FRANCIS
219
FRANCIS
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 viont dc piitc. The
capital was increased by the gifts of tlie 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 accorded them, costing the
institute eighteen ducats; and they had the further
privilege, which was much sought after, of being
mterred in the church of the Gesil Nuovo (see Brevi
notizie, pp. 131-G). He established also in the Gesu
one of the most important and beneficial works
of the professed house in Naples, the general Com-
munion 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
touched the guilty consciences of his hearers and
worked miraculous conversions. 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 in a day, he
preached in the streets, the public squares, and the
churches. The following Sunilay he would have the
consolation of seeing at the Sacred Table crowds of
11,000, 12,000 oreven 13,000 persons; according to his
biographers there were ordinarily 15,000 men present
at the monthly general Communion.
But his work par excellence was to give 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 repent^ ance 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 presence of an audience as fickle and impressionable as the Neapoli- tans, Francis left nothing undone that could strike their imaginations. At one time he would bring a skull into 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 dis- course, he would uncover his shoulders and scourge himself with an iron chain till he bled. The effect was irresistible; young men of evil lives would rush for- ward and follow the example of the preacher, con- fessing 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 amidst the slaves of vice and crime. Thus the two refuges in Naples con- tained in a short time over 250 penitents each ; and in the Asylum of the Holy Cihost he sheltered for a while 190 children of these unfortimates, preserving them thereby from the danger of afterwards followmg the shameful trade of their mothers. He had the consola- tion 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 cere- monials at their baptism to strike tlie hearts and imaginations of the spectators (Brevi 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 con-
fessions [cf. Recueil de lettres per le Nozze Malvezzi
Hercolani (1S76), p. 28]. To consolidate the good
work, he 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 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 attribute to him a host of wonders and
cures of all kinds. His obsequies were, for the Nea-
politans, the occasion of a triimiphant procession ; and
had it not been for the intervention of the Swiss guard,
the zeal of his followers might have exposed the re-
mains to the risk of desecration. In all the streets and
squares of Naples, in every part of the suburbs, in the
smallest neighbouring hamlets, every one spoke of the
holiness, zeal, elocjuence, and inexhaustible charity of
the deceased missionary. The ecclesiastical author-
ities soon recognized that his cause of beatification
should be begun. On 2 May, 1758, Benedict XIV
declared that Francis de Geronimo had practised the
theological and cardinal virtues in an 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 till 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 in- serted in their works; for his writings, cf. Sommer- vogel, "Bibl. de la Comp. de J&us", new ed.. Ill, col. 1358. We must mention by itself the account that he wrote to his superiors of the fifteen most laborious years of his ministry, which has furnished the mate- rials for the most striking tletails of this sketch. The work dates from October, 1693. The saint modestly calls it "Brevi notizie delle cose di gloria di Dio acca- dute negli exercizi delle sacre missioni di Napoli da quindici anni in qua, quanto sic 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, 1SS2). The archives of the Society of Jesus contain a voluminous collection of his sermons, or rather developed plans of his sermons. It is w-ell to recall this proof of the care he took in pre- paring himself for the ministry of the pulpit, for his biographers are wont to dwell on the fact that his eloquent discourses were extemporaneous.
Among his chief biographers the following are worthy of par- ticular mention: Stradiotti, who lived twenty-five years with the saint in the professed house at Naples and had been his superior; he wrote his life in 1719, just three years after death of Francis. Six years later, in 1725, a new life appeared, written by a very remarkable Jesuit, Bagnati. He lived with St. Francis for the last fifteen years of his life and was his ordinary confessor. The most popular biography is that writ- ten by DE Bonis, who composed his work at the time the process of beatification of the saint was being drawn up. Worthy of note, also, is the Summarium de virtutibus ven. P. Francisci de Hieronymo (17.^11. It is a work fo be used with caution: the postulator of the srunt's cause. Muzzarelli, extracted from it a great nutiil.rr ipf i[jip<»rtant facts relating to the labours and miracles nf tlit' ,s;iiiit, Raccolta di avveminenti singolari e docu- mpitti aulcntivi sptll'inti alia vita del B. Francesco di Geronimo" (Rome, INO61. Lastly, the Hi^toire de S. Francois de Geronimo, ed. Bach (Metz, IS.Sl), is the most complete work on the subject, but strives too much after the edification of the reader. C. Carayon, Bihliographie historique de la Compafmc de Jesus, nn. 1861-89 (Paris, 1S64). FraNCIS Van OrtrOY.
