Saint Pacific of San Severino

Pacificus was thus growing in the fear and love of the Lord, when, while still very young, he lost both his father and mother in a very short time. The orphan was entrusted to the care of his uncle, a man without affection or charity, who, instead of replacing the parents the poor child had lost, treated him with brutality and made him suffer all kinds of mistreatment. Not content with failing in his duty as a relative and guardian, he abandoned Pacificus to the care of the servants, who, little pleased with this increase in work and encouraged by their master's example, even surpassed his brutality and overwhelmed with mockery, insults, and outrages the one whose sad position should have excited their commiseration, and whose gentle qualities were so well suited to win their esteem. Our young Saint bore all these injustices with unalterable patience, and no complaint ever escaped his lips; but he united his sufferings to those of his divine Savior, offering us, even at such a tender age, a perfect model of Christian gentleness and resignation.

From his earliest years, Pacificus had felt called to dedicate himself entirely to the service of God. His love for humility and poverty led him to choose the Order of Friars Minor for the fulfillment of his sacrifice. Having reache Ordre des Frères Mineurs Religious order welcomed by Engelbert in Cologne. d the age of seventeen, he asked to be admitted to the Observant convent in San-Severino, his native city. The religious welcomed him with joy, for they knew the innocence and fervor of his childhood. Pacificus's happiness was no less great, and to show his gratitude to the Lord, who had granted him a vocation so in accordance with his inclinations, he began to practice all the seraphic virtues with ardor. His humility was admirable, and his love of self-abasement drove him to place himself below everyone, to choose the vilest and most abject tasks, and to seek every opportunity to attract some contempt. He succeeded to his liking in this last point, for the other novices, understanding nothing of such perfect conduct, ridiculed our young Saint and attributed to a lack of intelligence what was the sole effect of divine love. The superiors, however, more experienced in spiritual ways, easily discerned the motives of their novice, and filled with admiration at seeing such consummate virtue in so young a man, they admitted him to profession without the slightest difficulty. Furthermore, finding in him all the necessary dispositions for the priestly dignity, they had him undertake the special studies required for this holy state. His rapid progress in the theological sciences clearly demonstrated to his companions the injustice they had committed in thinking so little of his intellect, and when he was ordained a priest, there was but one voice to praise his virtues and to express the hopes that the Church could place in the ministry of such a learned and holy religious.

Our Saint's humility prevented him from viewing his priestly future from such a consoling perspective. He trembled under the burden that had just been imposed upon him, which did not prevent him from rejoicing from the bottom of his heart at the signal honor the Lord had bestowed upon him by calling him to the service of the altars. His love for God became increasingly vivid and affectionate. Following the example of his seraphic Father, he often repeated, in the transports of his devotion, this cry of the loving soul: "My God and my all!" Nothing séraphique Père Founder of the Order of Friars Minor. can depict the fervor with which he celebrated the holy Mysteries. Often, during the Holy Mass, he was caught up in ecstasy, and at the moment of the elevation, those present saw him to their great admiration rise from the ground, drawn by that host he had just consecrated, and carried away by the force of an act of adoration that had absorbed all the powers of his soul.

After his ordination, he was tasked with teaching philosophy to his brothers; but he soon renounced this position, which his humility represented to him as too honorable for him. He then devoted himself to preaching, traveling through the mountains of the March, announcing the word of God to the poor peasants. He had the eloquence of the Saints; his preaching was simple, but full of unction and strength; thus, he brought about wonderful fruits of salvation. However, the Lord judged that His servant would be more useful to the Church in retirement than in public life. He therefore visited him with cruel infirmities, and thus constrained him to renounce the apostolic ministry in the prime of life, when he was barely thirty-five years old. His legs were covered with sores and only allowed him to walk with difficulty; his eyes were veiled in darkness, and his ears could only perceive sounds with extreme difficulty. In a word, he became impotent, deaf, and almost blind. God, who wanted to have Pacificus all to Himself, had rendered him apparently incapable of anything, except to suffer and to pray.

The trial was harsh for a zealous soul; Pacificus accepted it nonetheless with a good heart. Happy with everything that pleased his heavenly Father, he retired to the sm all co Forano A place of retreat and sanctification where the saint spent his final years. nvent of Forano, where he had made his novitiate; and God, who called him to this solitude, finished sanctifying him there. His life was a continual fast. Besides the Lent of the Church and the two Lents of the Order, he observed all the Lents consecrated by Saint Francis. He fasted on bread and water every Friday and Saturday, as well as the vigils of the feasts of Our Lady. On other days, his meal consisted of a little soup thinned with water or mixed with ashes, and a little bread dipped in reddened water. The rest of his portion belonged to the poor, to whom he loved to distribute it himself. In winter, he never approached the fire, or if he sometimes came to the common hearth, he remained there for so little time that it served much less to warm him than to make him feel more the rigor of the cold, quite sharp in these mountains.

He wore a hair shirt of iron continually. Every day, he gave himself the discipline three or four times, either in his cell or in some retired place; for he hid his austerities with care, and they would not have been known without the stains of blood that covered the walls or the floor of his retreat. He slept barely four hours, spending the rest of the night in prayer, either in his cell or in the small church of Our Lady of the Angels, which he was particularly fond of. This church had been built right near the place where the glorious Virgin Mary had once appeared to the blessed Conrad of Offida.

Each morning, the holy man confessed before saying his Mass; and although he led a life more angelic than human, he shed torrents of tears as if he had been the greatest sinner on earth. At the holy altar his face would light up, his body would lift, and he would often remain thus in ecstasy until he was called back to himself. He spoke very little, and when he walked through the convent, he always had his rosary in his hand. His sister having come to see him on the day of the Portiuncula, he presented himself to her a t the door Portioncule Franciscan feast associated with the plenary indulgence. of the convent and said to her: "My sister, we must not lose time that we can better employ in gaining the indulgence; let us try to make ourselves worthy of such a great treasure." Having said these words, he left her, although he had not seen her for a long time. With his brothers, with the people of the world who came to consult him, his words were brief and grave, but full of charity. His demeanor inspired respect, at the same time that his gentleness charmed and consoled souls. His face was marked by a completely virginal modesty; he never fixed his eyes on anyone's face, and even the religious who lived with him could not say after many years what the color of his eyes was.

He suffered more than can be said from the horrible sores he had on his legs, yet he was never heard to complain. If one spoke to him of his pains, he would answer with a cheerful air: "God wills it so, may His holy will be done!" To those who asked him for news of his health, he invariably replied that he was doing much better than he deserved. His superior, wanting to test him, sometimes called him a hypocrite who pretended to steal paradise; Pacificus listened in silence and rejoiced in his heart. A man who hated him one day spat wine in his face in front of several people, calling him a drunkard! The Saint wiped himself quietly and answered nothing. Thus Our Lord had kept silence when He had been insulted by being spat upon in the face.

To resemble Jesus Christ is the summit of perfection. It is to this summit that God had led Saint Pacificus through the paths of a hidden, humble, suffering, and resigned life. Perhaps the man of God would not have risen so high or so easily amidst the cares and distractions of an active ministry; that is why Providence had led him into solitude through early infirmities.

From the depths of his solitude in Forano, Pacificus served the Church better than the greatest geniuses, for the merits he amassed were sources of grace for sinners. Ceaselessly, he asked God for their conversion. He also prayed for the infidels, for the missionaries who evangelized them, envying the latter the happiness of being able to shed their blood for Jesus Christ. Who could tell the number of souls he saved through his prayers and sufferings? Our Lord, who loved him, did not refuse the wishes of his faithful servant, which were, moreover, the dearest desire of His divine heart. He revealed to him the needs of the Church, the profound misery of sinners, so that Pacificus might beseech Him to remedy them, and that he might compel mercy to prevail over justice.

"The frequent prayer of the just has great power over the heart of God." An impenetrable veil hides from us the phenomena of the supernatural world; we cannot always manage to grasp the mysterious chain of effects and causes; but incontestably, the prayer of the Saints is one of the principal springs of the government of Providence. And, if it pleased this same Providence to reveal to us the hidden paths that guide It in the disposition of the events of this world, how many would we not see that would have to be traced back to this principle!

On August 16, 1717, while the Christian army, commanded by Prince Eugene of Savoy, was fighting valiantly under the walls of Belgrade, Pacificus, k neeling in his cell, in prince Eugène de Savoie Commander of the Christian army during the victory at Belgrade. voked, like Moses, the God of battles. At the very Belgrade Site of the major victory against the Turks in 1456. hour when the Turks were defeated, he came out, his face radiant and triumphant, announcing in precise terms the victory to all the Brothers he met.

Saint Pacific passed from the darkness of this world to the eternal light of heaven, in the year 1721, on September 24, the feast of Our Lady of Mercy. He was then sixty-eight years old, and had spent fifty-one of them in the Franciscan life. His holiness had been too brilliant during his life not to manifest itself after his death. Numerous miracles, by authorizing the trust that the people had in him, affirmed the power he enjoyed in heaven. He was beatified by Pius VI in 1786, and solemnly numbered among the saints by Gregory XVI on May 26, 1839.

He is depicted carrying the cross with a lily, to recall both his preaching and the practice of mortification which allowed him to carry his baptismal innocence to the grave.

Excerpt from the Année franciscaine, and the Annales franciscaines, volume VII. — Cf. Les Saints et les Bienheureux du XVIIIᵉ siècle, by M. Iubel Duras.