p. 99Declining Years

If his three-score years and ten weighed heavily on St. Alonso, grace more than made up for their burden. His age and infirmities obliged his Superiors to relieve him, after more than thirty years of constant toil, from the fatigue and responsibilities of door-keeper. His continual penances, his mental struggles, his close union with God, had broken down his bodily strength even before its time. Besides—as Father Janin says—“having thoroughly done the work of Martha, he now was to spend almost all his time in earnest leisure, with Magdalen, at the feet of Christ.” Not entirely, for he still helped the new porter, when there was more than usual press at the door, or he received the messages at the door, leaving to stronger legs the task of going round about the house and up the stairs in search of those who were wanted.

Some fifteen years before his death, not only had he lost all his teeth, but his gums had become so ulcerated that he could not even masticate the crumb of bread, and was obliged to break it up before eating it. He used to thank God that what he wanted in teeth—dientes—he made up with his fingers—dedos. This, however, gave rise to a difficulty with regard to the virtue of obedience, a virtue which was to Alonso as the apple of his eye. The Father Minister had ordered that the crust should be cut off from his portion of bread. Those who sat next to him at table used often to take the crust off their own portion and give to the aged Brother the crumb. For some time he accepted it gratefully; but one day it flashed upon him, as though he heard it from the lips of one in authority, that to do this was to act against the letter of his rule, which forbids anyone to give or to receive anything without leave of the Superior, while another rule implies that at table everything is to come from the server. And from that day he would not accept anything in the refectory, save from the Brother who was waiting upon him.

True, custom and the wish of Superiors authorise that, in case the server is engaged at table, the religious should help one another; yet, at the cost of appearing extreme in his views, St. Alonso never dared to swerve from the most rigid interpretation. His principle was shown in a similar way when a scholastic asked him one day if it was necessary to sweep out one’s room three times a week, as St. Ignatius’ rule prescribes: “tertio saltem quoque die—at least every third day.” The received meaning in the Society is twice a week. But St. Alonso took a stricter view for his own use. “My dear Brother, I sweep it four times a week; because the rule orders at least three times (sic). Now, that word ‘at least’ seems to require more, and so I sweep it four times. That is safer.”

This high ideal of obedience which was held by our Saint led him to think out the following imaginary case. “If the Superior were to forbid me, when I have the keys of the gate, to open to anyone, and the king was in this city, and the king were to come to this house, and wished to enter, and his bodyguard and suite were at the door bidding me open to him, what should I do? I should beg his majesty to pardon me because I was not able to admit him; but obedience had ordered me not to open the gates to anyone. It would seem to me that I certainly would neither open for the king nor for any of his suite, even though I should be illtreated and badly used by them. It appeared to me that in like circumstances, and in all those which might and would accrue, no matter what threats should be used, I would never let myself be troubled as long as I kept my heart solidly rooted in God by the orders of my Superior. I know there is nothing so firm as the heart which is under the shelter of obedience. Then, I am sure, too, that it is the command of God, and that I am as ready to do it without hesitation as was Abraham when bidden to sacrifice his son Isaac. So, all the ills of this life would not suffice to make me fail in obedience, for I doubt not that as I take in hand the cause of God by obeying Him, this same Lord would have such a care of His obedient servant as that all would turn out to the glory of God.”¹1Memor., n. 43. 1604.

What he so thought out, and what he thus resolved, found its realization in an occurrence which happened but shortly after. The course of philosophy was solemnly opened on September 10th, 1603, by the students of the College of Montesion, with one of those allegorical dramas so much the fashion in those days in Jesuit Colleges, entitled the “Triumph of Virtue.” The professor, Father Blaise Bailio, had just arrived from Spain. His name will be met with again.

The Bishop of Majorca at this time was John Vique y Manrique, the brother of the Viceroy, Don Lewis. He had been Professor of Theology and Holy Scripture at Salamanca, and afterwards Rector of that University. He had obtained the mitre in reward for his services as Spanish Ambassador at Rome, and had endeared himself greatly to the people of Majorca by his liberality and holiness of life. From 1573 until 1604, when, to the great grief of the Majorcans, he was translated to the Archbishopric of Tarragona, he spent large sums on the Cathedral. He completed the nave and built the principal entrance, with its Renaissance sculpture.

The Viceroy, with the Bishop, the jurados—magistrates of the city, and a number of people of position and rank, both lay and ecclesiastical, were invited to the play. To prevent the place being overcrowded by the common people, and no room left for their betters, the Rector ordered that no one should be admitted before a certain hour. However, the vice-regal party chanced to come before that time, and the bodyguard knocked loudly at the gate, announcing the arrival of the bishop and of Don Lewis, with all their suite. They knocked, however, in vain. They shouted, they clamoured, they insisted that the doors should be opened at once. The porter, faithful to his orders, paid no heed; until the Rector was informed of what was going on.²2Don Jerome Caldes, a Majorcan gentleman and officer in the army, deposed in 1627, that he had heard from the Fathers of the College that the Bishop remonstrated with Alonso, who replied, “My lord, my Superior ordered me not to let anyone come in.” “Permit me,” then said the Prelate, “to come in, for I, as a higher authority, order you, by obedience, to allow us to enter.” And it was only then the porter opened the door for the Bishop and his suite. He came at once, and, with a sincere apology, admitted the visitors. However much he regretted the mistake, he could not blame the fidelity of St. Alonso to what he considered his duty; and the Bishop and Viceroy, far from being displeased, were only edified by such an example of strict obedience.

But however excusable, nay, even heroic, was the Saint’s act, his Superiors seemed to have thought it well to remove him from his post, and they employed him in light work about the house. Never was he known to make the slightest difficulty, whatever the task might be, or to excuse himself on account of his age, or much less, on account of his regular devotions. He always gave the preference over his well-loved prayer to the special duties of a lay-Brother. If, by chance, he had no work allotted to him, he volunteered to help wherever anything wanted doing, as far as his strength would allow. As long as he could hold a broom, he tried to sweep like the rest, and, even when hardly able to stand, nothing but obedience could prevent him going with the others into the kitchen to wash up the dishes, or to take his share in the humblest employment. Nor did his years make him abate his penance. When unable to wield the discipline, he begged a Brother to scourge him, saying that such was the way to mortify “this beast of a body.”

Though too infirm to serve Mass in the public Church, St. Alonso loved to serve all the Masses said in the domestic Chapel, which he did with great devotion and often in tears. When he could not stay on his knees, he stood up straight, or leant against the wall, or sometimes sat down on a stool. As long as his health permitted him, he used to pass a great part of the morning hearing the Masses in the Church from a side tribune which looked on the High Altar from the epistle side. Brother Serra was quite astonished to see him kneeling there for hours. He often went out with him to visit churches and sanctuaries, especially the sepulchres on Maundy Thursday. St. Alonso, out of reverence to the presence of his Eucharistic God, would never talk in the church. Don Pasqual, a minor canon of the cathedral, went one day to see him. The church was closed; but through the door which opened into the house, he noticed the Brother was on his knees before the altar in prayer. As soon as he got up, Don Pasqual said to him, “We can chat here, as there is no one else in the church, and I do not want to speak about worldly matters.” The Saint answered at once, “We ought not to talk in God’s presence, even about holy subjects; because a church is a place of prayer only.” On another occasion the canon begged St. Alonso to put on his biretta in the church, as he was so old and infirm, and the Blessed Sacrament was not exposed. “No one should cover his head in God’s presence,” he said.

A young man, Bartholomew Valperga, had, when a youth, been educated at the College of Montesion, and many a time had Alonso stirred his heart with pious thoughts. When he grew up, he had gone to Naples and become a distinguished lawyer. The Viceroy of Naples, Count Olivarez, appointed him, in 1598, to a judgeship in Crotona. He had to contend with a most disorganised state of society; but all the magistrates and burghers of the place testified by a formal document of Nov. 4th, 1600, in his favour and he was delegated to preside in still more important cases.³3Bover, Bibliot. de Escritores Baleares. Palma, 1868. In pursuance of his duty he was severely wounded by the military governor, who was offended at his integrity. He returned with high recommendations from the Viceroy and from other people of position, and he felt no doubt of obtaining some high and lucrative post in Majorca.

Carried down the stream of the world, he thought of nothing else but success and fortune. Nor would he hear of his sister, Anna, following her vocation to religious life. She had recourse to the holy Brother, and he consoled her by the promise, that she would very soon become a nun, and more than that, her brother himself would become a religious and would persevere until death. Valperga paid a visit to the college, to see his old professors and his friend the late porter. Alonso drew Bartholomew into conversation. He was just going off to Madrid to seek advancement at court, and when the young man had run on with his high hopes of promotion, of patronage, of the king and court, of his castles in the air, of wealth and of honours, the Saint took him by the hand, and quietly blew aside all these captivating dreams, and showed him the dangers that lay beneath their unsubstantial charms. The young man listened quietly to his long talk, and went away.

He came back the next day. All thoughts of Madrid, all his high ambitions were gone. He had but one wish—to give himself entirely, irrevocably, to the service of God. He made a general confession; he settled all his affairs, and retired to the Charter House of Valldemosa, where, on December 7th, 1604, he took the white habit of St. Bruno. His sister was now free to follow her vocation, and entered the Augustinian convent of St. Mary Magdalen in Palma, which was still fragrant with the memories and virtues of B. Catharine Tomas, who had died there in 1574.

Father Valperga led a most austere life, and became finally the prior of Valldemosa.⁴4To the dignity of Prior of Valldemosa were annexed those of Alcaide of the Castle of Belver, the Royal Palace of Valldemosa, trustee of the General Hospital of Palma, and parish priest of Holy Cross. He was sent later on to Madrid on business of the Order, but before leaving he went to bid good-bye to his old friend, St. Alonso, whom he foresaw he would never meet again, and he wrote a record of what had passed between them to the Saint’s Rector. He died on April 30th, 1615, with great reputation for holiness, in the Charter House at Madrid.

Alonso tells us that, following St. Ignatius’ prescriptions in the Spiritual Exercises, he never urged anyone to enter a particular Order, but advised all to commend the matter earnestly to God, and then to resign their vocation, and themselves, into the hands of our Lord, so that they might do, in all things, His holy will, to His glory, and for the good of their soul. And he bade all to remember they must not enter religion save to become saints, and must have but one care, to please God.

Our Saint was only carrying out the rules of St. Ignatius for lay-Brothers in his exercise of charity and of zeal for souls. Nor were his labours confined to those who aimed at perfection, but he was as zealous in reclaiming the tepid and sinners. Among these there was a worldly officer, who, at Alonso’s exhortations, changed his life altogether and became an ecclesiastic, led a holy life, and died a holy death.

The love which burned in the heart of St. Alonso for his Crucified Lord caused in it a burning thirst to suffer and to bear much for His sake. So strong the light by which God made Himself known to his humble servant, that he fancied that it was the very manner in which He made Himself known to the blessed in Heaven. His love found vent in strong cries to God. “My beloved, the desired of my soul! Thou art all mine and I am all Thine.” St. Alonso owns that no words can tell the greatness of this love. “He alone knows what is its taste, who has experienced it; but even he cannot describe it, for he is wholly a pure intellectual spirit”—being as an angel. Ever pressing forward, as this love made him like the Thrones, and as the knowledge ever increasing by love made him like to the Cherubim, so still growing in love he became like to the Seraphim, and day and night, awake and asleep, without labour or effort, without fatigue of mind or body, he rested in the enjoyment of God ever present to him.⁵5Memor., n. 12. So intense was this love that his heart was oppressed with its power, and he was forced to entreat God to withdraw from him. But it was out of his power to distract his mind from this the one object of his thoughts.

But the marvellous favours he was ever receiving from God were a perpetual trouble to our Saint. He complains lovingly about them over and over again in his “Manifestations of conscience.” He was always fearful of snares and delusions of the devil, and would much rather have walked in the safe path of persecution and contempt. He told Father Torrens that he would be very glad if the Inquisition were to arrest him as the victim of delusions, if only that could make these visions cease.⁶6Summar. p. 7, n. 4. At last, after many years of this wearying alarm, a flash of God’s light came into his soul, filling him with a holy fear of God, which inflamed his heart and stamped upon it, as a lasting seal, a firm assurance that he would never be deceived, because this enduring fear would close the door to any entrance of error. From that day all timidity left him, and though he ever went forward in great humility and distrust of himself, his heart was full of gratitude for God’s unbounded love to him. The feeling that he had been delivered by His mercy from that hell of which he had so clear a vision, and to which he looked upon himself as condemned for his past sins, greatly increased this sense of gratitude.

Another trial to St. Alonso was the kindness which he met with from others. As the profound and ever present sense of his vileness made it impossible for the enemy of his soul to attack him on the side of pride, the devil tried the subtle device of representing to him the honours which would be paid to him after death, and even foretelling that he would win the dignity of canonization. But he fled as usual to prayer, and with earnest petition saved himself from the snare. Other temptations arising from the fact that God does not save all men, although He loves them all, he simply refused to discuss. But, leaving the tempter to have his say, he threw himself at the feet of Jesus and Mary, wishing to know no more than a babe just born, and finding there his refuge and protection until the storm went by.

In February, 1604, Father Gabriel Alvarez, who had so lately been at Majorca as companion to the Provincial, returned as Rector of Montesion. Upon him the Provincial, Father Diego Escrivá, laid the obligation of examining with all possible care into the life of our Saint, the extraordinary and even miraculous character of which gave grounds for some fear of delusion.

With this view Father Alvarez ordered our Saint to write down all that he could remember of what had happened to his soul during his past life. Much against the grain, but promptly and thoroughly, Alonso obeyed, and by May, 1604, he had compiled, with great care, and after frequent corrections, the precious memoirs which have served as the basis of all that has gone before.⁷7The original autograph was carried away by Father Alvarez when he left Majorca, as he looked upon it as a confidential communication. The copy which exists was made by Father Marimon’s orders after the Saint’s death.

One winter evening, after supper,⁸8Brother Humphrey Serra was one of those present. He arrived at Majorca in the September of 1605, and, as Father Alvarez left in the following January, this must have happened between those two dates. the scholastics and St. Alonso were spending the recreation with Father Gonzales in his room. He was speaking of the sufferings which the missioners met with in the Indies and the great work to be done there for God. When he had done, he turned to Alonso and asked him how it was that he had never asked to be sent to the Indies, but was quite content to stay at home at his ease. Our Saint replied: “Father, I am nobody, and good for nothing; but I think, if it were well, obedience would send me there without my asking; and were it to send me I should have great pleasure in going, as I should believe it was God who ordered it.” “Go then,” said the Rector, “go to the Indies, I order you.” It was then after nine o’clock, but no sooner had the holy old man heard the words than he made a lowly reverence to his Superior, and went straight to the college door, just as he was, with only cassock and biretta, and began to ring the bell to summon the porter to unlock the gates.

The porter, forewarned by the Rector, came and asked him what he wanted. “I want you to open the gate, for I am off for India.” “What,” said the Brother, “without hat, or cloak, you want to go out at this hour?” “Yes,” replied Alonso, “as obedience sends me off at this hour, any time is the right time to obey.” “Have you got your letter of obedience?” asked the porter. “For you know you cannot start on a journey, nor can I let you pass, without it. If you have not got it, go for it, and then I will let you out.” So he went back to the Rector’s room to ask for the letter. Father Alvarez received him very coldly; “Yes indeed! Here you are nothing but a bother to everybody, and you want to go to India!” The Brother only answered with a smile. And when he was asked afterwards, if he had no difficulty in obeying this order, our Saint replied that he had none at all, and that he had gone off like a simpleton without any anxiety, to do what God had enjoined.

Father Julian asked him, some time after, how he could have thought of setting out without any provisions for his journey, and without even knowing whether there was a ship ready to sail, and why he had not gone to his room for his hat and cloak. His reply was that he had not been told to get ready to go to the Indies; besides that, if God should order it, he would have gone with a sure hope that He, whom his superiors represented, would have supplied him with all he wanted and a ship as well. If not, he would have gone boldly out upon the sea,⁹9Brother Mora, in his sworn evidence, declared that Father Alvarez told him that St. Alonso said in addition, that he would have gone on till the water came up to his face, and then only would he have returned, having satisfied obedience. sure that He who had sent him would be with him to the end of the journey.

Of all the great events that were passing in the world, hardly an echo reached us from the quiet of out-of-the-way Majorca, or in the records of the College of Montesion. But in the August of 1604, after a continuous struggle of 25 years, and when death had carried off Philip II. and Queen Elizabeth, Spain and England signed a treaty of peace in London. England was then, very naturally, regarded as not only the born foe of Spain, but as the great anti-Catholic power. To our Saint the news of this treaty gave forebodings of peril, and he begged God to remedy so great and terrible a misfortune to Spain as would happen if the English should have liberty to settle in that country; for he feared with some reason, lest, under cover of commercial relations, they should strive to introduce their errors among the Catholic population.¹⁰10B. John de Ribera addressed a strong memorial on similar grounds to his Sovereign against the Peace, and it was only the fact that it had been approved by the Pope that made him withdraw his opposition. V. Vita del B. Giovanni de Ribera. P. Vinc. Castrillo, Rome, 1796.

St. Alonso’s practice of obedience got him more than once into trouble. “He had,” he tells us,¹¹11Memor., n. 157. 1610. “in past years, through his strong affection for that virtue, many occasions to practise it during the more than twenty years during which he was in the Porteria. His strict and prompt obedience caused him some rough encounters with those of the house whose views were different to his own, which he overcame by the fervour of his obedience. I had, now and then, a strong impulse, as it were, of impatience to argue in defence of obedience with those who opposed me, even though they were theologians; but I repressed it, and overcame myself.¹²12The Saint here speaks in the first person. Since that time God has been pleased that he should no longer have so many occasions of obedience, nor continue to be porter. And as this person has had such long practice in obedience, although God has bestowed great consolations on him during his exercise, his Lord has withal, even after he had ceased to exercise him as before, still continued His favours to him. That shows how pleasing obedience is to God, who bestows the greatest pay, after one has laboured and conquered himself.”

St. Alonso explains clearly¹³13Memor., n. 47. 1606. the degrees by which he reached such an extraordinary perfection in obedience. “The first degree was, to believe by faith that whatever a Superior ordered was the command of God, and so to carry it out blindly; and this not by sight, but simply by faith, which is to believe what you do not see.” The second he thus describes, “God communicated to him a light from above, which showed him that obedience proceeds from God; so that he did not notice the man, but only God from whom the order came;” that is to say, that when he heard the voice of a man, it conveyed to him not the will of a man, even though the representative of God, but the very will of God Himself. The third degree went further still. “He recognised that it was not the voice of his Superior which ordered him, but the voice of God Himself.”

The fourth and highest degree, given as a reward of his faithful practice of the three foregoing degrees, was “so powerful a light about obedience, that he saw clearly, in the presence of God, without any exercise of his reasoning faculties, that obedience is the voice of God, just as the angels do in the Lord Himself. For God reveals Himself also to him, though with less light than to the angels who see Him face to face.”

What were the results of this sublime degree of obedience, a folly to the world, our Saint will tell us in his own words. First, “God stamped this truth in his soul and in his heart—that God it was who commanded and from whom the order came, and that it was His will that he should carry it out, and that all hell and all the world together were not enough to snatch this truth from his heart, neither for the fear nor for the love of anyone, nor for any human respect, even of kings.” Second, “It seemed as if he became unable to do anything but obey God, without fear of anyone; thirdly, great promptitude in obeying, even though what was ordered him might be impossible, or very difficult, or useless;”¹⁴14Memor., n. 158. and even when “what is ordered seems to be a folly or imprudence.”¹⁵15Memor., n. 47.

This obedience St. Alonso defends by the example of Abraham. “How would it have been with Abraham, if when God told and ordered him to take his son and kill him, he had put his own explanation on the command, and had disputed with God, saying to Him, ‘Lord, this cannot be, it is against charity!’ But because he did not consider his love towards his son, but only the carrying out what God had ordered, did he gain such a reward.”¹⁶16Obras Espirit., T. III., p. 410.

At the same time, while looking only at God, our Saint was far from losing any respect for his Superiors. “This,” he tells us, speaking of himself, as usual, in the third person,¹⁷17Memor., n. 85. “is his manner of acting towards his holy Superiors. As God has clearly shown to him that they are in His place, and as he desires so ardently to please his Lord, he considers them in that light and esteems them as such, and he shows them great interior and exterior respect. He uncovers his head when he is speaking to them, until they bid him to put on his biretta, and he shows such politeness and reverence in this regard, that “if any Superiors should speak to him, he casts himself down in imagination upon his knees at their feet, nay, even prostrates himself before them, and he finds great consolation in this humble posture.”¹⁸18Memor., n. 93. This, Father Torrens tells us, was the Saint’s feeling even when bidden to sit down; so strong was his faith that God was present in the person of the Superior.

No wonder, then, that when a young gentleman, who afterwards became a lawyer of some note, Don James Guasp, wanted to speak to St. Alonso, whom he met about the house, without leave of his Superiors, the holy Brother, although with permission he had talked to him on another occasion, now at the risk of offending him, simply walked away without a word. Amazed at his conduct, Guasp asked some of the Fathers the meaning of it, and they told him he never spoke to one who was not a member of the Community without leave.

Don John Vich, Bishop of Majorca, was promoted, in 1604, to the archiepiscopal see of Tarragona, and his successor at Majorca was Don Alphonsus Lasso Sedeño, the Archbishop of Cagliari. A man of great learning and piety, he took a special interest in the College of Montesion; and, on the first opening of studies after his arrival, he was entertained, in 1605, by a classical dialogue performed by the students in his honour. On another occasion he preached in the College Church and the Father Rector ordered that a bed should be made up for him in his own room, that he might take a rest, and have a change, if necessary, after his sermon.¹⁹19So says Father Marimon, whose account is here followed. Brother Serra, however, deposed, that it was in the time of Bishop Bauza, who in 1608, succeeded Archbishop Don Lasso Sedeño, and he says that he was ocular witness of the event, and that the Saint begged to be left as he was.

As the house was very under-furnished, the mattress of Brother Alonso was carried away for the purpose, without his knowledge, and it was not brought back at night. The Minister chanced, an hour or so afterwards, to go round to see that all were in bed, and when he came to the Saint’s room, he found him, though somewhat unwell, owing to a bad cold, lying on the boards of the bed, undressed, with only the sheet and coverlets over him. “Brother,” said the Minister, “how can you lie in that state?” “I am perfectly right. Glory be to God!” answered St. Alonso. “It does not matter at all. I am quite well as I am.” However, the Father told the Rector, who sent at once for Brother Serra, who, as infirmarian, had charge of the old man, and ordered him, at once, to go and bid Alonso to get up from his hard couch and allow the mattress to be replaced. The moment St. Alonso got the Rector’s order, he did as he was told. A long time after, his Superior asked him what he thought of the hard planks, “They were very nice, Father,” he answered; “I should be very pleased always to lie on them for God’s glory.”

It seems to have been one of his accustomed penances earlier on in life, to lie on the floor, and even upon potsherds.²⁰20Evidence of Brother Roca, Elench. Summ., p. 50. Another time, when very poorly, St. Alonso had been forbidden to make his bed. The mattress had been turned up in continental fashion, and the infirmarian had forgotten to put it straight. Glad to have an occasion of practising penance and obedience at once, he left the bed as it was and laid down on the boards. The next morning he was perished with the cold. And though the infirmarian was very grieved at his own neglect, St. Alonso was so full of joy that he comforted the poor Brother in his sorrow. In the same spirit he let the flies and mosquitoes, the fleas and the many insect-torturers of southern climes, do their worst upon him, as far as cleanliness and consideration for others would permit.

An extraordinary instance of our Saint’s obedience occurred about this time, and is narrated by him at his half-yearly Manifestation of Conscience in 1607. In one of the many serious illnesses of Brother Rodriguez, the Rector of the time—probably Father Alvarez—finding that nothing did him any good, wished him to take for several days in succession a potion, which he thought was certain to cure him. “The doctor who had given the prescription had more good will than knowledge,” says Father Marimon. The sick man did as he was told. But the medicine only made him a very great deal worse. However, he continued to take it as long as it lasted, though in his state, and at his time of life, it might have cost him his life. God, however, rewarded his obedience, and restored him to health.

Some time after, when suffering from a like illness, the Superior ordered Alonso the same medicine, as he attributed to it the late recovery of the sick man. Our Saint was then in a dilemma. He had good reason to believe that the medicine was that which he had before taken. To refuse it would be against obedience; to take it would be running a great risk of his life. Was he not bound to let the Superior know? In this difficulty he turned to God in fervent prayer, and offered himself so entirely to obey whatever was asked of him, that in reward for his heroism his soul was flooded with a light which showed him clearly that this offering was so pleasing to God, that no words could express the greatness of its value and merit before His Divine Majesty. In fact, he saw it to be more meritorious than all the good works which he had done through his life; for obedience unto death is the closest imitation of Christ Our Lord. So he took the dose, and again God gave to it the power of restoring him to health.

Another time Alonso was attacked with such pains that he felt strongly inclined to let his Superior know, for his rule enjoins that when one feels worse than usual he must inform the Superior or infirmarian. On the other hand, he thought that he was too tender about himself, and was shunning suffering, though in truth he really longed for more. However, he at once conquered his repugnance, and preferred God’s clear will, as told him by the rule, to the wish he had for suffering. He avowed his ailment with his usual frankness. Immediately after, lifting up his thoughts, he was rapt in spirit to Heaven, and was congratulated by the saints, and received the approval of God for his perfect and prudent obedience. He was even assured that this act of obedience far exceeded in merit all that his sufferings under other circumstances would have purchased.

The ruin of trade, which blighted the prosperity of Segovia, had been felt severely even in Majorca. Beside which, agricultural interests were at a low ebb, partly owing to the immense properties being in the hands but of a few nobles, partly to the constant droughts which scourged the island. Numbers of persons were without employment, and crime had grown apace. The demoralisation which the Fathers of the Society had found on their arrival in Palma had given way in great part before their zeal, and that of the clergy, secular and religious, who had been roused by example to a holy emulation.²¹21Until the arrival of Don Diego Arnedo, in 1561, there had been no resident Bishop in Majorca for many years. Cardinal Campeggio, Bishop of Bologna and of Worcester, and his successor—his son born in wedlock—John Baptist, had held the See of Majorca without ever visiting it, though the latter sent the Bishop of Grosseto to rule in his place. Roderic Borja had also been Bishop of the See. In the country, however, crime defied the weak arm of the law. In vain the offenders were put under the ban of the law, and terrible punishments decreed against them. They took to the hills and obtained full protection from the various political and social factions which found in them a weapon ready to hand. Young men of family thought it no disgrace to be found in their ranks, and went about armed to the teeth, and even gloried in their deeds of violence and blood. The leading families of the island, the Puigdorfilas and Torrellos, had divided the population into two parties, so bitter in their hate that they kept apart even in Church. It was in great part owing to the fervour of Father Coch’s preaching that a complete reconciliation of this feud had been brought about, and great was the gratitude which he won in consequence.

The town of Soller, buried in the dark green of its orange groves, and surrounded by a magnificent amphitheatre of mountains, whose sides are clothed with olive groves, is one of the most prosperous and most beautiful of Majorca. But the fire of discord flamed out so violently there, in 1604, that life was not safe either within or without the grim fortress walls, reared in the former century against the Moors, around the parish church. The formidable pass, the only road to the capital, was held by bandoleros—outlaws; and the Viceroy, with but few troops at his disposal, was utterly unable to send succour to the magistrates of Soller, who dared not venture out except with a strong escort of horsemen and musketeers. Each house in town and country was closely barred at sundown, and a guard was mounted at the door. Lives were lost,²²22The Litteræ Annuæ, of 1604, say that twelve lives had been lost. Father Marimon says that more than twenty had been killed. Don Joseph Rullan in his “History of Soller,” p. 583, gives the names of two only who were assassinated this year. His statements are based on the judicial records of the time. Possibly the names and numbers of the slain in this faction fight were purposely left unrecorded. and many persons were wounded or grievously beaten.

Don Ferdinand Canoguerra, the Viceroy, saw no hope of peace save through the influence of religion. Together with his Council, he applied to Father Alvarez to send some of his fathers to preach a mission in the distracted town. Accordingly the Rector dispatched Fathers Cosimo Marquez (or Maycas) and Matthew Reguer. So difficult was their task in the face of the furious passions which had been roused, that Father Alvarez ordered that in all the prayers and masses offered up in the College the good work of the missioners should be earnestly recommended to God. But to the prayers of St. Alonso he chiefly trusted for the success of the mission. Our Saint had recourse to Our Lady, and after a few days of earnest supplication and of penance, she assured him that peace would be restored, and named the day and the hour. Accordingly, he told the Rector that the mission would prove perfectly successful.

Marquez was not considered a preacher of any power. God, no doubt, had chosen so weak an instrument to prove that the victory was owing to the intercession of the holy Brother; for the Father spoke with such energy and with such effect, that at his voice the storm of passion suddenly lulled. At the very first discourses which he delivered, a lady, whose husband, a notary public, whose son, and whose son-in-law had all been murdered during the outbreak, came forward publicly, and in the house of the Parish Priest signed an official document attesting that she forgave the assassins and freely engaged not to prosecute the criminals. In a few days, eighteen or twenty followed her noble example, forgiving sometimes, at one stroke of the pen, a number of persons from whom wrongs had been received. Repentance was the only thought of all.

When this good news reached the Viceroy, he could hardly believe the report, and sent for Father Alvarez to learn the facts. The Rector showed him a letter from Father Marquez, in which he begged that the outlaws who had taken to the hills might have a safe conduct to enable them to come to Soller and be reconciled, as the only satisfactory way of finishing the troubles. The Viceroy, who feared that greater disasters might follow from the appearance of so many desperate characters in the streets of Soller, would grant the request only on the condition that Father Alvarez himself would go in person. The Rector commended with new earnestness his message of peace to his Community, and especially to St. Alonso, and started off.

On the arrival of Father Alvarez at Soller, the captain, with the head magistrate and one of the police, issued an order that the outlaws should come in at once; and they sent a number of men, to whom every path and fastness of the mountains were known, to bring them back. Some twenty of them, in fact, came in that very evening. They were reconciled to their foes; and, after having attended the instruction and sermon in the Church, they went to confession, and spent the whole night in preparation for Holy Communion. The following morning they approached the Holy Banquet. The Church was crowded,²³23The present church at Soller, though rebuilt on the old site, is of a later date than the one which was the scene of this reconciliation. and many wept with joy at such an unhoped-for end of the civil strife. After some time spent in thanksgiving, the persons who had taken part in the faction fights, more than one hundred in number, gathered in a ring in the centre of the church. In the middle of the circle were the captain, the magistrate, the town council, the parish priest and the clergy of the place, with the three Jesuit Fathers. Father Alvarez made an earnest exhortation to all, appealing to them not to go back from their word; and then the captain, in his own name and in that of the king, urged them to take the Father’s warning. After that the notary read aloud a formula of mutual forgiveness. The Father Rector and the other two Fathers gave to each in succession the kiss of peace, the two factions embraced, and the whole ended by a dinner, which was given by the very persons who had been injured, and who themselves waited on their foes of yesterday with hearty kindness.

Among those who had been despatched to bring in the outlaws was an old man, whose two sons had got into trouble and would have forfeited their lives had they been caught by the police. Their poor father was naturally anxious that they should profit by the pardon, so as to have them home again. He had penetrated a long distance into the woods without finding any trace of them. Night was coming on, and the wanderer felt his strength failing, not so much through fatigue, as through grief at the prospect of what he would lose in not finding his sons. He was forced, most unwillingly, to retrace his steps, when suddenly, a beautiful little child, who seemed to have come out from the thicket, asked him what he was looking for at so late an hour.

The poor peasant feared that the boy was a spy in the pay of the authorities to betray his sons into the hands of justice, and so he said that he was seeking for an ox of his, which had strayed. “No, you are not seeking for that,” the child replied, “but for your sons. See,” he said, pointing to an oak, “you will find them a little way from that tree to your right. I saw them there just this moment.” And then the child vanished. The old man’s simple faith told him that his benefactor was an angel. Full of courage he went forward, and to his intense joy found his sons. He recounted in as few words as possible about the mission, the pardon, and the angel to whom he owed their discovery.

At once they started off for Soller. It was very late when they arrived there. The Fathers had been hearing confessions and preaching up till ten at night, and had just finished their supper and were going to take their well-deserved rest. But they were so touched with the old man’s story, and his faith in the fact that an angel had appeared to him, that as soon as they had said their office they began to instruct the youths. Their long neglect and a life such as theirs made this no easy task. It was after midnight before the Fathers had finished hearing their confessions; and the priests had to be up long before dawn to prepare the men for their communion.

But all the Missioners’ labour was forgotten in joy at such a harvest. Their work was as lasting as it had been swift: and they and all felt that this miracle of grace was owing to the intercession of St. Alonso.

The late Rector of Montesion, Father Rico, had meantime been named Rector of the College of Urgel; and there, in 1605, he died. St. Alonso on hearing of his death prayed long and earnestly for him, when, to his astonishment, the Father appeared to him in the enjoyment of the Beatific Vision, his face glorious as the sun on a bright and beautiful dawn. From his body streamed rays of glory of the colour of the sun itself, like those seen around the pictures of Our Lady, while from his head still brighter beams poured forth. Our Saint learned that his former Rector had a higher place in Heaven than the lower grade of angels. Ever after that St. Alonso used to seek his aid in prayer, and whenever he turned to him the apparition was repeated, filling him with an ardent longing to go to him and to be with him for ever. He kept as a relic a letter which he possessed, signed by Father Rico. Some months later the Fathers of Urgel moved into a new College, and on taking up the body of their deceased Rector, they found it as incorrupt and flexible as if he had only just died.

Though our Saint was no longer the ordinary porter, he did not cease to exercise his Apostolate for souls. Peter Santacilia,²⁴24Memor., n. 45, 1605. a rich gentleman, had lost his wife while still young. His style of dress, however, showed plainly that his thoughts were on a second marriage. St. Alonso, who knew him, got into conversation with him, and, noticing his gay attire, said: “Did God deprive you of your wife for this?” as much as to say: “He has other designs about you.” Then he launched out, as was his wont, against the folly of the fleeting world, of its short-lived pleasures, and spoke of the terrors of Hell, and of the need there is to get ready for the hour when God will come to judge us. His words went deep into Don Peter’s heart. He made up his mind to become a priest. He changed his style of dress, and began to follow the College course, taking his place with the little boys in the lowest classes. But he studied with such success, that in 1609, he defended publicly theses on the whole of philosophy. When ordained, he used frequently to say mass in the college Church. He led a very holy life, and died the model of a good priest. He left to the Sacristy of Montesion some handsome vestments.

The event of 1605 was the arrival of a young Catalan religious, whose name will always be linked with that of St. Alonso. On November the 11th, four students landed at Palma: Antony Palau, who had come to finish his moral theology; John de Humanes, Gabriel Alegre, and St. Peter Claver, who were to study philosophy under Father Blaise Bailo. Claver, whose parents had sent him to the Jesuit College of Barcelona, had entered the new noviciate at Tarragona, after taking a brilliant degree at the University of Barcelona. Before he joined the Society he had been noted for his holiness, and now, at the age of twenty-five, gave still greater promise of marvellous sanctity. To go to Palma, there to meet the saintly old lay-Brother, whose fame was spread abroad through all the provinces of Spain, was a grace which St. Peter Claver prized more than if he had been sent for his studies to learned Alcalá or to Coimbra, or to the Roman College itself. The young Saint sought out the holy Brother at his first entry into the College: in their first embrace each learnt the treasure which he had gained in the acquaintance of the other, and St. Peter asked and obtained a general leave to speak with Alonso at a fixed time each day for a quarter of an hour on the affairs of his soul; nor could the humble old man refuse to accept the position of his spiritual guide, for God had by an interior voice ordered him to accept it. He received him, not as a pupil, but as an old and intimate friend. He delighted to pour out on such a thirsting and fruitful soil a portion of the wondrous abundance of heavenly gifts with which he was filled, while by example, and by words, full of wisdom, not earthly, but from above, he inflamed the heart of Claver, and led him swiftly higher and higher along the paths of divine love.

Not content with speaking to him of God, St. Alonso spoke earnestly of him to God, and the more he beheld the fruit of his prayers, the more earnest grew his demands. Our Blessed Lord manifested to him one day a beautiful vision. Rapt to Heaven, his angel guardian led the saintly lay-Brother to where, in a horizon glowing with the most brilliant light, he beheld the thrones of the elect arranged in order, as they appeared to the beloved disciple at Patmos. A majestic king was seated in each, save in one only, which, though more splendid and magnificent than the rest, was empty. Rodriguez was told that this one was prepared for his well-loved scholar, Claver, in reward for his virtues, his many labours, and for the countless souls which he was to gain in America. When the vision had departed, Alonso took care not to reveal it to Brother Peter. He told it, however, to his Confessor, to whom we owe the account. But, the revelation once made, St. Alonso paid a new reverence to the young student, and it added to his zeal in spurring on that noble soul to greater things.

Father Vincent de Arcaina,²⁵25He came to Majorca in December, 1604, and taught, in succession, grammar, philosophy and theology, at Montesion. one of the professors at the College, was standing one day at the door of the sacristy with St. Alonso, and he asked him, “Who are those two who are coming through the court-yard, about fifty paces off?” And on the Father telling him that they were Brothers Peter Claver and John de Humanes, he said, weighing well his words: “These Brothers will go to the Indies, and will reap great fruit for souls.” In fact, as St. Peter went to Cartagena, so Humanes devoted his life to the labours of the Mission of Paraguay. No thought of foreign missions had then entered St. Peter Claver’s head, who gave his whole mind to progress in piety and learning.

One day when Claver was going out for a walk with Brother Michael Serra, Alonso said to them “You are going to take a walk? Remember that on one side is Jesus, and on the other Mary.” The words struck the heart of the future apostle like a dart of flame.

On a similar occasion St. Peter was going out with another Brother, and the holy old man, who was at the moment in charge of the door, said, as he pointed to the heart of the holy Scholastic, “Here is the Father,” and pointing to his companion, “Here is the Son,” and then placing his hand between them: “Here is the Holy Ghost.” He had hardly uttered these last words than he went off into an ecstacy, and the mere mention of the Spirit of Love seemed to have transported them all. Brother Claver even fainted, but shortly after came to himself again, but he felt his heart so on fire, that he would gladly have returned home and given up his walk. It was only because he thought that he was bound by obedience to go out, that he begged God to lessen the flame, and so with a great effort he dragged himself along. All that day he was under the influence of this sacred impulse. His companion affirmed that he too had experienced what no words could express. One can imagine the power of our Saint over souls which drew near to him, if words so simple had such an effect.

Taught by God, Alonso directly urged St. Peter to ask for the American Mission, and to do so with such persistence that the young man wrote an earnest letter to his Provincial to beg for that post of danger and labour. The answer came that the matter would be considered when he returned to Barcelona, after his course of philosophy was finished. At the close of these studies, Claver maintained, with great success, a public thesis at Montesion.

The time at last came for Claver to leave Majorca and his friend. St. Alonso promised never to forget him in his prayers and penances, and he gave him some of his notes on religious subjects. Among these was a little book upon Religious Perfection,²⁶26This is probably the treatise published in his Obras Espirituales. penned by his own hand, which the holy Brother obtained special permission to give to him; for a strict rule had even then been made, in consequence of the continual requests for his writings, that none of them should leave the College. The scarcity of books in South America was considered a sufficient excuse for this exception.

In November, 1608, the two friends parted, and St. Peter went, with Brother John de Humanes and three novices, John Ballester, Anthony Gual, and Peter John Pons, to the bay of Soller and thence took ship for Tarragona.

In the same year as that in which Claver came to Majorca, Jerome Moranta,²⁷27V. p. 81. another spiritual child of St. Alonso, left his aged friend, and the island where he had been born, for a life of missionary labours to be crowned by a glorious death.

For when at length the request of this young religious was granted, he was sent back to Majorca to bid good-bye to his mother, and so was able to receive from the lips of his venerable guide some last instructions before embarking upon his Apostolate. By his conversations with St. Alonso, Father Jerome revived his fervour. Our Saint impressed upon him that the best outfit for his after life was mortification, humility, and a burning zeal for the salvation of his neighbour. Moranta carried away with him a portrait of our Saint, and he loved to show it wherever he went on his outward journey, and to tell of the marvels of his holiness. Even in Mexico, the bourne of his travels, Father Moranta spoke so constantly of the sanctity of Alonso that his memory was in veneration there for years after.

Brother Rodriguez, on his side, never forgot to assist Father Jerome by his prayers, and so fruitful were they that the Father won by his holiness of life the name of “The Saint,” by which he was known among his countrymen in Mexico. After a life of extraordinary toil, zeal, and austerities, he fell a victim to the fury of the Tepeguani Indians, who beat him to death with clubs, along with Father John Fonte, who was his intimate companion and, like himself, a living model of humility, of meekness, and of modesty. The body of Father Moranta was found by a detachment of Spanish troops three months after his martyrdom, lying stretched on the ground by the side of Father Fonte, with a hair shirt girt about him, and with a sermon for the Feast of Our Lady’s Presentation, which he had got ready to preach to the Christians on the very day after that on which he received his crown. For he died on the 19th of November, 1616, a little more than eleven months before his friend and spiritual Father, St. Alonso. The officer, Don Gaspar de Albear, who was in command of the expedition, threw himself on his knees and venerated the two bodies, which were perfectly incorrupt, and he then had them carried with reverence to the nearest residence of the Jesuit Missionaries.

In the January of 1606, Father Alvarez, after having been Rector for less than two years, was recalled to Spain, and left behind as his Vice-Rector Father John Torrens, the intimate friend and, for many years, the Confessor of our Saint.

This same year, at Easter-tide, William Moranta, another son of Doña Praxedes, after a short illness of three days, was in great danger. Father Torrens ordered our Saint to intercede for the youth; and Alonso prayed for him again and again, though from the beginning he knew that William would soon be gone. The answer came: “It is useless to persevere praying, for he is to die now.” And that very day he did die. God had found him ready, and, for the sake of the boy’s soul, He would not grant His servant’s prayer.

Whit-Monday was the great feast-day of the sodality of gentlemen at Montesion, and a solemn exposition of the Blessed Sacrament was going on in the Jesuit church.²⁸28In 1606. V. Memor., n. 53. St. Alonso was kneeling there and praying with great fervour. For some time before, God had in a wonderful degree given His Servant a deep sense and realization of the presence of Jesus Christ in the Holy Eucharist. Suddenly, in a new and ineffable way, Our Blessed Lord manifested Himself to our Saint as in a flash of lightning; and, though it went as swiftly as it came, it left his soul so full that he thought he must have died of love, and he felt that if men could, by God’s favour, in any wise realise this great mystery, it would require a special exercise of God’s power to hinder them from being killed with excess of love. In the midst of these favours Alonso, from the depth of his heart, cried to God to save him from any delusion of the enemy, which his humility ever made him fear, even in such a gift as this.

He was most anxious, if there was any snare, to be undeceived; nor did he desire anything save the service and the love of his God. But his Blessed Lord and Our Lady appeared to him, and Mary said, “Why do you not believe my Son?” Jesus at once consoled His Servant, and assured him, “This fear is pleasing to Me;” and added, “Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk—thou shalt trample on the lion and the dragon.” He promised to give him power over the devils, and to protect him, and He bade the accompanying angels intone “In manibus portabunt Te, ne forte offendas ad lapidem pedem tuum.”²⁹29St. Alonso says simply that Our Blessed Lord Himself pronounced these words. Janin and Colin say the angels sang the verse and the rest of the Psalm, as in the text. The vision then disappeared.

From 1594, the Octave of Corpus Christi, so great a festival in Spain, was kept in the Jesuit Church of Majorca by solemn exposition of the Blessed Sacrament. There was magnificent music and great crowds of people came, especially in the evenings, when there was a sermon. During that holy time, more than once St. Alonso found his soul so rapt in the presence of his Lord, and so filled with deep sense of humility at the thought of something so evil, as he felt himself to be, before a God so good, that in the light of God’s nearness, and through the sweetness and consolation which it brought to him, he was lost to all around, and the loud music seemed to him but faint and in the far distance. He could not use his tongue; nor could he form a word, even in his mind. His heart alone could speak, so much inflamed was he with love. His soul seemed to be carried within the veil of the tabernacle, so that he was alone with his Lord, save Our Lady and a throng of angelic courtiers and blessed spirits innumerable, with whose glory he shared in an indescribable manner.

It was not until the 4th of February, in 1607, that Father Torrens was installed as Rector of Montesion. He attributed to our holy Brother’s intercession two great favours which he obtained. The first was that, though he had been so constantly unwell as to be unable to follow the Community duties, which, especially when Superior, was a great trial to him, on asking Alonso to pray for him, he so far recovered as never to miss a single duty. The second favour was that just before a Lent which he was going to preach, he was attacked with a sharp fever, accompanied by violent headache. He knew by experience that this would last for a long time, and another person was about to be appointed to take his place in his pulpit. Alonso was himself, at the time, so poorly as to be confined to his room. He noticed that the infirmarian was in trouble, and that the Rector had given up coming to see him, and so he asked how the Father was. The infirmarian told him that the Rector was very poorly, and that there had been a talk of his being bled that night, although it was so late, for they were afraid that he would get worse; but that it had been put off till next morning.

This was sad news for Alonso, for he loved the Rector very much, not merely because he was his Superior, but because he had been for some time his Spiritual Father. As soon, then, as he heard there was any danger, he prayed very earnestly for him. He had only just begun to do so when the Rector fell off into a quiet sleep, which lasted for a long time, and when at length Father Torrens woke up, all signs of fever and headache, strange to say, had left him. The doctor, when he came in the morning to see him, was amazed at the complete change for the better. Still, as the Father had always been delicate, he thought it best that he should stay in bed. However, the Rector was so convinced that he had recovered by no human means, that he got up promptly, said his Mass, and not only preached during the forty hours’ exposition for the Carnival, but all throughout the Lent, besides doing a quantity of work with a strength and courage quite new to him.

A somewhat similar favour was granted to a minor canon of the Cathedral, Amado Bestard. He was suffering from a painful asthma, with feverish symptoms. He had tried all sorts of remedies without effect. Such was his faith in the holiness of St. Alonso, that he begged his brother, then a minor canon like himself, and who afterwards became a Jesuit, to get him something which had belonged to our Saint, feeling confident that it would work a cure. His brother obtained for him a nightcap, which Alonso had worn. Amado put this on with great devotion, and at the same time promised to say a Mass of thanksgiving in the Jesuit Church if he got better. That night he slept so soundly, without any coughing or restlessness, that his mother and brother feared that he was dead. They got up, went to him and awakened him. He assured them he was cured; he even asked for his clothes, rose at once, and went, both that day and the next, to say Mass at Montesion, though till that time he was hardly able to walk.

On another occasion, a great feast day, Father Torrens, who had promised to preach, found himself unprepared. He sought the aid of St. Alonso, and, on our Saint’s praying for his friend, Our Lady told him to have no fear about the sermon. Father Torrens went into the pulpit, and preached with such fervour and zeal that he seemed transported out of himself, and his very voice, his gestures, his expression and ideas seemed to have come to him from above. And God blessed his discourse with great fruit.

On February 3rd, 1607, the Rector of the College of Barcelona, the saintly Father Peter Gil, arrived at the College on a Visitation in place of the then Provincial, Ferdinand Ponce de Leon. The Visitation ended on Palm Sunday, April 8th. Among others who were received by Father Gil into the Society was a lay-Brother novice called James Marí. St. Alonso was practically Novice Master of Montesion, for his Superiors had such confidence in him, that they felt no one could be a safer or more skilled guide in spiritual life than the humble Brother, whose soul was flooded with practical and even infused knowledge of the highest religious perfection.

To him Marí had opened all the secrets of his soul, and a close spiritual friendship had grown up between them. The new novice, however, grew weary of the effort at recollection, and of the endeavour to follow the high counsels and to imitate the example of the Saint. He began to grow careless, and to give ear to the suggestions of his enemy. Religious life became irksome to him, and he even wavered in his vocation. All that his Superiors could do to make him enter into himself proved of no avail. They tried to show him, but in vain, that it was a palpable deceit of the devil. James obstinately determined to abandon his call. He even went to bid good-bye to the Father Rector, who fruitlessly lamented his blindness and folly.

As Marí was leaving the Superior’s room, he met St. Alonso and told him that he had made up his mind to go. Our Saint pitied him so deeply that at once he turned with great fervour to Our Blessed Lady, commending to her this his trouble. In answer to his prayer, she assured him that James would not go. Still he continued to pray as before, fearing possibly some deceit of the devil; and again he received the same reply. And when a third time he insisted, he was told from Heaven: “This is the third time I have told you that he will not go.”

And so it was. He had hardly heard the last answer than Marí came back to him, with his mind completely changed, and owned frankly that he now saw clearly the peril which he ran. Our Saint advised him to go and tell all to the Rector. He went, as he was advised, threw himself upon his knees before his Superior, and with an abundance of tears, and humbly acknowledging his error, begged his pardon. The Rector called the Fathers together, and again in their presence Brother Marí told his fault, protesting from his heart, that from henceforth he would place himself in the Father’s hands to do with him whatever he chose. He rose up fully determined to persevere in his vocation, with God’s help.

In face of the repugnance which St. Alonso felt in writing down the graces he received, there came to him, in reward for his obedience, while engaged in this distasteful task during the November of 1607, marvellous expressions of gratitude from his Heavenly Lord. He felt deeply consoled on seeing, too, that by these manifestations of his inmost soul he was saved from the terrible danger of delusions, which would have otherwise been his lot.

Sometimes while writing, his pen would not mark—thanks no doubt to its being worn out, owing to his love of holy poverty—and he felt moved to impatience; but he conquered the temptation by a good laugh, and so got the better of his rising anger by the weapon of ridicule.

In the June of this year, Father Ignatius Blanch had come to Majorca to preach in the Church of Montesion. Not only had he a great talent for the pulpit, but he was a very learned man, and his sermons drew large audiences, while the increased number of confessions proved their real success. The next year, 1608, Father Blanch preached in the Cathedral, while Father Melchior Miralles,³⁰30He was a native of Majorca and entered the Society in 1591. with Father Arcaina, then professor of philosophy, went as his companion, to preach at the large town of Inca. Before commencing their labours they asked the prayers of St. Alonso. He had a foreknowledge of the rich harvest they were to reap, and the great edification which their holiness would give. But with regard to Father Blanch, it was specially shown to our Saint what fruit his learning and talents would produce, if joined to holiness and humility; and how in thus doing good to himself, he would do good to others, and would in this way seek, not display, but the solid advantage of souls and the glory of God. The very powers which God had given him laid the Father under great obligations to progress more and more in humility and in every other virtue, as the surest way to do most for God and for his neighbour. The Rector, to whom St. Alonso made all this known, bade him tell Father Blanch, who received the warning with great thankfulness.

Next day the Father began his sermons, and when Alonso thought that Father Blanch would be in the midst of his sermon, our Saint, moved by God, began to recommend him to Jesus and to His Blessed Mother, and as his fervour increased, the result of this appeared in the ardour which was communicated to the preacher and in the good done to his hearers.

Next year, 1609, Father Blanch preached the Lent at Montesion, while Father Miralles was engaged at the fine old parish church of St. James in Palma. Again they commended their work to our Saint’s prayers. He placed their petitions before Our Lady, and he then saw the two Fathers kneeling at her side, while she was stretching out her hands over them. At the beginning, however, of Lent, Father Blanch³¹31Father Janin relates this fact about Father Miralles; but Marimon and Colin both refer it to Father Blanch. found himself unable to preach on account of a severe cold on his chest. He sought the Brother’s prayers, and Alonso once more turned to his Queen. Three times he heard her say to him, “Alonso, I have him under my charge, and I will help him, as I have promised.” And so it fell out, for, the moment he mounted the pulpit, the preacher regained his strength and voice, though he was scarcely able to speak during the day; and though, on the days when for any reason there happened to be no sermon, he felt himself overcome with fatigue.

Many years after, Father Blanch was attacked by the same complaint, which utterly incapacitated him. He was then a long way from Majorca; but no sooner had St. Alonso heard of his illness, than he earnestly begged God to cure him. As he prayed he felt an extraordinary joy come over him, which was finally explained when, later on, he received a letter telling him that the Father was quite well again, or rather that, though still suffering as before from his cold, no matter how often he preached, he was not in the least inconvenienced by it.

Our Saint obtained for him also from our Lady a fresh lease of life. These five years Father Blanch spent in preaching, whose success was owing to continual mortification and fervent prayer. Often when kneeling in one of the tribunes of the Church, he wept so profusely that for fear of his tears being seen on the pavement, he used to catch them in his cloak. His love of Our Lady showed conspicuously among his other virtues. He forestalled the devotion of B. Grignon de Montfort, and, to mark himself as a slave of his heavenly Mother, he always wore a chain fastened to his legs, and it was found upon him after death.

On another occasion, about this time, Father Matthew Reguer and Father Ignatius Blanch were giving a mission in Sineu, a town of some importance of Majorca. Faction and its attendant furies had so hardened the hearts of many of its inhabitants, that, in spite of the great talents of one of the missioners,³²32This was, apparently, Father Ignatius, v. p. 121. and the wonderful influence he usually exerted, little or no fruit was produced. The Father wrote to the Rector to inform him of his want of success, begging especially for the prayers of St. Alonso. The Superior at once ordered prayers in the Community, and they all prayed with great fervour. But Alonso, to whom the matter had been specially commended, stormed Heaven and begged the Blessed Virgin to obtain what was desired. He prayed early and late, and for many days, till at last Our Lady appeared to him. “My son, Alonso, all will go right, for love of you,” was her reply, and she showed him in spirit both the reconciliation, which was so soon to take place at Sineu, and the messenger who was being sent with the good news. For our holy Brother had written to the missioners, saying in a few words how important it was for those men to cease their feuds, and to settle their account with God. One of the Fathers took the letter into the pulpit and read it out to the people, and at once even the most stubborn gave in, and he was able to make peace all round and to bring his work to a most happy conclusion. He sent off word to his Superior at Montesion.

Meanwhile Alonso had gone to the Rector, and given him the very words of Our Lady, which our Saint had written down. Rodriguez told, also, what he had seen. As it was a journey of about six hours, the messenger from Sineu ought to have reached Palma before nightfall. No one, however, came, either that evening or even the day after. As no news arrived, the Rector began to doubt the truth of the story. He was not left long in his incredulity, for the messenger came on the third day, and explained his delay by the fact that he had been detained on some business when returning home.³³33Father Blanch arrived in Majorca in 1607, and Father Reguer left in 1610, this mission, therefore, must have taken place between these two dates.

About this time St. Alonso fell ill of a serious cold with a great deal of fever, terrible headaches and a continual cough, which prevented him sleeping either night or day. During one of these sleepless nights, he was offering up, as he always did in time of suffering and trouble, his pain and accepting it as a precious gift from the hands of God. In spite of this, there came over him a profound sadness, the shadow of approaching darkness, the forerunner of the ever-watchful enemy. Our sufferer raised his heart to God, and sought to shake off from his soul the load of sorrow, when all at once he saw around him a number of demons, whose very sight was a torture to his soul. Under the form of monsters, they leapt upon him, they seized him by the throat and tried to strangle him; some of them bit him like hungry wolves, while others struck him violently; and all the while, in a blasphemous chorus, they mocked and jeered at him, and with loud and scornful laughter cried out, “Where now is your Mary?” the familiar title of Our Lady which was so often on the lips of St. Alonso. But his Heavenly Queen came swiftly to the aid of her suffering servant, and the brightness of her countenance drove away his persecutors. This apparition not only delivered him from the demons, but freed him entirely from his illness.

But a fresh and terrible temptation now came upon him; or, rather, the old troubles of his past life revived, in the shape of a practical difficulty about the great mystery of Predestination. It fastened upon his imagination, and the reasons suggested by the devil appeared to him unanswerable. The Saint took refuge in his profound humility; he looked upon himself as a simpleton, uneducated and ignorant, and without pretending to answer the sophisms of his adversary, cast himself, like a helpless child, at the feet of Jesus and Mary. “I care not to know anything else,” he exclaimed, “but that my God is goodness justice and holiness itself.” The shafts of the fiend fell harmlessly around him. His old fears, too, of being expelled the Society, which had plagued him for so many years, came back upon him. Terrible doubts came over him lest he might be the sport of the father of lies, and lest all the marvels of his life should have been mere deceits; and, added to all this, he realized vividly the tortures and the eternity of hell, and the ruin that comes upon a soul when condemned for ever to be deprived of the sight of God.

For ten years, as has been said, there had been before his mind a clear vision of the horrors of death,³⁴34Memor., n. 51. and in 1606, the year before that of which we are speaking, God changed this into an impression p. 125“which seems almost the contrary, by establishing him in a perfect confidence in His majesty, and an utter distrust of himself and of every creature. In this state he no longer feared death, which before had terrified him; he no longer feared hell, because he seemed to know for certain that God made him sure both of His grace and glory.” Then it was that our Lord gave him the knowledge of the terrors of eternal punishment and let loose upon him the temptations just described. But the certainty that he had of his salvation, turned this knowledge rather to a means of helping others, than a cause of trouble to himself. His heart was pierced with compassion at the sight of so many men, women and children, created to the image and likeness of God, who had been called and invited to the banquet of eternal life, selling themselves out of mere folly to the devil; freely, and of their own accord, going down to the eternal torments of hell.

He used very often to say “So great is the punishment in the next life of even the smallest sin, that if God our Lord were to open the eyes of the soul to catch but a glimpse of His justice, no one would dare, for all the world could give, to commit such a fault.”

“So too,” he would affirm, “were God, by His heavenly light, to give men some idea of the terrible severity which they will experience before the Judgment Seat of God, it would not be possible for them to laugh and make merry; remembering all the while that it was possible, nay, very possible and probable that they might lose their souls.”

For himself, also, the memory of these torments made every other suffering sweet. When in his old age, his Superiors ordered him to have a fire; but never before had he drawn near to one. No one ever heard him complain of the extremes of heat or cold. If anyone chanced to say, “Brother, what do you think of this heat?” “Ah!” he replied, “there is heat in Hell, and even the holy souls suffer from it in Purgatory.” And if anyone complained to Alonso of the severity of the winter, “Those dear souls,” he would say, “they suffer cold indeed; let us mortify ourselves here, that, by God’s mercy and grace, we may not go there.”³⁵35Breve Relacion.

And so, too, when they asked him how he was, he would answer, “All right, for I am not in hell.”

But perhaps the most terrible temptation was one which God allowed to fall upon him at this time and which continued for so many years. As with new fervour and more complete sacrifice of self, St. Alonso went upwards on the path of perfection, a voice, as from within, jeered at his efforts and said:—

“Yes, you will gain the perfection after which you are striving, but it will only be for your greater harm; for you will fall from those heights, and your fall will be a scandal to the whole world.”

Although it was not difficult for our holy Brother to recognise the Evil Spirit in these words, still the long continuance of this voice could not fail to be a source of spiritual trouble and pain. “And, turning to our Lady, like an infant to its mother, for comfort in the trial, she consoled him, saying: ‘Where I am you have nothing to fear.’ The Blessed Virgin showed him, by her words and by her actions, that she loved him very much; and he, in return, loved her as tenderly as possible, and when our Lady manifested to him intellectually, and not in the imagination, that she loved him so deeply, he said to her very face, ‘Who can tell the extreme shame which should mount to his brow, and which he should feel in his heart, at seeing that this Lady is pleased to make so much of, to love, to honour, to protect, to instruct so vile and so evil a creature?’ This shame was so great that he needed to be consoled at seeing himself honoured by so great a Lady, when all the while he knew that he deserved, instead of honour, the punishment of Hell. Oftentimes the Blessed Virgin called him by his name, and spoke to him as ‘my son,’ and sometimes by his Christian name, when she would teach him, and encourage him, and console him, and offer him her aid.”³⁶36Memor., n. 88.

On the 6th of May, 1608, St. Alonso was ill, and he sent the infirmarian to Father Torrens—who relates these facts—to ask his Rector’s leave to perform his usual devotions. The answer was that it was quite enough for him to say his beads. As his great devotion was mental prayer, or, as he called it, the presence of God, our Saint considered himself bound to turn his mind from it. In spite of all his efforts he could not succeed; yet he struggled as hard to keep Our Lord out of his memory as other good people have to labour to keep Him in mind. Midnight came and went, and he turned lovingly to his Lord: “My God,” he exclaimed, “I do not wish for Thy presence, because I desire to please Thee; and obedience, which is Thy word, seems to forbid such a wish.” So saying, he began to recite his rosary, and when he had finished, he fell into a deep slumber, and slept for three or four hours, a sleep so quiet and restful as he never remembered to have enjoyed before. Yet all the while he was in God’s presence and in most exalted mental prayer. This he told Father Torrens the following morning.³⁷37MS. Montesion, quoted by Nonell, Obras Espirit., T. I., p. 137.

On the night of All Saints, this year, 1608, while in bed, he found himself in spirit kneeling in the Church before the Tabernacle, just as he was accustomed to do when going to Holy Communion. There he was rapt in ecstasy, and in this rapture he was visited by Jesus and Mary, who filled his heart with wondrous consolation. Two or three times he came a little to himself, and he saw a young child with a little wand, who came up to him and said, “Sursum corda!” But so absorbed was he in the love of Jesus and Mary that nothing could distract his heart from his close union with God.