Blessed Sanctes of Urbino

He had already reached the flourishing years of youth, and nothing yet foreshadowed that he would embrace the religious life; God used an unfortunate accident to call him to it. One day, as Sanctès was returning home, he was attacked unexpectedly by a relative, others say by his godfather, who, armed with a sharp weapon, threatened to kill him. Unable to flee, Sanctès first tried, through some observations full of gentleness and energy, to appease his assailant; but seeing the latter persist in his guilty plan, he drew his sword and struck him in the thigh with such violence that the unfortunate man died a few days later.

Inconsolable at having caused, albeit innocently, the death of his fellow man, the holy young man renounced the military career for which his parents destined him, and entered the Order of Saint Francis.

Out of humility and in a spirit of penance, he obtained to be received as a lay brother. In this humble condition, he devoted himself with fervor to all the practices of religious life, always choosing the lowest and most exhausting occupations. His superiors entrusted him with the direction of the lay novices; but he had no rest until he had been relieved of this position of trust. His only ambition was to make himself the servant of all and to live in abjection. Having constantly before his eyes the accident that had happened to him, he shed tears over it day and night, and gave himself up to frightening austerities; thus, his food consisted of a few poorly prepared herbs, or fruits that he ate without bread. Not content with this penance, he asked God to send him, in the same place on his body where he had struck his aggressor, a pain similar to that which he had made him experience. His prayer was answered: an excessively painful ulcer appeared on his thigh, which no remedy could soothe or heal. He kept it until his death, that is to say for at least twenty years. One can still see today, on the bone of the Saint's leg, the incontestable traces of this miraculous wound.

This Blessed one had a particular devotion to the holy sacrifice of the Mass; a favor he received regarding this could only increase it. Being one day prevented by his occupations from attending Mass, despite his desire, when he heard the sound of the bell announcing the elevation of the Host, he knelt down to adore Our Lord from afar. At that same instant, four walls that separated him from the sanctuary opened, and he was able to see the priest at the altar and the Host all radiant with light. The august ceremony finished, the walls rejoined without leaving any traces of their miraculous separation. This miracle was not the only one that embellished the life of our Saint.

He usually used a donkey to go fetch wood in the forest. One day, having put this animal out to pasture, he forgot to bring it back in the evening. As he went to look for it in the morning, he found the poor beast dead, and a wolf, its killer, in the act of devouring it. The Saint addressed scathing reproaches to the carnivorous animal, then commanded it to repair by its labor the damage it had caused to the convent and the benefactors. The wolf obeyed, and for several years this servant of a new kind, submissive to the orders of Sanctès, transported the wood that was needed to the convent.

the servant of God, having fallen gravely ill, was seized with an insurmountable disgust for every kind of food. He nevertheless had a desire to eat cherries, and shared this desire with the infirmarian. It was then the month of January, and the infirmarian did not fail to reply to the sick man that his desire was all too extravagant, and that one would sooner find ice than fruit on the trees. Brother Sanctès was not discouraged by this reason; he gently prayed the infirmarian to go to the garden, assuring him that he would find there what he asked for. The good infirmarian could not help but smile; he went nevertheless, out of compliance for the sick man, and found a cherry tree laden with cherries of beautiful color and exquisite taste, while all the other trees were covered with snow and ice. To perpetuate the memory of this wonder, some of these miraculous fruits are still kept today in a glass vial.

The Blessed one had one day sown turnips in the convent garden. The next day, as he wanted to prepare the community's dinner, he found no provisions of any kind; he then told his companion to go see if the turnips they had sown the day before had grown. The latter obeyed, all the while mocking what he called the simplicity of Brother Sanctès; but he was well disabused when he saw that not only had the seed germinated, but that the turnips were large enough to be eaten. He gathered a basket full of them, of which the religious ate while admiring the holiness of Brother Sanctès.

Another time, he was keeping a pot of broth in reserve to serve to the community; this pot was inadvertently knocked over and broken; there remained of its contents only the value of half a bowl. God multiplied this remainder so much in the hands of his servant that there was enough to serve abundantly to eighteen religious and some strangers. The convent bell having broken, Brother Sanctès soldered the pieces together with a different metal, and this without it losing anything of its original sound. "This prodigy," says the chronicler, "did not cause a little astonishment to the founders, who knew well that this metal, once broken, cannot be reunited naturally except by melting."

This prodigy still subsists in the convent that bears the name of the Blessed one, in the territory of Pistoia.

The ulcer of which we have spoken finally led our Blessed one to death. He fell asleep peacefully in the Lord, at the convent of Scoton eto, near Scotoneto Location of the convent where the saint died. Monte-Baraccio, in the diocese of Pesar o, on Pesaro Diocese where the saint's place of death is located. the eve of the Assumption of the glorious Virgin Mary, in the year 1390; he was about forty years old, and had spent twenty in religion.

He was first buried in the common cemetery of the religious: but the miracles performed through his intercession, and especially the sight of a beautiful lily that miraculously grew from his tomb, compelled the friars to transport him to a more honorable place. His body is now exposed to the veneration of the faithful, under a beautiful mausoleum, on the left side of the altar of the Nativity of the most holy Virgin. A part of his hair shirt is still preserved, as well as a mat on which he slept, and a wooden cross crafted by his hands and adorned with relics. Several lamps that burn incessantly before his precious remains, and numerous ex-votos suspended all around, attest to the faith of the people and the efficacy of the Saint's prayers.

In his portrait kept at the same convent, he is depicted carrying a cross in his left hand and a sun on his chest. No author gives the reason for this particularity. It must be thought, says Wadding, that it relates to some ecstasy of the servant of God, during which he may have appeared thus to the religious who lived with him.

Clement XIV inscribed the name of Sanctès in the catalogue of the Blessed; his feast is celebrated with great solem nity at Monte- Monte-Baraccio Site of the solemn celebration of the saint's feast day. Baraccio, on the second Sunday of August. The name of the blessed Sanctès is inscribed in the calendar of the Observance on the 14th of the same month, under the double rite.

Taken from the Franciscan Annals. — See our Seraphic Palm.