Saint Elzear

Elzéar Elzéar Husband of Saint Delphine, known for his piety and his vow of conjugal chastity. was only ten years old when his father, by the order of Charles II, King of Jerusalem, Naples, and Sicily, betrothed him to a young lady of his rank named Delphine; at the age of Delphine Wife of Saint Elzear, with whom she shared a vow of virginity. twelve, she had already earned the admiration of all who knew her through her virtues; and three years later, their marriage was celebrated in the castle of Puimiche l, in Provence. Elzé château de Puimichel Place of residence and marriage of Elzéar in Provence. ar, whom his young wife asked to live in continence, consented provisionally, until God should manifest His will to them.

Some time later, our Saint, having gone to Marseille to visit the Abbot of Saint-Victor, his uncle, found there young men who spoke to him in ways very apt to engage him in sensual pleasures. He resisted this temptation vigorously. That year he fasted rigorously during Lent, although, according to the laws of the Church which did not yet oblige him at that age, he could have dispensed himself from this austerity. He also wore on his bare flesh a rope full of knots and spikes, which he tightened so much that he caused himself several wounds, from which blood flowed in abundance.

Having been invited, at the age of fifteen, with his uncle, to a first Mass and to the ceremony held for the reception of a new knight on the day of the Assumption of Our Lady, he attended without omitting any of his ordinary practices of piety. He rose at midnight to hear Matins in the place of the assembly, called the Sault. He confessed and received the holy Eucharist, to attend in spirit to the triumph of this Queen of angels; he also performed some acts of humility and chastity. While he was dining near his uncle, divine love so inflamed his heart that his face appeared all on fire. Having lost consciousness, he was carried to a bed, and the curtains were drawn to let him rest. He then felt that divine operation which mystical theologians call transformation; his soul liquefied and was lost, so to speak, in the heart of his Savior. He received at the same time a celestial light which made him know the brevity of this life, the vanity of the goods of the earth at the price of those of heaven, which never perish, and the impotence of all the pleasures of this world to satisfy the spirit: which made him conceive an extreme contempt for them that lasted his whole life.

He also recognized, in a singular manner, the great mercy of God upon him, for having preserved him from mortal sin, and for having kept his virginity; so that he resolved, from that moment, to keep it inviolably. He even deliberated abandoning all his riches and retiring into a solitude to think only of the work of his salvation; but as he was in this thought, it seemed to him that he heard a voice saying to him, in the depths of his heart, not to change his state. "But if I remain in the world," he replied to this inspiration, "how shall I be able, in a fragile flesh, to preserve the fervor with which I feel myself presently animated?" — "I know what you can and what you cannot do," added this divine voice; "I will supply for this weakness, keep your virginity, and have confidence in me." After this visit from God, he found himself entirely dead to all the things of the century, and the ardors of concupiscence were so extinguished in him that from that age, which was only fifteen, he spent the rest of his life in perfect continence. They often spent the night, his wife and he, in prayer, during which they were several times favored with celestial visions. Our Lord, who delights wonderfully among the lilies and with pure and innocent persons, appeared to them sensibly to console them by His presence and strengthen them by His graces to remain faithful in their holy and generous resolution. It was in these precious visits that Elzéar discovered the adorable mysteries of divine Providence, the economy of the Incarnation of the Word, the excess of the charity of Jesus Christ in the institution of the holy Eucharist, and several other secrets of grace, which caused in his soul admirable transports of love.

When he had reached his twentieth year, not finding in the castle of Ansouis all the tranquility he desired, because his parents did their utmost to make him taste the world, he resolved to retire elsewhere, where he could live according to the movements of his devotion. He had difficulty obtaining this separation from them; but they were obliged to grant to his prayers and his entreaties what so strongly repelled their own inclination. Of all his lands, he chose the castle of Puimichel, which belonged to him through his wife. There, this new head of the family began to govern his house in a completely new way. Here are the regulations he made for this, contained in ten articles: 1st That all my servants hear Mass every day; 2nd that blasphemy be banished from my house; 3rd that all respect modesty; 4th they must confess often and receive communion on the principal feast days; 5th I want idleness to be avoided. When the women have fulfilled their morning duties of piety, they must employ the rest of the time working; 6th no games of chance: there are enough innocent recreations; 7th God dwells where peace reigns. May envy, jealousy, suspicion, and gossip never divide my people; 8th if a quarrel breaks out, I want them to reconcile before nightfall; 9th every evening we will gather for a spiritual conference where we will speak of God. It is very unfortunate that, being placed on earth solely to merit heaven, we almost never speak of it; 10th I forbid all my officers to harm anyone, to oppress the weak and the poor under the pretext of maintaining my rights.

It was in these pious conversations that this holy young man discovered the lights of divine wisdom with which his soul was illuminated. His words were flaming arrows that excited in his servants ardent desires for their own perfection, and one cannot describe the admirable fruits that his pressing exhortations produced. Those who approached him most closely and who enjoyed his conversations most familiarly felt the corrupted inclinations of the flesh and the movements of concupiscence dying and extinguishing within themselves. So much so that many, even men of war, touched by this secret virtue as well as by his speeches, made a vow to keep chastity inviolably all their lives.

So as not to neglect his own salvation while ensuring that of others, our Saint followed the following practices: He recited the Divine Office every day, according to the usage of the Roman Church, with such devotion that he imparted it even to those who had the happiness of seeing or hearing him. Besides the prescribed fasts, he also fasted every Friday of the year and all the vigils of feast days, along with the entire season of Advent. He wore a rough hair shirt under his precious garments, which he often did not take off even during the night. He usually slept dressed in clothes he had had made for that purpose. He had a discipline made of iron links, and he gave himself three strokes at each verse of the psalm Miserere. He received the Holy Eucharist every Sunday of Lent and Advent, and on the feasts of several Saints, particularly those of the virgins, for whom he had a singular devotion; he communicated with such an abundance of graces that he sometimes confessed to his dear wife that, when he had the holy host on his tongue, he tasted inconceivable sweetnesses: "Ah! the greatest pleasure of a soul," he added, "is to approach holy communion often." He had such ease in rising toward God that he did not have to make any effort to apply himself to prayer, meditation, and contemplation. The taste for heavenly things never left him, whether he was at the table, or conversing with the world, or even when, unable to avoid it, he found himself in large gatherings of entertainment, where music was sung and played; for, amidst the sound of the melody, his spirit was so occupied with eternal truths that he fell into a kind of ecstasy. He sometimes spent the nights in contemplation, and during this time, he shed torrents of tears. His greatest recreation was to converse with his wife about the perfections of Jesus Christ, the excellence of virginity, the delights of paradise, and the blessed eternity; so that one can say that their room was an oratory where they attended only to exercises of piety, and their souls an altar where they continually adored the divine Majesty. He inviolably observed these three maxims: first, to avoid the smallest things that could displease God; second, to offer himself to Him at every moment with fervor; finally, to keep hidden in his heart, particularly from worldly and carnal men, the visits and favors he received from heaven.

From this interior disposition proceeded that admirable charity which he exercised towards the unfortunate. Every day he gave dinner to twelve poor people or lepers, washed their feet, and kissed them tenderly: after which he gave them great alms. Having once gone to visit a leper colony, he found there six lepers, who were so disfigured that they were horrifying to behold. But, overcoming the repugnance of nature, he conversed with them for some time, then kissed them affectionately, and immediately the hospital was filled with a very sweet odor, and the poor sick were found to be perfectly healed. He forbade his valet and his surgeon, whom he had brought with him, to publish this miracle; but heaven revealed his humility by another wonder: for, as the Saint left this place, a brilliant light appeared above his head which spread over the hospital and increased as he advanced towards his castle. During a famine which reduced the people to the utmost misery, he had all the provisions in his granaries distributed to the poor, not even reserving what seemed necessary for the subsistence of his household; this liberality was so pleasing to God, that the wheat and flour were found to be miraculously multiplied in his granaries, so that he could continue it to a greater number of needy people. His castle was the hospice for all traveling religious. He gave them the best welcome possible, and above all he was delighted when he could lodge preachers, for whom he took extraordinary care, hoping, through this charity, to share in the reward of their labors. He did not wait for the poor to ask him for help and reveal their needs to him; he had them sought out and anticipated them with his alms. He never refused any of those who had recourse to him, and, when he could identify those whom shame prevented from asking him for anything, he had them assisted secretly.

At the age of twenty-three, having lost his father, who had named him his heir by testament, he was obliged to make a journey to Italy to take possession of the goods that came to him from this succession. There, for three years, he suffered all sorts of insults from his subjects of the county of Ariano, who rose up against him, falsely accused him of several crimes, and laid traps to put him to death. The Prince of Taranto offered him his troops to bring them back to their duty and punish some of the most guilty, in order to strike terror into the others; but Elzéar rejected all these rigorous methods, hoping to reduce them by his patience. Indeed, he won them over so well by his gentleness that, having submitted to him, they not only respected him as their master but also loved him as their father. He found, among his father's papers, letters that certain lords had written to him to dissuade him, by supposed pretexts, from making him his heir; however, he felt no resentment, for far from letting them know that he was aware of the ill offices they had rendered him, he showed them more friendship than the others and lived with them in perfect harmony. He had, above all, a particular tenderness for the one who was the author of all this intrigue, whatever cause for dissatisfaction he had received from it. He was never seen to be troubled or angry. A marvelous serenity and calm always appeared on his face, which sufficiently marked the peace and tranquility of his soul. Everyone admired this constancy, so rare in persons of quality, who make it a point of honor to be infinitely sensitive to the slightest things. His own wife, unable to understand this mystery, asked him one day how he could remain unmoved in the midst of so many reasons to lose his temper.

"It seems to me," she said to him, "that you are a statue devoid of all feeling. Do you not perceive the injustices that are done to you, or do you not have the heart to be angry about them? You are a great lord, and you pass for not lacking courage; what harm would it do you to appear indignant against those who wrong you, so that they might cease to persecute you?" — "What good would it do me to get angry?" replied Elzéar; "I find no advantage in it. I feel well enough the harm that is done to me; but when some movement of indignation arises in my heart because of it, I immediately cast my eyes upon my Lord Jesus Christ, who suffered for me so many reproaches, outrages, and curses, although He deserved the respect of all creatures; and I find myself at that very moment so disposed to endure everything that, even if my servants were to tear out my beard or cover my face with slaps and spittle, I would consider it still a very small thing, at the price of what I should suffer in recognition of the pains of my God. This sight makes such an impression on my soul that it immediately stops the outbursts of my passions. God then grants me this great grace with regard to those who offend me, that I love them with more tenderness than before, that I pray for them with a better heart, and that I recognize that I deserve, for my past sins, many other ill treatments than those they inflict upon me."

These beautiful sentiments will undoubtedly astonish the people of the world, who make true strength consist in feeling an injury keenly and taking revenge on one's enemies: however, it was neither cowardice nor weakness that made our Saint lay down his arms; it was rather greatness of soul, rising above nature and a chimerical point of honor; he endured generously, for the love of Jesus Christ, the affronts and ignominies that the great ones of the world, who love only themselves, cannot suffer. Elzéar was so brave, moreover, that he was no less admired in the exercise of arms than in the practices of devotion; for, in a tournament that Robert of Naples gave to entertain the lords of his court, our count threaded the ring so skillfully, broke lances with such vigor, and performed other such beautiful actions, that the spectators gave him the victory and judged him worthy of the prize offered and the name of kni Robert de Naples King of Naples and protector of Elzéar. ght.

His extreme gentleness did not, however, make him too soft in the administration of justice. He wanted the criminal judges to follow the rigor of the laws against assassins, thieves, and generally against those who disturbed the tranquility of his States. In civil matters, he had much indulgence and relieved those who were in prison for their debts, by paying for them, to their creditors, a third, half, and often the total of what they owed; but he did it secretly, for fear that his charity might be abused. He never wanted to profit from the confiscation of goods that reverted to his domain through the death of the condemned; but he returned them, through a third party, to the widow or the orphans, judging them sufficiently afflicted by the loss of the persons who were dear to them. He himself visited the criminals before they were led to their final punishment. He gave them salutary instructions, led them to penance, and exhorted them to have recourse to the passion of Jesus Christ. And by this means, he converted stubborn men who did not care about dying in their sin.

After a four-year stay in Italy, he returned to France, where he made a vow of perpetual continence; for he had kept it until then without binding himself by any express promise. This took place at the Château d'Ansouis, of which he had taken possession since his father's death, on the feast day of Saint Mary Magdalene, patroness of Provence. He first performed his devotions in the castle chapel, dedicated in honor of Saint Catherine. Then, accompanied by his wife, he went to the room of the blessed Garsende, a widow of most emine bienheureuse Garsende Governess of Elzéar and a widow of eminent virtue. nt virtue who had been his governess and who, being ill at the time, had been unable to be present in the Oratory. He wished to perform the ceremony in her presence because it was she who had brought devotion into his father's house, who had given him its first stirrings, who had supported him against the complaints and slander of worldly people in the resolution he had taken to work on the great task of his own sanctification, and who had advised him to seal his virginity with the seal of an eternal vow. Being then at the foot of her bed, with his dear Delphine, the nun Alazie, and the lord Ivorde, son of this holy widow, with knees on the ground and hands joined over a missal, he pronounced his vow in these terms: "Lord Jesus Christ, from whom all the goods we receive are born; trusting entirely in your help and recognizing on one hand, fragile and infirm sinner that I am, that I cannot persevere in continence without a special assistance of your goodness; and on the other, that all is possible for me through your grace: I vow and promise to you and to your most holy Mother, as also to all the Saints of paradise, to live chastely until death, and to preserve all my life the virginity that I have kept until now by your mercy; I am ready to endure all kinds of afflictions, torments, and death itself, rather than ever violate it." Delphine, who had already made this vow privately, renewed it with a great heart on this occasion, and their example touched the young Ivorde so much that he also made the same vow. On the very day they made their vow of chastity, they entered the Third Order of Saint Francis.

When Rob ert, a Robert King of Naples and protector of Elzéar. fter the death of his father (1309), went to Avignon to receive the investiture of his States, he took in his retinue his brother John, Prince of Morea, and Count Elzéar of Sabran. Soon after, he entrusted to Elzéar the education of hi s son Charles, Duke of Charles, duc de Calabre Son of Robert of Naples, for whom Elzéar served as tutor. Calabria. This young prince already had inclinations that were quite corrupted and prone to pleasure and sensuality; but the good conduct of our Saint made him so wise and virtuous that the courtiers openly proclaimed that, since he had been in the hands of this excellent governor, he was entirely changed and had acquired the perfections of a great prince: which would one day make him wear the crown with as much glory for himself as happiness for his subjects. This mission, however, honorable as it was, was extremely burdensome to him, because it drew him away from the solitude he enjoyed in his own house. The purity of his conscience made him view the court as a place of torment, where a soul is continually in distress, as much because of the dangers by which it is surrounded as because of the ways of acting that must be observed there, which feel so little of Christian simplicity. It was an unbearable torment for him to see himself obliged to spend entire days in the embarrassment of affairs, receiving and making visits, hearing or making compliments, and other actions of this nature that so occupy people of the court. He had only the night at his disposal; thus he often spent it in prayer and contemplation, in order to fortify his soul against the deceptive charms of a worldly life. During the absence of the king, who had gone to Provence, all the affairs of the kingdom passed through his hands, because the Duke of Calabria did nothing except by his advice. It was then that he needed great firmness of spirit and perfect disinterestedness: for, as he was the arbiter of all deliberations, people had recourse to him for favors as well as for justice, and there was no one who did not seek his protection. Some even offered him gifts to try to obtain it; but it was impossible to ever make him accept any, and he always took the side of equity, without any view of reward. When his friends pointed out to him that he could, without wounding his conscience, receive the things that were offered to him so voluntarily and that the great fatigues he took for the State well deserved to be recognized by some kindness, he replied to them that it was difficult to do so without scandalizing one's neighbor; that it was to be feared that after having begun with what was permitted, one would end with what was forbidden; that one takes first the fruits, then the basket, and finally the tree and the garden itself. In a word, that the intention of those who give being often to corrupt the integrity of ministers, it was safer to accept nothing and to wait for the reward from God alone.

We have already spoken of the charities he performed in his house and in his private life; but, having found the opportunity to do so in greater numbers and more universally, he did not fail to take advantage of it. Having noticed that the affairs of the poor were almost forgotten, and that they were handled only with delays that were prejudicial to them, he begged the Duke to be pleased that he should act as their advocate in the council. In this capacity, which he esteemed more than all others, he took up their interests with more warmth than his own. He received all their petitions, not only in his house or at the palace, but even when he went through the streets, he would willingly stop to listen to them. Sometimes such a great quantity of them were presented when he returned home that he needed heroic patience not to be discouraged by their importunities. He would not have been at rest if he had not heard all their reasons, however poorly digested they might have been. He took the trouble to make extracts of the memoirs that had been given to him, and, by the penetration of mind he possessed, he reduced everything he had read or heard to certain heads, and then made his report to the council, where he spoke eloquently in their favor. One day, a poor man having slipped into his room, asked him, as he was sitting down to table, what he had done with the petition he had presented to him. "I have not yet reported on it," the Saint replied to him; "but wait, I pray you, a moment, and I will deliver the dispatch to you." Indeed, leaving his dinner, he went at that very hour to the Duke's palace, where he handled the poor man's affair, and, after having placed it in his hands, he returned to the table. Ladies of quality from Sicily having taken refuge in Naples because of the war that was in their country, he took them with all their families under his protection, and had them assisted as long as their exile lasted.

We would never finish if we wanted to speak in detail of all his virtues. There is almost no action in his life that does not contain several at once. The purity of his soul was incomparable, his modesty angelic, his goodness charming, and his indifference for all the things of the earth perfect and universal. He was so constant in the faith that he said to Saint Delphine that, even if all Christians were to change their religion, he would always remain firm in Catholicism, God having made him know its truth and certainty through lights so abundant and penetrating that he was disposed to endure a thousand deaths, and even all the persecutions of the Antichrist, rather than change a single moment on any of its articles. He had a tender devotion to the Passion of the Savior. He often meditated on it with loving transports that cannot be expressed. One day, writing to the Countess his wife, who was worried about him, he sent word to her that, when she wanted to find him, she should look for him in the wound of the side of Jesus Christ, because that was the place where he usually retreated, that he was safe there, and that he tasted there bitter sweetnesses and bitterness full of sweetness from which his soul received an unspeakable consolation. We will not speak of the visions with which he was favored and in which he had knowledge and received extraordinary graces: the reader will be able to see them in the authors of his life, whom we will cite at the end of this summary. His confessors testified after his death that, in his general confessions, they had noticed no mortal sin, and that, in ordinary ones, he accused himself with such humility and sorrow of the slightest faults that he considered himself the greatest sinner in the world. As he was returning from Naples to Provence with his wife and all his household, a furious storm tore the sails, broke the mast, and brought the ship to the brink of destruction. While every passenger, seized with a terrible fear, prepared for death, Elzéar remained as peaceful and as tranquil as if he had been on solid ground. Having obtained calm through his prayers, he reproved his people for their excessive timidity, as a lack of trust in the power and infinite goodness of God. Delphine, surprised by this intrepidity, asked him in private how it could be that he had no fear in such great danger of death. "It is," he replied, "that since a heavenly vision I had, when I see myself in any peril on sea or on land, I immediately have recourse to God and make a humble prayer from the bottom of my heart, by which I conjure him to discharge all his anger upon me, as the greatest sinner in the world, and to spare those who accompany me; I have no sooner pronounced this prayer than I feel in my heart a marvelous consolation that makes me insensible to fear."

He showed no less prudence and valor in the armies than justice and kindness in peace. Emperor Henry VII was at war with Robert, King of Naples. Pope Clement V endeavored to reconcile them, but without effect, because the emperor would never listen to the proposals made to him, however reasonable they might have been. The King of Naples gave the command of his army to Prince John, his brother, and to the Count of Ariano. They fought two battles and won two signal victories. The glory of these was attributed to the skill and generosity of Elzéar, and he was greatly complimented for them. The king himself showed his gratitude with favors and gifts. He did not glory in the least in all these plaudits, and distributed to the poor everything that the king, his master, gave him. However, having retired to his cabinet, he had two scruples that caused him much pain: one was a fear of not having rejected the feelings of vanity quickly enough amidst the praises given to him; the other was a doubt as to whether he had not followed the movements of anger in the carnage he had inflicted upon the enemies. He wept bitterly over these alleged faults and asked God for forgiveness. A heavenly voice then cried out to him: "Know, Elzéar, that you were very close to losing my grace in the heat of combat; but do not fear, your sins have been forgiven."

This discourse touched him to the depths of his soul. The mere thought of the loss of grace being more sensitive to him than all the evils one can suffer on earth, he humbled himself before Our Lord and prayed him to punish him in this world rather than reserve punishments for him in the next. At the same time, he was seized by a fever so ardent that he seemed to be between two beds of fire; and, reciting the psalm Miserere mei, Deus, he felt an invisible hand striking him roughly. Finally, he heard these amiable words again: "Courage, Elzéar, do not be troubled, your sins are remitted." He fell asleep upon this, and upon waking, he found himself healed, and was flooded with a torrent of heavenly consolations. Men of war should reflect here with what uprightness and purity of intention they must conduct themselves in combat, where they kill and massacre men similar to themselves, and redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ, for fear of taking away the life of the soul while taking away that of the body from their enemies.

The King of Naples, who knew the skill of Elzéar particularly well, after having employed him in the government of his Italian states and in the command of his armies, sent him on an embassy to Charles IV, King of France, to negotiate the marriage of the Duke of Calabria with Marie, daughter of Charles, Count of Valois, uncle of this great monarch. He was received there with all possible welcome, not only in consideration of the king, his master, and because of the business he had come to treat, but also for his personal merit, the reputation of which had spread throughout the kingdom. It was during his stay in Paris that the wonder we are about to report occurred, which greatly increased the estee m in Paris Place of birth, ministry, and death of the saint. which he was already held. Passing one day in the Rue Saint-Jacques, accompanied by a multitude of courtiers, he met a priest who was carrying the Viaticum to a sick person. While everyone knelt to adore it, Elzéar barely put his hand to his hat to greet the ecclesiastic. The courtiers murmured at this, and the people were at first scandalized; but he lifted the scandal and dissipated the murmur by making the priest confess, before his bishop, that the host he was carrying was not consecrated. This was because the ecclesiastic, knowing that the sick man was an impenitent usurer, and yet not daring to refuse him communion in appearance, had imagined, in error, that it was permitted for him to give him bread instead of the adorable body of Jesus Christ. The news of this affair having spread through the city and to the court, the ambassador was more esteemed than ever, and he was looked upon as nothing less than a heavenly man, to whom God revealed impenetrable secrets.

After having happily concluded the marriage which was the end of his embassy, he fell ill with an acute fever, which he knew, by divine inspiration, he was to carry to the grave. Thus, thinking only of preparing himself for a good death, he began with a general confession which he made while shedding torrents of tears, and with sentiments of a very perfect contrition. However violent his pains were, one never saw in him any movement of impatience: the sweetness of his words and the serenity of his face were sensible testimonies of his good conscience and the joy of his soul. He did not let twenty-four hours pass without confessing. His conversations were on the mercy of God, on grace, predestination, and the glory of the blessed in heaven. He had the Passion of Our Lord read to him from time to time, in order to excite himself to regret for his sins, and to conform his death to that of the Savior of the world, by dying like Him, poor, detached from the earth, humble, patient, resigned to the will of God, inflamed with love, in a word in the consummation of the work of his salvation. As soon as he saw the priest enter who was bringing him the holy Viaticum, he rose and prostrated himself on the ground, adoring his sovereign Lord with profound humility. He received it with eyes bathed in tears, and with interior dispositions that one can better imagine than describe on paper. When they gave him the sacrament of Extreme Unction, he answered the prayers of the Church himself with a firm voice; but when he heard these divine words: *Per sanctam Crucem et Passionem tuam, libera eum, Domine*: "We beseech Thee, O Lord, by Thy holy cross and by the merit of Thy passion to deliver this dying man from all the enemies of his salvation," he made an effort, and lowering his voice he said: *Hæc spes mea, in hac volo mori*: "That is all my hope, in which I wish to die." In his agony, his face changed and became like that of a frightened man who sees something dreadful. During this struggle, he cried out: "My God, how great is the power of the demon!" Some time later he said again: "O good Jesus! How much we owe you: for, by your passion, you have tamed all the powers of hell." These words showed clearly enough that he was struggling with the evil spirit, who was trying to lead him to despair; but what astonished the assistants more was this word he said: "Alas! I submit myself entirely to the judgment of my God," as if he still feared for his salvation, he who was known to have led a completely innocent life; however, a moment later, he consoled everyone by pronouncing these words with great signs of joy: "I have, by the grace of my God, won the victory; yes, most assuredly, I have conquered." And immediately, his face regained its former serenity.

It was amidst these sweetnesses and trials that he gave up his spirit, on September 27, 1325, in the flower of his age. A very debauched lord, who happened to be at this death, was so pressed to convert that, no longer able to bear the weight of his sins, he retired into a room and confessed humbly to one of the Cordelier Fathers who had assisted the Saint in his agony. Elzéar, a little before dying, being pressed by a strong divine inspiration, discovered the virginal secret of his marriage: "I am only a wicked man," he said to all those who were present, "but the holiness of my wife has put me on the path of salvation; I married her a virgin, and I leave her with her virginity." At the moment of his death, he appeared to her, in Provence, where she was then, and assured her that, by the mercy of God, he was enjoying in heaven the blessed felicity of the Saints.

He is represented: 1st carrying in his hand a small cross, to recall the meeting place he indicated from afar to his wife Saint Delphine, assuring her that they would meet again in the heart of Jesus Christ pierced on Calvary; 2nd holding a discipline; 3rd in a group with Saint Delphine.

## CULT AND RELICS.

Saint Elzéar was buried in the habit of a Cordelier, and his body deposited in the church of the great convent of these same Fathers, in Paris, from where it was transported the same year to the city of Apt, in Provence, and buried in the church of the religious of the same Order, where he had chosen his burial place, near the blessed Garsende, of whom we have spoken in this history. When his body was near the city of Avignon, all the bells rang by themselves: which happened again when it left. Whatever holiness had already appeared on earth, heaven nevertheless wished to make it even more brilliant by great and frequent miracles which were performed at his tomb or by the merit of his intercession. The dead were resurrected, the blind were granted sight, the paralyzed were restored to the use of their limbs, and an infinity of sick people were restored to perfect health. When he died, the kingdom of Majorca was agitated by a war whose consequences were extremely feared; but as he had assured that it would be extinguished without any bloodshed, he verified his prediction himself: after his death, appearing to those who were the authors of the sedition, he forced them to return to their homeland the tranquility they had taken from it by their revolt. All these wonders gave reason, twenty years after his death, to Pope Clement VI to have their truth verified. He was canonized by Urban V on April 16, 1369; the bull was published in Avignon on January 5, 1371, under Gregory XI, in the church of Saint-Didier, and the feast of the Saint began to be celebrated, each year, on September 27, under t Urbain V Reforming pope of French origin, 200th pope of the Catholic Church. he title of confessor.

In 1373, Cardinal Anglicas, a relative of Saint Elzéar, removed his relics from their leaden chest and displayed them in a cypress chest on the high altar of the Cordeliers church in Apt, within the portico of a pyramidal tomb that he had built at his own expense, and which was destroyed in 1793: the summit of this mausoleum reached the vault of the church, and the base was adorned with marble bas-reliefs representing the principal scenes of the Saint's life. Pierre de Luxembourg donated a vermeil reliquary enriched with precious stones, in which the bone of the right arm was enclosed.

The possession of the remains of Saint Elzéar earned the city of Apt the spectacle of a national council and the eager visit of various popes, cardinals, bishops, kings, and queens, and later that of the bishops of Spain who, before going to the Council of Trent, wished to address their vows to the holy confessor.

The church of Apt, a former cathedral, still possesses today the precious relics of Saint Elzéar, as well as those of Saint Delphine, his wife, whose life we shall provide on November 26. These holy relics had rested in the Cordeliers church until the Revolution.

To compose this biography, we have used the Acta Sanctorum; Surina; the Life of the Saint by the Rev. Fr. Jean-Marie de Vernon; the Annals of the Order of Saint Francis; the Biographie Vauclusienne, by C.-F.-H. Bacjavel, and the fœniles notes provided by the Cardinal of Apt.