Blessed Thomas of Cori

He was still young when his father and mother died in the peace of God. Having become the protector of his sisters, he saw to their establishment and divided among them as a dowry the price of the herd. Now free to follow his vocation to the religious state, he entered the Order of Friars Minor of the Regular Observance where he took the habit and changed his name from Francis-Anthony to that of Frère Thomas Italian Franciscan friar, reformer, and preacher. Brother Thomas. He was then twenty-two years old. After a year of novitiate, on February 8, 1678, he made his solemn profession and moved to the con vent of Viterbe City in Italy where Gerard fell ill. Paradise near Viterbo to study philosophy and theology there. Ordained a priest, he became at twenty-eight years old the second master of novices.

Civitella Civitella Location of the Saint Francis convent where Thomas established his reform. was an ancient convent of the Order of Saint Benedict that had been given to Saint Francis; in 1684, the Franciscans of the Regular Observance made it a retreat convent for the Roman province. Our Blessed one asked to go there; he arrived from Orvieto, carrying nothing with him but his breviary. It was to his examples and his counsel, and then to the wisdom of his direction, that the success of the reform in this house and the happy fruits it bore were owed.

After an experience of nearly twenty years, he had a rather austere set of regulations approved in 1706, of which he was the true author. It was not, however, without difficulties or resistance on the part of his companions that Father Thomas of Cori led them into this laborious path of perfection. His hair shirts, his iron chains, his disciplines, his fasts on bread and water, and the wounds with which his body was covered had taught him to look death in the face, without having to fear that terrible passage. Often it was only by dragging himself that he could go to the public exercises of the community. He sought out all humble and mortifying actions. His ordinary food was a little bread and vegetables, a cup and a half of water sufficed for him, and if he added a little wine, the water was barely tinted by it. His great examples of humility and his gentle words finally triumphed over the reluctance of his religious, who were ashamed to lack courage when seeing this intrepid man, and they bravely set out to follow him: thus, he made saints of them.

Full of trust in Providence, he refused all alms as soon as they exceeded the daily needs of the convent. "It is for God to remember us," he often said to his religious; "we must not tie His hands by showing too much solicitude." When he was Guardian, he wanted all the poor who presented themselves to be received; and God provided for everything, either by raising up benefactors or by multiplying the little bread that remained in the convent. The superior showed his gratitude by thanking God and by having prayers said often for the benefactors of the house.

Although attentive to having the rule observed in all its austerity and to giving lessons of renunciation and penance in everything, he was full of kindness and thoughtfulness for his religious, whom he cared for like a mother when they were sick.

In 1703, the Blessed was appointed Guardian of the convent of Saint Francis, nea r Palomba Palombara Place where Thomas established the rules of the Ritro. ra, in order to establish there t he ru Ritro Rules of austere communal life established by Thomas. les of the Ritro already in practice at Civitella, where he returned after three years, having succeeded in his mission. For twenty more years, he continued his life of penance, prayer, and preaching among the peoples surrounding Civitella, of whom he was named the Apostle. He had made them Christians of the primitive Church, united among themselves and with him by an indissoluble charity. Our Saint especially had the gift of preparing the sick for death, and God often revealed to him that a certain person would soon leave this world. The last time he dined with the parish priest of Cori, upon leaving the table, he took his hand: "Farewell," he said to him, "for we shall not see each other again until heaven." His friend indeed died the following month. One day, while visiting the parish priest of Gerano, after having, according to his custom, respectfully kissed his hand, he said to him: "Good news and take heart, Lord Dom Blaise, we shall shortly make a journey that will lead us both to the port, you first and I after." The good priest understood him; he prepared himself to appear before God, and a few months later, he died. The Blessed followed him soon after. On January 4, 1729, he was seized by fever; the next day, he was able to hear the confessions of his penitents, who were always very numerous. This was his last consolation and the final exercise of his ministry. The illness redoubled in violence and, on the 10th, the holy religious received Our Lord while commending himself to the prayers of his brothers "whom he had so often scandalized." The demons had wished to trouble him at this final moment, but Jesus himself came to console him; for a few moments the room was illuminated with a divine light, and the

saint suspended above his bed, rapt in ecstasy. He died the following day, aged over seventy-three, of which he had spent nearly fifty-two in the religious state.

He had predicted that there would be few people at his funeral; and indeed, a very violent rain and the poor condition of the roads kept many people away; but crowds flocked to his tomb where a great number of miracles occurred, and his memory has remained dear in these mountains. Pius VI, who was Abbot of Subi aco du Pie VI Pope cited as having approved the cult of Julie in 1821. ring his cardinalate, and who wished to keep the government of his abbey after he had been raised to the papacy, experienced vivid sentiments of piety while visiting the cell of Brother Thomas; he went to pray at his tomb, and spoke with the good religious of the Ritro. He admired their poverty, their fervor, and having recognized with joy that they were worthy of their blessed master, he ordered that testimony be given to it, to the glory of their Order, in the decree of beatification which was published in 1785.

Blessed Thomas is represented celebrating Holy Mass: during the celebration, the Child Jesus appears to him and caresses him with His little hands.

This entry was composed based on the lives of the Saints and Blesseds of the 18th century, by Abbé E. Dazac. l'abbé E. Dazac Author of the biographical notice.