Blessed Francis of Posadas

Our Lord showed, from that time on, how dear he was to Him, by saving him from several perils of death in which he found himself. Having been struck by the plague, he recovered against all hope. Once, when he fell into a deep well while trying to pick a flower, he remained miraculously suspended in the air and was pulled out without knowing how this help had come to him.

Another time, while bathing in the river, he was carried away by the water and was about to drown, when, having invoked the Mother of Mercy, he suddenly found himself on the bank. The Most Holy Virgin, who protected him, appeared to him in a dream, holding several rosaries in her hand, and invited him to take one, no doubt to reward him for his constancy in reciting this prayer. His guardian angel also appeared to him in the form of a very beautiful child dressed in the habit of Saint Dominic.

The Blessed one knew of his mother's vow, and his deepest desire was to enter the Order of Preachers one day; but Ordre des Frères Prêcheurs Mendicant religious order founded by Saint Dominic. his father having died long ago, his mother had remarried a man of a strange character, who would not allow him to learn Latin and placed him with a workman to serve his apprenticeship. The latter, driven by the devil, often mistreated him. The Blessed one, struck by his master and afflicted by his stepfather, placed his affection and his hopes in God, which redoubled the rage of hell. Seeing that the habit of reciting the Rosary had won him the heart of the Most Ho Rosaire Marian meditative prayer promoted by the saint. ly Virgin and brought him many graces, the devil appeared to him in the form of a black man and tried to snatch the Rosary he wore around his neck. The holy young man held it with one hand, while with the other, making the sign of the cross, he said to the devil: "Look at the cross"; which put him to flight. Since then, seeing that the Rosary was so formidable to the devil, he always had two, one around his neck, the other in his hand. The devil took revenge by striking him several times. God permitted this in order to exercise the patience and humility of His servant, and to give him the means to follow his vocation. And, indeed, some people having noticed the devil's pursuits and fearing that Francis was possessed, he was questioned by an educated priest, who, after careful examination, replied: "Let his parents know that he must be put to his studies, so that he may become a religious, and then everything will cease."

His mother consented without difficulty, but his stepfather refused to receive him. A good religious from the convent of Saint-Paul, touched by his misery, offered him a refuge in his cell. The Blessed was seventeen years old. He learned grammar with the children, rejoicing in the mockery and insults heaped upon him. He avoided useless conversations, worked, and prayed. It was soon recognized that he had a great aptitude for study and a very fine intelligence. Surpassing all his fellow students quickly, he learned to speak Latin perfectly.

His mother having become a widow a second time, her son was able to live with her; he cared for and served her with such attention and tenderness that his mother said to all those she knew: "My son is a saint; he washes and kisses my feet; he makes my bed, obeys me in everything, and gives me all sorts of marks of love." In his old age, the Blessed himself said: "If God shows mercy toward me, it is because of the good will with which I have always obeyed my mother." When he had been named bishop several times, he still said: "I attribute these honors only to God, who perhaps wished to reward in this way the ardent desire I have always had to honor my mother."

However, the time to fulfill his vow having come, his mother proposed that he take the necessary steps to enter the royal convent of Saint-Paul; but the religious of that noble house refused him, not because of his family, which was ancient, but because of the trade of reseller that his mother practiced. This was a great sorrow for the poor woman, who encouraged her son to present himself at a convent of another Order, where he was welcomed with joy. On the day fixed for the taking of the habit, the Blessed, going to bid farewell to Our Lady of the Rosary, remained for a long time in the chapel without being able to leave it. Upon his return, his mother, seeing him so sad, asked him the reason for his tears. "I am weeping," he told her, "and I will weep all my life, because, wishing to be a son of Saint Dominic, you are forcing me to enter another religion." She then ran to consult the Dominican who had once received him into his cell. This good religious, finding the young man so firm in his vocation, gave him a pretext to be absent from Cordoba that day, in order to avoid the ceremony of the taking of the habit and to be able to release his word. He then recommended him to the prior of the convent of Scala-Cœli, which was only a league f rom Cordoba, on the f couvent de Scala-Cœli Dominican convent located near Córdoba where Francis was admitted. irst slopes of the Sierra Morena. There, after inquiries that were excellent, he was received unanimously; and, having given him the habit, the prior sent him to the convent of Saint Catherine of Jaen to perform his novitiate.

When the prior of Saint-Paul learned that Francisco de Posadas had presented himself at Scala-Cœli, he wrote immediately to oppose his admission; but it was too late, and the Provincial, to whom he appealed, seeing the inquiries, confirmed what had been done. The Blessed, after his year of novitiate, was therefore admitted to profession on November 25, 1663; he then returned to the convent of Scala-Cœli, where the prior of Saint-Paul had him given the order never to appear in Cordoba, even to visit his poor mother. It was very hard and very humiliating. God, who was testing him in this way, wanted to give him early on a humility so deep and so solid that it could support all the favors with which He was to shower him for the rest of his life.

The Blessed one lived in isolation at the convent of Scala-Cœli, awaiting the orders of the Provincial to begin his studies of philosophy and theology, when he was sent to San lúcar de Barrameda. He San-Lucar de Barraméda Place where Francis began his theological studies and his preaching. distinguished himself there by his intelligence, and soon by his holiness; for, having heard Father Gon zalez, of the Père Gonzalez Jesuit whose preaching inflamed Francis with the love of God. Society of Jesus, preach, he felt himself all inflamed with the love of God. From then on, he redoubled his fasts and penances, devoted himself to the service of the poor, and wished to become in all things a perfect religious. When he had been ordained a priest, he went immediately to Córdoba to say his first Mass at the altar of Our Lady of the Holy Fountain, in fulfillment of his mother's vow; then he returned to Sanlúcar, where he was employed in preaching. He converted many people there. One woman, among others, renouncing all the vanities of the world, said: "One cannot do otherwise, after having heard this Saint."

Having been recalled to his convent of Scala-Cœli, the Blessed one passed through Córdoba. The prior of Saint-Paul, to whom his virtues had been spoken of, asked him to preach in his church; he consented willingly; but the religious, too faithful to their repugnance, refused to hear him. He suffered this affront with patience, which was the last; for, having had the occasion to preach in the other churches of the city, the religious of Saint-Paul, seeing all the good he was accomplishing, renounced their prejudices and ended by taking pride in this man whom they had so despised. One of them, and it was the very one who had shown him the most antipathy, wished to publicly make amends for his wrongs. Upon leaving one of his sermons, his heart deeply moved, he went to embrace him with great tenderness, in the presence of a very large number of people, and, taking his hand, he kissed it humbly; thereafter, he accompanied him on several missions.

The convent of Scala-Coeli had in Cordoba, right near one of the city gates, a hospice where some religious would come to preach and hear confessions, and to receive alms. The Blessed one was sent there; and he remained there until his death, except for the time he gave to missions. The first day he arrived, he saw an angel who made him understand that it was there that he would carry his cross. In the evening, he rang the bell to call the faithful to the recitation of the Rosary. The next day, he went to the confessional, where sinners flocked in crowds, so that he spent almost the entire day and part of the night there. He sometimes experienced great temptations there; for God brought him poor souls all soiled with impure sins: but the Lord rendered him as if dead, these are his own expressions, «and I experienced», he said, «how generous God is towards those whom His goodness exposes to peril».

To this gift the Lord added a prophetic light that allowed him to know the interior of his penitents. «Ah! traitor», he would say to one, «why do you hide such and such sins from me?» and he indicated their number and kind. «You must still confess this fault», he would say to another, «since you committed it and did not accuse yourself of it». And to a woman who was silent: «There is the sin that you are so ashamed to confess». He reminded a man of two faults he had committed twelve years earlier, and which he believed were well hidden. While conducting a mission, he said to another person: «How can you come to confess without laying aside the hatred you bear toward your daughter?»

Sometimes the most holy Virgin sent him sinners to convert. This good Mother appeared one day to a woman who was leading a criminal life: «Go and confess», she told her, «to Father Posadas». She did so, and became a model of penance. The holy angels also helped the Blessed one in the exercise of his ministry. One evening when he was going to hear the confession, in rainy weather, of a woman who was in danger of death, his lantern went out; but immediately a torch was seen lighting his way to the house and accompanying him on his return to the hospice. Another time, when he was sitting near his confessional, he saw two women enter the church, to one of whom he said: «Come here, my daughter, the Lord calls you, come and confess». This woman, fixing her eyes on him, noticed that he was surrounded by a celestial light. Then, although she had had no intention of reconciling with God when coming to the church, she knelt down and spent that whole morning making a general confession. She left so sincerely repentant that she repaired all the scandals she had caused.

The Blessed one touched the most hardened hearts without difficulty, because he himself had a heart filled with a vivid sorrow for his sins. He said one day to a person who, finding him all in tears, asked him what was the matter: "What would you have me have, except that I am the vilest, the most miserable, the most infamous, the most ungrateful man there is on earth?" And, in the last days of his life, he still said to his confessor: "My Father, I would like to have such great regret for my faults that every morning, at the holy sacrifice, I ask Our Lord to grant me contrition for them in his infinite mercy."

And, indeed, he wept almost continuously during the Mass. He believed himself so unworthy to touch his Lord that one could hear him repeating:

"Oh! what a fatality, for a God to descend into these hands!" At the Elevation, his body would become all trembling, and he could not manage to stifle his sobs. One day when Our Lord had deigned to appear to him in the holy Host, his agitation redoubling, those present feared that the holy Host might break in his hands. At other times he was rapt in ecstasy, his feet lifting off the ground without him noticing; for he said to his confessor: "I do not know if it is the ground that is missing, but I do not understand what is happening to me. May it please God that I be grateful to Him for all His graces!" While he was pronouncing the words of the Consecration, Our Lord said to him with tenderness: "My son, it is I who am He who is." He remained for a few moments beside himself; then, while elevating the holy Host, his body followed his soul which was rising to God, and remained suspended in the air. When he came back down, a great number of people saw him all surrounded by light. This luminous radiance appeared, moreover, frequently, while he was celebrating the holy Mysteries; the wrinkles of his face would fade; his forehead would become transparent like crystal; his cheeks, ordinarily pale, were red like fire. At the Gospel, one saw a luminous ray emerge from his mouth which illuminated the missal; and twice, on the feast of Pentecost, such a brilliant light emerged from his body that the whole altar was illuminated by it.

The most holy Virgin also appeared to him during the Mass, when he celebrated it in her honor. On the day of the Nativity, for example, she showed herself to him as she was in her cradle, and, at the Compassion, as she was at the foot of the cross. The apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, the great martyr Saint Catherine, to whom he was very devoted, and ma ny other Saints also showed the grande martyre sainte Catherine Saint whose voices guide Joan. mselves to him, during the holy Sacrifice, on the occasion of their feast. The angels themselves assisted him, supporting his arms at the elevation, or holding lit candles. And one cannot be surprised at this, for the angels and archangels, who are our guardians on earth, assist with great respect at the holy Sacrifice of the Mass, adoring Our Lord with profound humility in the sacrament of his love. Our eyes are not worthy to see them, and most of the time we do not even think of them, although they pray constantly for us, having need of nothing for themselves. But, finding in the Blessed one a pure soul and a devoted servant of their Master, they loved to make him a witness to the testimonies of respect that they gave to their common Lord.

Many people recovered the health of their souls, and others that of their bodies, by hearing the holy religious's Mass. When he descended from the altar, the sick would beg him to recite the Gospel to them, to lay his hands upon them, or to make the sign of the cross over them, and they were healed. In this way, he restored sight to a blind man, a fact that was perfectly well known to everyone in Cordoba. A woman, whom the doctors had warned to prepare for death, asked him, after she had confessed, to wash his fingers and give her that water to drink. "What good can there be in my fingers?" said the Blessed one. "My Father," replied the sick woman, "has your reverence not just said the Holy Mass? Now, what greater honor for your hands than to have carried a God?" "You are right," he said, "may your faith be of help to you." He washed his hands, gave her that water, and as soon as she had drunk it, she was healed.

As he knew the hour when he was to depart from this world, and the kind of death that God had in store for him: "I will die suddenly," he said several times, "and it will be soon." On September 20 of the year 1713, having said his Mass with the tenderest devotion, he went to the confession SAINT AGAPET OU AGAPIT Ier Pope and confessor mentioned intrusively in the text (possible source error). al. There were many people in the church, and it was noticed that he looked very joyful. He gave each of his penitents salutary advice, letting them understand that these would be his last. "It is necessary," he said to one of them, "that I give you a rule of life, for my infirmities are increasing, and later I do not know if I will be able to do so."

Upon returning to the hospice, a religious asked him to relieve him of an anxiety that was distressing him. They sat on a bench, and the Blessed one, having listened to him with affectionate attention, restored his peace. At noon, a religious called him to dinner. As he sat down to the table, he had a stroke and lost consciousness. He was carried to his bed, where he broke into a profuse sweat. The doctors having lost all hope, he was given absolution and Extreme Unction, with the indulgences of his Order and of the Rosary confraternity. The religious, believing he was about to pass, sang the Credo to him: the final act of faith of a soul about to appear before its Creator, its Redeemer, and its Judge. As it was seen that he was breathing, pious ejaculatory prayers were suggested to him, which he heard and understood. At five o'clock, his head drooping, the Credo was sung to him again; after which he appeared to rest a little. At seven o'clock, the religious, perceiving that he was about to die and finding it hard to hold back their tears, sang the Credo to him a third time, during which he expired gently, on September 20, 1713: he was in his sixty-ninth year.

He was buried in a special tomb that had been made in the burial place of the religious. As the Blessed performed many miracles, steps were taken for his canonization, and Pope Pius VII be atified him pape Pie VII Pope who authorized the cult of Blessed Rainier. in 1818. Excerpt from the Année Dominicaine. — Cf. Les Saints et les Bienheureux du XVIIIe siècle, by Abbé Darms.