made. A more fervent, mortified, and obedient novice than Francis, never was found. He scrupulously complied with the minutes" and most irksome ordinances. Being of a meek and affable disposition, he won the hearts of others by his amiable conduct; and, being appointed to preside over the lay-novices, his exalted virtues and profound spirituality speedily wrought a beneficial change in their dispositions. Armed at all points, and strengthened against every assailant, he issued from the first year of his novitiate, exulting like a giant, to run the career of apostolic virtue. He was sent to Leece, together with the celebrated Father Agnello Bruno, and during three years, these holy missionaries traversed every city and village in the two provinces of Terra d'Otranto, and in that of Apulia, preaching, and converting, wherever they went, an infinite number of sinners. It used to be said of them, "Father Bruno and Father Girolamo seem not mere mortals, but angels sent expressly to save souls." In 1674, our saint was recalled to Naples, in order to finish his course of scholastic theology, previous to his being solemnly professed. When his studies were completed, he was, in 1675, by a special disposition of Providence, appointed to the church called the Gesu Nuovo, where he commenced the labors of that apostolic career, which he continued for forty years, without intermission, unto the close of his earthly pilgrimage. For the first three years, indeed, his only fixed duty was to give the invitation to communion, as is the custom in that church, on the third Sunday of every month; which task, however, is arduous enough to discourage any but a most zealous laborer. Yet, oven this and the other incessant works of charity in which he spent these three years, could not satisfy the cravings of our saint's zeal. Wherefore, on the news reaching him that the mission of Japan was once more to be opened, he importuned the superiors, by letters dispatched to Rome, to let him have a part in this glorious enterprise, so that he might slake, in some degree, the burning thirst which devoured him. For his desire had ever been to die for the faith, yet was he content to linger out a painful life, amidst the thorns of martyrdom, even though it should be denied him to pluck the rose he so much coveted. The answer came, precise and peremptory. He was to consider Naples as his <India>, and to perfect the sacrifice he had made of himself to God, by the surrender of his inclinations. Thenceforward he looked upon Naples as that province in the vineyard of our Lord, which the divine husbandman wished him to exclusively cultivate. Such was the sovereign will of God, manifested in the command of his superiors, and in which our humble saint acquiesced without hesitation; nor was that Providence, which rules events, slow in carrying its purpose into effect.
The superiors, in 1678, confided the whole mission to Francis. Here it may be proper to describe the duties such a charge imposed. First, to watch over and maintain the fervor of a pious congregation, who assisted at all the processions, and were the right arm of the missionary: secondly, to preach every Sunday and festival-day during the year, in the squares or other frequented parts of the city; and this not only in Naples, but also in other towns and provinces of the kingdom. And thirdly, to give the monthly invitations to communion. Our saint undertook the first of these obligations with an ardor only surpassed by the success which attended his efforts. He reformed all abuses, and excluded every imperfection that could retard the spiritual advancement of his scholars. He introduced, or established among them, the custom of frequenting the sacraments every Sunday, and on all the festivals of our Lady, and the practice of mental as well as vocal prayer, and of public penance and humiliation. The law of the Gospel he was careful to instil into them by frequent exhortations, and he gave efficacy to his precepts by his example. But as the members of this confraternity were destined to be his partners and coadjutors in the apostolic ministry, he was, above all, assiduous in kindling and keeping alive the flames of zeal in their breasts; so that they became his zealous and indefatigable assistants. Besides this, he chose seventy-two of the most efficient and capable, with whom he held counsel twice a month, and sent them into the heart of the city, to spy out the evil that existed, and learn what souls stood most in need of ghostly and bodily succor. The vigilance he exercised over all, extended to each in particular. With marvellous dexterity he practiced what St. Basil calls the insinuating arts of grace. His charity also and forbearance were unbounded: in sickness he never abandoned them a moment, but continued his affectionate attentions to the last. Another practice, to which he had recourse, to promote piety, was the visit to the seven churches, in commemoration of our Redeemer's seven journeys. This was performed in the following manner: a procession, carrying the crucifix, chanted the litanies as they went, and at every church where they stopped, Francis delivered an impressive exhortation. The devotion terminated with a renewal of the oblation each one made of himself, to our Lord Jesus and our Lady, with vows of perpetual fidelity.
The second duty, of preaching in public, embraced a much more extensive range, and required a proportionately greater degree of toil. When the Sunday came, he first spent two hours in mental prayer, then said Mass, and afterwards recited the Canonical Hours, bareheaded and kneeling, either in his room, or in the church before the blessed Sacrament. His private devotions being satisfied, he spent the rest of the morning in the Confessional, or with his congregation. At the appointed hour the saint and his companions went into the streets in procession, and then, distributing themselves in divers parts, began to preach to the people. Francis usually mounted a stage, near or opposite to the dancers or mountebanks, who either slunk away at his approach, or vainly strove, through rage and spite, to distract the attention of the audience, who were fascinated by his eloquence. After the discourse, he would kneel at the foot of the cross, and scourge his shoulders with the discipline: then once more he betook himself to the Confessional, where he remained till the doors of the church were closed. Still his ardor longed for more extensive occupation; and, with the approbation of the superiors, and the concurrence of his companions, he repeated the missionary labors on holidays, during the week as well as Sundays.
The third duty annexed to his charge was the invitation to communion. For nine days preceding the third Sunday of every month he went about the principal streets, along with a few companions; by ringing a little bell, he gave notice of the approaching day of communion; and, to excite the attention of his hearers, recited, in a loud voice, some short, but sententious maxim or admonition from Holy Writ. Thus he continued all the morning until dinner-hour, and after noon resumed his task with never-wearying zeal till nightfall.
In the suburbs, also, of Naples, he performed this laborious duty; nor is it easy to conceive the pains and privations it cost him; how, under the scorching sun, or pouring rain, he journeyed through marshes, over rocks, oft times to the peril of life and limb, and always on foot, until, in his latter days, he was constrained to ride. When the day arrived, and from fifteen to twenty thousand communicants appeared, Francis used his strenuous efforts to keep order among them. The troops of men and women who came from the adjoining towns and villages, he received at the door, and placed in their respective posts. The children, crowned with cowers, were welcomed by him with tears of joy; but it was in imparting to them the life-giving food, that his soul overflowed with tenderness, and the love of Jesus beamed from his countenance, and thrilled in the fervid expressions with which he excited their devotion. Such were the labors of our saint's mission, and such the manner he discharged them. On the feast of the Immaculate Conception of our Lady, in the year 1682, Francis made his solemn profession; on which occasion he manifested that humility which distinguished him, by falling on his knees in public, and kissing the feet of the superior, thanking him aloud for admitting so unworthy a member into the society.
Before we enter further into the detail of his apostolic career, it may not be improper to give some notions of that quality whereby he wrought so many wonders,—his extraordinary eloquence. His voice was loud and sonorous, and was heard distinctly at a great distance; and the style of his preaching was copious, simple, and impressive. No one ever knew the human passions better, or swayed them with more tact and delicacy. Sometimes he stole upon his hearers with an insinuating grace, that charmed them almost unconsciously into persuasion, at other times, he would pour out such a volley of arguments, sustained by suitable quotations from Scripture, or the fathers, and illustrated by all the images of a lively fancy, so as to overpower all opposition, and force conviction on the most stubborn. His descriptions were forcible and graphic; his pathetic appeals were sure to draw tears, and his energy astounded and terrified. Indeed, he was accustomed to speak with so much vehemence, as occasionally to bring blood to his lips: he often talked himself hoarse, and till his palate was parched; and once, in the midst of an animated invective against sins, he dropped down suddenly and swooned away. The method he ordinarily pursued in his discourses, was first to paint the enormous malice of sin and the terrors of the Divine judgments, in colors so striking as to raise self-indignation and alarm in sinners. Then, changing his tone with a master-skill, he dwelt upon the sweetness and mildness of Jesus Christ, so as to make despair give way to hope, and the most hardened melt into compunction. This moment he seized, to make an appeal so tender and so overpowering as to cause his hearers to bend their knees before the image of their crucified Lord, and implore, in tears, and sobs, and broken accents, forgiveness and reconciliation. It was usual for him to subjoin, at the conclusion, some striking example of God's chastisements or favors, whereby his audience might carry away a deeper and more lively impression of the truths he had just been inculcating. His eloquence, however, was less the result of any natural talent, than of his ardent love of God and zeal for his service. When he was to preach, he used to note down in few words his arguments, authorities, and examples; and at the foot of the crucifix, he prepared himself to treat on his affairs with men, by communing with God. Thence, like another Moses, he descended—all on fire from his colloquy with the Deity; and it seemed as if God himself often inspired him with expressions of supernatural efficacy.
It was matter of surprise to all who knew him, how he could possibly go through so many labors, which were more than sufficient to occupy five missionaries, and far beyond the natural strength of his weak constitution and emaciated frame; so that it was not unreasonably thought, that to prolong such exertions for the space of forty years, he must have been supported by a miracle. He was in constant attendance on the hospitals, prisons, and galleys, besides visiting the sick in their houses, and ministering to the spiritual necessities of monasteries, asylums, confraternities, and schools. The consequence of these labors was the amendment of numberless sinners; the conversion of several Turkish infidels to the faith of Jesus Christ; and the introduction of a surprising regularity of manner in those habitual abodes of wretchedness and vice—the galleys and the prisons. His zeal also reclaimed the soldiery from a state of the greatest disorder to the most edifying piety. Still, however, his ardor, which knew no bounds, thirsted for more fruit; accordingly he used to go and preach, during the night, in the very hotbeds and receptacles of vice, that sinners might be awed into repentance by the novelty and solemnity of this warning, at the hour when they least apprehended interruption. Once our saint, being in prayer in his chamber, felt a sudden inspiration to go out and preach, which, by the advice of his superiors, he obeyed. For some time, he wandered in the dark—he knew not whither, till he came to the corner of a street, where he began to preach on the necessity of immediate correspondence with the divine grace; and having finished, returned home, satisfied with having complied with his duty, though ignorant to what purpose, or with what fruit. The next morning, however, a young woman came to him to confession; and, with signs of the bitterest compunction, told him that when in company, the evening before with her paramour, her attention was suddenly arrested by his voice in the street, denouncing God's vengeance against unrepenting and procrastinating sinners, which so terrified her that she began to exhort her partner in guilt to break off their unlawful intercourse. To this, however, he would by no means consent, and even laughed at and derided the holy man's threats: when, to her horror, she beheld their awful fulfilment. For the man suddenly ceasing to speak, she found him a breathless corpse; his soul having taken its flight to God's tribunal, while the words of blasphemy were yet upon his lips. Plunged into the greatest alarm by this catastrophe, she implored pardon of God, with sighs and tears, and now came to effect her reconciliation, and to expiate her past scandals by a life of penance.
Francis had to experience many mortifying contradictions. Yielding to certain representations, the cardinal archbishop forbade him to preach any more. The humble saint uttered no complaint or remonstrance, but consoled his zeal by a perpetual attendance in the confessional. Soon after, moved by the conduct of the saint, as well as by the entreaties of wiser and more virtuous advisers, who assured him that he was depriving Naples of its apostle, the cardinal gave Francis back his faculties. For the purpose of proving his virtue, the superior forbade him to quit the house without obtaining express permission—a command with which Francis for several months scrupulously complied; till she father, edified by his humility, and convinced of his virtue, removed the restraint. Even the lay-brother who was assigned him, being a man of morose temper, was a great cause of trouble to him. Where his zeal thought to effect most good, it often met with the harshest construction and reproof. He was abused as a meddling busybody-a disturber of the public quiet. He was often overwhelmed with outrages, and more than once turned out of doors. A certain cavalier had such an aversion for him, that he could not bear his presence. A large sum was entrusted to Francis for this person, with whom he more than once sought an interview, without being able to attain it. "Well!" said the cavalier, who admitted him at last, "what brings you here? the usual story! charity, I suppose—I've nothing for you." My lord duke," replied the saint, "I certainly have a small favor to ask, which is, that you would exercise your benevolence so far as to furnish a poor person with money to purchase a bed to sleep upon. And this cannot inconvenience you, for in the purse I here present, you will find two hundred ducats, which I have been the means of restoring to you." The cavalier exclaimed, in a rage: "That's not all." "Nay," replied the saint, "I know nothing, but that such a sum was given to me." "And by whom?" "I cannot inform you." Whereupon he snatched the purse out of his hands, and turning his back upon him, left him to depart. But not long after he had occasion to recall him: for falling dangerously ill, he was anxious to conciliate the man he had so grossly insulted; and though he was then forty miles distant from Naples, he sent for him. The saint assisted him at the hour of his death, to his great spiritual advantage and consolation.
His charity, indeed, towards those who injured him, was remarkable. Attempting one day to quell a strife among some soldiers, he received from one of them a blow upon the head that drew blood copiously: and when the captain, hearing of it, would have punished the man severely for the sacrilege, our saint did not desist from his entreaties until he obtained his pardon. Even in the tribunal of confession he was not secure from insults. Two poor women had come from a great distance to confession, and were anxious to get home early, as there was no one to take care of their houses in their absence. Whereupon the saint requested a man, who was also waiting, to allow them precedence. This he did, but with a very bad grace. He even threw out a slanderous insinuation against the saint, who, after he had dismissed the women, heard the confession of this very man, and treated him with so much sweetness and charity, that he sent him away with an altered temper and feelings of esteem and admiration.
One of the most frequent and effectual instruments which our saint employed for the sanctification of souls, were the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius. It is impossible to conceive with what energy and fruit he delivered the meditations which compose this course of Christian philosophy. Often he was obliged to interrupt his discourses, that the sighs, tears, and, sobs which they occasioned, might subside. Private individuals, as well as communities-ignorant and learned-the aged and the young of both sexes, alike profited by his exhortations, and to such a pitch of enthusiasm did he excite tile compunction of sinners, that they openly declared their offences and inflicted severe chastisements upon themselves, so that sometimes it was necessary to restrain their ardor. Nor was this a transient effect, but a durable benefit; hence followed many conversions of sinners, who for ten, twenty, or thirty, or even fifty years, had thrown off the yoke of religion. Indeed, Francis possessed a wonderful tact in bringing back sinners to duty, as the following examples will show.
A certain man had not been to the sacraments for five-and-twenty years; at length, admonished more than once in a dream to have recourse to our saint, he obeyed, to his own great happiness and the glory of Our Lady, to whose mercy he was indebted for the admonition. Another, commencing his confession, was asked by the saint, how long it was since he had last made it; whereat he burst into tears, and besought the holy mall not to dismiss him, for that he was a great sinner; but he, bidding him not be discouraged, asked him if it was ten, twenty, or fifty years? "Fifty," said he, "exactly, father, have I kept aloof from God." "Kept aloof from God?" repeated Francis, "why should you avoid so tender a parent-a Saviour, who has poured out the last drop of his blood for you? Nay, rather turn and meet Him who has been running after you so long." And the man confessed with sincerity and compunction all the crimes he had committed, and thenceforward led a virtuous life. An inveterate sinner was once dying, without giving any sign of hope, or manifesting a wish to repent. After Francis had urged him long in vain to confide in the mercies of God, suddenly changing his tone, he thus addressed him: "Do you think that God incurs any obligation, if you accept his offer of Paradise; or that he must needs mourn if you prefer hell? how many princes and nobles are lost, whom God suffers to perish; and do you suppose God cares more for you? If <you> will be damned, be so;" and he turned away from him. This sudden and impressive address wrought a wonderful change in the dying man, who in agony of grief and alarm, besought the saint not to abandon him. He then confessed his sins, with every demonstration of sincere contrition, and expired full of hope. Indeed, no heart, however hardened, could withstand the exhortations of the holy man. A young man once threw himself at the feet of the saint, exclaiming: "Father, behold here, not a human being, but a very demon: a soul abandoned to despair. Many years ago, a confessor denied me absolution; I have never since confessed, never heard mass, never entered a church, or even as much as recited a Hail Mary, or made the sign of the cross. Alas, I have even gone so far in wickedness as to league myself with Satan, and to have recourse to his aid, through those who are skilled in the black art. Can I, after such a life, presume to hope; dare I ask for mercy?" "Why not, my son?" replied Francis: "it is true thy crimes are great, yet cloth the mercy of God surpass their magnitude: was it not for sinners that Jesus Christ died? There is yet pardon for thee, if thou wilt seek it earnestly, and fervently, and set about reforming instantly thy life." These consoling words revived the sinner, long dead in iniquity, and gave to God a persevering penitent.
Still more remarkable is the following occurrence, which the saint was accustomed to relate in his public sermons. One day a young man presented himself before him, with a grave and devout air: "Father," said he, "I am come to declare to you the wonders of God's mercy in my regard, and to beseech you both to return him thanks for his signal favors, and to counsel me how I may best profit by them. Many years have elapsed since I was addicted to a certain vice, which struck such deep root into my soul, that God permitted my reason to be clouded, and my heart to be changed, so that I fancied myself a beast. In this persuasion I stripped myself of clothing, and wandered through the fields, and crawled along the ground exposed to the sun and rain, the frost and the snow, in company with the irrational animals, partaking their food, and imitating their cries. After a year of this life it pleased God to take compassion on me, and to restore me to my reason. Words cannot describe the confusion and shame I felt. I clearly perceived that it had been a punishment of my sins. I made the best confession I was able, as soon as I could, and have lived ever since, by God's grace, up to his divine laws. What think you-hath he not used unparalleled mercy towards me?" Our saint, embracing him, said: "In very deed cloth the sinner become like the brute beast, that hath no understanding." He approved his present conduct, confirmed his sentiments, and comforted him by the assurance that God would never withdraw his grace from him, so long as he was faithful to his resolutions.
An assassin, who had been hired to murder some persons, passing a crowd to whom the saint was preaching, stopped on his road, saying within himself, "Perhaps he whom I seek is among this multitude." Whereupon he stood to observe, and could not help hearing the discourse of the preacher, and hearing, was, as it were, spell-bound to the spot. When suddenly these words caught his ear—"thousands bewail past sins, and cost thou, wretched sinner, meditate new crimes? Unhappy creature whom neither the arm of God outstretched to launch his thunderbolts, nor hell opening beneath Thy feet to swallow thee, can deter from thy wickedness!" His guilty conscience smote him, his heart turned away from evil, he confessed his enormities, and from a murderer became a saint. A youth of disordered life was so moved by another sermon of Francis, that overcoming every human respect, he cast himself in public at the foot of the crucifix, and exclaimed—" Father, I am lost: for nearly twenty years I have not been to a confessor," and so saving, wept bitterly, and lashed himself with the discipline. Then, accompanying the confraternity to the Gesu Nuovo, he sought Francis, who embraced him like a tender father, and exhorted him to have confidence in God, with whom he was instrumental in reconciling him. The young man not only forsook his former vicious habits, but exhibited a model of repentance, and persevered in an exemplary life. But if, on the one hand, the happiest results were experienced by all who attended to his counsels, on the other, grievous chastisements often befell those who neglected or despised his warnings. A youth of depraved conduct had the effrontery to laugh at and deride his remonstrances, and even dared to heap abuse upon him. Francis bore all meekly, in imitation of our Blessed Saviour, "who when he was reviled, did not revile;" but God would not suffer such a crime to go unpunished, for shortly after the young man perished miserably in a riot. But it is now time to take a rapid view of his labors out of Naples.
The fame of his great achievements in this city occasioned earnest solicitations to be made, that the fields of his exertions might be extended to the provinces. But Naples was by no means willing to surrender its apostle, even for a short time; and the intervention of several distinguished persons was requisite to effect the desired object. In upwards of a hundred missions which Francis undertook in consequence, he traversed all the provinces of the kingdom, with the exception of the Calabrias. Incredible were the hardships and privations he encountered,—the difficulties and obstacles he surmounted in the execution of this work of charity. Wherever he went, the clergy and most respectable inhabitants came out to meet him, and gave him an honorable reception. Without however losing a moment, the indefatigable servant of God commenced his career by an introductory discourse and an invocation of the tutelar saint and guardian angels of the place. At daybreak he celebrated mass, and spent the remainder of the morning in a manner somewhat similar to that already described, in speaking of his mist signs in Naples. It was an edifying and affecting sight, to witness the communion of the children, and the procession of penitents through the streets. But when at length he came to give the concluding discourse, and to repeat his farewell admonitions, then was it that the fruit of his exertions was perceptible. The seed of grace, which had struck deep root, gave signs of vigorous growth and duration; for when he exhorted the people to perseverance, with one voice they promised to preserve inviolably their engagements; and when he imparted his last blessing, with his customary "adieu, to meet again in Paradise," no words can describe, no imagination is able to conceive, the emotions of the multitude.
Not always, however, did Francis meet with such consoling encouragement to his zeal. The devil, raging to behold so many souls redeemed from his snares by the active charity of the holy man, spared no pains to molest and baffle him, by raising against him hosts of enemies, who threw discredit, upon his conduct, fomented suspicions and jealousies, and waged war against him by every possible art that bad passions or his own malignant spirit could suggest. Hence it not infrequently happened that he experienced insults instead of welcome, on his arrival at places where calumnies had beforehand been industriously spread. Sometimes he found no attention paid to his exhortations; yet, finally, his invincible forbearance and persevering charity, his saintly demeanor-itself a confutation of his calumniators-triumphed over all opposition. Few details respecting these memorable missions have been recorded, but some, preserved by the testimony of eye-witnesses, have been rescued from the oblivion of time.
When the holy man was on his way to Capua, the carriage stuck in a deep ditch, and resisted all the efforts of the driver to extricate it. Whereupon, after the manner of this class of persons, he began to curse and swear. "O my son," cried the saint, "blaspheme not, for God's sake." "Why, father," said the man, would not a saint swear in such an infernal hobble, with nobody near, nor a chance of any one's coming to assist us?" "Have patience," rejoined the holy man; and as he was yet speaking, two robust young men, turning the corner of the road, volunteered their services and relieved the travellers from their difficulty; after which, without waiting to be thanked, they disappeared. Wherever he went he reconciled enemies, converted sinners, besides performing many prodigies.
He had to contend against obstacles of another description. He applied to Monsignor Capece, bishop of Cheti, a capital town of the Abruzzi, for leave to preach there. "Certainly," replied the bishop; "but, Father Francis, you must be forewarned ours is a sensible and cultivated city, accustomed and able to weigh well the force of reason; and therefore you will at once perceive that certain addresses to the senses, such as the exposition of the crucifix, or images of the Virgin and other saints,—things admirable in themselves, would here be quite out of place, and calculated to do more harm than good." "Your lordship's wishes shall assuredly be attended to," said the humble saint, "till such time at least as you yourself shall deem it proper to recall them."
Not long after this the prelate felt an acute pain, for which he could not account; but as his conscience troubled him, he sent word to the saint, that in regard to the subject of their conversation he might use his discretion. The bishop had himself more than one occasion of witnessing the fruit which the practices he was disposed to condemn invariably produced; and Francis knew so well how to employ them, that the mission of Cheti succeeded beyond the most sanguine expectations. With the like fruit did Francis perform the missions in various other towns, working conversions and prodigies too numerous to he here mentioned.
It would be superfluous to enlarge upon the particular virtues of our saint; his public life being rather the subject of this history. Yet are we unwilling to pass over unnoticed, his great and fervent love of Jesus Christ. Especially he honored and worshipped him in his divine infancy, his sacred passion, and his adorable sacrament. When he meditated upon these mysteries, he was always absorbed and penetrated with love; and when he approached the sacrament of the altar, his countenance glowed, as though he stood before a fire. Nothing provoked his indignation, or drew down his severe rebuke, so much as disrespect towards the blessed Eucharist. He removed many abuses: he would not suffer any levity in the church; and once reproved a lady of quality who had remained seated during the consecration. In like manner he was tenderly devoted to our blessed Lady. For twenty-two years he preached a sermon in her praise and honor every week. To youth especially, it was his custom to recommend this devotion as the surest preservation of innocence, and the best remedy after sin: saying that one could hardly be saved who felt no devotion towards the Mother of God.
Mary was his counsellor in doubt, his comfort in toil, his strength in all his enterprises, his refuge in danger and distress. He experienced an inexpressible delight whenever he recited the rosary of our tender Mother. He was likewise particularly devoted to his angel guardian, to St. Francis Xavier, and St. Januarius. His charity, humility, purity, and obedience, were never surpassed; nor did God withhold from him those gifts with which he is pleased at times to favor his chosen servants.
Our saint was favored with the foreknowledge of his dissolution. On the death of his brother he observed, "A year hence we shall meet;" and while he was still in health, taking leave of the nuns of St. Mary del Divino Amore—" My dear daughters," said he, "this is the last time I shall ever address you. Do not forget me in your prayers; adieu till we meet in Paradise." When he was sick, the festival of St. Cyr drawing near, "I shall not live to see it," he exclaimed. And finally, when the physician that attended him paid him his last visit, he thanked him for his attentions, and said:—"We shall never see each other again on this side of the grave, for Monday will be the last day of my life."
During the month of March, 1715, at the beginning of Lent, he was, for the third time, giving the retreat to the students of the noble college, when suddenly he felt a racking fever assail his limbs, insomuch that he was obliged to be carried home. In a few days, however, it was somewhat subdued; and, though weak, he resumed his usual labors. Still his health declined, and towards December his constitution appeared quite broken down. Anxious to preserve so valuable a life, the superior sent him to take the mineral waters of Puzzuoli. But he experienced not the smallest benefit; and in March, 1716, on his return to Naples, he took up his abode in the infirmary. The agonies he suffered are not to be expressed; and yet a murmur never escaped him. "Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who consoles us in all tribulation," was his constant exclamation. When some one approached to sympathize with him, the heroic man crossed his hands on his breast, saying: "Crescant in mille millia." He was told of the great good he had achieved. "Nothing, nothing," he cried, "the fault I have most to apprehend is my slothfulness."
Death now began to hasten on apace; wherefore, on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, making a general confession, he received the viaticum; and six days later was anointed. All night long, he gave vent to the fulness of his heart in such expressions as the following-" Let us bless the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; let us praise and exalt Him forever. Great is the Lord, and exceedingly to be praised, in the city of our God, on his holy mountain." Then kissing the wounds of his crucified Saviour, he cried out, weeping, "Remember, dear Jesus, that this soul has cost the ransom of every drop of thy precious blood." And when the infirmarian entreated him to pray rather with his heart than his lips, by reason of the distress which speaking occasioned him: "Ah, my dear brother," said he, "whatsoever we think, or say of so great a God, his greatness is beyond all thought and expression." Then fixing his eyes upon an image of our Lady: "Ah, Mary," said he, "my dearest mother, thou last ever cherished me like a loving parent, though I have been thy too, too unworthy child. Complete now the measure of thy mercies in my regard, by obtaining for me the love of thy divine Son." Then, as though at the gate of Paradise, he exclaimed, "How great is the house of the Lord! Blessed are they who dwell in Thy house, O Lord; forever and ever shall they sing thy praise. Ye holy angels, why delay ye? Open the gates of Justice. Entering therein, I will praise the Lord."
His malady, however, continued for some days longer. Although he had repeatedly expressed a wish to be left alone, it was impossible to keep away numbers, who pressed to see him for the last time, to kiss his hand, and to receive his farewell blessing. With an amiable sweetness, he welcomed them all; and seeing their sorrow, said:-" Weep not; I go to heaven, where I shall remember you, and be better able to assist you." But what sunshine so serene is not occasionally clouded, what sea so calm as never to be ruffled by a storm? It pleased God to enhance our saint's virtue by submitting it to a dreadful trial. The frame of the holy man shook under the severity of the struggle. With a loud cry he called upon the Almighty, the eternal Son, our Lady, and all the saints, to save him. Being asked the cause of this fearful commotion, "I am fighting," he exclaimed, "fighting! pray for God's sake that I may not perish." Then, as if rebuking the evil spirit, he cried-"No, it shall never be. Begone! I have no part with you." His countenance at last brightening, he repeated softly, "'Tis well, 'tis well!" and so saying, chanted the <Magnificat> and <Te Deum>. He was anxious to receive the holy sacrament; but the superior did not judge it advisable, as he had lately been to communion; and the humble saint acquiesced. He now fell into his agony; the recommendation of a departing soul was recited; and, amidst the tears of his brethren, Francis di Girolamo expired, about mid-day, on Monday, the 11th of May, 1716, in the seventy-fourth year of his age, and the forty-sixth of his religious life, having spent forty years in the labors of an apostolic career.
Although, from a motive of prudence, the superior had forbidden the bell to be tolled, to announce his death, there needed no sound to convey the intelligence through the city; it was read in every countenance, and spread so rapidly, that in a short time the Gesu Nuovo was filled with an immense concourse of people of all classes. The infirmarian being desirous of keeping some relic of so holy a man, before he laid him out in the sacerdotal habit, pared off a piece of the hard skin of the sole of his foot. But the pious theft soon became apparent, though he had used every effort to conceal it; for the blood began to flow so freely from the wound, as not merely to stem the knell, but to fill a vial holding three or four ounces: which portion being preserved, retained during three months its ruddiness and liquidity, and wrought many cures.
In the evening the body was carried into the church, that the office might be chanted, and a detachment of Swiss guards was hardly sufficient to protect it from the indiscreet devotion of the crowd. Indeed, three psalms had scarcely been sung, before they broke through all restraint, and pressed towards the body, eager to carry away some relic, especially to dip their handkerchiefs in the blood, which still streamed from the wound already mentioned. At length, the body was removed into a side-chapel, where it was secured against further violence by iron railing, through which, at the same time, it was visible to all. Still it was impossible to refuse the prayer of several devout persons, to be permitted to approach and kiss the hand or the saint, and at night some artists were admitted to take likenesses and effigies of him. A throng of suppliants crowded to the church next morning, and implored the saint to deliver them from their evils and distempers. Nor were they disappointed. Many cures took place on the spot, and the church again and again echoed with the cry of "A miracle, a miracle." Three days the body was left thus exposed, and the fourth was buried in a leaden coffin. On the 3d of July, 1736, leave being obtained, the coffin of our saint was disinterred, and the body was found mouldered into dust, which was carefully collected, deposited in another coffin of wood lined with brass, and translated from the common cemetery to the chapel of Saint Ignatius.
Numerous miracles quickly spread the fame of his holiness throughout Italy. He was scarcely dead, when the most prudent and virtuous individuals gave him the title of saint: and cardinal Orsini, afterwards Benedict XIII., who was singularly devoted to him, preached his panegyric in the cathedral of Benevento. Not long after his decease, the city of Naples, joined by Benevento, Nola, and several others, petitioned the Congregation of Rites to have him beatified; and the juridical process of his virtues and miracles was drawn up, and sent to Rome by Cardinal Pignatelli, in conjunction with other cardinals, nobles, and magistrates of the kingdom. After the requisite preliminaries, a decree declaring his heroic virtues was published by Benedict XIII., on the 2d of May, 1758. His miracles were approved by another, of Pius VII., dated the 9th of February, 1806, and finally the definitive decree of his beatification was issued by the same pontiff, on the feast of St. Joseph in the same year. He was subsequently canonized by Gregory XVI., on Trinity Sunday, 26th May, 1839.
The martyr sheds his blood but once, and is exalted forever; then what I reward will be prepared for the missionary, who, while he burns to die for I the faith, is yet content to live for the greater honor and glory of God, and the profit of his neighbor? He, therefore, who would imbibe the spirit of zeal, and learn the arts of wisdom necessary in directing souls, should study and contemplate the career of that extraordinary man whose virtues and achievements are the subject of the sketch we here present.
(Taken from Vol. V of "The Lives or the Fathers, Martyrs and Other Principal Saints" by the Rev. Alban Butler, the 1864 edition published by D. & J. Sadlier, & Company)
SOURCE : http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/FRANGIRO.HTM
Santuario di Grottaglie, gruppo scultoreo raffigurante il santo in atto di benedire una famiglia, realizzato (ricordiamo) Orazio Del Monaco ed inserito nella grande nicchia dell’abside.
Saint Francis of Girolamo
- Francis di Girolamo
- Francis de Geronimo
- Francis de Hieronymo
- Franciscus de Hieronymo
- Francis Jerome
- Francis of Jerome
- 17 December 1642 at Grottaglie, Apulia, near Taranto, Italy
_1.jpg)
Carta di Napoli di A. Baratta (1670). Particolare
della Villa di Poggio Reale. 1670
May 11th - Saint Francis Jerome de Geronimo , SJ
Francis Jerome,
the first of eleven children in the De Geronimo family was born in 1642, in
Grottaglie, near Taranto, in southern Italy. Around the age of
ten he went to live with the Theatine Fathers where he served as sacristan in
their church in return for his room and board. Francis often accompanied the
Theatins as a catechist when they conducted missions in the neighbouring towns.
At sixteen when he indicated his intention to be a priest, the Theatins
recommended him to join the Jesuit school in Taranto to begin his classical and
philosophical studies. He went to study civil and church law at the Jesuit
college in Naples in 1665 and in the following year he was asked to act as
prefect for the sons of the Italian nobility attending the school because of
his exemplary conduct. He was ordained in 1666 and began supervising the noble
youths.
As he had known the Jesuits for ten years, Fr Jerome
was inclined to be one of them and thus in 1670, at the age of twenty-eight, he
joined the Jesuit novitiate. After one year, he was sent to the diocese of
Lecce to assist an experienced home missioner in giving retreats and missions
where he stayed for the next three years. After he passed his final examination
in theology in 1676, Fr Jerome was assigned to his “ Naples mission” and began
a most fruitful apostolate that extended over the next forty years until his
death.
Fr Jerome worked with the sodality of artisans who met
in the chapel beneath the Gesu church. It was from this group that he chose
assistants to help him in his apostolate in the city where every Sunday and
holy-day evening, he preached in the city’s public squares or busy
thoroughfares where the masses could easily gather. He was also credited with
the promotion of monthly Communion. In addition, he also visited the slaves and
criminals chained to their places when the fleet of galleys arrived at Naples
Bay and would try to console and relieve their suffering in whatever way he
could, including getting them to leave the ship and attend Mass in a nearby
church.
Although Fr Jerome had great success in his ministry,
he encountered suspicion and jealousy among some ecclesiastics who told the
archbishop that they seriously doubted whether Fr Jerome who was occupied with
street preaching and who was in constant contact with the worst kind of
sinners, was suitable to give retreats to priests and nuns who were striving in
virtue. These complaints led to the severe restriction of Fr Jerome’s ministry.
The archbishop subsequently reinstated him when he learned that the complaints
against Fr Jerome came from prejudiced and jealous individuals. Later his own
Jesuit superior complained that Fr Jerome’s activities took him away from his
Jesuit community functions and henceforth he would have to seek permission for
any activity outside the Jesuit community which were rarely granted. In all
these, the humble Fr Jerome never yielded to depression but viewed them as
years of spiritual growth until the provincial admitted his error and Fr Jerome
was again free to return to his Naples ministry.
From 1702 onwards, Fr Gerome was asked to carry his
mission outside Naples which he did devoting six months each year within Naples
and the other six months as an itinerant preacher outside Naples where his simple
and earnest sermons were warmly accepted. Fr Jerome fell ill from pleurisy in
his last days and succumbed to death on May 9, 1716, with his Jesuit brethren
at the Gesu at his bedside to commend his soul to God. Fr Jerome died at
seventy-four and had been a Jesuit for forty-six years.
SOURCE : https://www.jesuit.org.sg/may-francis-jerome-sj/
Urna contenente i resti mortali di San Francesco de
Geronimo conservata nell'omonimo santuario di Grottaglie
Châsse du saint dans l'église de Grottaglie
FRANCESCO Di Geronimo, Santo
di Giuseppe Castellani - Enciclopedia Italiana (1932)
FRANCESCO Di Geronimo, Santo. - Nato il 17
dicembre 1642 a Grottaglie (Taranto), morto a Napoli l'11 maggio 1716.
Sacerdote e prefetto nel Collegio dei nobili a Napoli, entrò novizio fra i
gesuiti il 1° luglio 1670. Dopo un anno fu mandato a Lecce compagno del
missionario Agnello Bruno, e ivi fece le sue prime prove oratorie, finché nel
1674, richiamato a Napoli, terminò gli studî di teologia, per passare l'anno
seguente al Gesù Nuovo. Nel 1678 gli venne affidata dai superiori l'intera cura
delle missioni nel regno di Napoli, e in tale carica rimase fino alla morte. Pio
VII lo beatificò nel 1806; Gregorio XVI lo canonizzò il 26 maggio 1839. La sua
festa si celebra l'11 maggio.
Restano di lui alcune Brevi notizie sulle
cose principali occorsegli nelle missioni, pubblicate da G. Boero, S. Francesco
di Girolamo e le sue missioni, dentro e fuori di Napoli, Firenze 1882, pp.
67-181, un centinaio di lettere e una voluminosa raccolta di abbozzi per
prediche conservati negli archivî della Compagnia.
Bibl.: Principali biografie quelle dei padri
Sradiotti, Bagnati, de Bonis, degli Oddi; la più completa è di J. Bach, Hist.
de S. F. di G., Metz 1867. Per i mss. vedi C. Sommervogel, Biblioth. de la
C. de J., III, s. v.
FRANCESCODe Geronimo, santo
di Dario Busolini - Dizionario Biografico degli
Italiani - Volume 49 (1997)
FRANCESCODe Geronimo, santo. - Nacque a Grottaglie,
nei pressi di Taranto, il 17 dic. 1642, primo degli undici figli di Giovanni
Leonardo De Geronimo, proprietario terriero titolare di una conceria, e di
Gentilesca di Gravina.
La famiglia di F. viveva nobiliter e contava
propri esponenti nelle maggiori cariche cittadine. Il padre, desideroso che i
suoi figli ricevessero un'istruzione e che tra loro vi fosse il futuro
arciprete di Grottaglie, tra il 1652 e il 1653 affidò il primogenito ad una
congregazione di preti secolari seguaci della spiritualità teatina e dediti
alle missioni rurali, che in paese officiava la chiesa di S. Mattia.
Qui F. ricevette un'istruzione elementare e coltivò,
come chierichetto e sacrestano, la sua futura vocazione. Avuta la prima tonsura
a sedici anni, nel 1659 si recò a studiare a Taranto, nel collegio dei gesuiti,
dove, per la prima volta nella sua vita, portò a termine corsi regolari di
retorica, letteratura e filosofia, al termine dei quali, tra la fine del 1664 e
l'inizio del 1665, fu ordinato suddiacono e diacono.
In quello stesso anno partì per Napoli, desideroso di
arrivare al sacerdozio con una laurea, insieme con il fratello minore Giuseppe
Maria, anch'egli ex alunno dei preti di S. Mattia che, portato alla pittura, i
genitori volevano mandare a bottega da un artista di fama.
I primi tempi del soggiorno napoletano restano in
parte oscuri. Sembra che F. si sia dapprima orientato a studiare diritto
canonico e civile nell'università, tra il 1665 e il 1666, senza però conseguire
la laurea, e che abbia seguito, insieme con il fratello, delle lezioni di
pittura, o almeno di disegno, i cui frutti sono visibili nei raffinati
ornamenti calligrafici che accompagnano alcune sue lettere. A Napoli comunque
maturò la scelta di entrare nella Compagnia di Gesù.
Nel 1666 riuscì ad ottenere, sebbene fosse ancora un
diacono secolare e non un sacerdote come prescritto, il posto di prefetto del
collegio dei nobili, che gli garantiva uno stipendio per mantenersi durante gli
studi di teologia, cominciati contemporaneamente presso il collegio Massimo.
Già il 20 marzo però a Pozzuoli, per quanto avesse appena iniziato lo studio
della materia, venne ordinato sacerdote dal vescovo B. Sanchez de Herrera,
regolarizzando così la sua posizione nel collegio. Per diventare gesuita
dovette attendere ancora e scontrarsi con l'opposizione del padre, il quale
reputava F. adatto alla vita da prete a Grottaglie, che gli avrebbe conferito
una certa autorità, ma non a quella di religioso, dove, pensava, non avrebbe
potuto emergere. Il 1° luglio 1670 F. entrò infine nel noviziato della
Compagnia, dieci giorni dopo l'ingresso del fratello Giuseppe, già membro della
corporazione dei pittori.
Alle soglie dell'ultimo anno di teologia, nel 1672, F.
interruppe nuovamente gli studi perché fu inviato nel collegio di Lecce, come
assegnato alle missioni in Terra d'Otranto e di Bari. L'incarico rispondeva al
suo desiderio di essere mandato in una missione estera ed egli contava di
compiere in Puglia, aiutato dal compagno e amico A. Bruni, una specie di
noviziato missionario.
Il biennio 1672-73 segnò invece il primo incontro con
il mondo delle missioni popolari in patria, che sarà il suo ministero
principale per tutta la vita.
Nelle prime predicazioni di F. già emergono i temi
caratteristici del suo insegnamento: la condanna dell'ipocrisia, il pressante
invito alla conversione dai peccati, la minaccia del giudizio divino
preannunciato dai castighi di Dio, vale a dire la carestia, le epidemie ed i
Turchi. La pedagogia, quindi, di una religione punitiva, tale da destare negli
ascoltatori il senso del peccato (espiabile attraverso la penitenza e la
preghiera), una dottrina incentrata più su di un rigido codice morale che sui
contenuti teologici della fede cristiana, conforme ai canoni delle missioni
popolari gesuitiche nell'Italia meridionale. Ma insieme con ciò, F. suscitò da
subito l'interesse dei fedeli per la sua oratoria priva di barocchismi e
comprensibile alle orecchie popolari.
L'incarico leccese ebbe comunque breve durata. Il 2
luglio 1672 F. emise i tre voti e nell'estate del 1674 venne richiamato a
Napoli dal provinciale A. Del Pozzo per portare a termine gli studi teologici e
preparare l'esame di laurea, dedicando però le domeniche ed i giorni di festa
alle missioni popolari cittadine. Completato finalmente il cursus studiorum,
il 25 maggio 1675 F. chiese ufficialmente di partire per le missioni estere,
ottenendo la risposta di "trovar l'India nell'Italia stessa".
Nondimeno, rinnovò questo desiderio quattro volte e la domanda venne tenuta in
sospeso, perché in quel periodo pareva prossima una riapertura delle frontiere
del Giappone ai missionari, finché nel febbraio 1678, dileguatasi questa
possibilità e ormai, a trentasei anni, reputato di età troppo avanzata e già
affermatosi come predicatore, F. accettò la nomina ufficiale a
"missionario di Napoli" e la residenza nella casa professa accanto
alla chiesa del Gesù Nuovo. Egli tuttavia non tardò a parificare la missione
nelle Indie con quella napoletana, fino ad ammettere, come si evince da una sua
frequente invocazione a s. Francesco Saverio, che nella capitale "alcuni
stanno peggio di quell'indiani ai quali predicasti".
Al 1678 rimontano, insieme con la nomina a
missionario, anche i primi appunti sul numero dei propri penitenti e la
tipologia dei loro peccati, schematicamente e sommariamente aggiornati poi,
anno dopo anno, e infine riuniti in sette brevi relazioni, quattro quinterni
scritti per obbedienza ai superiori, che formano la sua principale opera edita
(pubblicata da G. Boero in S. F. di Girolamo e le sue missioni dentro e
fuori Napoli, Firenze 1882, pp. 67-181).
Le Brevi notizie delle cose di gloria di Dio
accadute negli esercizi delle sacre missioni di Napoli da quindici anni in qua,
quanto si è potuto richiamare in memoria, Alcune piccole notizie della
santa missione di Napoli, le Missioni nelle galere, la Comunione
generale, l'Oratorio, gli Esercizi spirituali e le Missioni per
li casali, compendiano l'attività pastorale di F.: nel primo scritto egli
riassume le vicende della sua missione napoletana tra il 1680 e il 1689, nel
secondo si sofferma su casi particolari relativi al 1693, dal terzo al sesto -
sono narrazioni di sole cinque pagine ciascuna - descrive gli effetti dei suoi
principali strumenti di apostolato e nell'ultimo espone, senza riferimenti
cronologici, le vicende delle proprie tredici missioni in diverse località del
contado di Napoli. Da queste brevi note, redatte con distacco in terza persona,
emergono gli scopi dell'attività di F. a Napoli: la missione popolare
propriamente detta, in primo luogo, che F. svolgeva "per le piazze
principali… e strade pubbliche", particolarmente "pei quartieri
scandalosi di donne meretrici", tesa ad invitare gli ascoltatori alla
penitenza e alla "Comunione generale che si suole fare la terza Domenica
di ciascheduno mese"; quindi "incontri con brevi sermoncini per le
pubbliche strade" e "il formare la congregazione degli artisti, detta
della missione, per valersene, oltre all'utile della loro anima, in profitto
anche dell'altrui in aiutando la missione" (D'Aria, 1943, pp. 132 ss.).
Entrambe le istituzioni, missione e congregazione di
artigiani, erano preesistenti a F., ma fu lui a rafforzarle portandole al loro
massimo sviluppo. Convinto di vivere in un tempo di eresie, frequentazione solo
formale dei sacramenti e vizio, egli si preoccupò di fare della congregazione,
che chiamava anche "oratorio", un organismo sempre aperto a nuovi
aderenti ma in cui scattasse subito la cancellazione per gli assenti
ingiustificati alle riunioni. Formò così una base di circa duecento iscritti,
da cui trasse settantadue (in memoria dei settantadue discepoli di Cristo)
membri di provata fedeltà che fece entrare nella "congregatione
secreta", riservata ai migliori ed ambita perché ai congregati spettavano
i frutti di un luogo di Monte, che garantiva loro un sussidio in caso di
malattia e la spesa per le esequie in quello di morte, con diritto di sepoltura
nel Gesù Nuovo. Principali aiutanti di F. furono suo fratello Cataldo e Carmine
Diamante, un "mastro stagnaro" nominato "custode dell'olio di s.
Ciro". Accanto a costoro, una variegata folla di popolo napoletano,
ritratta dalle disposizioni rese al processo di beatificazione, che F.
s'industriava di soccorrere con le elemosine ottenute dalle persone facoltose.
Di carattere umile e bonario, al confessionale
"né rigido né benigno", F. era severo nei confronti di due categorie
di persone: le prostitute e le attrici della commedia dell'arte. Gli aneddoti
in proposito sono numerosi: è certo che contro i commedianti di piazza di
Castelnuovo egli, se non bastavano le prediche davanti ai palcoscenici per
impedire le esibizioni delle donne, ricorse a denunce di concubinaggio alle
autorità civili, accompagnate però dalla richiesta di non eccedere con le pene.
Così pure, andava a recitare i suoi sermoni sotto le finestre delle case
abitate da prostitute nei quartieri spagnoli (soprattutto nelle feste
infrasettimanali e nel periodo carnevalizio), sistemando le penitenti con un
matrimonio o un posto ai conservatori di S. Maria del Presidio o presso gli
Incurabili. L'elevata dimensione di quest'ultimo fenomeno a Napoli lo indurrà,
verso il 1692, a fondare una congregazione mariana, molto simile a quella
maschile per le missioni, destinata alle donne dei conservatori e alle
religiose che le accudivano. Periodicamente curava anche missioni rivolte ad
altri ceti sociali, ai soldati della guarnigione, agli schiavi, e sermoni
particolari nelle più importanti ricorrenze o nelle pubbliche calamità, come il
terremoto del 5 giugno 1688.
Il F. era assai devoto alla Madonna (ideò uno
stendardo ed un inno mariano per la sua congregazione), a Gesù Eucarestia e
soprattutto a s. Ciro, in cui vedeva il modello di santità cui ispirarsi, cioè
la capacità di curare i mali del corpo come quelli dello spirito. Egli si fece
apostolo della diffusione del culto di questo santo a Napoli e nell'Italia del
Sud, cercando di ricondurre all'intercessione del medico martire e ai poteri
delle sue reliquie una fama di taumaturgo e dispensatore di grazie, che crebbe
ben presto intorno a sé, arrivando, secondo la testimonianza del nunzio G.A.
Vicentini, al numero di diecimila grazie a lui attribuite. La fama del santo si
diffuse parallelamente a quella del suo diffusore: nel 1700 F. introdusse il
culto di s. Ciro a Portici, nel 1703-1705 in Abruzzo (dove ottenne che gli
Aquilani lo eleggessero a loro patrono), nel 1707 e 1708, in concomitanza con
l'entrata degli Imperiali a Napoli, nella sua città natale e nel 1712 e 1713 a
Barletta ed Andria. Sebbene sempre residente a Napoli, F. ripetutamente lasciò
la città per brevi missioni popolari nella campagne, attività che amava pur
dovendo ammettere che "in dieci anni non farebbe mai per tutta la
provincia tanto, quanto si fa a Napoli in un anno" (Boero, p. 106).
Solo dopo aver trascorso dodici anni di una tale vita
religiosa nella Compagnia, F. ebbe il permesso di compiere la professione
solenne, nel Gesù Nuovo, l'8 dic. 1682, nelle mani del generale Ch. de Noyelle.
Seguirono altri trentaquattro intensi anni di lavoro missionario, che lo resero
un personaggio popolarissimo: lo spettacolo delle sue uscite domenicali dal
Gesù Nuovo a capo della schiera di congregati che lo accompagnavano alla
missione divenne familiare ai Napoletani, come le adunate di penitenti in
attesa della confessione individuale (egli contava solo i peccatori più
incalliti che chiedevano di confessarsi da lui, circa quattrocento all'anno),
preceduta non di rado dalla disciplina collettiva.
Alla morte di F., l'11 maggio 1716 a Napoli, la salma
dovette essere sepolta di nascosto nottetempo per fuggire la pressione della
folla che fece a pezzi il suo confessionale per ricavarne reliquie mentre già
da tempo circolavano in città stampe e ritratti di F., considerati miracolosi
ed appesi nei confessionali e nelle pubbliche vie.
È complesso valutare l'efficacia dell'apostolato
missionario di Francesco De Geronimo. Alfonso de' Liguori (il cui destino di
santo fu profetizzato da F. alla madre) noterà che, pur dopo le migliaia di
conversioni attribuite al gesuita pugliese, egli si trovava a contatto di una
plebe in nulla cambiata rispetto alle condizioni della generazione precedente.
In effetti, le missioni popolari dei gesuiti commuovevano gli ascoltatori per
il breve periodo della permanenza dei religiosi, ma partiti costoro, restavano
immutate le condizioni che determinavano tanto la loro povertà e ignoranza,
quanto i peccati.
F. interpretò al massimo livello la pastorale
gesuitica di differenziazione dei tempi e delle modalità di approccio ai
fedeli, secondo la loro condizione, mosso da un sincero desiderio di farsi
comprendere e non badando al gusto oratorio del tempo (stilisticamente,
infatti, le sue prediche vennero ritenute dai suoi confratelli inferiori a
quelle di altri padri e perciò mai pubblicate). Proprio questo suo scendere al
livello popolare, d'altra parte, lo coinvolse in qualche equivoco tra magia e
miracoli, fede e superstizione. F. scontava del resto i limiti della sua epoca
e delle dottrine del suo Ordine religioso, tesi al rafforzamento delle pratiche
di culto più che all'elevazione degli individui. Resta però innegabile
l'adesione popolare alle iniziative di F., che non può essere confuso né con i
predicatori suoi contemporanei, né con i molti epigoni che riuscirono ad
imitare il suo stile, ma non la sua santità di vita.
Appena due anni dopo la morte iniziò il processo per
accertare l'eroicità delle virtù di F., che si protrasse fino al 1740. La
proclamazione di questa avvenne, da parte di Benedetto XIV, nel 1758. Le
vicende legate alla soppressione dei gesuiti interruppero l'iter verso la
canonizzazione, ripreso su istanza dello stesso Ferdinando IV di Borbone, ancor
prima della ricostituzione della Compagnia. Beatificato il 2 maggio 1806, in
luglio le sue spoglie vennero portate a Roma. Tornate a Napoli nel 1822,
finalmente il 26 maggio 1839 Gregorio XVI proclamò F. santo, insieme con il
Liguori e Veronica Giuliani.
Intanto, anche se già dal 1830 era iniziata in
Grottaglie la costruzione di un santuario in suo onore, il corpo di F. rimase
per lungo tempo a Napoli, in una cappella del Gesù Nuovo a lui dedicata ed
arricchita, l'11 febbr. 1932, da un grande gruppo marmoreo dello scultore F.
Jerace raffigurante il santo tra una penitente, un ragazzo, un'orfana ed un
galeotto. Solo al termine delle seconda guerra mondiale le spoglie vennero
trasportate, il 16 sett. 1945, nel santuario di Grottaglie, meta di
pellegrinaggi.
Fonti e Bibl.: La vita del F. si presta ad essere
narrata per la grande ricchezza di aneddoti popolari e prodigi, che formano
però anche il limite di gran parte della sua copiosa bibliografia (un catalogo
completo in Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus, a cura di Ch.
Sommervogel, I, V, VII, IX, X, XI, Bruxelles-Paris 1890-1932, ad Indicem,
e L. Polgár, Bibliographie sur l'histoire de la Compagnie de Jésus,
1901-1980, III, Roma 1990, pp. 563-565).
Il primo biografo del F. fu il fiammingo K. Begrup, in
una Vita stampata ad Anversa nel 1717, mentre di maggior mole sono le
opere dei tre storici suoi contemporanei, S. Bagnati (1725), C. De Bonis (1734)
e C. Stradiotti (1719), le cui opere appartengono però ad un filone agiografico
ormai superato, come i successivi lavori di L. Degli Oddi (1761) e A.
Muzzarelli. Di diverso spessore la biografia di F.M. D'Aria, che nella Napoli
del dopoguerra cercò di far rivivere l'apostolato di "restauratore
sociale" del santo, anch'essa di carattere agiografico ma costruita sui
documenti di archivio (Un restauratore sociale.…, I, Roma 1943). Purtroppo il
D'Aria, come già F. Canger (a cura del quale sono state pubblicate le Massime
spirituali di s. F. Di G., Firenze 1891) e G. Boero, non riuscì a pubblicare,
in un progettato secondo volume, le lettere e i molti appunti di prediche
lasciati dal santo in vari archivi della Compagnia di Gesù (inventario in F.M.
D'Aria, S. F. De G. oratore sacro, in La Civiltà cattolica, XCIII
[1942], 2133, p. 8). Si tratta di materiale in forma di schemi e appunti
sparsi, bastanti per ricostruire la divisione delle parti dei suoi discorsi
(esordio, prove dell'assunto, testimonianze della Scrittura e dei
Padri), ma non il loro calore, che oggi sembrano falsare la reale immagine del
santo accentuandone gli elementi più superati della predicazione popolare.
Più in dettaglio, sulla figura e le attività di F., si
veda ancora: Roma, Arch. Rom. Soc. Iesu, Postulazione generale, nn.
212-239; Acta canonizationis b. Francisci de Hieronymo, I-IV, Romae
1767-1835; M. Volpe, I gesuiti nel Napoletano, I, Napoli 1914, pp. 10, 13;
B. Croce, Uomini e cose della vecchia Italia, s. 2, Bari 1927, pp. 118,
121; F. Nicolini, Aspetti della vita italo-spagnola nel Cinque e Seicento,
Napoli 1934, pp. 330-334; G. Barrella, La Compagnia di Gesù nelle Puglie,
Lecce 1941, pp. 52, 74, 76, 84; F.M. D'Aria, La famiglia di s. F. de G.,
in Rinascita salentina, X, (1942), pp. 78-90; Id., Un restauratore
sociale. Storia critica di s. F. De G. Da documenti inediti, I, Roma
1943; Un amico del popolo, s. F. De G., Napoli 1945; R. De Maio, Società
e vita religiosa a Napoli nell'età moderna, 1656-1799, Napoli 1971, ad
Indicem; Id., Pittura e controriforma a Napoli, Bari 1983, ad
Indicem; M. Corcione, La storia e la città di s. F. De G., Napoli 1982; P.
Lopez, Clero, eresia e magia nella Napoli del Viceregno, Napoli 1984, p.
174; R. Colapietra, Spiritualità, coscienza civile e mentalità collettiva
nella storia dell'Aquila, L'Aquila 1984, p. 511; R. Quaranta - S.
Trevisani, Grottaglie, Grottaglie 1986, ad Indicem; A.
Guidetti, Le missioni popolari. I grandi gesuiti italiani, Milano
1988, ad Ind.; E. Novi Chavarria, Pastorale e devozioni nel XVI e
XVII secolo, in Storia del Mezzogiorno, IX, Napoli 1991, pp. 378, 394,
401; E. Papa, F. De G., in Bibliotheca sanctorum, V, Romae 1964,
coll. 1201-1204.
SOURCE : https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/santo-francescode-geronimo_%28Dizionario-Biografico%29/
Den hellige Frans di Girolamo (1642-1716)
Minnedag: 11.
mai
Den hellige Frans di Girolamo [de Geronimo eller «av
Hieronymus»] (it: Francesco) ble født den 17. desember 1642 i Grottaglie i
nærheten av Taranto i regionen Puglia i Sør-Italia. Han var den eldste av 11
søsken i en familie med etternavnet De Geronimo. Etter at han hadde mottatt sin
første kommunion i en alder av tolv år, ble han tatt inn i husholdningen til
noen Theatinerprester i nabolaget som levde et kommunitetsliv. Til gjengjeld
for kost og losji arbeidet han som sakristan i deres kirke. Patrene skjønte
straks at han ikke var noen vanlig gutt, og fra å gi ham ansvaret for kirken
forfremmet de ham til å undervise i katekismen, og han mottok tonsuren i 1658,
da han knapt var 16 år. Dette var et tegn på hans intensjon om å bli prest.
Med theatinernes anbefaling begynte han i 1659 på sine
klassiske og filosofiske studier på jesuittenes skole i Taranto. I 1665 flyttet
han for å studere sivil- og kirkerett på jesuittenes berømte kollegium Gesù
Vecchio i Napoli, som på den tiden konkurrerte med de største universitetene
i Europa. Han flyttet til Napoli sammen med en bror som ønsket å studere under
en berømt maler der. Året etter lette jesuittene etter en eksemplarisk ung
prest som kunne bli prefekt for sønnene av den italienske adelen som gikk på
skolen, og de tilbød stillingen til Frans. Han aksepterte den og ble ordinert
som sekularprest den 20. mars 1666, etter å ha fått dispensasjon siden han ennå
ikke var 24 år gammel.
I de neste årene underviste han i jesuittenes Collegio
dei Nobili i Napoli, hvor studentene kalte ham «den hellige prefekten», il
santo prefetto. Etter å ha kjent jesuittene i ti år ønsket Frans nå å slutte
seg til dem, og etter å ha overvunnet foreldrenes motstand, påbegynte
28-åringen den 1. juli 1670 novisiatet i jesuittordenen (Societas Jesu –
SJ). I den første tiden i novisiatet ble Frans utsatt for eksepsjonelt harde
prøver av sine overordnede, men de var så fullstendig fornøyde med den nye
novisen at de etter bare ett år sendte ham for å hjelpe den berømte predikanten
p. Agnello Bruno i hans misjonsarbeid i bispedømmet Lecce.
Fra 1671 til 1674 arbeidet de to prestene utrettelig
om med stor suksess, hovedsakelig blant bøndene i provinsen Otranto. Etter at
misjonen var avsluttet, ble Frans kalt tilbake til Napoli, hvor han bosatte seg
i den napolitanske kirken kjent som Il Gesù Nuovo, residensen for patre med
avlagte løfter i Napoli. Frans avla løftene, avsluttet sine teologiske studier
og tok sin endelige eksamen våren 1676.
Selv om Frans stadig ba om å få bli sendt til det
fjerne østen som misjonær, bestemte hans orden at det var mer bruk for ham i
hjemlandet. Fra 1676 til sin død var han folkemisjonær i kongedømmet Napoli,
både byene og landdistriktene. Han ble utnevnt til predikant i Gesù Nuovo. Helt
fra begynnelsen trakk hans forkynnelse til seg enorme folkeskarer og førte til
bemerkelsesverdige omvendelser. Det ble sagt at han «var et lam når han snakket
og en løve når han prekte». Han oppnådde så store resultater at han ble satt
til å lære opp andre misjonærer. I provinsen gjennomførte han minst hundre
misjoner. Enkelte dager holdt han opp til 40 korte prekener! Etter ham er det
bevart nesten 10.000 sider med prekener.
Han trengte inn i fengslene, bordellene og galeiene,
og fortsatte sin misjon i landsbyer, bakgater og på gatehjørner. Ved en
anledning brakte han tyve tyrkiske fanger om bord på en spansk galei til den
kristne tro. Overalt strømmet menn og kvinner til hans skriftestol, og det ble
sagt at han hvert år førte 400 «forherdede syndere» tilbake til Kirken. Hans
mest fremtredende botferdige synder var den franske kvinnen Maria Alvira Cassier.
Hun hadde myrdet sin far og deretter forkledd seg som mann og tjenestegjort i
den spanske hæren. Under Frans' veiledning ble hun ikke bare brakt til bot og
omvendelse, men nådde også en høy grad av hellighet.
Han reddet mange barn fra farlige omgivelser, og hans
navn er udødeliggjort gjennom opprettelsen av flere sosiale institusjoner, som
for straffanger, jenter i faresonen, unge kvinner og arbeidere. Han åpnet en
veldedig pantelåner og organiserte en forening av arbeidere for å hjelpe
jesuittpatrene i deres arbeid. Mange mirakuløse helbredelser ble tilskrevet
Frans, men han nektet hele tiden for å ha noen overnaturlige evner og tilskrev
de utallige helbredelsene til den hellige Kyros' forbønn – den aleksandrinske
legen som ble martyrdrept på 200-tallet og som han hadde en stor ærbødighet
for.
Men hans suksess ble også møtt med motstand og
misunnelse. Fra 1688 til 1694 ble han møtt med ydmykelse og motstand. Noen
prester sa til erkebiskopen at de var i alvorlig tvil om Frans, som befattet
seg med gateforkynnelse og som var i konstant kontakt med de verste syndere,
var egnet til å gi retretter for prester og nonner. Som et resultat av disse
klagene innførte erkebiskopen begrensinger på hans arbeid. Han fikk ikke lenger
lov til å preke i byens gater, så han tilbrakte tiden i skriftestolen i Il
Gesù. Hvis han ikke kunne komme til fårene, kunne fårene komme til ham.
Erkebiskopen skjønte til slutt at klagene kom fra fordomsfulle og misunnelige
enkeltpersoner, så derfor ba han ham om unnskyldning og fjernet restriksjonene.
Men deretter var det hans egen superior i ordenen som
brakte sorg inn i hans liv. Provinsialen klaget over at Frans' arbeid utenfor
jesuittenes kommunitet tok så mye av hans tid at han ikke var i stand til å
ivareta funksjoner i kommuniteten. Deretter måtte han be om tillatelse til alt
han ønsket å gjøre i byen. Deretter ba den ydmyke Frans stadig om tillatelse,
men ofte avslo provinsialen eller insisterte på å sende en annen prest i
stedet. Gjennom disse vanskelige årene henfalt Frans aldri til depresjoner, og
han betraktet det som år av åndelig vekst. I 1694 innrømmet provinsialen til
slutt sin feil og Frans var igjen fri til å gjøre tjeneste for sine
napolitanere.
Frans fortsatte arbeidet i Napoli og forstedene til
1702, da han ble bedt om å gjennomføre sine misjoner også utenfor Napoli. Fra
da av og til sin død var han halve året i Napoli og tilbrakte resten av året
som omvandrende predikant. Han ga sin siste misjon i 1715 og sin siste preken
på den tredje søndagen i mars 1716. I sine siste dager led han av
brysthinnebetennelse, og da det var klart at hans død nærmet seg, samlet hans
elskede napolitanere seg rundt Il Gesù for å høre nytt om hans helsetilstand.
Den 9. mai fikk han sykesalvingen («den siste olje»),
og om morgenen den 11. mai 1716, mellom klokken ni og ti, samlet hans
jesuittiske brødre i Il Gesù seg i hans sykerom for å overlate hans sjel til
Gud. Klokken ti døde han, 74 år gammel. Han hadde vært jesuitt i 46 år. Han ble
gravlagt i jesuittkirken i Napoli, og i begravelsen trengte alle Napolis
fattige seg sammen rundt hans kiste. I 1736 ble hans levninger flyttet til
kapellet St. Ignatius. Da franskmennene okkuperte byen tidlig på 1800-tallet,
ble levningene fjernet og ført i sikkerhet, men ble returnert til Il Gesù da
byen igjen var opprettet i byen. Etter Annen verdenskrig ble de flyttet til
jesuittkirken i Grottaglie, hans fødeby, hvor de fortsatt befinner seg.
Han ble saligkåret den 11. mai 1806 (dokumentet
(Breve) var datert den 2. mai) av pave Pius VII (1800-23) og helligkåret den
26. mai 1839 av pave Gregor XIV (1831-46). Hans minnedag er 11. mai, mens
jesuittene feirer ham den 2. juli.
Kilder:
Attwater/John, Attwater/Cumming, Butler, Butler (V), Benedictines, Bunson,
Tylenda, Schauber/Schindler, Index99, KIR, CE, CSO, Patron Saints SQPN,
Infocatho, Bautz, Heiligenlexikon - Kompilasjon og oversettelse: p. Per Einar Odden -
Opprettet: 2000-05-11 23:40 - Sist oppdatert: 2005-12-24 16:11
SOURCE : http://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/fgirolam
