p. 200The Two Last Years

On the 31st of August, in the year 1614, Father Gil, who had been chosen to represent the Province of Aragon at the Meeting of the Procurator at Rome, left Majorca, naming Father Paul Fons as Superior for the time in his place. It was not till the following year that a new Rector, Father Julian,¹1Father Julian was a native of Valencia. He entered the Society when 22. He was Rector of the College for six years, and of Lerida for three. He was very devoted to Our Lady. Obras Espir., Tom. I., p. 656. was appointed. His coming was expected every day, but a contrary wind made someone say, in St. Alonso’s hearing, that it was impossible for him to enter the port till the wind changed. Our Saint at once replied, that Father Julian would soon be there; and though the other insisted on his first statement, Alonso repeated his prediction two or three times over.

Father Julian, in fact, landed the very next day, March 15th. He was naturally very anxious to see Alonso and to talk with him. Though the holy Brother was suffering and confined to his room and very feverish, yet the Rector conversed with him for an hour or more on spiritual things. “I asked him,” Father Julian tells us, “if his head ached, and, as he told me it did, ‘Then do not talk, Brother,’ I rejoined. He would not say a word the whole of that night, though the infirmarian several times inquired how he was. He continued to refuse to speak the following day, although the infirmarian assured him that he was allowed to give an answer, especially as it was about necessary matters. But Brother Rodriguez considered that he could not do so against the Rector’s express orders. I was therefore sent for, and he thus addressed me: ‘With your permission, Reverend Father, I will answer the infirmarian and the doctor, when they inquire from me how I am.’ I asked him why he made any difficulty about answering. ‘Because, Father,’ he said, ‘you told me yesterday not to talk any more.’” Father Julian had to learn, like his predecessors, to weigh his words well when dealing with one who obeyed so literally.

Even during these years of illness, our Saint had not given up his practice of penance, as has been said, for he scourged himself, he was forced to avow, three times a week. But his thirst for suffering was soon to be satisfied. Father Torrens assures us²2Summar. Apost., p. 38, § 34. that, for the love of souls and of God’s glory, Alonso would gladly have given his life and his blood in martyrdom to save the souls of men. His constant prayer was ever, as of old, “Jesus and Mary, sweetest objects of my love, may I suffer and die for the love of you.”

Once, so our Saint told his Confessor in June, 1615, he heard a voice in the air tell him that he would fall into sin: Naturally, although he knew not from what spirit these words proceeded, they filled him with terror, and, as in all his needs, without answering a word, he turned to our Lady to tell her what had happened. She reassured him, declaring to him “Where I am, you have nothing to fear!”³3Memor., n. 264.

On the 13th of August, died Brother Mark Antony Puigdorfila,⁴4V. p. 157. just at the close of his first year of philosophy. He had only returned from Spain eleven months previously. His virtue was of so high an order, that, though tormented with scruples in his last illness, as he had been through the whole of his short religious life, he did not dare to beg of God to free him from that mental torture. But after Holy Viaticum and Extreme Unction he consulted his Confessor whether he could, without indulging his self-love, ask of St. Alonso to obtain for him deliverance from his mental troubles.

His Confessor told him that he might ask, provided he did so with entire submission to God’s will. Accordingly he asked this favour of our Saint. He prayed for him,⁵5His Superiors promised Brother Puigdorfila that St. Alonso should never leave his side during his death struggle. V. Nonell, c. 49, p. 584. and Brother Puigdorfila was suddenly and completely freed from scruples, while a deep peace came down on his soul, with such joy that a continual smile played upon his lips.

An ague fit seized him and he lost his senses so entirely that those about his bed thought he was actually dying; but, half an hour after, he came to himself, and opening his eyes he gazed round upon them with such a look of gladness that he seemed as if he were already in heaven. He spoke to each one of them, thanking them all for their great charity to him during his sickness; and with great jubilee congratulated himself upon his privilege of dying in religion, and of being now so near heaven. A second attack shortly after came on, which lasted much longer than the previous seizure.

When he came to himself, his joy was still more noticeable. “And we all thought,” says Marimon, “there was some special reason for this. For, both from his own words, which were so full of tender devotion, and from those of Brother Alonso, who was at his side, and was exhorting him to gratitude towards our Lady, we had reason to believe that she had deigned to visit him.”⁶6Lib. vii., § 41.

The young religious died in this transport of peaceful joy. Shortly after his death Alonso was recommending his soul in prayer to God, when he saw in a vision Brother Mark Antony throned in the heights of heaven, and for a whole hour he was privileged to enjoy this marvellous spectacle. The happy Brother, in the midst of his glory, kept his eyes fixed on Alonso, and his looks expressed his deep thanks for all the aid which he owed to the lay-Brother’s prayers, both during his former life and at his death. He disclosed to St. Alonso in some degree the immense happiness that he was enjoying, and incited him to desire a share in it, telling him that very soon they would see each other in their true home.

More than once during that same day he saw Brother Puigdorfila in the same joy, and with the same radiant smile.⁷7Marimon, loc. cit. While Brother Mark Antony was on his death-bed, Father Jerome Lagaria, his Professor of Philosophy, was obliged to leave for Soller, and when he went to see his sick pupil, to bid him good-bye, the dying youth made him promise to say a Mass for him. A few days after, the Father went to offer the Holy Sacrifice for him in the little Chapel of the Trinidad (of the Blessed Trinity), and just as he was going to put on his vestments, about ten or eleven o’clock in the morning, a sudden impression came across him, just as if someone had told him, that the Brother did not need the Mass. So strong was this impression that he could not refuse it credence, and when he returned to the College he found that on the very day, and almost at the very hour when he had received this warning, Brother Puigdorfila had passed away to his reward.

It may be remarked that this happy death occurred on the 13th of August, the same day of the month, though just six years before that on which St. John Berchmans went to heaven to share with St. Stanislaus in the feast of our Lady’s glorious Assumption.

In spite of his old age and infirmities, our Saint did not cease to exercise his zeal for souls. There was a youth, named Diego Saura, a native of Minorca,⁸8He entered the Society on May 30th, 1615, and went to Soller, and thence sailed to Barcelona. Hist., MSS., Coll. Montesion. some sixteen years old; he had been a penitent of Father Oller⁹9V. p. 54. during his brief apostolate in that island, and he had come to Palma to follow the course of studies at the College of Montesion. He had been remarkable for his holiness from a child. In a letter which he wrote from Mexico, on February 26, 1621: “During the lifetime of Brother Alonso Rodriguez,” he says, “I continually importuned him, whenever I came across him, and, even when I did not, by sending messages to him, to commend me to God. What moved me to do so, was the great desire I had to make certain that I was doing the will of God. One day, I sent a message to that effect by the porter, and the Saint replied in these words: ‘Tell that student not to trouble himself about it, that I charge myself with it, and that I shall not forget it. Tell him, too, that if he wishes to do the will of God, he must become a Religious.’ Sometime afterwards, I went to see him in his room, for he was then very ill; and he told me that God called me to the Society, and that I ought very soon to obtain leave to enter; and so, in 1615, it happened. Another time when I went to visit him, I begged him to pray for me, both in this life and in the next, when he would be enjoying the presence of God. He answered three times, in succession, that he would do so. I am continually conscious that he is interceding for me now; and that he has kept his word.”

After the death of Father Saura, there was found, among his notes for his Manifestation of Conscience, a passage wherein he had written down some of the advice which our Saint gave to him before he became a Religious. “Another time I went to see him in company with one who, like myself, was going to enter the Society, and Brother Alonso said to us: ‘Be most devout to Our Lady, and especially to her Immaculate Conception. You must recite in its honour the “Hail Mary” and the “Salve Regina” twelve times every day, begging her to intercede with her Most Holy Son, that as she was pure and clean from original and actual sin, and from every fault, she may keep each of you from sin, and may make you pure and spotless, as two angels, here on earth, that thus hereafter you may see and enjoy her and her Blessed Son up there in Heaven. In all your trials fly at once to Our Lady like a little child, which cries as it turns to its mother: “Mother! Mother!”’ And he uttered these last words with such deep feeling, while he crossed his arms on his breast, as to move me deeply.”

Father Saura proved himself worthy of his holy teacher. Francis Colin, who knew the young man personally, and was for some time his Professor of Rhetoric, says that he was one of the purest souls that God possessed at that time in the Society, for he had bound himself by vow to keep all its rules, and to do whatever he considered to be most perfect in each of them. This vow he wrote out with some blood, which he had drawn from his breast. To help himself to its fulfilment, he made a very complete list of all the most perfect virtues and actions to be found in his rules, and all these he bound himself to practise in the way he had written, with the help of God’s grace, and under the guidance of obedience. This vow never once caused him any scruple of grievous sin during the rest of his life. Nor, in fact, had he reason to fear that he fell into serious sin, for from infancy he had always been given to piety and even to penance. And when he was still a scholar in the world, his extreme modesty and recollection showed that even then he lived ever in God’s presence. In after life he carried this practice to a very high perfection. His ardent desire for martyrdom made him petition to be sent to the Philippine Islands. He obtained his request; but, instead of a martyr’s crown, he had severe contests with grievous temptations against the holy virtue, and many attacks of illness: the last of which was of very long duration, and was caused by his missionary labours among the natives. He died at Manila, on the 9th of July, 1632.¹⁰10Patrignani, Menologio, July 9. Just before his death he showed how well he had learnt his lesson from our Saint. A Father asked him what gave him most consolation in that tremendous hour. Father Diego thought for a moment, and then answered: “Præsidium Beatissimæ Virginis—the protection of the Most Blessed Virgin.”

The practice which St. Alonso so strongly enforced on Father Saura was, as has been seen, one of his own daily tributes of devotion to his Heavenly Queen.¹¹11Though the Litany of Our Lady, as has been said, of Loreto, was the one recited by St. Alonso, after the Antiphon “Ora pro nobis Sancta Dei Genitrix, &c.,” he added this beautiful prayer: “Almighty and Eternal God, Who deigned for our sakes to be born of the most chaste Virgin Mary, make us to serve Thee with a chaste body and a humble mind. We beg Thee also, most loving Virgin Mary, Queen of the Universe, Mistress of the Angels, that Thou wouldst obtain refreshment for those who are in the searching fire of purgatory, for sinners pardon, for the just perseverance in good, and defend us, who are so frail, from all the perils that are round about us, through Christ our Lord. Amen.” He constantly recommended it to others, both by word of mouth and by letter; and he used to say with great earnestness that it was incredible what pleasure it gave to Jesus Christ that people should believe the truth of the sinlessness of Mary, which was not then a defined article of faith. Our Saint often said that she rejoiced greatly to see men very devout to her Immaculate Conception, and that no one could imagine how much good this devotion would produce in the soul, what merit it procured from our Blessed Lord, and what sure protection it won from the most pure Queen of Angels. Nothing gave such happiness to Saint Alonso, nor was any sound sweeter to his ears than to hear this prerogative of Mary preached from the pulpit, or read from a book; and he loved to read about it himself.¹²12Marimon, lib. vii., § 49.

The “Office of the Conception” was, for at least forty years,¹³13Boll., p. 59 F. the daily tribute of homage to Our Lady from her faithful servant Alonso. Our Lady so highly approved of this, among his other devotions in her honour, that she ordered him to write it out and give it to others, and induce them, by their example, to make use of the Little Office. Our Saint in his humility would gladly have escaped from the obligation laid upon him, and as usual, he doubted whether he might not be under some delusion as to the command. But Our Lady repeated her wish so clearly that all doubt was laid aside, and Brother Rodriguez at once commenced to induce the Scholastics and lay-Brothers of the College, and the students who frequented the schools, to recite the Little Office every day. In his anxiety to carry out the wishes of his Immaculate Mother, and according to her instructions, he began to write out copies with his own hand. It was, no doubt, owing to this, that Brother Roca got the idea that St. Alonso was the author of this well-known Office; as he deposed at the Apostolic Process at Majorca. This deposition appears to have given rise to the claim made for our Saint¹⁴14V. a long and detailed account of the Little Office in Waterton’s “Mariana Britannica,” P.I., c. iii., § 3, p. 126, seq. Cf. Boll., p. 593, n. 35. by Southwell, Alegambe, and even by the Fathers De Backer in their Bibliographical Dictionary of the Society of Jesus. But, apart from the fact that our holy Brother had not the education necessary for such a task, Father Andrew Costurer says positively that this Office was taken from an old copy printed out of Spain,¹⁵15Elench., Novæ Resp., p. 7. while Father Colin confirms the fact that it existed before our Saint’s time.¹⁶16Vida, p. 215; cf. Mariana Britann., p. 135. This, however, is certain, that it was owing to Saint Alonso, and to the revelation which was made to him, that the Office spread so quickly through the whole Catholic world. After being slightly altered by the omission of some verses in four of the hymns, which refer to a legend now regarded by some as apocryphal, the Office was, in 1615, approved by Paul V., and an indulgence was granted to the Antiphon and Prayer which are found at its conclusion. Some other verbal changes were again made in 1679, but the text in the well-known Libellus is, in all respects, the same as that employed by our Saint. The circular letter of Father Julian, written immediately after the death of Alonso, mentioned the approval Our Lady had given to the “Little Office,” and no doubt contributed to propagate its use; for, in a very short time it was reprinted in various languages, and in many parts of Europe.

The devotion to the Immaculate Conception had for long years been very popular in Majorca. Raymund Lully, whose colossal, if erratic, genius is one of the glories of the island, and who is venerated by his countrymen as a saint, and as a martyr, had, amidst the vast number of books which he has left behind, written a work proving the dogma “by necessary reasons.” This had been printed at the close of the fifteenth Century.¹⁷17Seville, 1491. Another edition appeared at Valencia, 1518. V. Boll., T. XXV., pp. 705–6. At the period of which we are writing Our Lady was venerated, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, as the principal patroness of Majorca.

But at that time not only did the doctrine of Mary’s singular and glorious prerogative form no part of the Church’s defined dogmas, but a large and very important school of theology, and one deeply devoted to the honour of the Mother of God, was opposed, on theological grounds, to its acceptance as a portion of Catholic truth. As in many other disputed points, this opposition arose rather from a confusion of terms than from any positive disagreement in principle; and the definition of the Immaculate Conception has proved that the truth, fully understood, was in harmony with all the teachings of the great doctor of the schools, the saintly Master of scholastic theology. In fact it had always been permissible, in his illustrious Order, publicly to maintain this doctrine.

The last mutterings of a storm of violent controversy on the mystery of Grace were still in the air, and though Paul V., nine years earlier, had mitigated the strife between the contending parties, both the Franciscan and Jesuit theological faculties at Palma, of St. Francis’ Convent and of Montesion respectively, had, in the November of this year, 1615, defended the usual theses on the burning question—How to reconcile man’s liberty with the Divine Prescience and the economy of Grace. Naturally, the Dominican Fathers wished in turn to uphold in public tourney their own views. But when one morning their theses were found posted up on the walls, they were seen to contain one directly opposed to the favourite belief of Majorca.

The whole town was in an uproar; the city authorities in council assembled, determined to remove the cause of offence, and also to appease the popular excitement, by splendid festivities in honour of the Immaculate Conception. They sent a deputation to the Viceroy, Don Charles Coloma, as well as to the Rector of Montesion, to ask their aid in organising the fiesta. The Viceroy, at his own inspiration, sent for the Prior and the Master in Theology of St. Dominic’s, and begged that the noxious thesis should be struck out. He even threatened to put in force an ancient royal decree,¹⁸18John I., King of Aragon, published in Valencia, in 1394, a decree in favour of the Immaculate Conception; v. Boll., loc. cit. by which opponents of the doctrine of Mary’s Spotless Conception could be expelled from Majorca. Naturally, the two Fathers at first declined firmly to yield to threats. Next day, however, the mob defaced the offending placards by painting them over with crosses like those used in the autos de fé, a rough but clear manner of asserting that the thesis was tainted with heresy. In face of the popular feeling, an official order was made out for the expulsion of the Fathers, unless they withdrew the offending proposition. The thesis was accordingly cancelled.

The Ayuntamiento or City Council thought it better, after the gracious concession of the removal of the thesis, not to celebrate the fiesta, and would not carry out their project of holding it in the public square in front of the Town Hall. But Don Charles insisted on its being celebrated, and gave up the large and irregular Patio of the old Royal Castle—the residence of the Viceroys—for the purpose.

The festivities commenced on the eve¹⁹19Ceremon. del Archivo, MS. in City Archives of Palma. of the feast with a procession of the ecclesiastical and civil authorities, and the usual accompaniment of fireworks, music, and sacred and allegorical masques and mystery plays.

The 8th of December was, of course, the great day, but so splendid were the decorations of the Castle Royal that it was resolved to continue the religious services there on the following day, and Father Julian preached at the High Mass, which was sung at an altar reared in the courtyard. In fact the celebrations went on until the octave day, when the Church of the Society was the scene of a magnificent religious ceremony, at which all the religious orders, without exception, were represented, and which closed with fireworks and jousts in the little square before the Church door.²⁰20Hist., MS., de Montesion.

The joy of our Saint at this explosion of popular devotion was as great as had been his sorrow at what had been the occasion of it. He happened to be at Recreation after dinner with the Community of the College, when first he heard of the offending thesis; and all who were present were astonished at the excitement into which it threw him. Quiet and silent as he habitually was, and though so old and infirm, he got up from his seat, raised up his arms, and lifting up his eyes, he said in a loud voice: “You cannot trifle with the Mother of God, who, although she is so gentle, nay sweetness and gentleness itself, has a Son who is very jealous of His Mother’s honour, and angels without number who would take the part of their Lady, and defend her purity and high name.” So he continued in the same strain; and then added: “One of the causes, among others, why God has sent the Society into this world was chiefly this, to teach and to defend this truth in Holy Church.” And as he was talking with such enthusiasm and earnestness, a Father who was present said to him: “Brother Rodriguez, how do you know that God sent the Society to defend the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of our Lady?” His answer was, “I am certain of it;” and again lifting his eyes and hands to Heaven he added, “From there, from on high, they have told me; and if Father Rector will give me leave, I will go and preach this in the streets of Palma.”²¹21Colin, Vida, Lib. I., c. xx., p. 73. He heard the words from the Saint’s lips. Cf. Boissieu, p. 303.

Some months later St. Alonso fell dangerously ill, and, lest he should die without telling more clearly what he knew about this matter, the Rector, Father Michael Julian, who was himself confined to his room, sent Brother Francis Colin, as one who was so intimate with Brother Alonso, to ask him, in the name of his Superior, how he knew what he had asserted a few months back in recreation. Alonso replied, “Brother Carisimo,²²22A term applied to the juniors or scholastics who were engaged in study. I remember well all that passed on that occasion, and it is quite true that I said what you state. Still I had no vision, nor actual external revelation of any kind, but I only know that there came to me that great impulse which I know for certain was from heaven, and that what I said was a truth from on high. And I still hold for certain that it is as I then said.” So write Fathers Marimon and Colin, who were both present when our Saint made this declaration, with many other Fathers who were theologians of no small weight. Alonso was not a man to speak lightly, especially on so grave a matter. Nor did anyone doubt his word, though, to confirm it still more certainly, Father Julian had asked for some further explanations. And, about to appear before his Great Judge, our Saint not only insisted on the truth of what he had said, but explained, as we have seen, the manner of the supernatural influence which, acting on his will, had forced him to speak words of so much moment.²³23Marimon, lib. vii., § 49.

Certain it is that the founder of the Society of Jesus bound himself by vow to defend the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception,²⁴24Francis Garcia, S.J., Vida de San Ignacio, l.v., c.viii. as St. Francis Xavier,²⁵25V. Francis Garcia, S.J., Vida de San Francisco Xavier, l.v., c.xii. St. Francis Borja, and St. John Berchmans did after him. Father Laynez attributed to his invocation of Our Lady under the glorious title of Immaculate, not only the cure of many sick,²⁶26Engelgrave, S.J., Fest. de Imm., Concept., § 2. but the power, in spite of an attack of quartan ague, to speak at the Council of Trent, and that, with such force, as to obtain from the Fathers assembled an important concession in favour of the doctrine. The last clause of the decrees of the Fifth Session on Original Sin, which refuses to include Mary under the law common to all, owes its existence to the learned arguments of Laynez.²⁷27V. Obras del Ribadeneira. Madrid, 1868. Vida del P. Laynez, c.xvii, p. 175. The same doctrine was defended in the very first public theses of the Roman College.²⁸28Imago Primi Sæculi, lib. 1, p. 131. Its defence was imposed by oath upon all graduates of St. Francis Borja’s University of Gandia;²⁹29Cienfuegos, Vida de San Francisco de Borja, l. iii., c. ii., § 2. it was undertaken by Suarez in his theology,³⁰30De Myst. Christi. Disp. III. and finally, in 1594, ordered by the Fifth General Congregation of the Society to be taught by all its theologians. The declaration of St. Alonso was made known by Father Julian in his letter already referred to; and this, our Saint’s affirmation, may have even contributed to remove any lingering hesitation as to the truth of the dogma itself.

To his devotion to Mary’s great privilege, St. Alonso attributed many blessings, both corporal and spiritual, vouchsafed to him and to others.

The very next year, 1616, to that of the events just recorded, Father Forteza, with a scholastic, Humphrey Ripoll, and Brother Bartholomew Roca, had been caught in a terrible storm on the 8th of December, and owed their safety to the prayers of our Saint; the whole cargo had been thrown into the sea, and three several times the ship had been given up as lost. They landed safely on the 9th.³¹31V. Hist. MS. Coll. Montesion. Ripoll had known our Saint when a boy at the College, and had entered the Society in 1607. He was far gone in consumption, and his frequent vomiting of blood incapacitated him from those labours to which his zeal attracted him. St. Alonso suggested to him to bind himself by vow to fast on bread and water on the eve of the anniversary of his deliverance from shipwreck; promising him, in return, such health as would enable him to devote himself to work. His Superiors approved; and the promise of the Saint was thoroughly verified. He went to tell of his improved health to Brother Alonso, who was then confined to his bed, and our Saint assured him that he would be able to make himself very useful to the Society, and to devote himself to work. Father Ripoll attested in 1618, before the Official Examiners at Majorca, “From that time I have been able to do whatever obedience has enjoined me. I give missions, constantly preach without any fatigue, I remain hours in the confessional, and even preach the Lent in the city and elsewhere.”³²32Summ., p. 67.

The time had now come for the fulfilment of the forewarning given to St. Alonso. Hell was preparing to make its final assault upon him. Strong in his confidence in God, he dared the enemy to do his worst.³³33Janin, lib. i., c. vii., 36. Boll., p. 616. D. The demons appeared to him under the most gruesome and appalling shapes, and inflicted on him the most terrible torments, “whether in the flesh or out of the flesh, God knows.” They crushed him down as if they had laid a mountain on his head. They paralyzed his limbs in a way that filled every part of his body with direst agony; or they beat him with iron instruments till “from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head there was no soundness in him.” St. Alonso called upon God for help, and Jesus and Mary appeared suddenly to him before the demons could rob him of his life, and drove away, by their presence, the evil spirits. More than that, they flooded the sufferer with consolation, and so completely healed his wounds that no sign nor mark of them was left.

But the aged athlete had but a short reprieve. His love to Our Lady seems to have been one great cause of the demons’ fury against him.³⁴34Memor., p. 216. The climax of their rage was reached one night, when his infernal persecutors appeared in the cell of St. Alonso, bearing instruments of torture, such as we read of in the Martyrologies of the early Saints, or in the history of the Missions of Japan and of Canada. There were combs, and flesh-hooks, and scorpions of iron, and red-hot plates. The demons surrounded their victim; they fell upon him and dragged him to his bed, and there they stretched out his frame, bent with age, they whipped him, flayed him with their hooks and iron combs, seared him with hot irons, and at last began to roast him at a fire preternaturally scorching. He was cast into a cauldron of boiling water, and was only taken out to be slashed with red-hot razors, flayed like St. Bartholomew, and hot coals cast on his uncovered bones, until, as he owns, if the torture had lasted any longer, both his courage and power to resist would have failed him.³⁵35Memor., 1615, n. 274. Father Marimon, in a letter to Father Colin, assured him that he owed the details of these conflicts to an account written by the Saint. He showed this narrative to several Fathers who had been his Superiors, or his Spiritual Directors, especially to one—probably Father Torrens—who had constantly talked with the Saint in his last years, and who confirmed all the details of the statement. “God,” p. 211he says, “let him feel his nothing.” He implored heaven with tears to pity him, and in an instant the pains and the torments disappeared for ever. Our Lord appeared to the Saint, entirely healed his wounds, and endeavoured to console His heroic servant. But Alonso was ashamed of his want of fortitude, and of having sought relief in prayer, after having dared the demons to do their worst.

To the students of Mystic Theology, to the readers of the Lives of the Saints, similar facts are familiar. Among them the lives of Saints Hildegard,³⁶36V. Bolland. Sept., Vol. V., p. 630. V. Görres, Mystic. for the whole subject of supernatural and preternatural visitations. Guthlac,³⁷37V. Bolland. April, Vol. II., p. 42, n. 19. Collette,³⁸38Id., Vol. VII., pp. 547, 566, n. 124. St. Collette suffered like torments for 50 years. and, above all, of St. Antony,³⁹39Id., Jan., p. 119. the abbot, present precisely parallel visitations. Nor need we go further than the story of Job, as an instance of how God delivers over His servants, for their greater merit, and within a measure strictly laid down, to the hatred and inflictions of the enemy of the human race.

For the last two years of his life, so Michael Gensor, the College barber, deposed, St. Alonso would neither allow him nor anyone skilled in his art, to cut his hair or to shave him, but he always chose a young man who was quite a new hand at his trade, and who used to hack and cut him through lack of skill. Our Saint, absorbed in God, took no heed of his painful blundering, and the brutal lad, thinking that he was asleep, used to say, “I will wake him up,” and then began to deliberately lacerate him with razor or scissors. The ruffian chose his worst razor for the poor old man, and when his fellow-workman reproached him with his barbarity, he answered that the Brother was clearly made of stone, for he gave no sign of pain or of annoyance. In fact, Brother Rodriguez never said anything or showed a sign of impatience. When the barber had done his worst, the holy Brother got up, smiling and grateful, though his face and neck were all gashed, and, with a profound bow to his tormentor, went away without a word.

God at length made the criminal feel His anger. In a quarrel he was severely wounded in his right arm, and nearly lost the use of it. He was forced to flee to Italy, where he led a wild life. Finally he enlisted as a soldier, and died from the stab of a poniard. God, however, gave him the grace of receiving the Sacraments before expiring. May not this be attributed to the prayers of our Saint for his persecutor?

Father Gil, after leaving Majorca, was twice sent to Rome as Procurator of the Province of Aragon, one of its two representatives at the triennial meetings of the delegates of the Society. He wrote a humble and beautiful letter to his old friend and former subject, St. Alonso, to beg the help of his prayers, and to ask for some suggestion as a spiritual antidote to prevent his soul from growing tepid, or relaxing, in any way, its efforts after sanctification, on account of the constant journeys he had been making and would have to make by order of obedience.

Francis Colin left Majorca for Spain in the October of 1616, probably to finish his theological studies on the mainland. One Saturday evening, he went to bid good-bye to his old friend, who was then confined to his room by illness. “I found him sitting,” he tells us, “on the boards which supported his mattress; but so absorbed in God, that I was able to kneel down and kiss his feet without his remarking what I was going to do, and before he was able to prevent it. But he was very much annoyed at what I had done. I asked him to give me some parting advice, as a remembrance of the time we had spent together. And he said that when I wanted to get anything from God, I should beg it of our Lady with confidence. ‘Be very devout to her, and be sure all will go well with you.’”

Brother Antony Mora, then infirmarian, used, at St. Alonso’s request, to read to him every day for half-an-hour; and our Saint asked specially each time for a particular chapter from the “Religious Perfection” of Father Luke Pinelli,⁴⁰40“De Perfectione Religiosa,” of which a translation in Spanish was made by Arriaga. S.J., which teaches patience to those in trouble. Another consolation to our invalid, in this last twelvemonth of his life, was a little print or picture of Our Lady by his bed-side, to which he often spoke, and from which he drew courage to bear his pains.⁴¹41Probably the engraving now at S. Carlos, Saragossa. V. p. 213. During the six months which preceded his death, whenever he turned to the likeness of our Blessed Lady, straightway he was transported (in spirit) into her presence in heaven, and all his pains of body were swallowed up in the intense joy of this foretaste of Heaven. A very painful trial which our Saint had to endure was an almost total loss of memory, so that he could scarcely remember the “Our Father” or “Hail Mary,” or even lift his heart at all to God. He recognised in this the action of the devil, and Heaven delivered him from this bitter privation. Perhaps we may trace this failing of memory even in his Manifestations, which Father Torrens was obliged to take down in writing, as our Saint was unable to use his pen. The first of these was on All Saints (1616), and there he speaks of the tortures which we have related above, as having happened about a month before, though he had already described them in his Manifestations of the previous June. Among other circumstances there narrated, he records that so strong a temptation of despair attacked him, that he thought he was about to be overcome; but God came to his aid, and by the words, “What are you doing? That man is Mine;” drove away the tempter and his temptation. The second, repeated by St. Alonso on November 16th, with more ample details, was the promise of his posthumous glory. It happened a little before the All Saints of 1616, just a twelvemonth before his decease, and was the last signal favour conferred upon our Saint. He was in his cell, his thoughts fixed on the joy to which he was looking forward through the mercy of His Lord and Love, when his soul was ravished into Heaven and was welcomed by its glorious in-dwellers. They received him in their midst, and took him through its streets and squares “of pure gold, as it were transparent glass.”⁴²42Apoc., xxi., 21. They told him he would soon be one of them, and encouraged him to bear the trials of the last short stage of his journey. In order to animate him to face the pangs of sickness, and the onslaught of his infernal enemies, Our Lord showed him the whole island of Majorca, with its capital, its various towns and the whole territory, as in a map; “Behold,” He said, “this land; after thy death, thou shalt work there great and very many miracles.” These words filled him with the deepest confusion, that, to one who was in his own eyes so vile and revolting and the greatest sinner in the world, such things should be promised; but he took refuge in the thought of his nothing, without any shadow of presumption, or even of pleasure at the foresight.

Before narrating the closing scenes in our Saint’s life, some idea should be given of how far-spread was the veneration which he had gained while he was still on earth.

It has been seen how the members of the Community at Montesion prized, as relics, whatever he had used. They would get him, for example, to write his name, under the pretence of putting it up, as is the custom, in the Porteria.⁴³43One or more of these were preserved reverently until comparatively a recent date in Palma. A biretta of the Saint is still kept with reverence in the Casa de San Bernardo, a charitable home for aged priests in that city. There is still, in the sacristy of St. Charles’s Seminary, at Saragossa, formerly a College of the Society, an engraving of the Immaculate Conception,⁴⁴44The original, the master piece of John de Juanes, is in the Church of the Society in Valencia. V. Month, November, 1888. before which our Saint used to pray. As an inscription upon it records, it was given by Brother Antony Mora, to a Father of his time, and passed through many hands, until it found its place where it now hangs. The portrait of the Saint was taken several times during his lifetime, though without his knowledge. Brother Humphrey Serra tells us an amusing story with regard to one of these portraits:—“On one occasion when a procession had to pass by, a portrait of our Saint was hung out in the public street. The Brother happened to go that way and saw his likeness. ‘God help me!’ he exclaimed; ‘How ugly they have made our holy Father,’ evidently never dreaming that it was a picture of himself, and believing it to be one of St. Ignatius.”⁴⁵45MS. letter, Montesion.

Father Julian, then Rector, in 1616 sent a portrait and letter of Alonso to the Duchess of Gandia,⁴⁶46Doña Jane de Velasco, daughter of Don John Ferdinand de Velasco, the sixth constable of Castile, and fifth Duke of Frias. a letter and rosary of the saintly Brother to her son, Cardinal Gaspar de Borja y Velasco, Bishop of Albano and Spanish Ambassador at Rome, the grandson of St. Francis Borja. Both presents were most gratefully received and greatly prized by their noble recipients. The Duchess sent the picture to the Jesuit Noviciate in Madrid, where it was seen by Father de Portocarrero, then Provost of the Professed House of the Society in Toledo, who wrote to Father Julian, to beg him to obtain the Saint’s prayers for a very urgent spiritual need. Both the Duchess and her son recommended themselves most specially to Alonso’s prayers; Doña Jane asked that the Rector would bid him, under obedience, to pray for the recovery of Don Lewis, the second son of her step-mother, the Duchess of Frias,⁴⁷47Doña Jane de Cordova, the second wife of Don John Fernandez de Velasco. who was a deaf mute, and for the eldest boy—the only other son—the heir to the great house of Cordova, who was very delicate. The Duchess of Feria prized highly a pair of beads and a letter of the Saint, sent to her by Father Julian.

The esteem in which St. Alonso was held by the various Viceroys of Majorca, all men of high position, has already been told. Of these Don Charles de Coloma was, perhaps, the one who was on the most intimate terms with our Saint.

Don Charles de Coloma filled a not unimportant place in the Spanish Annals, and is not unknown in English history. Born in 1573, in Alicante, of which his father, the Count of Elda, was Governor, he took service as a common soldier—like so many men of wealth and of the noblest birth—in the Spanish armies in the Netherlands. He was then but a boy of fifteen, and after being wounded, fought his way up to a Captaincy at eighteen under Alexander Farnese, and to a Colonelcy five years later. In 1600, he was named Captain-General of the Marches of Perpignan, on the occasion of an attempted invasion of the French. He was, from 1611 to 1617, Viceroy of Majorca. Don Charles was then appointed Captain-General of Cambrai, at that time a portion of Spanish Flanders. While filling that important post, he was sent as Ambassador to King James I. of England, on the subject of the Spanish Match, when he was fêted and made a honorary Master of Arts at Cambridge.⁴⁸48V. Copies of addresses to Don Carlos Coloma, London, 1623. Many years later, while still in Flanders, he dispatched Rubens to King Charles I. as a secret envoy to pave the way for a fresh embassage, and came over himself to London as ambassador in 1630. There he remained for over a year while the negotiations were dragging on, which ended in the treaty of Madrid. To him, in the March of 1631, the Catholic laity addressed themselves on a question of the authority of the Bishop who then exercised jurisdiction in England.⁴⁹49V. the Attest. of Don Carlos Coloma. Brussels, 1613. In 1635 we find him holding the important posts of Castellan of the Citadel of Milan, and Governor of Alessandria. The following year Philip IV. made his faithful and brave servant a Councillor of State, and he died the year after, 1637, so poor, after all his honours, that there was no money to pay for his funeral. He was as skilful a writer as he was soldier and statesman, and his work on the War in the Low Countries is a Spanish classic. He shows himself in it as modest as he was brave. He also translated Tacitus into Spanish.⁵⁰50V. Antonio, Nova Bibliotheca; cf. Almirante, Bibliografia Militare Española, and Gardiner’s History of England, Vols. IV., p. 335, and VII., pp. 102, 105, 106.

Some years after, Don Charles wrote a letter from Cambrai, in answer to a request of Father Marimon, which gives interesting details about our Saint: “In reply to your Reverence’s favour, and in obedience to what you bid me in the name of Father Rector of Majorca, I can state that from the day on which I arrived in that island, the 2nd of September, 1611,⁵¹51The date of his entry into Palma. Ceremon. del Archivo, cf. p. 157. I conceived a very decided opinion as to the holiness of Brother Alonso Rodriguez, not only from what I heard in Spain, but still more from what I saw and knew of him from my intercourse with him. From all that he said and all that he did, he appeared to be an angel rather than a man. For this reason I arranged that a boy of mine, who was six years old, of the same name as myself,⁵²52Don Charles de Coloma, Marquis del Espinar, to whom Colin dedicated his life of St. Alonso, heir to his father’s honours. He was, as a boy at Montesion, a pupil of Colin’s. An elder brother of his, Don Antony, a knight of Santiago, died quite young when fighting in the religious wars in Germany. Doña Margaret, their mother, had no less than sixteen children. V. MS. Addit., Brit. Mus., 12,473, Nobiliario of Don Manuel de Moura Cortereal, Marquis of Castel Rodrigo. 1645. should be intrusted to him to learn to read, that so my son, when he grew up to be a man might glory in having had him for a master. And Alonso taught him with great good-will and affection, and continued to do so until he knew how to read.”

“The whole time that I was at Majorca, about six years, I never saw Brother Rodriguez outside the College. And every time that I went to visit the Fathers, and I did so frequently, and now and again to dine with them,⁵³53Don Carlos and his two sons dined in the Refectory of Montesion in 1613. Hist., MS., Coll. Montesion. I always endeavoured to get into conversation with the blessed Brother. His speech was ever of the things of God, of all that we owe to Him, and of the obligation we are under to correspond to such great favours. And he spoke with a face so full of joy and with such great fervour, that often we were so moved that neither he nor I could restrain our tears. And I recollect on the occasion of those festivities in honour of the Immaculate Conception, which your Reverence will remember, because of the controversy which was on foot that year in many places, and especially in Majorca, neither I nor my Council would allow certain theses to be defended, in which the dogma was covertly attacked. Alonso said to me several times, ‘Be of good heart, Señor Viceroy. You are serving a good Lady who will not fail to repay you both here and in Heaven.’ And once when all or great part of the Fathers were together in the room of the Rector, Father Michael Julian, and someone asked the Brother what he thought about this affair, he flew into a fit of holy anger. ‘What can I think,’ he exclaimed, ‘except that those who attack an opinion so generally received, and so holy, cannot fail to see that they offend Our Lady. And if they did see that, who can doubt that they would not attack it? However, I do not know if this excuse would hold good before God, who has given such talents to these Fathers’.”

“The last year that I spent in Majorca—and I left it on March 17th, of 1616 (sic)⁵⁴54Don Charles left Majorca on March 7, 1617. V. Ceremon. del Archiv.—the holy Brother was confined for nearly the whole time to his room by the illness of which, I understand, he died. I visited him many times there, and it was a great consolation to me to see the unconquerable patience with which he endured incredible sufferings, and the serenity and joy which he showed in his face. * * *”

“The wide-spread and constant fame of sanctity which the blessed Brother had, and still has, throughout the whole city and kingdom of Majorca, from what I hear, for more than twenty years, is so great that it forces me to look upon him as a Saint, as in fact everyone does. And as I believe that he is enjoying the presence of God, I recommend very earnestly to him all my affairs, as does Doña Margaret,⁵⁵55Margaret, the daughter of Antony de Gavre, named Liederkercke, and of Louisa de la Barre, married Don Charles Coloma, at Brussels. She died in that city on April 3, 1645. V. Goethal’s Diction. Généal. et Herald. de la Belgique, T. II. but with still greater fervour. She always carries with her a portrait of the holy Brother, and places it at her bed-head. In her last confinement, though she had been the whole of her time struggling with depression, she found no greater comfort than to gaze at the picture and to implore him to intercede with God for her own safety and that of the unborn babe. And His Divine Majesty, as I piously believe, has granted her both, through the intercession of the blessed Brother, Alonso Rodriguez.”

“When she was on the point of leaving Majorca, she was but one month off her time, and greatly dreaded the voyage, for she always suffers very much from sea-sickness and other perilous seizures, even when in sound health. Accordingly, she asked the Father Rector, Michael Julian, to give her the consolation of seeing the Brother and of recommending herself to his prayers. Father Rector granted her request, and had him carried down in a chair to the little tribune on the ground-floor, from which the wives of the Viceroys heard Mass. After he had with his holy words encouraged her to embark, he told her that he would beg of God to do her the favour that she should not be confined on the way; and that both of us should have a good journey. Then, with his face lit up with a smile, he said: ‘Go, my lady, with great courage; God will give you an excellent voyage, and you shall not be confined on the road.’ And so comforted was she with all this, in spite of enduring on the sea all that she feared, she never had a thought of danger; neither then nor at Vinaroz,⁵⁶56On the line from Valencia to Tarragona, in the extreme north of the Province of Valencia. where she was very ill. It was, I am sure, through the intercession of the holy Brother that God was pleased that, more than a month later, the child was born in Valencia;⁵⁷57One of Coloma’s children, who died when an infant, was named Alonso. Possibly that may have been out of devotion and gratitude to our Saint. nor did she ever have a better confinement in all her life. This, Reverend Father, is what we are able at present to answer to your Reverence’s letter. And so we sign it with our joint names. Cambrai, May 20th, 1619.—Don Charles Coloma.—Doña Margaret Coloma.”

The saintly Archbishop of Valencia, B. John de Ribera, frequently wrote to the humble Brother asking for his prayers; and several times he made efforts to induce his Superiors to place him in his Cathedral City, so as to have him near his side. Nor was he the only prelate of his time who sought our Saint’s intercession; but Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, and others holding high places in the Church, who either knew him personally, or had heard of his holiness from others on whom they could rely, used to write to him, seeking to avail themselves of his interest with Heaven. St. Alonso always took care to cut off the signatures of his distinguished correspondents, and to destroy them; while he used the blank pages of their letters on which to take his spiritual notes. The learned Don Ildephonsus Lasso Sedeño, who was for part of three years Bishop of Majorca, and who died there in 1607, loved to converse with our Saint, and held him in high esteem. Father Creus, of the Order of St. Dominic, a man of most austere life, who held the important post of Inquisitor, was one of the special friends and admirers of our Saint, as in fact he was of the whole Society. Like loves like, and Father Creus was not only esteemed and venerated by every one during his life, but was honoured as a Saint at his death. So too Father Raphael Serra. He was three times the Provincial of the Franciscans, he even received a large number of votes for General of his Order, and the Majorcans wished to have him as bishop.⁵⁸58Furio y Sastre. Memorias por servir, &c. Palma. 1820., T.I., p. 169. He was renowned for his personal holiness and his power in preaching. He owned how greatly he was a debtor to the prayers of our Saint. One day, after a conversation with him, the good Franciscan said to the companion of Alonso: “Your Order has in this Brother another Giles”—alluding to the well-known companion of St. Francis of Assisi. Father Serra used to recount that once he asked Alonso: “Tell me, Brother, if Our Lord had said to you, that if you wished to go to Heaven, you might go there at once, or if you wished to stay longer in this world, you might stay here; which of the two would you choose?” Our Saint immediately answered, “I would choose to do the Will of God.” “Well, but,” urged the Father, “if God left the matter with you, and He desired you to choose and to do what you liked best, what would you then do?” Alonso kept to his text—“I never want to do anything except God’s Will, and that alone would I choose to do; I prefer this to heaven itself, because I would rather give pleasure to God than possess eternal happiness, if it could be obtained without God’s Will.” Nor could he be got to say anything different; and Father Serra was charmed with the deep virtue of our Saint, and never wearied of talking about him.