Blessed Lawrence of Ripafratta

At that time, the Blessed John Dominic of Florence came to Pisa, als bienheureux Jean-Dominique de Florence Dominican preacher and initiator of the order's reform in Italy. o belonging to the Order of Preachers and one of the most famous orators in Italy. He enjoyed a high reputation, and Saint Vincent Ferrer, when asked by the Florentines during his stay in Genoa to evangelize the cities and towns of Tuscany after his mission in Lombardy and Liguria, was surprised by this invitation; he could not believe that Florence would have thought of a foreigner when it possessed an orator as great as the Blessed John Dominic. Now, at the time we are speaking of, the Blessed John had turned all his attention toward the restoration of cloistered life in Italy, and applied himself in his preaching to depicting, in the most vivid colors, on one hand the vanity and inconstancy of earthly goods, and on the other the beauty and eternal duration of heavenly goods. No sooner had he met Father Lawrence of Ripafratta and the venerable Father Thomas Aiutamicristo at the convent of Saint Catherine, than he easily brought them to join him in undertaking the most holy work of the reform of the Dominican Institute. The plague that spread its ravages throughout Europe around the year 1348 had depopulated the cloisters, and the schism that devastated the Church and divided religious families had thrown them into disorder and incredible confusion. These two causes combined were bound to irrevocably disperse and annihilate all religious corporations: a serious reform was therefore indispensable.

The Blessed John Dominic, having found strong opposition to his projects in the two convents of Florence and Pisa, began by reforming that of Saint Dominic in Venice and entrusted its direction to Father Thomas Aiutamicristo. This religious succeeded in a short time in having the reform accepted at the great convent of Venice, placed under the patronage of Saints John and Paul. Father Thomas of Siena was given the mission of reforming the convent of Saint Dominic in Città di Castello, in Umbria, where he was joined by the Blessed John Dominic, the Blessed Lawrence of Ripafratta, and Father Nicholas Gittalebraccia of Pisa.

Blessed John did not take long to realize what a precious treasure had fallen to him in the person of our young lord of Ripafratta. One could indeed see shining in Blessed Laurent a candor of angelic manners, a very austere life, an ardent zeal for the glory of God and the salvation of souls, and an inviolable fidelity to the most minute observances of cloistered life: all virtues enhanced by a knowledge of the divine Scriptures so profound that he deserved to be nicknamed the Ark of the Tes tament, as the gre Arche du Testament Dominican friar, reformer, and renowned master of novices. at Anthony of Padua had been.

A constant thought preoccupied Blessed Dominic, that of establishing the recently founded Congregation on foundations broad and strong enough for it to live alone, should death or any other event come to separate him from it. He concentrated entirely on the formation of a good novitiate, and his efforts were crowned with success, for in this blessed place, as in fertile soil, the future supports and propagators of the new reform arose. The Blessed placed great hopes in Father Michel Tosi, a young man whom he had converted in Pisa and brought back from the wanderings of a licentious life to the virtues of an accomplished holiness; but this Father died in the flower of his youth, a victim of the charity with which he served his brothers sick with the plague. Blessed John Dominic then turned his gaze toward those who remained, and wishing to choose from among the most fervent religious that the Congregation counted at that moment a skillful master of novices, he fixed his choice on Blessed Laurent of Ripafratta, who seemed to him eminently suited to fulfill such a difficult ministry. He sent him to Cortona. This city, situated on the borders of Tuscany and the Papal States, under a delightful sky, in a fertile region, offered an admirably chosen residence for the spiritual exercises of a novitiate.

The successes of the master of novices were not long in coming. In 1405, a young Florentine, provided with the most pressing recommendations of Blessed John-Dominic, climbed the steep and rocky peak on which the city of Cortona is built: he came to prostrate himself at the feet of Blessed Laurent. This young man was Saint Antoninus, barely sixteen years old, and whom an already illust rious reputat saint Antonin Disciple of Lawrence, Archbishop of Florence and Doctor of the Church. ion for holiness announced as the future glory and support of the Order of Saint Dominic. He was followed there by Blessed Peter, of the noble family of the Capucci of Città di Castello, and the latter, after having donned the habit of the Friar Preacher and pronounced the solemn vows of religion in his homeland, came to Cortona to complete his religious education under Blessed Laurent. In the year 1407, two painters from Mugello, eager for celestial inspirations, ran to join the pious colony: they were Blessed Angelico and his younger brother, Fra Benedetto, miniatu rists of rare talent bienheureux Angelico Famous painter and disciple of Lawrence at Cortona. . One cannot express the marvelous skill with which Blessed Laurent led these young souls on the rough path of religious perfection. In his wisdom, he knew how to avoid the ordinary pitfalls against which the educators of religious life often break. He first guarded against the excessive sweetness that enervates, weakens souls, and renders them incapable of the strong virtue of obedience. But he did not have the rigor, the inconsiderate zeal, whose almost immediate effect is to provoke in novices a feverish overexcitement, an immoderate fervor that soon leaves them without strength on the path of virtue, and allows them only to drag out useless days filled with sadness. Thus, one saw Blessed Laurent, hard and severe toward himself, proportioning himself to the weakness of his young disciples, and leading them with gentleness and security on the harsh path of holiness. He expected everything from the grace of the Lord. By means of pious and frequent conversations, he was content to ignite a spark of divine love in the hearts of his novices; then he abandoned this light flame to the action of God. And then it developed and became a fire capable of consuming to the root all the bad inclinations of corrupt nature. Another quality truly worthy of praise in Blessed Laurent was the wisdom and prudence with which he understood the genius proper to each of his students. While reminding them of the final goal of the Order, he supported them in the free development of their natural tendencies. To Blessed Peter, whose inclinations sympathized with his personal tastes, he opened the paths of contemplation; to Saint Antoninus, whose vast and solid mind showed itself capable of the most varied studies, he advised traversing the infinite field of divine and human sciences; he permitted Blessed Angelico and his brother to devote themselves to painting. "O my beloved," he said to them, "you to whom God has not given the aptitude for the sciences, follow the career of painting; you will be no less true Friar Preachers; for it is not only by speech that we persuade men to love virtue and flee vice, it is also by the example of a pure and spotless life, it is also by the arts, the expression of man's thoughts; sublime arts, among which music and painting hold the first rank. It will surely happen that a great number of sinners, whom the eloquence of your brothers will not have been able to shake, touched at the sight of the paintings that you will place before their eyes, will confess themselves defeated. You have an advantage of which others are deprived: speech cannot reach those who are far away, and the most eloquent mouth does not render an oracle in the tomb; but your celestial compositions will have an immortal influence; they will remain throughout the centuries as authentic witnesses, effective preachers of religion and virtue."

We do not know how long the happy disciples of Blessed Lawrence remained under his tutelage; with the exception of Blessed Peter Capucci, who lived and died in Cortona, the others changed their residence several times. Blessed Lawrence himself, during the long stay he made in Cortona, often traveled through the surrounding villages to sow the good seed of the divine word: this word came from his lips sweet and pure, as it once did from the mouths of the Apostles and Prophets. At the memory of this humble preacher, this incorruptible organ of the law of truth, whose exhortations and counsels had withdrawn such a great number of souls from the paths of iniquity, Saint Antoninus lets a lively admiration break out more than once in his writings. He does not fear to compare our blessed Brother to Saint Paul, for his zeal, his tribulations, and the sufferings he imposed upon his own body.

After having formed in the person of Saint Antoninus, whom he had imbued with his spirit, a skillful master of novices, Blessed Lawrence, by the order of his superiors, went to Fabriano, a city in the March of Ancona. The convent of the Friars Preachers of this city had just accepted the reform of Blessed John Dominic. At that time, the plague was ravaging the city and the territory of Fabriano; despising fatigue and danger, our blessed one devoted himself entirely to the service of the plague-stricken, and the populations to whom he had lavished his apostolic devotion retained a lively gratitude; after many years, they still remembered with happiness the inexhaustible charity of our Brother.

But the brilliant virtues and the profound science of Blessed Lawrence could no longer remain buried in the obscurity of private life. The Congregation of the reformed convents, wishing to reward him for the zeal and prudence with which he had worked to restore the Order of Saint Dominic, named him vicar general. It is impossible for us to specify the years during which Blessed Lawrence governed the Congregation. All we can say is that his election must have taken place before the year 1443; for in November 1445, Saint Antoninus was already invested with the office of vicar general. Time, which has covered the life and actions of this illustrious son of Saint Dominic with a thick veil, has left us no important memory of the few years he spent at the head of his Congregation. We only know that he established his residence in the convent of Saint Dominic in Pistoia, where he ended his days. There, as in Cortona, in Fabriano, and everywhere that religious obedience had pl aced hi Pistoie Place of death and burial of Lawrence. m, he devoted himself entirely to the ministry of souls, preaching to the people, catechizing the poor of the countryside, visiting and consoling the sick, particularly the plague-stricken who most often found themselves abandoned by their friends and relatives.

Our Blessed one, entirely absorbed in this ministry of love and peace, received the news that his beloved disciple Saint Antoninus had just been elevated to the Archbishopric archevêché de Florence Disciple of Lawrence, Archbishop of Florence and Doctor of the Church. of Florence (January 1446). In all his difficulties, the Saint did not cease to have recourse to the insights of the venerable religious who had formed his youth; thus he did in this grave occurrence. He begged his master not to abandon him in the anxieties to which the terrible burden that had just been imposed upon his weak shoulders reduced him. Neither the supplications of the magistrates of the republic, nor the orders of the sovereign Pontiff himself could decide him to accept this heavy charge; and he only consented to his elevation upon the express order of the Blessed Lawrence. The holy old man wished at the same time to fulfill a duty of charity toward the one who had been his disciple, by helping him with his counsel and his experience. He did for Saint Antoninus what Saint Bernard had done for Pope Eugene III, who from the humble condition of a monk, saw himself elevated to the supreme pontificate. Following the example of the Abbot of Clairvaux, who, to strengthen the virtue of Eugene III, wrote his admirable book De Consideratione, the Blessed Lawrence endeavored, through frequent and wisdom-filled letters, to instruct the holy Archbishop on the dignity and duties of the episcopate. It was truly an admirable thing to see the affectionate and paternal charity of the Blessed Lawrence, and the profound humility of Saint Antoninus, who lowered, with a reverence entirely filial, his knowledge, his maturity, his prudence, and his wisdom before the whitened hair of his former master.

The holy old man was approaching his hundredth year. He was exhausted by the fatigues of a laborious and penitent life, ill with an ulcer on his leg that caused him cruel suffering, and yet he could not resolve to put an end to his labors. These noble and generous sacrifices were well rewarded. God granted him a rare happiness, the sweetest to the heart of those who have devoted their care to the education of youth; he saw the young religious whom he had initiated into holiness become, through their wisdom and their heroic virtues, the glory, the ornament, and the support of the holy Church, the model for future generations. Of his disciples, three have been placed upon the altars; the others, who did not have this honor, have at least left behind them an imperishable renown.

Another subject of consolation for our blessed Brother was to see the reform of his Order blessed by God and by men. This reform grew in prosperity every day and bore fruits of salvation far and wide; it extended fruitful branches from one end of Italy to the other and counted with legitimate pride, in the midst of its children, religious of equally illustrious science and holiness. It was indeed somewhat his work, since he had courageously labored for it from his adolescence. It remained for him to go to heaven to receive the immortal crown that God reserves for his faithful servants. Having reached the end of his exile, he wished to depart provided with all the aids of religion. He received them with demonstrations of the most tender piety; then, rising with effort from his humble bed, he turned toward his brothers who surrounded him melting into tears, and he exhorted them with words full of fire to the love of God and neighbor, and to the observance of their rules. He also recommended that they make themselves examples of holiness for the people, and that they give themselves entirely to the salvation of the souls that Jesus Christ has redeemed with His precious blood. Then, with the serenity of the just man who knows he has faithfully accomplished his mission, he rested in the Lord on September 28 of the year 1457, at the age of ninety-eight. God did not delay in revealing to the Church the glory of his faithful servant; his tomb became the theater of numerous miracles which are reported to us by the most trustworthy authors.

[APPENDIX: CULT AND RELICS.]

The people of Pistoia, afflicted by this irreparable loss, wished, in order to soothe their grief, to erect a monument that would make known to posterity their esteem for the virtues of Blessed Lawrence of Ripafratta. A modest tomb was first built, upon which the Blessed was represented with his cope spread out, as if to show that from the heights of heaven he covered with his protection the city he had edified by his virtues and consoled by his charity. But this monument seemed insufficient to the inhabitants of Pistoia and unworthy of their gratitude. To testify in a striking manner to their love for the Blessed, they had a marble sepulcher sculpted.

On both sides of this sepulcher were two angels; below these angels appeared the image of our Blessed holding a closed book to his chest; at his feet they placed the following inscription, attesting both to the gratitude inspired in them by the benefits of Lawrence, and the veneration with which they surrounded this dear and holy memory:

« To Lawrence of Pisa, venerable priest of the Order of Preachers and a man of eminent holiness, the people of Pistoia have had this monument erected in recognition of his services. He died on the 4th of the Kalends of October 1437. He lived ninety-eight years, six months, four days ».

When the news of the death of Blessed Lawrence was learned in Florence, his worthy disciple, Saint Antoninus, could not contain his grief; he wrote to the prior and the religious of the convent of Saint Dominic in Pistoia a touching and magnificent letter, in which, giving free rein to his affliction, he traced of Blessed Lawrence the most beautiful eulogy that has reached us concerning this great servant of God. Saint Antoninus, to immortalize the memory of his master, also made mention of him in the third part of his Chronicles.

The memory of so many virtues has been preserved among the people from the 14th century to our own days. The cult rendered to him has not suffered any interruption. Thus, after mature examination of the facts and upon the report of the Congregation of Rites, our Holy Father Pope Pi us IX decla pape Pie IX Pope who canonized Josaphat in 1867. red Father Lawrence of Ripafratta Blessed on April 4, 1851. The Order of Preachers now celebrates his office on February 18.

Excerpt from the Dominican Year, Volume II.