Venerable César de Bus

After a three-year stay in that great city, which is no less the throne of vice than the capital of the kingdom, he returned once more to Cavail Cavaillon City of birth and primary ministry of the saint. lon, where he saw his father and one of his brothers, a canon of Salon, pass away, to whom he rendered good services in their final moments. The benefices of the latter having remained vacant upon his death, he made no difficulty in taking charge of them, even though he wore a sword and had no intention of embracing the ecclesiastical state. In this, he followed the deplorable custom of the gentlemen of his time, many of whom enjoyed the goods of the Church as if they had fulfilled the functions to which those goods were attached. His idle and dissipated life was a great scandal in a country where his nascent virtues had once been admired. Two pious persons, undoubtedly moved by the spirit of God, undertook his conversion. One was a good widow from the countryside, na med Antoin Antoinette Pious widow who worked for the conversion of César de Bus. ette; the other a simple clerk, cal led Louis G Louis Guyot Sacristan of Cavaillon who assisted in the saint's conversion. uyot, very virtuous, who served as sacristan at the church of Cavaillon. Antoinette, who lived in a neighboring village, left it and came to settle in Cavaillon. A mysterious light that walked before her during her journey convinced her that her design came from heaven. Having taken lodging near the house of this young gentleman, she insinuated herself skillfully under the pretext of being a neighbor, and furthermore, her piety, her modesty, and the air of holiness that appeared on her face and in all her actions, causing her to be received with respect, she began to launch various attacks on César de Bus, whom she wished to bring back to the right path. Sometimes she represented to him the ugliness of sin and the incomparable beauty of virtue; at other times she described to him the pains prepared for those who love the world and follow its maxims, and the rewards reserved for good people who live according to the rules of the Gospel. César's long resistance did not make her lose courage. She offered to God prayers, penances, and frequent communions, in order to oblige His goodness to support her in this enterprise and to finally break the hardness of heart that resisted the strength and sweetness of grace. The pious clerk of the church of Cavaillon, of whom we have spoken, being in league with her for this pious design, helped her on his side by his orisons and by several austerities that he practiced in secret to obtain this conquest from heaven. Finally, one day this holy widow presented the Life of the Saints to César, so that by reading their actions, he might see in them the condemnation of his own conduct. He refused at first; but Antoinette's urgings redoubling, he finally yielded and read a few pages. Antoinette followed this reading and added reflections that at first produced no effect. Indignant at this resistance, she said to César: "One does not mock God, Monsieur. He calls you, and you do not listen to Him. He does not cease to seek you, and you do not cease to flee from Him. Take care that He does not grow weary, and that in the end He does not cast you from before His face. Perhaps He has already done so; at least your conduct gives cause to fear it." César, although a little shaken, only laughed at this remonstrance, and leaving the book, he took his cloak to go to the company he usually saw. Then the pious widow, hoping for almost nothing more, said to him with tears in her eyes: "At least, Monsieur, I beg you not to go out without recommending yourself to God." César promised it jokingly; nevertheless, he fulfilled this promise and prayed to God with all his heart. O prodigy of grace! A few steps from his house, he experienced a kind of faintness and fell to the ground: "Wretched man that I am," he cried out, "I recommend myself to God, and I set out on the road to go and offend Him!" At that moment his eyes were opened, and like another Saint Paul, as soon as he had been struck down, he was converted.

This blow from heaven having made him retrace his steps, he returned home and told Antoinette of the grace that God had just granted him. One cannot conceive of the joy she felt. She carefully cultivated these first dispositions; she encouraged her neophyte to persevere and, through her advice, helped him overcome countless difficulties that presented themselves to César's mind regarding a new way of life. The young penitent shut himself away to weep before God and to punish harshly his body, which had been the instrument of his pleasures. He prepared to make a general confession of his faults. Antoinette served him for some time longer as a director, along with the pious sacristan of Cavaillon: although he was not a priest, he was nevertheless a very enlightened man who had great light for the guidance of souls. César learned from the former, in a spiritual conference, all that was to happen to him in the future, especially that he would be the founder of a new Congregation of priests to teach Christian doctrine; that he would suffer great evils, both in body and in soul; that he would be cruelly persecuted by men and demons, and that he would become blind several years before his death. To escape the attacks of his former friends, who tried to bring him back to his first way of life, he left Cavaillon and went to spend some time in Aix. There he found an excellent ecclesiastic from his country, who strengthened him in his good sentiments. From there, he went to Avignon to participate in the grace of the Jubilee, which had just been published there. But, O inconstancy of the human hea rt, and Avignon City of which Saint Rufus was the first bishop and founder of the church. how weak one is as soon as one ceases for an instant to lean on God! César was fleeing his friends; he met some in Avignon: they invited him to a ball; he accepted so as not to say openly that he had renounced the world. He went there indeed, despite the inner voice that warned him not to do so; but he did not stay long. The remorse that tormented his conscience, and that reproached him for his infidelity, made him leave as soon as possible, without saying goodbye to anyone. As it was past midnight, while passing in front of the convent of the nuns of Saint Clare, he heard them singing Matins: this voice pierced his heart with sorrow and covered him with confusion. He fell a second time backward and cried out: "Wretched man that I am, I am still running the streets to offend God, while these innocent virgins are gathered to praise Him; pardon, I renounce from this moment all my follies, I give myself entirely to You!" That was the completion of his conversion, and like the seal that made it inviolable. He made his general confession, gained the Jubilee, and voluntarily resigned all his benefices.

From that time on, he no longer hid himself, but publicly showed himself to be a servant of Jesus Christ. Having returned to Cavaillon, he practiced humility, mortification, and mercy toward the afflicted, often visiting the Hôtel-Dieu, assisting the sick both spiritually and bodily, and giving large alms to the poor. His friends kept some licentious poems he had once composed; he asked them for these, under the pretext of touching them up (this ruse is blameworthy, however holy the intention may have been), then threw them into the fire in their presence and said to them: "There, gentlemen, is the use I intended for them; I ask your pardon for the scandal I have given you through these writings; I now recognize their vanity and folly, and I renounce them forever. Follow my example in this; if you do not wish to do so, do not hinder me from persevering in my resolution." He had another occasion to manifest his new sentiments and to overcome human respect. One day, as he was praying in the church of Cavaillon, Louis Guyot, the pious sacristan, suddenly came to present him with a candle and told him to accompany the Blessed Sacrament, which was being taken to a sick person. The test was difficult. He had to cross the city. César was still wearing his court attire, a sword at his side, and a feather on his head. His friends, his former companions-in-arms, were in great numbers in Cavaillon; a general was even there at the time. All these considerations presented themselves to his mind at once: he silenced them, courageously took the candle, walked in the streets beside the little clerk who preceded the priest, and then bore with patience the mockery that this Christian action drew upon him from the worldly.

This victory, which he won over himself, was not without reward. God enlightened him more and more with the lights of faith, which made him see all the fragility of earthly things. He often meditated on death: every evening, he considered his bed as a tomb. He delighted in the Lives of the Saints and, not believing that he could reach heaven otherwise than they did, he gave himself up with ardor to mortification, depriving himself of innocent pleasures, fasting, and macerating himself in the most rigorous manner. He then devoted himself to works of mercy. His house became a hospice open to all the indigent. When sinners, at the point of death, refused the help of a priest, César tried to see them and convince them to receive the sacraments. During the first five years following his conversion, his soul was flooded with spiritual delights. The visits he assiduously paid to Our Lady of Pity, in a chapel outside the city, also earned him the apparition and caresses of this Queen of Heaven. However, the time of trials arrived. The demon tempted him in the most horrible way: this temptation was long, and he was only delivered from it fifteen months before his death.

Desiring to embrace the ecclesiastical state, if God were calling him to it, to make himself more useful to his neighbor, he resumed his studies in Avignon, which he had abandoned during his worldly life. His success was such that, after a few months, he was able to enter philosophy. He soon left this science to devote himself to the study of theology, and especially of the Holy Scripture.

The Bishop of Cavaillon, who knew his virtue and talents, provided him with a canonry in his cathedral. César immediately became an example to all his confreres; and, as his conversation was all fire, he drew several of them to piety and engaged them to assemble often in the bishop's chapel to engage in various spiritual exercises. He also applied himself from then on with more intensity and assiduity to silence, retreat, prayer, mortification, and the practice of all other virtues. He took lodging in the cloister of the cathedral in order to be able to attend the office with more exactitude, and took a dwelling there so small that it was for him a place of penance. If he was obliged to be absent from the choir, he recited his breviary on his knees. He had no other bed than his chair or a little straw. A hair shirt, extremely rough, served as his shirt: he eventually found it too soft for a criminal and armed himself with an iron cuirass, which he wore for a long time against his bare skin and which he only took off out of obedience. Often, when he was praying, face to the ground, one could hear him groaning and sobbing. He fasted and gave himself the discipline three times a week. Study and contemplation absorbed almost all his nights; and, to overcome even the slightest inclinations of nature, he forced himself to repress them through vows of eight or ten days, and also very often put small pebbles or wormwood in his mouth to mortify his taste and his excessive eagerness to speak. From his own personal reformation, he passed to that of his whole family, and his efforts were so effective that one saw, in a short time, an entire change in the conduct of his brothers and sisters-in-law. It is true that it was not easy to resist his remonstrances, which were so strong and so compelling. On a fast day, a splendid supper had been prepared for those who had come from Avignon for the engagement of one of his nieces. César spoke so well of the obedience that one owes to the orders of the Church that the whole company had the main dishes removed, and they contented themselves with a light collation. He then worked for the salvation of his compatriots, and he had so much success in this that the ladies gave up luxury and dancing, and people in Cavaillon began to devote themselves to piety and to frequent the sacraments.

The five years of consolation were still ongoing when one night, at the end of his prayer, César heard a voice warning him to prepare for the terrible temptation of which we have spoken. He abandoned himself into the hands of God, and from that moment, he was relentlessly, for twenty-five years, tormented or rather tortured by thoughts, images, and interior solicitations that Saint Paul does not wish to be named in the assembly of the faithful. He fought them without respite, through tears, prayer, and penance. It was then especially that he had recourse to the macerations of which we have spoken. To be freer in this struggle against the demon and concupiscence, he withdrew into a cell that he had built on purpose, near the chapel of Saint-Jacques, on a mountain half a league from the city, and which he watered more than once with his blood, under the blows of a cruel flagellation. These spiritual and bodily mortifications did not prevent him from acting outwardly with great zeal. Having received the order of priesthood, and celebrated his first mass in the presence of all the people, with an admirable devotion, the transports of which he had much difficulty in restraining, he applied himself to preaching, to confession, and to all the other exercises that can serve to save souls. One cannot sufficiently admire the assiduity, patience, fervor, and generosity with which he discharged all these ministries; nothing was capable of discouraging him; he entered the hospitals, spending entire days there, and a large part of the nights consoling the sick, without the horror of their wounds preventing him from approaching them, from receiving their last breaths, from exhorting them until death. Who could express the number of those he won to God at that time, whether by his sermons, which were full of fire and apostolic vigor, or by his exhortations and private remonstrances, where he displayed the unction of grace with which he was filled? His assistance even appeared miraculous at times: for one day he calmed, by the sweetness of his word, the spirit of a sick person whom a horrible vision had rendered inconsolable; and, another time, he revived the hope of a young girl, whom the thought of her sins had reduced to the last extremities of despair, and then restored her health, as he had promised her.

It would be too long to name here all the illustrious persons whom César converted and then guided in the ways of perfection, and to recount what he did to reform the clergy and certain religious Congregations. For having undertaken, in concert with Catherine de la Croix, to restore the Rule, almost entirely destroyed, among the Benedictines of Cavaillon, he was violently persecuted, even driven from the city. But his constancy triumphed over all obstacles; he seconded in all this the projects of the pious Archbishop of Aix, Alexandre Canigien, who, having lived with Saint Charles Borromeo, preserved his spirit. He was very useful to this prelate in unmasking a false hermit, who, by dint of hypocrisy, had managed to be venerated as a Saint, yet hid so many vices and crimes that he was finally condemned, according to the laws of the time, by the Parliament of Provence, to be burned alive in the public square of Aix.

César de Bus worked with great charity for the conversion of heretics. He followed for this a very particular method that succeeded wonderfully; leaving aside controversy, he would say to them, as if they had been Catholics: "Before arguing among ourselves, let us fight our common enemy together; let us destroy gluttony, impurity, avarice, ambition, and all other vices; let us conceive a great fear of the judgments of God and the pains of hell: it will not be difficult after that for us to agree." Indeed, the frightful descriptions he gave of sin and the torments prepared for it so astonished many that they passed from the movement of fear to that of faith, and recognized the truth of the Catholic religion.

People did not only follow him in the churches where he preached, but they also went in procession to his hermitage to receive the salutary bread of his instructions; which obliged him to build a pulpit and a confessional there, so as not to refuse his assistance to anyone. When he was given some respite, he would descend from his mountain, like another Moses, to carry the law of God into the towns and villages, and to work there for the salvation of the faithful; he consoled some, instructed others, reproved the malice and hardening of these, animated the weakness and pusillanimity of those, and he did so with so little care for his body that he often had great difficulty in regaining his cell, so exhausted was he by fasts and overwhelmed by work. This cell has since been in great veneration among the people, especially since the hermit who succeeded the venerable César, having destined it for a profane use, was punished for it by a great illness, and the one who had led him to this profanation was struck by a sudden death.

The plague having broken out in the village of Thaur, César went there immediately, although the inhabitants had driven him away some time before. He lavished upon all the care that soul and body required, and did not leave this glorious post until the scourge had passed.

A holy soul having known by revelation, and made known to César, that a deluge of crimes and evils was about to descend upon France (it was the time when King Henry IV was besieging Paris, which was rejecting him as a heretic), and that it was necessary to appease the anger of God through an extraordinary penance, he undertook this pi ous and nobl roi Henri IV King of France mentioned for the dating of the chapel. e design and brought into it some faithful disciples he had in Cavaillon. They were seen and heard all night, in the height of winter, for two hours, traversing the streets of the city in procession, with mournful chants: César walked at the head, burdened with a heavy cross; they stopped before the churches, and there redoubled their fervor, to obtain mercy. This ceremony, which lasted three months, astonished at first, then made a vivid impression on the souls of many sinners, and our venerable one thus contributed to obtaining from God the peace that France soon enjoyed.

One of the best weapons the Church used to combat the heresies of that era was the Catechism of the Council of Trent. César read this admirable book, was charmed by it, and formed the plan to establish a Congregation whose primary employment would be to teach this catechism, which contains the Christian doctrine so clearly, so completely, and so sweetly. Having gathered a few ecclesiastics for this purpose, he submitted it above all to the Bishop of Cavaillon, Jean-François Bordini, who was at the same time Vice-Legate of Avignon. He was a disciple of Saint Philip Neri. He hastened to approve such a holy work. These pious catechists of children and the poor held their first assembly on September 29, 1592, in the collegiate church of L'Isle. After a long deliberation, it was resolved there, among other things, that the Congregation of Christian Doctrine would not limit itself to evangelizing the countryside, but that it would also instruct the inhabitants of the cities. Consequently, they decided that they would first establish themselves in Avignon. The moment was favorable. Pope Clement VIII had just appointed as Archbishop of Avignon one of the holiest and most learned men of that century, François-Marie Taurugio, Superior General of the Oratorian Fathers after Saint Philip Neri, and employed in several important legations. As soon as he knew César and his projects, he seconded him with all his power. Before leaving for his diocese, he obtained from the Holy See the approval of the new Congregation. Arriving in Avignon, he helped César de Bus to over César de Bus Founder of the Congregation of Christian Doctrine. come the difficulties inseparable from an establishment being formed. On September 29, 1593, César took possession of the house he had obtained and opened his catechisms in the church of Saint-Praxède. There were two: one for children, the other for listeners who requested more solid instruction and more elevated language. Spiritual canticles were sung there. The archbishop mingled with the listeners, and he was so touched by the good that these catechisms were doing that he wept for joy. One day, he embraced César tenderly and said to him: "Always keep this spirit." When the Pope recalled him to Rome to name him cardinal, he continued to support the Congregation of Christian Doctrine, serving as its protector before the Holy See.

God, while his servant was working for His glory with such zeal, visited him with one of the most sensitive pains that a man can suffer here below. César became blind and felt continuous, sharp pains in his eyes. He rejoiced in it, finding in it the means to expiate the wanderings of his youth. He often repeated these words of David: "You are just, O Lord, and your judgments are equitable." No longer able to offer the holy sacrifice of the Mass, a deprivation greater than that of sight, he supplemented it with frequent communion; he confessed, he preached with the same assiduity as before. One day, the people, seeing this holy preacher in the pulpit with his cruel infirmity, expressed their sorrow quite loudly in the church with sighs and words of compassion. César, having understood, said to them: "Do not weep for me, but for yourselves and for your children. I have lost my two greatest enemies, and you still have yours. Oh! how right the wise man was to say that of all creatures, there are none more wicked than the eyes." A famous Arab doctor having asked to see him did not judge his blindness incurable; but César refused all remedies: "I make," he told him, "so little of my eyes that I do not believe them worthy of either a simple desire on my part or the slightest application on yours." This infirmity was in effect for him a means of penance and recollection; it did not prevent him from fulfilling the obligation of the divine office; he recited the office of the Blessed Virgin with many other prayers. The demons also had permission to torment him, either by striking him or by appearing to him in horrible forms, almost every night.

He announced the word of God in a more touching manner, it seemed, than before, and when, in 1598, the Archbishop of Avignon, Bordini, former Bishop of Cavaillon and Vice-Legate of the Holy See, had given bulls to approve the Institute of Christian Doctrine again, and César had been, despite himself, named superior (until then, by an invention of his humility, he had wanted each member of the community to command in his turn for a week), he fulfilled this charge with the greatest success. Cardinal Taurugio obtained a brief in which Clement VIII gives the highest praise to the new Congregation, confirms it a second time, authorizes its propagation, and confers upon it great spiritual graces. Furthermore, this Pope, in his capacity as sovereign of Avignon, assigned to César and his disciples in that city the convent of Saint-Jean, known as the Old, to be the mother house of their Institute: the Fathers of Christian Doctrine inhabited it until the French Revolution.

But one must not believe that all this was done without contradiction, without obstacle. César's work was slandered. He was challenged for the possession of the convent of Saint-Jean. He even found himself in the harsh necessity of sustaining a long lawsuit on this subject. When, after efforts as general as they were painful, he had triumphed over these difficulties, more embarrassing ones arose within his own society. Until then, one was not bound by any vow. The statutes he had published simply recommended Christian and priestly virtues, devotion to the Blessed Virgin, who carried in her chaste womb the Light of the world, and to the apostle Saint Peter, who is the prince of catechists; obedience to the superior, the use of conferences, the rule of never going out alone, but two by two, and manual labor each day. In the year 1600, he proposed to his Congregation to introduce the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. The greater part of the members agreed with this opinion; but others opposed it. It was necessary to allow them to withdraw, led by Father Romillon, to the house in Aix, which had been newly founded. It is true that the Congregation, having remained faithful to its founder and strengthened by this new bond, became very prosperous and very numerous. The vows it took immediately drew heavenly blessings upon it.

We owe to César de Bus another work no less useful nor less beautiful: it is he who established the Ursulines in Fran ce, for t Ursulines Teaching order mentioned as having disappeared from the city after the Revolution. he education of young girls. Cassandre de Bus, his niece, and Françoise de Brémond, his penitent, were the first two religious of this illustrious Congregation, which they began in 1592, in the small town of L'Isle.

The reputation of the holy priest spread far and wide: people flocked to him as to an oracle, to receive light in doubt and consolation in sorrow. It is thus that he contributed to the foundation of the Oratory. M. de Bérulle, having come to consult him ab out his vocat M. de Bérulle Cardinal and founder of the Oratory of France. ion, received from him salutary advice, which must have greatly confirmed him in his design and pushed him to organize this Congregation immediately. About eighteen months before his death, César was delivered from the temptation that had tormented him for twenty-six years. He was also cured, after a fervent communion, of the pains he suffered in his eyes, without, however, recovering his sight. But God sent him many other infirmities that made him, like his divine Master, a man of sorrows. Having become dropsical, he did not seek to soften the sufferings of this cruel illness, and nonetheless continued his practices of mortification. Our Lord and the Blessed Virgin visited him on certain days; but the following night the demons mistreated him more than usual: thus he said one day lovingly to the Savior that He sold His visits very dearly, and that, however honorable they might be, he begged Him not to give him any at such a price. It seemed, at other times, that God had entirely abandoned him to himself, so dry and deprived of all consolation was he. But he was such a great friend of the cross that he said, in the midst of his pains, that he would not exchange his condition for the happiest in the world, nor unload his pains onto the vilest animal on earth.

This continuous chain of suffering was a warning that his life would soon end and that his reward was near. On Passion Sunday of the year 1607, feeling extremely weakened, he asked for the Viaticum and Extreme Unction, and he received these two final sacraments with admirable sentiments of devotion. He then predicted the day and the slightest circumstances of his death; then, having resigned as superior of his Congregation, which he had only accepted by force and obedience, he thought only of sighing toward heaven, of conversing with Our Lord and with the Saints, of inflaming himself more and more with the divine fire of His love, and of blessing Him for the graces he had received from His goodness. His spiritual children asked for his blessing for them and for those who would embrace his Institute. He gave it to them with words and instructions worthy of the charity with which his heart was filled; he repeated to them up to five times: "Value obedience; do not hope, without it, to ever do anything good." He had some combat with the demon, who reproached him for the sins of his youth. Caesar replied to him: "Yes, I have sinned; but since then I have carried the cross." He thus triumphed over this roaring lion. This combat made him say that it is very necessary to prepare for death while one is in health, because at this critical moment illness weakens, the artifices of the demon disturb, and one can no longer, one no longer knows how to do anything. What to think after that of the conduct of those sinners who want to continue their disorders until the end, flattering themselves that at death there will still be time to convert? Father Antoine Sizoin, superior since Caesar's resignation, commanded him to recount before the whole community the details of his life. His humility made him blush; he was all troubled. He first began an abridged account, where he hid the favors that heaven had granted him. But the superior insisted, saying that they wanted to know everything. He was then obliged to give an account of his main actions, such as we have reported.

Finally, on the following Easter Day, which fell on April 15, he peacefully rendered his soul to God. He was buried in the church of Saint-Jean le Vieux, in the presence of a large crowd. Fourteen months later, his body was found as fresh, as whole as the day of his death. It was first exposed to the veneration of the faithful; but it had to be returned to the earth later, so that work could be done on his canonization.

There were, after his death, indubitable marks of his glory. A nun, who was praying at that moment in Cavaillon, saw him all radiant with glory. A cripple was healed by the touch of his body before the burial ceremony was finished. A sterile woman also obtained fertility at the same time through the intercession of the one whose help she was imploring. Three days after his death, a person of candor and virtue, wanting to pray for him, found herself all enveloped in light, and heard a voice that said to her three times: "One must pray to him, and not pray for him." Before the end of the year, a great number of wonders took place at his tomb.

The canonization of Caesar de Bus has been requested several times from the sovereign Pontiffs. The procedures began in 1817. On December 8, 1821, Pope Pius VII declared, with the consent of the cardinals: "that it is cert ain that the pape Pie VII Pope who authorized the cult of Blessed Rainier. venerable Caesar de Bus practiced in a heroic degree the theological and cardinal virtues, and the other virtues which are their consequences; that one can consequently proceed appropriately to the discussion of three miracles which are attributed to him." There have been no new decrees since; but the cause continues, and one awaits with impatience the happy moment when the holy founder of the Christian Doctrine will be proposed for public veneration. This holy Congregation was destroyed in France along with all the others during the French Revolution.

It was re-established in Cavaillon in 1850. As for the body of Caesar de Bus, it was undoubtedly forgotten by the Vandals of '93, when they profaned the church where he rested. It was removed from there in 1807, and a decree of Cardinal Caprara, legatus a latere of the Holy See in France, permitted its transfer to the parish church of Saint-Pierre in Avignon; it was deposited there in the middle of the choir, in a lead coffin. There remain to us from this holy priest the Familiar Instructions on the four parts of the Roman Catechism, 5 vol. in-12.

Father Giry said of these works, in 1685: "The great fruits that they produce every day in the hands of parish priests, missionaries, preachers, catechists, and which have obliged them to be reprinted often, give glory to this excellent servant of God, to continue, after his death, the teaching of the Christian Doctrine".

Cf. Guérin, and the Dictionary of Religious Orders, by Fr. Hélyot. (Migne Edition.)