The Porter at his Post

During the time of the terrible trials of St. Alonso, Father Borrasá’s term of office had come to an end, and Father Coch, who had been Procurator of his Province at the Triennial Meeting in Rome, was, by the Father General Everard Mercurian, made Rector for a second time, in 1576.¹1In 1578 the Venerable Father Balthazar Alvarez was sent as visitor to the Province of Aragon. To him the Province owed its affection for the golden book of the “Imitation” or as it was then called “Contemptus Mundi.” He had embarked on board a vessel to go to Majorca, but he suffered so much from the sea that he became insensible and had to be put on shore again. A large portion of the nave of the College church, with its side chapels, four at each side, was completed that year, and was blessed by the new Bishop, John Vique y Manrique, on the eve of Trinity Sunday.²2Don John Vique y Manrique was chosen Bishop in 1573 and entered Palma on October 4, 1574. He preached the following day. The change in our Saint’s looks under the pressure of his awful nightly struggles no doubt had attracted the attention of his superiors, and it was thought well to give him the busy post of door-keeper or hall porter, so as to keep him actively employed, and thus distract his mind from his mental troubles. Perhaps the appointment was made by Father Coch, perhaps by his successor, Father John Poggio, a Sardinian, who was made Rector in 1580, about which time at all events Alonso entered on the new office, which he was to hold for so many long years.

The newly-opened church, the greatly increased number of students, the consequent enlargements of the College buildings, all made the charge of porter more onerous and more important than before. In 1581 the Community numbered, in Fathers and Brothers, some twenty; and it went on, with some slight variation, becoming more and more numerous, until in some twenty-five years it more than doubled.³3V. Litt. Ann. Prov. Aragon, passim.

The office which was allotted to St. Alonso is never an easy post in a Jesuit college. Besides the numbers of day scholars, there were, as at the Presbyteries in our large towns, a constant succession of old and young, rich and poor, coming to the Fathers for advice, for relief, with sick calls, and not unfrequently severely trying the temper and patience of the door-keeper. Yet, by the evidence of numbers of witnesses, we learn that during the twenty or more years that Alonso held this post at Montesion, he never betrayed any signs of annoyance, no matter what he had to bear. Once he had chanced inadvertently to lock up a workman in the church. The man began to hammer loudly at the door; when Alonso opened it, the artisan stormed at the Brother; but he met this abuse with a gentle smile, so that the man as he went away, by the colonnade round the court, said to some of the Fathers, who had seen what had happened, “That Brother is not a man, he is an Angel.” And this was no solitary instance, for whenever people grew impatient and roundly abused him for keeping them waiting at the door, he always met their anger with such silent sweetness that they grew calm at once. Boys often rang the bell and then ran away, and when they looked back from their hiding places, they always noticed that when he opened the door, instead of being cross he only laughed. Father Burguera, a Franciscan, who when a boy used to go to school at Montesion, says, that in spite of the annoyances caused to the good porter, he always was the same, with great modesty of bearing and conquest of self. And his very looks as he went along, so quietly and gravely, wrapt in God, to open or shut the gate, impressed the boy deeply, for it told him that Alonso’s soul was all the time communing with God.

It happened very often, when he had gone in search of one of the Community upon whom some visitor had called, that, before he had reached the room of the person he was in search of, there was a fresh ring at the door-bell. At once he hastened to answer it, and then returned on his former errand, perhaps only to be called back a second time to the door. So, at length, his superior, to save his steps and to obviate the delay, marked down definitely the distances within which he was to return, or not to return before delivering the message which he had first received. We can learn the secret at once of his patience and of his promptness to answer the bell, in the Saint’s Memorial.⁴4n. 159. It was the passion—the leading passion of his soul—of answering in all things to the will of God—which made him recognise in each ring of the bell, as indeed his rules told him, the voice of His Lord.

“1. As soon as ever the bell rang, he raised his heart to God and said to Him, ‘Lord, I must open the door to Thee, for love of Thee,’ and then he opened it.

2. Another practice of his, when he heard the door bell, was to make acts of joy in his heart, as if he were going to open the door to His God, as if God himself had rung the bell, saying, as he went, ‘I am coming, my Lord.’

3. A third practice was interior mortification; for when anyone rang violently, or in a hurry, though he felt some natural irritation rise in his breast, he stoutly repressed it, and calmed himself so thoroughly that no annoyance was left. This is a very profitable self-denial, since unless we practise it we can make no progress; for we must do violence to ourselves in God’s sight; and one gets great good from this self-denial. * * * * Thus when he (Alonso) reached the door he was quite calm, and opened it as if the bell had only been rung once, and that quite gently. Very often he was exceedingly exhausted, and found it a great trouble to get about, still in his soul he enjoyed a wondrous repose.

4. His fourth point and practice was, that as he had so deeply rooted a habit of opening the door as if to Our Blessed Lord, he attained to the privilege of finding himself in an instant in converse with Him, for whose sake he was acting. And just as when someone arrives whom we expect, we receive him with much delight and joy, so, as he never thought of anyone but of God, it many times happened to him, though without any previous thought of such a thing, that he actually saw Our Lord arrive accompanied by Our Lady and by Choirs of Angels.

Moreover, when he went to seek any Father or Brother in the house, although he had to hunt for them, when at last he did find them, he always spoke just as if he had not been obliged to seek for them, but had found them straight away, and so he gave his message.”

Father Colin quotes some of his resolutions on the same subject which were found written out by the Saint. “When summoned to the gate, act as though your God was coming in; open the door for Him, and receive Him. And if you are sent with a message, act as though it is God, not man, that sends you; and as it is God’s business you will despatch it at once with all the joy and affection so good a Lord deserves, always inclining your will to His. When you have taken the message and are returning with the answer, consider that you are coming back to your God with all possible joy and love, and fix the eyes of your soul on God, as if you were speaking to Him, and not to man, and in this way you must deliver the answer. And if anyone wants to go out, you must consider that you are opening the gate to your God, Who wants to go out, and not to man. And with this feeling, joined with great signs of charity and in all humility, open the gate and so let him depart.”⁵5Vida de San Alonso, f. 14.

Spite of the constant calls on his time, whenever he was free St. Alonso retired into some quiet corner to say his beads, or to pray in some other way, or to read a pious book; nor did he ever avail himself of the many occasions that presented themselves for a chat, unless charity and the good of souls required it of him. In the Porteria, or entrance passage, there was a touching full length picture of our Blessed Lord tied to the pillar, seamed with wounds and blood, a subject of very popular devotion in Spain; and often was he to be seen praying with outstretched arms or clasped hands and in tears before this favourite subject. The picture is still preserved at Montesion. Father Costurer tells us that in 1627 it was kept with great reverence in the Rector’s Room, for it was said that it had spoken to the holy Brother, and that light had been seen to stream from his eyes as he prayed before it. A parish priest of Palma saw him pass a whole hour and more gazing on it without once moving. Near to the Porteria there was a little room with a great wooden cross, to the foot of which our Saint loved to betake himself, till called away by obedience.⁶6V. Summ. Elench. p. 117, passim. And those who were going out used often to surprise him wrapt in prayer. Whenever he passed before “Christ at the pillar,” or before this cross, or the picture of the Immaculate Conception, which was in the same room, he bowed down profoundly in sign of reverence.

Saint Alonso’s favourite spot was a door which opened out from the Porteria to the church. During the alterations it was blocked up, but a little opening was left by which he could see the tabernacle, and through which he loved to send his ardent aspirations to his Sacramented God.⁷7The topography of the college is difficult to make out, as so many changes took place even during our Saint’s life, and many since his time in its various parts. V. Month, Dec. 1888.

Father Garau, who, before his entry into the Society in 1587, had been a scholar at Montesion, and was professor of Divinity at Montesion in 1613 and for many years, and afterwards in the Jesuit College of Barcelona, wrote in 1618 an account of what he remembered of our Saint.⁸8When Father Marimon sent his MS. life to various colleges of the Society soliciting additional facts from those who had known the Saint, this letter of Father Garau is one of the many answers to his appeal. “He seemed always wrapt in prayer, and, when not called off by the bell, he was ever on his knees. Once I recollect being at a late hour in a wooden confessional in our porteria, at the back of which was Brother Rodriguez’s room. The brother imagined that he was alone, and, with his arms stretched out like a cross, heaved such deep and fervent sighs, that I put my head out of the box, and I saw that he was in a rapture. His exterior was always so mortified and he was so thin that the secular students called him Brother Death’s-Head.”

“The modest guard over his eyes as he went through the streets or about the house was most remarkable. If, on opening the wicket of the porteria, he saw that it was a woman who was at the door, it was quite noticeable how quickly he turned away his eyes, lest he should look at her. I noticed this myself several times when I happened to be present. I also heard him discourse very devoutly and thoughtfully of Our Lord, sometimes at meetings of the Sodality of students, and at other times when speaking to people in private. And I noticed that a number of the first gentlemen of the island used to come to our college simply to hear him talk about Our Lord, and they would ask his Superiors to relieve him for a while of the keys, that they might the longer enjoy his holy conversation. As he always kept silence so strictly, or spoke only on God and necessary matters, in spite of his being so long at the College of Majorca, and almost all the time there as porter, he learned only a very few words in Majorcan,⁹9Majorcan is a Provençal language, akin to Catalan and Valencian, and widely different from Castilian or pure Spanish. such as, ‘Que voleu?’ ‘What do you want?’ and others which were absolutely necessary for his office.”

“He was so punctual in everything that was ordered him to do, that even if he were charged to do something from one end of the year to the other, he was most exact in remembering to carry it out. Because he was porter he had to ring the bell for the beginning and the end of schools, and it was a fact which everyone noticed that he never failed to ring just at the last stroke of the clock. When I was in my first probation,¹⁰10Father Garau was received as a Novice on Aug. 31st, 1587. Hist. Montesion, MS. in a separate room of the house, one evening I was in great pain, and as I knew that Brother Rodriguez was going by, I called out to him. He pretended not to hear, but went off at once to ask leave,¹¹11The first probation in the Society of Jesus is that which is passed through by a postulant, during which, by rule, none of the house can speak with him, without leave of the Superiors. and came back with great kindness to request if he could be of any assistance to me, and he then explained that the reason why he had not replied to me before, was because I was in my first probation.”

“In conclusion, I have always heard from a great many Fathers that, for the space of more than 40 years in which they lived with the Brother, and though they noticed most carefully all he did, they never could perceive in him anything which was a fault or even an imperfection.”¹²12MS. Resid. S. J., Majorca.

It was plain to everyone who saw him that his mind was continually with God. In 1604 he gave a description of the three grades of this Presence of God, to some of which he had certainly attained at the time of which we are speaking. “The first is by means of the memory, always taking the greatest care to do nothing displeasing to God. He felt that God was always looking at him, and he walked before Him with a great desire to please Him, and with a great contempt for all that did not unite him to God. This interior presence of God,” he said, “is generally so great that it was impossible for him to forget it, and he never failed to remember that this Sovereign Lord was within him.”

“The second is by means of the understanding. The soul knows, without any exercise of its reasoning powers, for it has passed beyond the grade which requires their use, how God is in him; and by this knowledge, the soul comes to feel His presence within it. This mode of communicating Himself to the soul is a pure favour of God; nor does this feeling come through the imagination, but it is a spiritual certainty by which the soul feels that God is within the soul and everywhere. This presence of God is called intellectual. It commonly lasts for a long time, and the more a soul advances in God’s service, the more continual is this presence and the more it makes itself felt, so much the more does God communicate Himself to the soul, provided only that it disposes itself by much self-conquest. The pleasure which God takes in seeing us walking with Him is so great, that, should it chance that the soul, for good reasons, should be engrossed in some necessary occupation, it is wonderful to see how, without any trouble on its part, it feels God present within it, and how this makes up for any want of attention. It actually feels confused at the care which God takes that it should not stray from Him. Oftentimes,” St. Alonso goes on to say, “without his thinking of it, or seeking it, His Lord has in a sensible manner stood before him, just as if a man were to come in front of another, who had not noticed his approach.”¹³13Memor., n. 40.

About eight or ten years after his arrival in Majorca, 1579–1581, God lifted him to union so close that our Saint compares it to that which exists between iron and the fire into which it is put. “In the same way, when our Lord places the soul within His Heart, all is on fire with charity, It inflames it with Its love; and by the immense love which is given to it, through the communication of Christ and of His grace, the soul is made like, united to and transformed into Him. And this presence of Christ our Lord within him is so real, that he (Alonso) went about the streets so absorbed in Christ crucified, that the people who passed by seemed to him like shadows.”¹⁴14Memor., n. 4.

Some time before St. Alonso had been appointed porter, and during Father Coch’s second term of office as Rector of Montesion (1576–1579), Father Aguirre¹⁵15He was a native of Oropesa, in the Province of Toledo, and, on the death of his wife, had entered the Society in 1560., who had come to Majorca in 1568, and was a professor and for some years prefect of studies in the college, started an interesting question during a spiritual conference. This was whether it was possible for anyone to remain continually in the presence of God. After several of the community had given their opinions, the rector said that to keep in God’s presence absolutely, without any break, was within the power of angels, but not of men. For, what with the enemy of our souls and external objects, distractions were practically a necessity. The most one could do was to refer to God all our actions by frequently purifying our intention, and in fact this has a right to be called perpetual union with Him. However, Father Aguirre was not completely satisfied with this reply; and, as he often consulted our Saint on spiritual matters, he asked him afterwards what he thought of the Rector’s solution. With great simplicity the holy brother replied, “To say that one cannot always keep in the presence of God is true, if we look merely at the power of man; but with the Divine assistance and grace I say that it is not merely possible, but sweet and easy.”

“Let us appeal to experience,” said Father Aguirre. “Tell me, from your own life, are you always in the presence of God, or how long are you absent from it in the course of a day?”

Alonso reflected for a while, and then, as he judged that it was for God’s glory to disclose to one with whom he was on such intimate terms the whole truth, he smiled sweetly and said, “It seems to me for the space of a ‘Credo’ or so.”

This he confirmed afterwards when manifesting, according to rule, his interior to his superior; and, he added, that even when talking with others he did not lose sight of God. And this was in the early days of his religious life, when but on the threshold of those mysterious heights up to which God was to call him.

For a still more wonderful and more perfect way was to be his, when the holy brother, freed by age and infirmities from the distractions of office, was able to give his whole time to God.¹⁶16Colin, l. III., xiv.

From this intimate union with God flowed out necessarily an ardent zeal for souls. St. Ignatius, in the opening of his Rule, clearly shows that all and every one of his children are bound to be fishers of men, each in his own sphere, and under the orders of obedience; and to the lay brothers specially is enjoined—what is laid upon all—that they are to lead others to God by words in season, springing from a heart full of Divine Love, and which derive their power and efficacy from that love.¹⁷17Reg. Coadj. Temp., r. 9.

Thus the Porteria of Montesion became a centre of salvation and sanctification for the many who passed that way. And as years went by, and St. Alonso was more known, and as he came to know a greater number of people, as he advanced, too, in holiness, and as old age caused his superiors to relieve him of external work, so did his apostolate increase. And few, if any, were in the habit of passing through the college gate, who by word or by the silent eloquence of his visible holiness, he did not help on towards God. Some of the first families in Majorca begged to be allowed to send their children to St. Alonso to learn from him, as he had learned from B. Favre, the elements of religion, and sometimes with this, the rudiments of learning. His practice as tutor at Valencia made him eminently successful in this work.

When the Sodality of the students, which had been commenced in the college as early as 1570, as soon as the classes of grammar were opened, had, in 1586, been aggregated to the “Prima Primaria¹⁸18The central Sodality or Congregation of Our Blessed Lady at Rome. The Sodality of Majorca was the first that was established in the Province S.J. of Aragon, and thanks to the zeal of Father Bernard Crespin, of a devoted scholastic, John Encontra, and of our Saint, it flourished most wonderfully. The chapel of the Sodality is a large building with some architectural pretentions, opening out on the court of the schools at Montesion.” of the Roman College, St. Alonso worked hard to get the scholars to join. Nor did he work less hard to keep them up to their engagements when once received. He used to delight to get a number of them together in the room of the porteria, and to read some spiritual book to them, or talk to them earnestly, encouraging them to obedience and hard work, to avoid bad companions, and to be especially devout to Our Immaculate Mother. He used to teach them how to say the Rosary, and suggest ways of making their confessions and communions with fruit.

When he came across any who showed special aptitude, or who were anxious for higher things, our Saint would teach them how to make their daily examination of conscience, and how to meditate. He would urge those who had not joined, to enter the Sodality, by showing what a great help it would be to them, what interest Our Lady took in all who thus enrolled themselves under Her banner, and how She protected them both in soul and body. The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception was a form of prayer he specially recommended.

He used to write out for the Sodalists, who were his special care, spiritual advice adapted to the intelligence and to the capacity of each. Numbers of these young men afterwards entered religious life, and their Novice Masters always recognised the hand that had formed them in the solidity and earnestness which they showed. Many instances of such vocations will occur in their proper place.

Father Aguirre, who was nervous and scrupulous, chanced one day about this time,¹⁹19St. Alonso, in his Memorial, n. 11, writing in 1604, says this happened more than 20 years before; another MS. says 25 years, so that it was about 1579–84. when giving communion and while St. Alonso was serving his mass, to let fall a consecrated particle. This, though a pure accident, caused the Father the greatest anguish. Some days after our Saint was again serving his mass in the private chapel of the college. The Father was still in great trouble, when the holy Brother, all of a sudden, in the course of the sacred mysteries, saw our Divine Lord tenderly embracing the good priest and kissing him on the face. Alonso told his Rector what he had seen and begged him to let Father Aguirre know of it. Father Coch did so, and then all his sadness and troubles were changed into the deepest joy, and he was consoled and in good spirits for many days.²⁰20Memor., n. 11.

Not long after this Father Aguirre had to go to Barcelona, and St. Alonso accompanied his friend as far as the beautiful land-locked bay of Soller,²¹21The Bay—3 miles from Soller—is 20 miles from Palma, but it faces Barcelona, and by sailing from it the sea journey to that port is much shorter and less perilous than from Palma. where the boat was lying in which he had to cross to the mainland. The two arrived a few days before the brig sailed, as they had to wait in the town of Soller for a favourable wind. The day which was fixed for its departure they were both standing²²22Father Colin says that St. Alonso remained in Palma, p. 67. on the coast at the very spot from which St. Raymond of Peñafort had set sail miraculously to Spain. Our Saint, through his deep love and interest in Father Aguirre, was praying most earnestly that he might have a prosperous passage, when our Lady assured him that if the Father sailed in that vessel he would assuredly be taken captive by the Moorish Corsairs. At these terrible tidings Alonso burst into a flood of tears, for there seemed no way of escape for his friend. But this only made him turn with fresh energy to his Blessed Mother. “O my Queen,” he exclaimed, “if they take him prisoner I will never leave you alone till you yourself bring him back to my cell.” At once the wind changed and the vessel was detained that night in the port. At the same time, without a word of suggestion having been said to him, the parish priest of Soller, a great friend of the Society of Jesus, had written to Father Coch to say that a number of Moorish vessels were said to be in the offing and out at sea, and, though Soller is some seventeen miles from Palma, the letter reached the college that very evening.

The Rector, when he got the news, said to the other Fathers at recreation, “Father Aguirre is still at Soller, and I am in doubt whether I shall allow him to go to Spain. I leave the decision to the majority.” All agreed, under the circumstances, that he should come back, and Father Coch wrote instantly to him to return to the college. The reply reached Soller the next morning, and St. Alonso and the Father returned gladly to Montesion. Our Saint did not know how to thank God sufficiently for His goodness. The vessel sailed that same day, and, just as the two re-entered the college, it fell into the hands of the Algerines at the very mouth of the port, and a Dominican Father and the brother of one of the Jesuits of Palma were captured and passed many years in slavery. Alonso would gladly have revealed to the passengers the secret confided to him, but he neither had the permission from heaven to make it known, nor could he count on its being believed. He did his best then and after to soften the calamity by earnest prayers for the captives.

In addition to his other work, St. Alonso was at times sent to catechise the poor in the streets and in the churches of the town, and he was always glad to get hold of a waif or stray and teach him about God and the way to serve Him.

At the beginning of January, 1580, Father Coch was sent as Vice-Provincial to Sardinia, then under the Spanish crown and attached to the Province of Aragon, and Father John Poggio, a native of that island, was, as has been said, appointed Rector of Montesion in his place. The number of students had so increased that it was found necessary to enlarge the class-rooms, and a neighbouring house, called the Synagogue, was purchased for the purpose, the municipality contributing 800 crowns.²³23MS. Montesion. Cf. Litt. Ann. 1582. Father Poggio also bought a country house, a mile or so out of Palma, as a place of rest and recreation for the community. It was called Santa Maria del Monte, and commanded a charming view over the city and the bay, and the broad plain with its olive trees and pleasant farmsteads. There was a large garden, which was afterwards planted with vines and fruit trees of every description.

In the first year of his Rectorate, on December 4th, 1580, Father Poggio received into the Society John Matthew Marimon, the future friend, the confessor and biographer of St. Alonso, whom he had known as a boy when coming to the classes of the College of Montesion. Two of our Saint’s companions died this year; one, a very good Brother, John Messeguer, a Catalan carpenter, who went to his rest on January 6th; another lay Brother, John Far, fell off the roof on August 20th, just as the community were coming down to their mid-day dinner, and was killed on the spot; his singular holiness offered a strong motive of consolation to the community in that terrible accident. He had only spent five short years in religious life, as he entered the Society on October 18th, 1575.²⁴24MS. Hist. Montesion.

After all the spiritual tortures through which St. Alonso had passed, he was attacked by severe pains in the stomach, in the shoulders, in the chest, which seemed as if they would have killed him had they continued. He had pains, too, in the tongue; and boils which burned like heated irons—a very purgatory, which lasted for over fourteen years, making more than half his body an open wound.

And to add to all this, the old fear of being expelled the Society returned and tormented him for a long time. His health now utterly broken down, the ever-growing lowly estimate which he had of himself seemed to him to make his dismissal far more likely at this time than it had appeared to him before his first vows. Whatever outsiders might have thought on the subject, those to whom were known the secrets of his heart looked on him as a living glory of his Order. Father Antony Ibañez, a man high in the spiritual life, the Provincial of Aragon, who had been up to that time prevented from visiting Montesion in person since his appointment, determined to cross over to Majorca in the February of 1583, before ceasing to be Superior. No sooner had he made the acquaintance of St. Alonso than he formed such an idea of his sanctity that whenever the humble porter came to him with a message, he, on some pretence or other, always took care to remain standing and with head uncovered, as long as the brother was in the room.

About this time²⁵25V. Memor., n. 10. Writing in May, 1604, St. Alonso says this happened more than 20 years before. God seems to have begun by external signs to manifest the holiness of Alonso. A woman of known piety, Catharine Sansaloni, was hearing a mass which was being served by the saintly brother, when she saw flames of fire mounting up from his burning heart towards Heaven. This she disclosed to her confessor, Father Vincent Mas,²⁶26Father Vincent had been a pupil of St. Lewis Bertran, and after 21 years of religious life as a Dominican, entered the Order of St. Bruno, and was for some time Novice Master at the great Charter House of Majorca. He died on Jan. 31, 1600. Furio y Sastre; Memorias por servir, &c., Palma, 1820, Tom. i., p. 151; cf. Dameto, Hist. de Mallorca, Tom. III., p. 695. a Monk of the Charter House of Valldemosa, some miles from Palma. It is now turned to secular purposes, but sacrilege has not robbed it of the charm of its position. Father Mas informed our Saint of this occurrence, and the narration only excited his humble gratitude to God. Such favours were merely the shining forth of a deep seated virtue, which was proved and manifested more clearly by the daily trials of his life than by such signs.

The Father Minister of Montesion at this time was Father Peter Navarro y Hosta, or Horta, as the Majorcan folk called him. He was a Navarrese, and had entered the Society when a youth of 18, at the College of Gandia in 1564. When his noviciate was over he was sent to Sardinia, but after being tossed about in the Mediterranean for forty days, his ship took shelter in a harbour of Majorca in the November of 1566. The Provincial, Father Alphonsus Roman, happened to be there on visitation, and ordered him to stay at Montesion. At the college in its very beginnings, each duty of a lay brother fell in succession, during one short year, to the lot of the young religious. Later on he returned to Spain for his studies, only to come back, in 1577, to Majorca, to which he was particularly attached, and there he spent the rest of his life. He was a man of a very agreeable and amiable character, and an excellent religious, humble, obedient, charitable and deeply attached to his rule. He was much esteemed also as an able theologian and casuist, and he was specially set apart as confessor and was most devoted to the laborious work of the confessional.²⁷27Hist. MS. of Montesion, Tom. I., p. 35; Cf. Hist. MS., Prov. Arag., S.J., pp. 366 seq. He had for several years and with the great satisfaction of the community filled the post of Minister. His cheerfulness and gravity, his handsome face and fine figure, made him a universal favourite. The Father, during the earlier years when St. Alonso was in the office of porter, was once very seriously ill, and quite unable to leave his room. One of the Father’s penitents, a great benefactor of the college, had received permission from the Father Rector to visit his confessor during his illness, and orders had been given to the Brother to always allow him to go up to the sick-room.²⁸28Marimon, Lib. IV., § 5. One day, however, the gentleman brought with him a friend who was anxious to see the sick Father. The porter, as he had no authorisation to admit anyone but the penitent of Father Hosta, very politely begged the visitors to wait for a moment in the Porteria, and went off at once to the Father Rector to ask what he was to do. The answer was that two could not be admitted into the infirmary, and that the ordinary visitor of Father Hosta, if he wished to go, must go alone. St. Alonso in consequence, with all possible courtesy, declined to admit the stranger. His friend took it in bad part, and refused, under the circumstance, to go up to the sick Father.

Father Hosta noticed that his penitent had not been to see him at his usual time, and scolded him for his neglect in a kindly way when next he came. The gentleman told him what had occurred, and how the porter had refused his request. Father Hosta felt certain that Alonso had been over-scrupulous in his interpretation of the rule, and had acted without his Superior’s orders, and was very much displeased. So next time the Brother came into his room, officially as Minister, the Father spoke very severely to him and blamed him for refusing admission to his friend. St. Alonso made no attempt to defend himself, as he could so easily have done by citing his Superior’s express command. Our Saint had before this occurrence seen the Father, in a sort of vision, dead and buried; and he had taken it as a sign that Father Hosta had not long to live. So, to return good for evil, he now made up his mind to pray God with all possible earnestness to spare his life, and he got others to do the same. Some few days after, our Saint again saw in spirit the invalid, as a corpse that had been dead four days, very much disfigured and his face all swollen. This he understood to mean that in four days the invalid would have died, but that God had heard the united prayers of so many and had granted the Father several years’ reprieve to labour for his crown. In fact, as will be seen, he lived for some seven or eight years after.²⁹29Memor., n. 41.

In 1584 the new Viceroy, Don Louis Vich y Manrique, brother to the then Bishop of Majorca, arrived in the island with Father Coch, whom he brought with him from Valencia, where the Father had been detained by ill health since his return from Sardinia. The Viceroy had obtained permission from Father Provincial Ibañez to allow him to take the Father with him to his new post. The following year, for the third time, Father Coch was appointed Rector of Montesion.

After the long and furious tempests which had assailed him, a time of great peace had now come upon St. Alonso. Thanks to this peace of soul, the health of Alonso so far improved that, in spite of continual attacks of illness, which never left him, he was able to fulfil his various duties, and consequently all difficulty was now removed which might have stood in the way of his taking his last vows. The full time of probation ordained by the Constitutions of the Society for its lay Brothers, before binding themselves finally to the Order, had run out for St. Alonso, and the day he so desired at last arrived.

In the March of 1585, Father Alphonsus Roman arrived at Montesion as visitor by delegation from the then Provincial, Father Jerome Roca, and on April 5th, the anniversary of Our Saint’s first vows, he took his last vows in the church of Montesion and in the hands of the Father visitor. Another brother shared the privilege with St. Alonso,³⁰30Father de la Torre, a native of Saragossa, who was a priest before entering the Society and had come to Majorca in 1575, took his last vows on the same day. He spent the rest of his life in the Sacred Ministry at Majorca, hearing confessions up to the very time of his death, which took place on the eve of Corpus Christi, June 3, 1596. Hist. Montesion, MS., passim. his great friend, Brother James Ruiz, who had come to Majorca the year before his own arrival, and who, like many other holy men, sanctified himself in the hard life of the kitchen, being cook to the college for full thirty years. As he was a close imitator of Saint Alonso, he deserves a special mention in these pages. Brother Ruiz never showed a sign of weariness in his work, nor did he ever ask to be relieved of it. He would not even have any one to help him, though he was ever ready to give a hand to aid his brothers. He never even once asked leave to go out for a walk. He found his rest in prayer, and this he made, whenever he was able to do so, on his knees. He gave very little time to sleep, and spent a good part of the night in getting on with his work so as to be free to hear each Mass which was said in the church.

The tribune of the church which was set aside for the Brothers, was, until the new college was built, very near the kitchen, so that he could contrive by coming down after the Communion to lay the simple breakfast for the Father who was at the Altar, and get back in time for the next Mass. In the evening he returned to the tribune to say his Rosary, which in fact he was constantly reciting. Through his love of poverty and mortification, he chose to live on the scraps left by the others, and he claimed them as his own; nor, as far as he could, would he allow those who served at table to give him anything freshly cooked. His clothes were always the poorest in the house, and even his book of the Office of Our Lady, which he was accustomed to recite every day, was in such tatters that he had to tie it up with a string to prevent it falling to pieces.

St. Alonso resolved to correspond to the fresh grace which he had received by a new effort to please God in everything, and by never doing or thinking of doing anything however trivial without having asked His leave, nor to seek for other thing than Him and His glory. One of three students of philosophy³¹31The Annual Letters of this year tell us that there were several vocations among the collegians to other Orders, and that many more who were anxious to join the Society were refused owing to want of room in the Noviciate of the Province. V. Litt. Ann. 1585. received by Father Roman into the Society this year was a young man of Palma, Raphael Oller, who, though 19 years of age, was said, by those who knew him best, never to have lost his Baptismal Innocence. When he first began to think of entering the Society, he broached his secret to Alonso alone, who soon saw that he was really called by God. Raphael, however, was tempted to be unfaithful to the call. So earnestly did our Saint plead for him in his prayers that on the 18th of May he was received as a Novice by the Visitor and left with him, on the 12th of June, for Spain. Fresh temptations against his vocation, however, assailed him, and Raphael had again recourse to the saintly porter who had confided his cause to God. Victorious through Alonso’s prayers, a third time was he attacked, and a third time by the same did he conquer, and so persevered for thirty-six years in the Society till his death. He was for some years professor in Montesion. But finally, as a professed Father, he dedicated his life to Missionary labours, and expired, as he had prayed to die, in the midst of his successful work, on the island of Minorca, in the February of 1621.³²32Cf. Southwell, Biblioth. Script. S. J.