Blessed Gregory Lopez

His father, after searching for him with great care, finally found him. He took him to Valladolid, where the court was at the time, and there, through a change of place and a very different life, he made him a page. He served as such for some time, God having willed that among those who spend a few years in this position, there should be one who was a saint.

The fear of God was so deeply rooted in the mind and heart of young Lopez that the life of the court and its various agitations could make no impression on his soul. God assisted him so powerfully that he was always recollected within himself. When his master sent him to deliver some message, he strove to have such attention to God that neither the persons of the highest quality he encountered on his way, nor so many other subjects of distraction that are found in the courts of princes, prevented him from thinking of God: and by this means he maintained the same peace and the same devotion as if he had still been in his desert of Navarre.

Thus, in the first ardor of youth and the perilous occasions of the court, he spent two or three years with a spirit as mature and a judgment as solid as if he had been of a very advanced age.

Before going to New Spain, he visited some holy places. As he was one day in prayer in the church of Toledo, God granted him the greatest favor He had yet bestowed upon him by strengthening him in the design he had to be entirely His. He spent several days in prayer and long vigils in the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe, in order to obtain through her intercession the lights he needed to determine what he had to do.

He left for New Spain in 1562. Such a resolution at such an age, such an extraordinary way of life, such constant pe rseverance, such nouvelle Espagne Country where the apparitions take place. a great increase of new graces, and such continual and effective help clearly show that God willed to make him leave, like another Abraham, his country and his relatives to test his faith and obedience, and to place him in a holy solitude where, finding himself detached from all things of the world, He could, by speaking to his heart, make him better hear His voice.

Having arrived at the port of San Juan de Ulúa, in the city of Vera Cruz, he distributed to the poor the fabrics he had brought with him, thus showing how little he valued the riches of this new world, since, instead of coming to seek them, he gave away with such joy what he had brought from Spain without wishing to keep anything for himself.

From this city he went to Mexico, where he stayed for a few days to earn enough to allow him to travel to Zacatecas, where he hoped to be more conveniently situated to lead the solitary life for which he longed.

It was not the love of gold that led Gregory Lopez to leave Mexico to go to that city, but it was the desire to acquire that gold so pure of charity with which Jesus Christ advises us to try to enrich ourselves by selling all that we have to buy the field where this precious treasure is hidden, and thus become richer than if we possessed all the gold and silver in the world.

During the few days that Gregory Lopez stayed in Zacatecas, the things he witnessed there further increased his desire to distance himself from all commerce with men. As God had already inspired him to withdraw into solitude, he changed his habit to take one that was in accordance with his design, and went eight leagues away, into the Amajac valley inhabited by the Chichimecs, whose fierce and cruel temperament made them then formidable to the Spaniards. But this servant of God, having not feared to declare war on the powers of hell, those invisible enemies, did not fear having visible enemies, and hoped with the assistance of God to overcome by his patience, his gentleness, and his humanity, that pride and inhumanity which made them feared. The result matched his hope: for after having spent a few days in this valley and conversed with these barbarians, he won their affection.

When he went to look for a suitable place for the execution of his design, he met seven leagues from Zacatecas a farm named Temaxèque belonging to Captain Pedro Carrillo d'Avila. This captain, seeing him so young, so well-built, and of such fine stature, barefoo Pedro Carrillo d'Avila Spanish captain who helped Gregory settle in the Amajac Valley. t, without a hat, and dressed only in a coarse wool robe that reached his heels and was girded with a rope, asked him where he was going and who brought him to that country. He replied that he had come from Castile with the last fleet, and that he was looking for a hermitage to spend his life there in the service of God. How, said this captain to him, do you dare, being still so young, to undertake such a way of life? Lopez gave him reasons for which he remained satisfied. Then he added that having gone up along the river, he had found a place suitable for his design. Carrillo approved of it, and even offered him some of his men to build him a hermitage. He thanked him and asked him only to allow him to work on it and to lend him some tools for that purpose. Which he willingly granted him.

Then he built a small cell with his own hands. The Indians helped him there, and it was the first that is known to have been made in New Spain. Time may have destroyed this weak edifice; but it cannot obscure the glory that this servant of God earned by having begun to do penance in that place.

He was reaching his twenty-first year when he entered into the practice of such a solitary life, and seeing himself engaged in the career where he had to fight against such powerful enemies as the demons, the first thing he did was to place himself in the hands of God and implore His help with these words: 'Lord, I engage myself here all alone in your service and forget myself. If I perish, it will be for you, and not for me, to answer for it.' But this young and generous soldier of Jesus Christ did not mean, in speaking thus, that on God's side his soul ran the risk of being lost if he did on his side all that he ought and could. For that could not enter the mind of a man who had received supernatural lights from God. This manner of speaking only testified to the ardor of his love for God.

From the moment that Gregory Lopez had thus abandoned himself by an act of love so ardent to all that it would please God to ordain for him, he felt visible effects of His assistance, and began to walk courageously and with great strides in the narrow path of penance without ever turning his head back, without ever stopping, and without ever losing sight of the light by which it pleased God to lead him. He subdued his body with very harsh mortifications; he slept on the ground or on a mat; he had only a poor blanket to protect himself from the cold, and a stone for a bolster. Such was the furnishing of his cell; and it was adorned only with sentences written by his own hand that exhorted him to lead a perfect life. His abstinence was not only very great, it was continuous. He ate only once a day, in small quantity and of things not very nourishing, which he observed so rigorously until death that one could not make him resolve to dispense with it, however sick he might be. He never tasted meat: and when some pieces of beef were sent to him as alms, he received them with thanksgiving to hide his abstinence, but he did not touch them.

The captain of whom we have spoken had two sons, one named Sebastian, and the other Peter. The latter affirmed with an oath that the cell of this holy man being near their father's farm, he sent them to him so that they might learn to read and write, which Gregory did with great charity, and he gave them admirable instructions to lead them to love and serve God; and often he found him on his knees in deep prayer, his arms extended in a cross, and his eyes lowered. These two brothers, in reward for the care he took of them, brought him cakes made of buckwheat; and if it happened that they brought him two or three of these cakes at the same time, it caused him pain: he told them that one was enough for eight days, and he ate them all hard and dry. If their father and mother sent him anything else, he sent it back to them. These two brothers sometimes found in his cell dead rabbits, quails, and figs, and the servant of God, after telling them that they were gifts from his good friends the Chichimecs, gave them to them to take to their mother.

When any priest arrived at this captain's house, notice was given to the servant of God: he would go to hear Mass with great devotion and return immediately after to his cell without speaking to anyone and without it ever being possible to detain him. One day this holy man was seen, while he was digging a ditch in his small garden, all surrounded by angels: which caused so much admiration that one could not tire of praising God for the graces He bestowed upon His servant.

Although the extreme austerity of Gregory Lopez's life, and the lack of all necessary things made him suffer much, his labors seemed to him of little account in comparison with the interior pains by which it pleased Our Lord to test him.

The most common temptations for solitaries are the memory of the good one has left behind, the distance from one's loved ones, the need one has of them, the sweetness one could enjoy in the world, the lack of the comforts of life, the labor that is encountered on the path of virtue, the difficulty of being able to acquire it, the weakness of the body, and the length of time that remains to be spent in a state as painful as that in which one must fight constantly against the feelings of nature.

Gregory Lopez also experienced what we have just said, for he confessed one day to one of his friends, with great modesty, that he had had such a battle to sustain against the demon that he had come to struggle against him with such great efforts that he had lost blood from his nose and ears.

All the time that Lopez remained in solitude, the demon tried to cause him great frights to make him abandon his enterprise, sometimes by howls and cries of ferocious beasts; sometimes by the cruelty with which Chichimec Indians massacred Spaniards very close to him; sometimes by various interior temptations; and sometimes by the artifices he used to deceive him. A continuous prayer was the remedy he used in these encounters in which, so as not to succumb, there was no effort he was not obliged to make.

His application to conform himself to the will of God gave him new strength to continue to walk in the narrow path of penance without ever turning his head back, without ever stopping, and without ever losing sight of the light by which it pleased God to lead him. He subdued his body with very harsh mortifications; he slept on the ground or on a mat; he had only a poor blanket to protect himself from the cold, and a stone for a bolster. Such was the furnishing of his cell; and it was adorned only with sentences written by his own hand that exhorted him to lead a perfect life. His abstinence was not only very great, it was continuous. He ate only once a day, in small quantity and of things not very nourishing, which he observed so rigorously until death that one could not make him resolve to dispense with it, however sick he might be. He never tasted meat: and when some pieces of beef were sent to him as alms, he received them with thanksgiving to hide his abstinence, but he did not touch them.

The captain of whom we have spoken had two sons, one named Sebastian, and the other Peter. The latter affirmed with an oath that the cell of this holy man being near their father's farm, he sent them to him so that they might learn to read and write, which Gregory did with great charity, and he gave them admirable instructions to lead them to love and serve God; and often he found him on his knees in deep prayer, his arms extended in a cross, and his eyes lowered. These two brothers, in reward for the care he took of them, brought him cakes made of buckwheat; and if it happened that they brought him two or three of these cakes at the same time, it caused him pain: he told them that one was enough for eight days, and he ate them all hard and dry. If their father and mother sent him anything else, he sent it back to them. These two brothers sometimes found in his cell dead rabbits, quails, and figs, and the servant of God, after telling them that they were gifts from his good friends the Chichimecs, gave them to them to take to their mother.

When any priest arrived at this captain's house, notice was given to the servant of God: he would go to hear Mass with great devotion and return immediately after to his cell without speaking to anyone and without it ever being possible to detain him. One day this holy man was seen, while he was digging a ditch in his small garden, all surrounded by angels: which caused so much admiration that one could not tire of praising God for the graces He bestowed upon His servant.

Although the extreme austerity of Gregory Lopez's life, and the lack of all necessary things made him suffer much, his labors seemed to him of little account in comparison with the interior pains by which it pleased Our Lord to test him.

The most common temptations for solitaries are the memory of the good one has left behind, the distance from one's loved ones, the need one has of them, the sweetness one could enjoy in the world, the lack of the comforts of life, the labor that is encountered on the path of virtue, the difficulty of being able to acquire it, the weakness of the body, and the length of time that remains to be spent in a state as painful as that in which one must fight constantly against the feelings of nature.

Gregory Lopez also experienced what we have just said, for he confessed one day to one of his friends, with great modesty, that he had had such a battle to sustain against the demon that he had come to struggle against him with such great efforts that he had lost blood from his nose and ears.

All the time that Lopez remained in solitude, the demon tried to cause him great frights to make him abandon his enterprise, sometimes by howls and cries of ferocious beasts; sometimes by the cruelty with which Chichimec Indians massacred Spaniards very close to him; sometimes by various interior temptations; and sometimes by the artifices he used to deceive him. A continuous prayer was the remedy he used in these encounters in which, so as not to succumb, there was no effort he was not obliged to make.

His application to conform himself to the will of God gave him new strength to continue to walk on the path to heaven, and to resist the temptations of the demon which were so violent and so frequent that he could not remember them without his hair standing on end.

If the battles that Gregory Lopez had to sustain against the demons were very harsh, the labors he suffered at the hands of men were no less. As Spanish soldiers passed by his cell to go and fight the Chichimecs, some called him a heretic and a Lutheran, because he did not hear Mass, without considering that he was seven leagues away from the nearest village where it was said and that he went there to hear it at Easter; others said that he was mad to have chosen a dwelling so frightful and so dangerous that he could pass for a dead man. But the servant of Jesus Christ had nothing to fear there. For God had imprinted in the hearts of these barbarians such affection and such respect for him, that when they massacred with their accustomed cruelty all the other Spaniards they could catch, they greeted him with signs of the head and hands and gave him gifts: and those who had some knowledge of the Christians said to him: *Deo gratias*, thus showing as much goodwill for him as if he had been of their nation and their brother. In the midst of so many perils to which these soldiers and such a dwelling exposed him, he always continued to conform himself to the will of the Lord.

The servant of God, for three years, repeated incessantly these divine words: "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven," and he found himself so strengthened by them that he no longer had any will other than that of God, in whatever way it pleased Him to dispose of him; and God then willed that he should exercise himself in another manner that consisted no longer in words, but in actions: and this exercise was an ardent love for God and for his neighbor. He practiced it in a manner so heroic and so pleasing to Our Lord that he always went on increasing from virtue to virtue without ever relaxing in this exercise of perfect charity.

Gregory Lopez, having had a conversation with Father Dom inic de Salazar, a D Dominique de Salazar Dominican friar who attempts to recruit Gregory into his order. ominican, the latter conceived such esteem and affection for him that he urged him greatly to go to the monas tery of Saint Dominic in Mexico, where monastère de Saint-Dominique de Mexico Religious order with which Gregory interacts in Mexico City. he would be given a cell and food, saying that by this means he could in all safety spend his life in retreat, prayer, and other exercises of piety to which God was calling him, without, however, being deprived of the advantages that one receives in a community of good religious. Lopez, touched by these reasons and by the advice of such a learned man and such a great servant of God, accepted this offer, seeing nothing in it that would prevent him from giving himself entirely to prayer and contemplation. Thus he resolved to return to Mexico.

When he had arrived in that city, he went to the Dominican convent to ask for Father Dominic de Salazar to beg him to have a cell given to him in that holy house, just as he had promised him. As he was absent, he told some of the most venerable Fathers the subject that had brought him. They replied that they could not give him a cell unless he became a religious, and offered to give him the habit with great joy. After he had spent a few days in that house waiting for Father de Salazar, in whose assistance he placed all his confidence, these good Fathers assured him that he would not return soon, and that even if he were to return, he could not hope to obtain through him what he desired. This servant of God, judging by this that God did not want him in a community, but in solitude, took his leave of them. They showed much displeasure at this, and he had no less on his side at leaving such a holy company; but he believed himself obliged to do so to follow his vocation by continuing to walk in the path where God had engaged him and from which he had drawn so many advantages for his soul. These good religious having told him that the region of Guasteca was very spacious and sparsely inhabited, and that the land, being fertile in wild fruits, he could find there enough to nourish himself, he went there immediately to live in solitude.

After placing all his confidence in God, he established his dwelling there, resolved not to leave it until he had received the order from heaven. His food consisted of fruits, herbs, and wild roots.

Having had from his earliest youth an ardent desire to understand the Holy Scripture, he then asked God with more insistence to enlighten his mind and to nourish his soul with the important truths contained therein. To dispose himself to receive such a great favor from God, he resolved to learn the Holy Scripture entirely by heart, which is almost incredible, and he had such a happy memory that he never forgot anything he knew. For four years, he devoted four hours a day to such a holy study. God gave him during this time the understanding of it as well as that of the Latin language, and it was through continuous acts of love for God that he obtained from His goodness to communicate Himself to him in this way.

Some time later he left his solitude and retired to a village in the Guasteca, where he was welcomed by a priest named John de Mesa, who gave him a room in which, outside of the time he spent at church, he remained in a continual retreat. He usually stood or leaned against the wall, looking fixedly at a crucifix painted on another wall. Those who observed him with attention in this state had no difficulty in judging that he was employing all this time in interior acts: but one judged it even better by the holiness of his life. He spent the days and nights in this retreat, and only left it to go eat very soberly with his charitable host. He rewarded him abundantly for his hospitality with words so full of edification and so useful for the nourishment of his soul that he gave him more than he received; and this good priest was delighted to see in him so much virtue and holiness. This room being enriched only by poverty, he had for all furniture only a Bible, a terrestrial globe, and a compass. He continued in this quiet stay to live in the same solitude, the same retreat as before. He never told anyone who he was, nor how God had called him to His service, nor his manner of prayer. The admirable regulation of his life and all that appeared of him on the outside was only what made him admired and loved by those who saw him.

The desire that Gregory Lopez had not to be known, and the care he took to hide his virtues and the guidance of God over him, often made him change place, in imitation of the ancient solitaries, who, for fear of being known and esteemed by men, often changed their dwelling. Thus, after four years of stay in Guasteca, seeing that he was known and esteemed by the Spaniards and the Indians, he left to go to Atrisco. As he approached the city, he met a Christian named John Perez Romero, who offered him a room in his home and everything he needed. Gregory Lopez accepted the offer that was made to him; but God did not permit him to remain there more than two years.

The demon, who cannot suffer that the light spread by virtue should enlighten those who walk in the path of heaven and excite them to advance in it, seeing the advantage that the hosts of Gregory Lopez and several people in the surroundings received from his stay in that place, resolved to hinder the good he was doing and used, for this, some religious of the area. These, seeing in a man still young such a regulation of morals, such great mortification, and such admirable wisdom, virtue, and knowledge in a man who had not studied and did not wear the habit of any religion in which he could have acquired so many good qualities, were extremely scandalized by it; and without considering that it is not the habit that makes the religious, and what the Prophet says: "Lord, blessed is he whom you instruct yourself in your holy laws"; they accused him with such heat before the Archbishop of Mexico that the latter believed he had to have an inquiry made. After mature deliberation, he made known not only the innocence but the virtue and great piety of Lopez: which further increased the opinion that one already had of his holiness. He soon took leave of Perez Romero, leaving him with all his family and neighbors in great sorrow at losing such a holy company which was so advantageous to them.

As he was traveling to Mexico City, he caught sight of the church of Notre-Dame des Remèdes near Testuco, on the other side of the city. The hope he had of finding there some small lodging suitable for continuing to lead a solitary life led him to go there, instead of proceeding to Mexico City; and having found that it was a house consecrated to the Mother of God, he felt such joy that he proposed to establish his dwelling there to serve this Queen of Angels.

It was thus that Our Lord led His servant for the good of many souls who benefited from the example of his virtue, his holy life, and his conversations. During the first months he stayed there, no one knew him for what he was, and one barely took notice of him because he took extreme care to hide the favors he received from God.

This excellent solitary did not engage in external actions of virtue to increase the piety of the faithful—not that he did not esteem them, since he exhorted others to practice them, but because the path by which God led him was so interior that He only pushed him strongly to do so in some great need, and he never deviated in any way from what God asked of him regarding himself and others.

While Gregory Lopez was in this house of the Blessed Virgin, many people of all conditions came from Mexico City to consult him regarding their conscience and their spiritual troubles, and all returned consoled; and it was then that one began to know that he had received a particular gift from God to console the afflicted and restore calm to their minds.

After the servant of God had spent two years in this house of the most holy Virgin, he fell ill and was forced to leave it. He went to the hospital of Guastepec, in the Marquisate del Valle, twelve leagues from Mexico City. He was received there by Brother Estevan de Herrera, who lodged him in his room and hôpital de Guastepec Place where Gregory tends to his health and counsels the sick. treated him with great charity.

As our Blessed one, who had embraced voluntary poverty, was fed in this hospital and thus found himself relieved of all temporal cares, about which even in his greatest need he had never worried, he gave himself entirely to contemplation to strengthen himself even more in the love of God and neighbor, the foundations of which he had begun to lay so long ago.

His health not allowing him to serve the sick himself, as he would have wished, he very often exhorted the brothers to do so, and instructed them in the manner in which they should conduct themselves. On this, he spoke to them with such force that they redoubled their fervor in this holy exercise and their devotion to serving God. Thus he executed through them what he could not, to his great regret, do himself, and helped them by his continuous prayers to perform such a good work well. As for the other sick and convalescents, he consoled and encouraged them in a manner so touching and so charitable that everyone was edified by it, and gave thanks to God to hear His servant speak to them in such a way. He had a particular gift for calming the minds of many of these sick people whom their natural bad temper or the violence of their ailments made so sullen and furious that the nurses could not endure them.

However great the retreat of this holy man in this hospital was, he never closed his door to those who came to find him to be consoled with him; many even declared their troubles to him and spoke to him about what concerned their conscience. He consoled them all and assisted them with his advice without refusing anyone: which he did in a manner so persuasive that they returned with much satisfaction and joy at having been able to converse with such an admirable man. Many learned men and religious went to confer with him regarding the Holy Scripture, and admired at once the extraordinary intelligence he had of it, and his holiness.

God, wanting this lamp, whose light was so favorable to many souls, to go and enlighten others, sent His servant an illness that was not known at first, and which turned out to be purple fever. His great courage, his mortification, and his patience made him spend thirteen days without lying down; but finally the violence of the illness forced him to let himself be treated as a sick man.

After his recovery, he went to a village named Saint-Augustin, three leagues from Mexico City. As he sighed incessantly for solitude, he searched carefully for some other place near Mexico City where he could enjoy in peace the pleasure of being separated from the world. He chose a vi llage name Sainte-Foi Site of the final retreat and death of Gregorio López. d Santa Fe, two leagues from the city, and built himself a small cell on the bank of a stream. He entered this solitude on May 22, 1589, and spent the rest of his life there in prayer and contemplation, never leaving it except twice to go and gain the jubilee in the church of the convent of Saint-Dominic of Tucavaya, which is only a short half-league from Santa Fe.

He spent nearly seven months in this small house without communicating with anyone. As soon as day began to break, he would open the window of his room, wash his hands and face, and spend a quarter of an hour or a little more reading the Bible. After this reading, he would enter into such a great and deep recollection that one could not, by any external sign, know whether it was prayer, or meditation, or contemplation. The presence of God in which Gregory Lopez lived was not sterile, but fruitful and active, since it always produced more and more acts of love for God and neighbor.

God, without whose assistance men cannot acquire great knowledge, was the only master who instructed him. Gregory Lopez joined to his understanding of the Holy Scripture the holiness of life which is the most proper means of all to acquire it, according to these words of David: "The observation of your commandments has given me understanding." And Saint Jerome also says, speaking of Saint Marcella, that by observing the commandments of God, she had merited to understand the Holy Scripture.

God had not only given his servant the understanding of Holy Scripture, but he had also instructed him in an even more admirable way on the conduct he should maintain to walk surely on the path to heaven, and to teach others to walk there.

This holy man had so much light that he saw spiritual things with the eyes of the soul almost as clearly as his eyes saw bodily ones, and he knew how to distinguish them so well that one could not sufficiently admire the care he took to strengthen what concerns the spirit, and to weaken what concerns only the body. God had given him such great discernment of thoughts and words that he distinguished without difficulty those that were useless from those that were not, and those that came from the spirit of God from those that came from nature. On this, he was accustomed to say: "It is not the love of God, but the love of themselves that makes many speak of God." He also said: "As the love of God is all action, it speaks little, and often not at all." This same light exempted him from all scruples and placed his soul in an admirable tranquility. It also meant that whatever efforts the demon made to tempt him in matters of faith, he never had any doubt.

A religious of the Order of Saint Francis having asked him if, to put his mind at rest from some scruples, he believed it appropriate to confess often, he replied to him "that the best thing was to have nothing to confess," to make it known thereby that a priest must be in such purity that, even if he confesses often, he has no sins to confess.

When gentlemen or persons of higher rank asked him what they should do to live well in their condition, he answered them: "Do for the love of God what you do, and that is enough."

When it was said that someone was of noble race, he immediately thought that true nobility is to be children of God according to the spirit. When it was said that such and such a person was a Grandee of Spain, he considered that "the principal greatness consists in being a friend of God, in hearing his divine words, and in doing great actions for his service."

A good brother having asked him for a rule to pray well, he gave him a paper written in his own hand in which were these words: "Jesus Christ Our Lord is the admirable master who can instruct you in the rule you ask for to pray, and this prayer is entirely contained in the Pater noster: but so as not to give you cause to complain that I refuse you, I will tell you that you will only have to say these few words whose meaning is of such great extent: Lord my God, enlighten my soul so that I may know you and love you with all my heart."

Since it had pleased Our Lord to make known the graces he had poured into his servant, it was clearly seen what gift he had received for the guidance of those who consulted him in their sorrows and doubts. One was delighted to see the light he received from God. One was charmed by the sweetness of his conversation. He was respected as a divine spirit enclosed in a mortal body. One was persuaded that God himself instructed him in all his actions and in all that he had to answer. People came to consult him as an oracle of heaven, a prodigy of holiness, and another Saint John the Baptist in the desert: he fully satisfied all the doubts that were proposed to him. He instructed each person on how they should conduct themselves in their profession. There were none so afflicted that he did not console. He imprinted in the minds of those to whom he spoke an ardent desire to embrace virtue. His discourses were all fire and set hearts ablaze with the love of God. One never left him without feeling consoled, strengthened, and encouraged in the desire to live better. His words had so much force that they made people accomplish what they taught. It seemed that he was master of men's inclinations by the power he had to make them change, because the fervor of his prayer seconded his words.

When he was told that some people spoke ill of him, he listened without being moved, and said at once: "We must believe that they have good intentions." He then excused them as best he could by saying "that according to what they heard said about him, they were right to judge so." He tried not only to excuse these people, but also their action without ever justifying himself: and sometimes he would skillfully change the subject. His sweetness, his moderation, and his restraint in all his words were admirable. Brother Maesse Alphonse, rebuking him sharply because he had no images in his room, and telling him that he was imitating the heretics in this, he answered him with a tranquil face and without the slightest emotion: "Do not worry about that: there are superiors to whom you can address yourself if something scandalizes you, and they will know how to remedy it." This brother remained so edified by this answer that he held him in very high esteem from that time on.

His conversations were always about useful and spiritual things capable of edifying those who spoke with him. His manner of conversing was sweet, polite, so serious and so even that it spread a perfume of holiness. The tone of his voice was not raised, but very pleasant. His discourses were so pious that they won the hearts of those who heard them: which, joined to his modesty, made him appear a heavenly man and of visible holiness.

Whatever disadvantageous judgment was made of him, some treating him as a heretic, others as a madman, and others as a vagabond, he never defended himself. Some of his friends warning him of a great rumor that was being made about him, he replied: "God keep me from misusing my time so much as to occupy myself with that"; and he remained as tranquil as if nothing had been said to him.

He suffered with great confidence and without being moved the various judgments that the learned and the ignorant made about his way of life, so extraordinary and so new, although this lasted for several years and gave rise to various inquiries made by prelates and very considerable persons.

His strength of soul was such that he never spoke to anyone of his troubles, nor did he seek consolation in any creature, although he sometimes reported things that had happened to him, when it could serve his neighbor. Nothing of what happened to him or what was said to him was capable of diverting him from his recollection, and this evenness of mind that he always maintained clearly showed that he was raised above all human things and occupied with the thought of those of heaven without ever losing sight of them. Thus he had no care for the things of the world, but let himself be led by Providence, and considered as nothing all the things of the earth in comparison with the advantage of dealing with God and being always attached to him, without anything being able to distract him from this thought, and without one being able to notice in his actions the slightest thing that did not befit a true servant of God.

Men naturally desire to pass for better than they are. But Gregory Lopez was so far from this defect that he always esteemed himself less than others. One heard him say sometimes: "Since I have led a solitary life, I have not judged anyone; I have believed all others better and wiser than myself; I have not given any advice unless I was asked for it, and I have never established myself as a master over others." When he was slandered, he was accustomed to say: "I have always excused them, not only with my lips, but with all my heart."

As he had humble thoughts of himself and was always on his guard, he would say, when these thoughts came into his mind: "I am nothing; I am good for nothing." He had so stripped himself of all desire, whether temporal or spiritual, that he sometimes said that "since he had embraced a solitary life, he had never desired to see anything in this world, not even his parents, his friends, his country." It is that, never rejoicing in any temporal thing, all his joy was in God, and all his satisfaction consisted in doing his will and serving his neighbor.

Since Gregory Lopez had retired into solitude, he abandoned himself entirely to God without ever wanting to have anything that was his own. He usually said on this subject that "when a man takes pleasure in external poverty, it is a sign that he is internally rich." His voluntary poverty was so perfect that he never wanted to possess the slightest thing, nor to provide in advance for a single day for his needs, even in the external use of the things that were given to him. He always remained in this poverty without regard for his present necessities. His extreme love for this virtue made him use various means to always preserve it. Thus, as for clothing, he never affected any kind of habit: but he used those that God permitted to be given to him. He had no other bed than the earth, as long as his health permitted. He was very sober in his eating, and he was accustomed to say: "The poor must take care of their health, for fear that by making excesses in eating and drinking, they may be a burden to their neighbor." He always lived in the same abstinence and the same austerity, never desiring delicate things and using with great moderation what was presented to him, without ever asking for anything other than what a true solitary can ask for his necessity.

He religiously kept solitude and silence. He did not seek any human conversation, but was content with the consolations he received from God in his conversations with him, and persevered faithfully in the way of life to which he had called him.

This holy man, having fought the battles of the Lord so courageously, and having finished his course so happily, God willed, by a death conformable to his life, to give him the crown of justice which He has promised to those who love Him. In the month of May of the year 1596, he fell ill.

No sadness was observed in him, but an admirable peace and tranquility, and an entire conformity to the will of God, having prepared himself for it by continuous acts and exercises of piety. All his virtues shone forth marvelously in this illness, and particularly his humility.

The pains that Gregory Lopez suffered in his illness were very great; but God made him suffer even more in his soul than in his body, to give him cause to merit more. As his illness increased, his confusion and sorrow for his sins also increased. It was in these admirable dispositions that this great servant of God, full of faith, hope, and charity, and in an admirable peace and extreme tranquility of spirit, rendered his soul to his Creator. It was thus that he departed from this life to continue for all eternity to be happily immersed in that immense ocean of the love of God, of which he had ceaselessly made acts with as much perseverance and application as human frailty can permit.

He was a man truly heroic and worthy of being compared to those ancient solitaries so revered for their eminent virtues. He heard, like Abraham, this voice of God: "Get thee out of thy country; leave thy kindred, and go into the land that I will show thee, without ever returning to Chaldea"; and what God also said through Jeremiah: "Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save your souls." He conquered by his virtues a kingdom whose duration will be eternal. He finished his course happily. He guarded inviolably the faith he had promised to God, and thus he has won the crown of justice and follows the Lamb wherever He goes.

This death, or to better say this new life, occurred on July 20 of the year 1596. He had lived fifty-four years, of which he had spent thirty-three in solitude: his face appeared to be that of a living man and shone with light. A perfume emanated from his body that embalmed the entire room where he had rendered his spirit. His body was carried to the church of the town of Santa Fe, where it remained for an entire night; then it was buried very close to the high altar, on the Gospel side. God having shown by miracles the holiness of His servant, a great concourse of people gathered at his tomb.

## VENERATION AND RELICS.

The Archbishop of Mexico, having founded near the archbishopric a convent of Discalced Carmelites, under the name of Saint Joseph, extremely esteemed by the archbishops and viceroys because of their great regularity and because there were nuns of admirable virtue, and desiring to enrich this house with a treasure that would make it more venerable to everyone, believed he could not do better than by transferring there the body of the Blessed Gregory Lopez, for whom devotion increased from day to day.

On the first day of March 1616, the Archbishop had the bones of Gregory Lopez placed in an opening made in the thick wall of the church against the high altar, on the side of the spine, with a grille in front, and enclosed this precious treasure in a small chest lined with crimson velvet.

On May 24 of the year 1616, the Archbishop of Mexico opened, in the presence of several notable persons, the small chest where the relics of Gregory Lopez were, and took from it two small bones which he gave to the Marquis of Salinas, Viceroy. The Archbishop of Burgos, on the point of leaving for Spain, visited, on March 25, 1636, with all the necessary formalities, the relics of Saint Gregory Lopez and had an inventory made of them. There were: Six bones of the arms and legs; one large thigh bone; four shoulder bones; seven bones of the spine; four whole ribs; four bones of the knees and feet; and a piece of his habit wrapped in paper.

The Archbishop took the head and the rest of the bones to carry them to Spain, it being just that the country that had given him birth should preserve a portion of his relics.

Excerpt from the Life of the Blessed Gregory Lopez, by François Losa François Losa Author of the biography of Gregorio López. . Madrid, 1658.