Saint Louis Bertrand of Valencia

After having sought in vain his parents' permission to enter the Order of S aint Dominic, he finally Ordre de Saint-Dominique Mendicant religious order founded by Saint Dominic. obtained this grace (1544). His novitiate was an example of all religious virtues. He was the first and most ardent in all regular observances. Silence was his conversation, fasting his food, prayer his recreation, and works of charity his most agreeable occupation.

After his profession, he inseparably joined the study of sacred sciences to religious exercises. His application to God was so perfect that he was often found beside himself. He placed almost no measure on his mortifications or his penances; and this assiduity in tormenting himself brought upon him a great illness. When he was cured, he resumed his former exercises with the same ardor as before. So many perfections, joined to a very eminent erudition, led his superiors to have him receive the Order of the priesthood at the age of twenty-one. He opposed this disposition with all his might, due to a great sense he had of his own unworthiness; but this resistance only increased the esteem held for his merit. He said his first Mass on October 23, 1547, after all the preparation that such an august and formidable mystery required of him. Thereafter, he celebrated it every day with the same abundance of tears as the first time. He was then sent to the convent of Lombais, newly founded by Saint Francis Borgia, while still Duke of Gandia, to establish regular observance there; but he was soon recalled to assist his fath er at his death: which h saint François de Borgia General of the Jesuits in Rome who received Stanislaus. e did in a manner worthy of his piety and gratitude. He did even more, for eight years, to deliver him from the pains of purgatory, to which divine justice had condemned him; for he condemned himself, for his deliverance, to an infinity of penances and mortifications that seemed to surpass all the forces of nature.

Having been elected master of novices in 1551, it is impossible to express with how much wisdom and holiness he applied himself to raising them well, to making them men of God and religious full of the spirit of Saint Dominic. He mingled the gentleness of a mother with the rigor of a judge; he did not forgive them the slightest imperfection, and yet, he knew so well how to win them over, that his very punishments were more agreeable to them than the caresses and favors of their best friends. His example surpassed all the force and severity of his instructions. He was so exact in the practice of his Rule, that one would not have seen him fail in a single point. He gave, without speaking, very powerful and energetic lessons on silence, modesty, gentleness, patience, charity, mortification, and all the other virtues, and his disciples only had to cast their eyes upon him to learn in an instant all that they were obliged to do.

A plague which devastated the city and kingdom of Valencia in 1560 compelled his superiors to send him to the convent of Alphaide and to establish him as its vicar. It was a poor and solitary convent, where nothing prevented him from applying himself to prayer and the exercises of penance. He prepared himself there, through these exercises, for the great ministry of preaching the Gospel; and it was there that he began to mount the pulpit to instruct the people and teach them the ways of salvation. As he had kindled in his heart a great brazier of divine love, and as he never began his sermons without having further increased this fire through the consideration of the perfections of God and the inestimable graces of Jesus Christ, he communicated it easily to all those who had the happiness of hearing him. He was endowed from then on with the spirit of prophecy, and knowing by this spirit sometimes the extreme poverty, sometimes the approaching death of certain persons, he provided for the former through secret and abundant alms and disposed the latter to appear before God by urging them to arm themselves with the sacraments of the Church. When the plague had ceased, he was recalled to the convent of Valencia and to the same employment of guiding the novices: but this did not prevent him from continuing his apostolic preachings. The Spirit of God had filled him so much that, acting no longer but by His lights and His movements, he was capable of all things; the occupations within his monastery did not take away from him the time necessary for the aid of his neighbor.

It was then that Our Lord inspired him with the great design of going to the West Indies and to Peru, a p rovin Pérou Province in America where the saint carried out his mission. ce of America, to work there for the conversion of the infidels and to find the opportunity for martyrdom, which he desired with incredible ardor. This design was opposed by his brothers, his relatives, his friends, and several religious of his Order, who could not bear to be deprived of his presence and the assistance they received from his charity; but the love of God and the zeal for the salvation of souls made him victorious over all these obstacles. He left Valencia alone, fasting, on foot, and with a small satchel on his shoulder, in which he carried the books and clothing that were deemed necessary for him. He said Mass in a church near Notre-Dame; there, in the fervor of his sacrifice, he offered himself to Jesus Christ to endure all kinds of hardships and torments, and even death for the glory of His name. After Mass, he sent back to the convent all the furniture he had, in order to better imitate the poverty of the Apostles, to whom Our Lord recommends in the Gospel not to carry a suitcase. His companion having joined him, they arrived together in Seville, where they embarked, with other religious of the same Order, for Cartagena. On the w ay, he mir Carthagène Birthplace of the saint. aculously healed one of these missionaries, who had received a mortal wound to the head from the fall of a piece of wood that fell from the ship's topmast. As soon as he was in the country, he applied himself to the great ministry of the salvation of souls, to which divine Providence called him: at first he used an interpreter, because he did not know the language of the Indians, and these infidels understood neither Latin nor Spanish; but, having been deceived by this interpreter, who gave a meaning contrary to his words, he obtained from God the gift of tongues; so that, speaking only his Spanish, he was understood by all people of whatever country and language they might be. Thus, he made a great number of conversions, according to the acts of the process of his canonization; never has any preacher made such a great quantity among the Indians. He joined to the strength of his discourses, which penetrated to the depths of hearts, continual prayers and tears at the feet of the mercy of God, and an austerity that we can call pitiless. He remained for whole weeks and months in rural huts, deprived of all things necessary for life, to have more convenience to deal with the inhabitants of Peru: he also made long journeys on foot and fasting for this purpose, on dry and burning mountains, in the greatest heat of summer. There were, however, envious people who slandered his innocence and wanted to pass him off as a hypocrite; but he overcame them by his patience and by his charity, and none of his adversities was able to diminish the fervor of his zeal. God sometimes nourished him by supernatural ways and made him a subject of astonishment and admiration, whether by prophetic lights that He gave him, or by the miracles that he had to perform for the confirmation of the truths that he published.

In his mission of Tubera, he baptized with his own hand ten thousand five hundred Indians, besides those he had bapti zed by Tubera Mission site where he baptized thousands of Indians. his companions, and he obliged them to burn their idols with the places of their abominable sacrifices. The first to whom he conferred this Sacrament was a dying man whom his father brought to him by a movement of the Spirit of God, who told him interiorly that his son would be blessed in heaven if Saint Louis poured a little water on his head. Indeed, the child died immediately after his baptism and was, by this means, the first of the Indians that our apostle won for blessed eternity. What made him so powerful in this enterprise was mainly his life, more angelic than human; for, notwithstanding his excessive fasts, which he sometimes continued for three days without taking any food, he often put his body all in blood with an iron discipline. He had so much sweetness that he charmed his most cruel enemies. By this means, he disarmed a public adulterer, who, to take revenge for the charitable correction he had given him, wanted to stun him with a blow of a club while he was preaching at the door of the church. All of hell rose up to stop the progress of his zeal and his apostolic preachings. It stirred up debauched women to solicit him to evil and make him lose his virginity, which he valued more than all the treasures of the world, and it stirred up furious seditions against him; it tempted him in all ways capable of shaking his constancy: and the demon himself appeared to him in the habit of a hermit to divert him from working for the conversion of these idolaters, whose brutality was even more incurable than their infidelity. But our Saint overcame all these artifices by his firmness and by his intrepid courage, and there were no battles from which he did not emerge victorious, and which did not serve to make him more glorious before God and before men. He did no less in his missions of Capicoa and Paluato than in that of Tubuta. He never wanted to be served there by Indian women and children, although the missionaries suffered it without scruple. He always constantly refused the rewards that were offered to him, whether for his Masses, or for the administration of the Sacraments, or for the burial of the dead: which made him called the religious of God. Sometimes he drew rain by his prayers on dry lands that were about to lose their harvest, sometimes he diverted it from above his head and from the people who accompanied him. Almost all the inhabitants of these two provinces were so touched by these prodigies and by the purity of his life that they left their superstitions to embrace the Catholic faith. Fifteen thousand did the same following his inflamed exhortations on the mountain of Santa Marta, and many Carathes, Sèpenco, and Petua also imitated their fervor. Pagans to whom he had reproached a sacrilege, having poisoned him, the poison did him no harm. This prodigy, joined to the great confidence of the Servant of God, who went himself to meet these barbarians when they came in a troop to finish him off, served for their conversion. He catechized them, baptized them, and made them good Christians; he conferred this Sacrament on a priest of the idols and on a cacique who had him called when they were near death, and he fortified them by the sign of the cross against the snares of the demon, who spared nothing to pervert them at this last hour.

We would be too long if we wanted to follow our blessed missionary to Tenerife, to Monpox, to Turvaco, to the island of Saint Thomas, and to the other places where he carried the Gospel; he performed beautiful predictions everywhere, the event of which showed that he possessed the spirit of prophecy in an eminent degree. He supernaturally healed the sick whose health was entirely desperate. He also took very violent poison without receiving any discomfort. By extending his arms against a tree, he imprinted on it, like soft wax, the salutary sign of the cross, which served to disabuse and enlighten many infidels. He was seen sometimes raised from the ground, sometimes covered with light, and assisted by Saint Ambrose and Saint Thomas Aquinas, whose faces and clothes were no less brilliant than the rays of the sun. Finally, his life and his actions were continuous miracles, and everyone looked at him as a saint and as an angel sent from heaven for the blessing of America.

However, several reasons compelled him to wish for and even request an obedience to return to Spain. The main one was that the cruelty, the impious and dissolute life, and the insatiable avarice of most of the Spanish officers who had command over the Indians were an insurmountable obstacle to the complete conversion of these infidels, because, seeing in these Catholic commanders a conduct entirely opposed to the maxims that were preached to them, they could not persuade themselves that our religion was as holy as one tried to make them understand.

He embarked as soon as he had obtained permission from his superiors. After having calmed, by the sign of the cross, a horrible storm that had already broken the yard and the rudder of his ship, he arrived happily in Seville and from there to Valencia, where he was received with joy and with an applause that cannot be expressed. The first position he was given was that of prior of the convent of Saint Onuphrius, quite near the latter city. He manifested the spirit of prophecy with which God had favored him, whether by penetrating the most secret faults of his religious, or by discovering the needs of several people who were in necessity. He multiplied so prodigiously there some pieces of bread, which were barely enough for the food of one religious, that his entire community and his servants were perfectly satisfied. He performed extraordinary charities for the poor, without the convent suffering any damage for it: because Divine Providence provided for it supernaturally and made money appear in his room without anyone having brought it there. Preaching Lent in Moncada, he changed the entire face of the city: so that blasphemy, unchastity, luxu ry, dru Moncade Spanish town reformed by the saint's preaching. nkenness, and libertinism were almost entirely banished from it. When the time of his superiorate was finished, he was given the charge of the novitiate again in Valencia, which he fulfilled with new fervor. He confessed one day to one of his novices that he had often seen the devil, in the guise of an ugly Moor, prowling around the rooms of his brothers to tempt them and turn them away from their vocation.

Shortly after, he was elected prior of the sam e convent of Valen couvent de Valence Place of Ismidon's early studies. cia, which is one of the most considerable of the Order. He was so penetrated by his insufficiency and his unworthiness that he made every effort to unburden himself of this weight; but, as Saint Jerome once said of Nepotian, the more he opposed his exaltation, the more he drew upon himself the desires and love of his brethren. Having been unable to avoid being confirmed in his office, he knelt before the image of Saint Vincent Ferrer and pray image de saint Vincent Ferrier Dominican preacher who was the spiritual guide of Margaret. ed to this Saint to be the true, the only prior of his house, protesting that he wished to be only his sub-prior. Then the image bowed before him, embraced him, and raised him from the ground; which filled him with great confidence in God and an admirable vigor in the exercise of his office. He also took for his motto these words of Saint Paul: "If I were still pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Jesus Christ." It was mainly in this monastery that he showed himself the model of a perfect superior; one never saw anyone more charitable toward his religious, nor more zealous for their spiritual advancement, nor more exact in all points of regular observance, nor more fervent and pathetic in the remonstrances and exhortations of the Chapter, nor even more vigilant regarding the temporal affairs of the house. He recommended above all common charity, the enemy of singularity; holy occupation, contrary to idleness; obedience; and the avoidance of conversations with seculars. He watched extremely over the young religious and wanted all time, outside of the necessary hours of relaxation, to be shared between prayer and study. Orationi lectio, lectioni succedat oratio, he told them after Saint Jerome: "Let reading follow prayer, and let prayer immediately follow reading." He also gave great charity to the poor, having as a maxim that what leaves the convents through the door to relieve them enters back in with more abundance through the church. Prisoners for debt or for crime were the constant subject of his holy eagerness. He begged for some, solicited for others, and spared nothing for their spiritual and temporal assistance. He had, during this same time, great and frequent revelations from heaven. The interior disposition of the people who approached him was known to him: which caused him to suffer great pain when people of bad life came to discuss some business with him. He also very often learned the state of his religious and his friends who had just died, in order to be more inclined to help them in their needs.

Upon leaving his office of prior, he was afflicted with great illnesses that overwhelmed him with pain and reduced him to such great thinness and weakness that he aroused compassion in everyone; but, far from being afflicted by it, he had an extreme joy in it, and repeated continually before God these words of Saint Augustine: Hic ure, hic seca, ut in æternum parcas: "Burn me, tear me, Lord, in this life, so that you may spare me in the other"; or these others: Hic non parcas, ut in æternum parcas: "Do not spare me on earth, so that you may spare me in eternity." These infirmities did not prevent him from being sought out and consulted by everyone, and from satisfying those who came to find him with admirable prudence and tranquility. He was also very often requested, either to assist the sick at death or to preach in the greatest pulpits; God sometimes sustained and strengthened him miraculously to give this satisfaction to the people, and, sick as he was, he healed the sick who were presented to him by saying over them a prayer of Saint Vincent Ferrer. He was honored in the cloister by the visit of Saint Francis, whose feet, adorned with the stigmata of Jesus Christ, he kissed; and by that of Saint Dominic, who only permitted him to kiss his hand. On Easter night of the year 1579, he had a vision of angels that filled him with inexplicable joy. Our Lord also showed Himself to him, sometimes in the state of His Passion and as He was on the cross, sometimes in a sovereign majesty that dazzled all the greatness and all the beauties of heaven and earth. He said Mass as long as he could, and when his infirmarian begged him to stay in bed so as not to increase his ailments, he said to him gently: "Fear nothing, my father, the sacraments of the Church kill no one." When he could not say it, he never failed to confess to the ordinary and to receive communion with wonderful devotion. In the height of his illness, he performed two hours of regulated prayer; he was always in the presence of God and had his mouth continually pressed against his crucifix. The holy archbishop of Valencia, Juan de Ribera, was often near him and rendered him the services he needed.

His illnesses having increased to such an extent that there was no longer any hope of curing him, there was no one of note in Valencia or the surrounding areas who did not wish to have the consolation of seeing him. Two people were even miraculously transported into his room so as not to be deprived of this happiness, namely: a holy nun of the Order of Saint Francis, called Angélique d'Agulon, and a lord from Bulgaria, who had fallen ill near Valencia during a journey he was making for his own amusement. His preparation for death was admirable. One could not see a firmer patience, a more general resignation to the will of God, a more tender and constant devotion, nor a more violent desire to suffer. He predicted the day of his death to the Archbishop of Valencia, to the Prior of the Charterhouse of Porta-Celi, and to several others. Saint Vincent Ferrer visited him in this extremity and made him conceive new ardors of divine love. Finally, after having received the sacraments of the Church with all the fervor one could wish for in a man so filled with the Spirit of God, he rendered his soul in the transports and effusions of pure love, on October 9, 1581.

As soon as he was dead, an odor emanated from his body that perfumed the entire room. His soul was seen ascending to heaven like a ray of light, and angels were heard singing canticles with a completely celestial melody; he himself appeared to several people to assure them of his glory; all the sick who touched his body and an infinity of others who had recourse to his intercession received a perfect healing. The cathedral, the twelve parishes of the city, and all the religious communities came in procession to pay their respects to him. He was first placed in the vault intended for the burial of religious of extraordinary merit; but six months later he was found whole, exhaling a marvelous odor, and he was placed in a tomb raised from the ground that had been prepared for him to honor his memory. In the year 1647, he was found without corruption, and when he had been carried in procession throughout the city, he was enclosed in a rich silver reliquary and transferred to a magnificent chapel that had been built in his honor; this was after Pope Paul V had permitted his office to be celebrated in 1608. Finally, the great number of miracles that he had not ceased to perform since his death obliged Pope Clement X, in the year 1671, to issue the decree of his canonizat pape Clément X Pope who extended the cult of Saint Gonsalo to the entire Dominican Order. ion.

He is represented: 1st Extinguishing a fire; 2nd holding a cross; 3rd holding a chalice surmounted by a serpent.

See the Année dominicaine, and his Life, by the Rev. Fr. Jean-Baptiste Feuillet.