Blessed James of Ulm

At the age of twenty-five, seized by the holy desire to venerate the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, he set Rome Birthplace of Maximian. out for Rome; and there, on that land bathed by the blood of so many martyrs, he experienced, it seems, such sweet and great consolations that he resolved to spend his entire life there. But as his money began to run out, he went to Naples to enlist in t he armies of Alfonso, Alphonse, roi d'Aragon Sovereign in whose service Jacques enlisted as a soldier. King of Aragon, and a few months later fought valiantly in the battle where that unfortunate prince lost his crown and his liberty. After four years of service, during which he managed to earn the trust of his commanders and the esteem of his brothers-in-arms through his courage and good conduct, disgusted by the licentious life of the camps, he left the army and, to earn an honorable living, placed his intelligence and his labor at the disposal of a bourgeois of Capua.

In the year 1440, feeling himself violently tormented by the legitimate desire to embrace his old father and to see his dear homeland again, from which he had been absent for seven years, he took the road to Germany o nce mor Bologne City of birth and return after the Blessed's conversion. e; he had already arrived in Bologna and was thinking of continuing his journey, when suddenly, one day while he was praying fer saint Dominique Founder of the order whose rule Benvenuta follows and intercessor for her healing. vently before the tomb of Saint Dominic and placing his long and perilous journey under the protection of this great patriarch, he heard in the depths of his heart a mysterious voice that exhorted him to sacrifice his earthly homeland and to devote himself entirely to the conquest of the heavenly homeland. Immediately our Blessed one, understanding whence couvent de Saint-Dominique Mendicant religious order founded by Saint Dominic. this voice came, knocked at the door of the convent of Saint Dominic, humbly asked to don the habit of the lay brothers, and obtained it; he was then thirty-four years old.

During the fifty years that he still lived in the Ord er, he l'Ordre Mendicant religious order founded by Saint Dominic. distinguished himself by the practice of the highest virtues, and always showed himself to be as good a religious as he had been a good soldier. He died on October 11, 1491, at the age of eighty- four. Le Léon XII Pope who proceeded with the beatification of Julian. o XII, in the year 1825, inscribed him among the Blessed, and the Church honors his memory on October 12.

Let us say a word about his artistic works. — Upon donning the habit of Saint Dominic, our Blessed had to return to glass painting, a practice he had abandoned for about ten years, that is to say, since he had left his native city. He was commissioned by his superiors to adorn the church and the convent with stained glass; and in this circumstance, says the chronicle, he acquired a great reputation; but unfortunately, almost all his works, so praised by his contemporaries, have disappeared, and there remains of him only a small medallion at the entrance of one of the convent's dormitories; it represents Jesus on the cross between Mary his mother and John his beloved disciple. However, the beautiful stained glass windows he executed for t he great Basilica of San Pe basilique de Sainte-Pétrone Building in Bologna housing stained glass windows of the saint. tronio and for the oratory of Blessed Helena, in the Be ntivoglio palace, palais Beutivoglio Palace in Bologna containing an oratory decorated by the saint. in Bologna, still exist. It suffices to examine them to judge the prodigious talent of their author, and to understand the honorable place to which he is entitled, alongside the greatest masters in this branch of art. Blessed James also found, first, the means to give glass a translucent yellow tint by using silver oxide; if, therefore, glass painters today know this long-sought process and have adopted it, it is to our Blessed that they are indebted.

Upon his death, Blessed James of Ulm lef bienheureux Jacques d'Ulm Dominican lay brother and stained-glass artist of German origin. t two students in the cloister: Fra Am brogino, the Fra Ambrogino Student and first biographer of James of Ulm. historian of his life, and F ra Anastasio, Fra Anastasio Student of Jacques d'Ulm in Bologna. who inherited not only his talents and techniques, but also his virtues, and cast a new luster upon the convent of Saint Dominic in Bologna.

He is represented near a stained-glass kiln, to indicate the art he practiced in his Order. He is also sometimes painted with a cross in his hand, because of his devotion to the Passion of Our Lord.

Excerpt from the Dominican Year.