Saint Andrew Avellino of Castronuovo

Immediately afterwards, he was charged with the direction of a convent of nuns who, having nothing left of their profession but the habit, were living in a state of appalling disorder. He was not content with providing them the ordinary assistance that communities of women expect from their director; he also undertook their complete reform. This design cost him incredible pains and

trials; but, as he possessed an intrepid courage that never yielded to any difficulty, he finally brought it to a successful conclusion, and he had the consolation of seeing regular observance flourish once again in this place where disorder had already taken deep roots. This success, which was not expected, filled with fury some libertines who had previously had great access to this monastery, and their rage went so far that they resolved to get rid of the blessed director. For this purpose, they hired an assassin who waited for him at the exit of a church and struck him with three sword blows. These blows were not fatal; but they severed an artery and caused him to lose a great deal of blood, which was very difficult to staunch; his very face would have been disfigured by them, had God, by an effect of His power, not healed his wounds so perfectly that no scar remained. In this terrible accident, Andrew was not in the least troubled; on the contrary, he showed extreme joy at having been mistreated for the defense of chastity. The Viceroy of Naples offered him all his authority to punish the authors of this attack; but he thanked him for it, not wishing for the death of the sinners, but for their conversion and salvation. However, Our Lord did not permit such a great sacrilege to remain unpunished: for, shortly after, his assassin was killed by a man whose house he had dishonored by an impudent act.

God having given him much eloquence, Andrew sometimes used it to defend the cause of his friends. Doing so one day in a very agreeable manner, he let an officious lie slip into his speech. He did not at first conceive its ugliness; but, having found upon opening the Bible this first verse of the first chapter of Wisdom: Os quod mentitur occidit animam; "The mouth that belieth, killeth the soul," he was filled with such horror and regret that, after spending the whole night in tears, he resolved never to enter the bar again. From there he took the design of leaving the world entirely and consecrating himself to Jesus Christ in the Theatine Order: which he did at the age of thirty-five, on the eve of the Assumption of Our Lady, in the year 1556. In his novitiate, he appeared as a very advanced professed member. There was nothing so lowly in the tasks of the house that he did not consider very exalted. The more he was humiliated, the more he believed himself filled with honors; the more penances and mortifications were ordered for him, the more joy he was caused. His courage and patience were always above all trials; thus, he was easily received for profession, and he made it with all the fervor that could be expected from his piety and zeal.

He then obtained permission from his superiors to make a journey to Rome, not to see the splendid monuments that attract the eyes of all travelers, but only to visit the tombs of the Apostles and Martyrs, and to gain indulgences by making the stations. Upon his return to Naples, he was given the office of master of novices, which he held for ten years. He was later elected superior of his house, and in both these roles, he knew how to unite firmness with gentleness, and zeal for observance with pious condescension to the infirmities of his brothers, so that he perfectly fulfilled all the duties of a true pastor. After this superiorate, his general, who had so many proofs of his prudence and holiness, assigned him to found two houses: one in Milan, where Saint Charles Borromeo was pleased to form a close friendship with him, saint Charles Borromée Saint who executed donations in favor of orphans. and the other in Piacenza, at the solicitation of the Theatine Cardinal of Arezzo, where, by the power of his preaching and conferences, he repressed the luxury of the ladies and even converted a great number of courtesans. These striking changes stirred up many enemies against him: they tried to discredit him in public and wrote against him to the Duke of Parma, in order to obtain from His Highness that he be made to leave his States; but these calumnies only served to give more luster to his virtue: the Duke came to see him and was so charmed by his modesty and the unction of his words that he looked upon him only as a Saint. The Duchess also wished to share in his conversation, and, having found it entirely heavenly, she took him as her director and brought him Prince Raimuec, her son, to receive his blessing.

Such a brilliant light could not be confined to a single place. Andrew, having succeeded so well in Piacenza, was again deputed by his general to make the visitation of his province of Lombardy, and he discharged it with such wisdom, vigor, and kindness that the religious of this province could not sufficiently admire the talents that God had given him for government. He was then named superior of the house of Milan, which was under the protection of Saint Charles, and it is impossible to say which of these two Saints received more consolation from this closeness, whether the great Saint Charles, who freely revealed to Andrew what was most secret in his heart, or Andrew himself, who, with that dove-like simplicity with which he was endowed, made no difficulty in declaring to the holy cardinal the extraordinary graces he received from heaven. He confessed to him one day that Our Lord had appeared to him in His glory, and that He had given him such a high impression of His divine beauty that he was no longer capable of esteeming or loving any other of those that are admired on earth. It was in this city of Milan that he so touched Viscountess Paula, sister-in-law of Cardinal Augustine of Cusa, that she renounced the world to enter the Capuchins. Pope Gregory XIV was urged to give him a bishopric; but Andrew, to whom even the shadow of h onor was unbearab pape Grégoire XIV Pope who offered a bishopric to Andrew Avellino. le, and who, even in his superiorates, chose one of his disciples whom he recognized as his superior in order to live always in submission and obedience, entirely refused this dignity; and all that could be made him accept for the common good of the faithful was a general power to absolve from all kinds of cases the sinners who would address themselves to him.

From Milan he was sent back to Piacenza, to govern for a second time the house of which he had already been superior. There he continued his care and charity toward those whom God placed under his guidance, and he had the consolation of seeing one of his disciples triumph in heaven, after having seen him work generously on earth for the conversion of sinners. This was the Reverend Father Jean-François Solarius, who had been his novice, and whom he had chosen as his director. The time of his superiorship having ended, the general chapter of his Order wished to extend it or give him the government of another house; but, on this occasion, his humility was so eloquent that it effectively warded off this blow, which he feared more than death. He asked for the poorest house in Italy, to live unknown to the world and in the practice of the greatest austerities; however, he was sent to Saint-Pau l in Naples, which w Saint-Paul de Naples Theatine church and monastery housing the saint's relics. as one of the most considerable monasteries of the Order. His virtue appeared there with such brilliance that, after three years, he could not, despite all he did, defend himself from being elected superior. During his government, he discovered and publicly refuted heretics who fought against the truth of the body and blood of the Son of God in the Eucharist, and he had their leader punished. An inhabitant, who had already been seduced by these impostors, having received the holy host at communion, put it in his handkerchief with the intention of profaning it when he was at home; but upon his return, opening his handkerchief, he found it full of blood that had flowed from the host. Fear and dread seized him at that very moment, and all he could do was run to the blessed Andrew to confess his sacrilege and tell him of this terrible miracle. The Saint acted on this occasion with marvelous prudence and strength of mind; he took upon himself a part of the penance that this wretch deserved, to prevent him from falling into despair; and, without exposing him to public punishment, he did not fail to make advantageous use of this prodigy to strengthen the faith of those who were wavering regarding the truth of our holy mysteries. He then calmed, by his wisdom and by solemn processions that he organized, a troublesome sedition that had arisen in Naples; and he found a way to provide for the needs of the poor, whom a great shortage of wheat had reduced to extreme necessity. He was indefatigable, whether in hearing confessions, giving exhortations and spiritual conferences, or carrying the Viaticum to the sick; and one day when he was carrying it some distance away, an impetuous wind and a violent storm having blown out the torches that were carried before him, our Saint was at that very moment surrounded by a celestial light which, while illuminating him, also preserved him from the inconveniences of the rain. Before leaving his office of superior, he had the satisfaction of seeing a new house of his Order, built in Naples with the funds of Princess Salmone, who founded it in consideration of this fervent religious, under the title of Our Lady of the Angels; and, on the day the first stone was laid, he healed a lady of rank of a violent pain she had in her eye.

During a great illness that befell him, they wished to nourish him with delicate dishes; but he would use, as was his custom, only peas and beans for all remedies and all food; this regimen, which was not approved by the doctors, nevertheless had a very good success, since the patient recovered perfect health. He was cherished and sought after by all people of condition; even princes asked as a singular grace for a single one of his visits. Going one day to the house of Prince Stilianne, on a hired horse, not having wanted to wait for a carriage, this spirited animal threw him to the ground onto a sharp pavement that should have broken him; and, his feet having become entangled in the stirrups, the horse dragged him for a long time along a rough path. His companion was far away and could not help him; but Saint Dominic and Saint T homas Aquinas, whom saint Thomas d'Aquin Saint cited as an example of resistance to temptation. he called to his aid, appeared to him, freed his feet, wiped his face already covered in blood, healed his wounds, and finally put him back on his horse. He received, shortly after, from the same Saint Thomas and the great Saint Augustine, a much more considerable favor; for, as he was troubled by an extraordinary fear of being among the reprobate, because his profound humility hid all his good deeds from him and made him see only his faults, these two admirable doctors paid him a visit full of love and inspired in him a new confidence in God, assuring him of the divine mercy toward him.

The more he annihilated himself before the sovereign greatness of God, whose presence he considered only with holy fear, the more this amiable power filled him with favors and supernatural gifts. Two years before his death, he learned from heaven at what time it was to arrive, and he predicted it to various people. Having fallen gravely ill at the age of eighty-eight years, he remained as cheerful and as content as in perfect health. The Brother who was assisting him having failed in some small observance, for having been occupied around him, and having received a regular penance for it, he insisted on performing it himself, as having been the cause of this transgression; but not having been able to obtain it, he embraced this Brother and assured him that in eight days he would be free and would no longer have the trouble he had every day in assisting him. The very day of his death, he dressed to say Mass and went to the altar; but an apoplectic weakness having seized him after the psalm Judica, he could not continue it. He received the Viaticum and Extreme Unction with sentiments of admirable humility.

The preceding days he was almost continually prostrated on the ground and his face pressed to the floor, to ask God for a holy death; it was granted to him, but it was not without great battles. The demons appeared to him visibly, made strange efforts to throw him into despair and make him their prey. There was one especially who, under the horrible figure of a man sparkling with fire and sulfur, had the effrontery to say that this soul was his and that he had come to fetch it; but the Blessed Virgin, whom Andrew invoked with all his soul, gave him prompt aid, and his guardian angel, seizing this monster, put a spiked collar around his neck and dragged him out of the room. Then, the face of the blessed dying man, which such a terrible battle had rendered all livid, regained its natural color and serenity; and, at that moment, casting a loving look at the image of the Mother of God, he expired in peace, to go and receive the glory that his innocence, his humility, his patience, his love for Jesus Christ, and his zeal for the salvation of souls had so justly earned him; this was on November 10, 1608.

In representations of Saint Andrew Avellino, one sees, while he is reciting the divine office, angels singing the praises of God beside him. He is also seen represented: 1st, at the moment he falls, struck by apoplexy, at the foot of the altar; 2nd, in the company of Saint Cajetan of Thiene, founder of the Theatine Order, in his capacity as a reformer of this Order; 3rd, surprised by a storm and surrounded by a celestial light that protects him from the rain, as we have reported.

By allusion to the accident that ended his days, Saint Andrew Avellino is invoked for a happy death and against sudden death.

## CULT AND RELICS. — WRITINGS.

As soon as our Saint had closed his eyes, a large crowd pressed around his body to take what had belonged to him, and they even cut his beard and hair to make relics of them. His face became more ruddy than in the finest days of his life. The most timid children had no trouble approaching him. A few beads from his rosary, which Princess Stilianne placed on her breast, cured her at that very hour of a painful tumor that was believed to be turning into a cancer.

His body remained exposed in the church for a long time, as much at the prayer of the greatest of Naples, and to satisfy the devotion of the people, as because the coffin, which had been ordered to bury him, appeared miraculously too short; a few days later, it was found to be too long for another dead person taller than him. After three days, much blood flowed from his head and from several other parts of his body; the shroud on which he was lying was all bloodied, and enough finally came out to fill three crystal vials. The doctors all judged unanimously that this blood was not natural; and it was, in fact, the instrument of several miraculous cures. What is also admirable is that all the limbs of this blessed deceased were as flexible as if he had been alive; that his cheeks remained always beautiful and ruddy, and that his eyes, upon the opening that was made of them, appeared no less lively and bright than before his death.

He was finally buried at two o'clock in the night; the following year, on December 9, having been found without corruption or bad odor, he was raised from the earth and placed in a more honorable place. The miracles he had performed before his death, and those he performed since, led Pope Urban VIII, in 1624, to declare him Blessed and to allow his Order to celebrate his office. Clement XI canonized him in 1712. Sicily and the city of Naples have chosen him as their patron.

"The church of San Paolo Maggiore in Naples," writes Mgr Gaume, "belongs to the Theatines. In front of the main door are two colum ns that were part of the temple of C L'église Saint-Paul-Majeur de Naples Theatine church and monastery housing the saint's relics. astor and Pollux, built on the same site by Julius of Tarsus, a freedman of Tiberius. The Conversion of Saint Peter and the Fall of Simon Magus, which adorn the sacristy, are considered the masterpieces of the prolific Solimena. But the true riches of San Paolo Maggiore are the sacred bodies of Saint Cajetan of Thiene and Saint Andrew Avellino. These two Saints were the glory of their Order, the models of priests, and the benefactors of their homeland. The same convent, which had been a witness to their virtues and their death, keeps their precious remains. After having venerated them, we entered the cloister.

"One sees there the vestiges of the theater where Nero tested his dramatic talents before appearing on the stage of great Rome. Of this monument of imperial madness, only disfigured ruins remain. Religion, which seems to have entrusted its care to its children for the instruction of the centuries, has bequeathed to them another monument over which the good religious watch with a truly filial piety: I mean the room of Saint Andrew Avellino. Such was the happy cell on the day of the Saint's death, such we saw it: nothing has been changed there. The poor furniture that was for his use, his books, his writing desk, his small wooden chair, some writings in his hand, in a word, everything that makes up the ordinary fortune of the great servants of God, is there, speaking, preaching, moving, and filling the soul with I know not what perfume of piety, the sweet impression of which is felt for a long time."

Saint Andrew Avellino composed several works of piety, which were printed in five quarto volumes in Naples in 1733 and 1734.

The first volume contains: 1st, a treatise on prayer; 2nd, an exposition of the Lord's Prayer; 3rd, reflections on the prayers most used in the Church in honor of the Blessed Virgin; 4th, a commentary on the Epistle of Saint James.

One finds in the second volume: 1st, a treatise on renunciation of the world; 2nd, commentaries on Psalm CXVIII and on Psalm XLV; 3rd, a treatise on the eight beatitudes.

Homilies on the Gospels of all the Sundays of the year and of all the days of Lent form the third volume.

The fourth contains a treatise entitled The Exercises of the Spirit; meditations, advice to a nun, an explanation of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, a dissertation on original sin.

The fifth volume is composed of various treatises, which have as their object humility, the love of God and neighbor, the mercy of God, and several Christian virtues.

We also have from Saint Andrew Avellino very interesting letters, which were printed in Naples, in 1732, in two quarto volumes.

Abbé Grimes, in his *Esprit des Saints*, published the selected works of Saint Andrew Avellino.

We have completed Father Giry's account with Godescard; Father Cahier, *Caractéristiques des Saints*; Mgr Gaume, *les Trois Roms*, and Abbé Grimes, *Esprit des Saints*.

IN THE DIOCESE OF BOURGES (99).

Luseur, son of the senator Leocadius and Susanna, illustrious as much for his piety as for his origin, had the good fortune to see, while still a child, Saint Ursin, apostle of Bourges, who had come to Lyon to visit Leocadius. He heard him speak of the mysteries of Jesus Christ, and, upon hearing him, his heart burned with a celestial ardor. He accompanied his father on a journey that the latter made to Bourges for the affairs of his office. There, he saw and heard the holy pontiff again, and received baptism from his hands at the same time as his father. Soon the holy child, already ripe for heaven, departed from this world before having laid aside the white robe of baptismal innocence.

The small church of Saint-Étienne de Déols or Bourgdieu (Indre, arrondissement and canton of Châteauroux) still possesses to this day the tomb of Saint Luseur. Let us transport ourselves to this church, descend the small staircase made behind the altar of the chapel on the right, and enter the narrow vault that contains the sepulcher. This monument, with straight walls, in the shape of an altar, is composed of three parts: the base, the tomb, and the lid. Through the mutilations and the stains of time that dishonor it, let us note, with Gregory of Tours, that it is entirely of white marble (ex marmore Paros), a rich material unknown in the region of Bourges, which suffices to prove its illustrious origin and to attach it in an irrefutable way to the Roman domination in Gaul. The base, decorated with a simple molding, has been broken and presents on the right a large breach, into which, at certain times, mothers introduce their infants in turn, to call upon them the blessings of the Saint. The tomb is enriched, along the entire length of its front face, with a superb high-relief, representing a complete hunt. Eleven hunters, dressed in the Roman fashion, some on horseback, others on foot, armed with sabers and spears, pursue and strike down, with the help of their dogs, wild animals of all kinds: lions, boars, wolves, stags, etc. The lid offers on its frieze subjects of a much less prominent relief, and whose workmanship, far inferior in merit, obviously belongs neither to the same author nor to the same period. The middle of this frieze is occupied by two winged children supporting a square cartouche without an inscription; on the left is seen a meal, on the right a procession of horsemen and pedestrians.

These various sculptures have given rise to the most varied and contradictory commentaries. Some, without losing themselves in conjectures, maintain that the sarcophagus, whether pagan or Christian, represents purely and simply a hunt of wild animals, with its ordinary episodes: the march of the hunters reaching the rendezvous, the hunt itself, and the meal that usually follows the hunting exploits. Others, adopting the fabulous details of a purely local legend, have believed they recognized the senator Leocadius himself, going with his own to the invitation of Denis the Gaul, sitting at his table, and destroying the ferocious beasts that infested the districts of Dieux and Déols. Some, more subtle, have sought there symbols, fictions more or less ingenious, and even plays on words. Thus, could these hunters exterminating these monsters not signify Christians victorious over their passions; could this lion that falls (Leo cadit) not be a rebus translation of the name Leocadius? Others finally, taking a middle ground, have expressed an opinion that seems more profound and rational. They do not omit first that the coffin was executed by a pagan artist, with a view to a pagan burial, and that the sculptures are only the usual ornaments of the funerary monuments of the period, of which one finds more than one specimen in our museums. On the lid, on the contrary, they point out the evident traces of Christianity. Thus, they recognize true angels in the winged children who support the cartouche, in the scene on the right a meal or communion of the faithful, as three loaves or hosts placed among the dishes seem to prove, on each of which one notices distinctly a cross; finally, in the scene on the left, a funeral procession where, in accordance with ancient rites, the unmounted horse of the deceased would be featured.

This being stated, they reason as follows: Leocadius, still a pagan, preoccupied with the care of his burial, would have bought or had executed a tomb adorned with hunts, according to the taste of the time, and well worthy, by its richness, of receiving the remains of such a noble personage. Having become a Christian, and seeing his son die before him, he would have deposited the body of the latter in his own coffin, the subject of which, in summary, had nothing anti-Christian about it, and upon which he would have adapted a lid decorated with later sculptures, works of another artist, and better suited to his new beliefs. This last opinion, very plausible, satisfying at once reason and tradition, seems to have generally prevailed.

We have borrowed these curious details from the Pieuses légendes du Berry, by M. Veillat (Châteauroux, 1864).