July 12
ST. JOHN GUALBERT
Abbot
The Liturgical Year
Ven.
Abbot Dom Prosper Guéranger, O.S.B.
Never, from the day when Simon Magus was
baptized at Samaria, had hell seemed so near to conquering the Church, as at the
period brought before us by today's feast Rejected and anathematized by Peter, the
new Simon had said to the princes, as the former had said to the Apostles:
"Sell me this power, that upon whomsoever I shall lay hands, he may
receive the Holy Ghost." And the princes, ready enough to supplant Peter
and fill their coffers at the same time, had taken upon themselves to invest
men of their own choice with the government of the churches; the bishops in their
turn had sold to the highest bidders the various orders of the hierarchy; and sensuality,
ever in the wake of covetousness, had filled the sanctuary with defilement.
The tenth century had witnessed the humiliation of the supreme
Pontificate itself; early in the eleventh, simony was rife among the clergy.
The work of salvation was going on in the silence of the cloister; but Peter
Damian had not yet come forth from the desert; nor had Hugh of Cluny, Leo IX.,
and Hildebrand brought their united efforts to bear upon the evil. A single
voice was heard to utter the cry of alarm and rouse the people from their
lethargy: it was the voice of a monk, who had once been a valiant soldier, and
to whom the crucifix had bowed its head in recognition of his generous
forgiveness of an enemy. John Gualbert, seeing simony introduced
into his own monastery of San Miniato, left it and entered Florence, only to
find the pastoral staff in the hands of a hireling. The zeal of God's House was
devouring his heart; and going into the public squares, he denounced the Bishop
and his own Abbot, that thus he might at least deliver his own soul.
At the sight of this monk confronting
single handed the universal corruption, the multitude was for a moment seized
with stupefaction; but soon surprise was turned into rage, and John with difficulty
escaped death. From this day his special vocation was determined: the just, who
had never despaired, hailed him as the avenger of Israel, and their hope was
not to be confounded. But, like all who are chosen for a divine work, he was to
spend a long time under the training of the Holy Spirit. The athlete had challenged
the powers of this world; the holy war was declared: one would naturally have
expected it to wage without ceasing until the enemy was entirely defeated. And
yet, the chosen soldier of Christ hastened into solitude to "amend his
life," according to the truly Christian expression used in the
foundation-charter of Vallombrosa. The promoters of the disorder, startled at
the suddenness of the attack, and then seeing the aggressor as suddenly disappear,
would laugh at the false alarm; but, cost what it might to the once brilliant
soldier, he knew how to abide, in humility and submission, the hour of God's
good pleasure.
Little by little other souls, disgusted with the state of society, came
to join him; and soon the army of prayer and penance spread throughout Tuscany.
It was destined to extend over all Italy, and even to cross the mountains.
Settimo, seven miles from Florence, and San Salvi at the gates of the city, were
the strongholds whence the holy war was to recommence in 1063. Another
simoniac, Peter of Favia, had purchased the succession to the episcopal see.
John, with all his monks, was resolved rather to die than to witness in silence
this new insult offered to the Church of God. His reception this time was to be
very different from the former, for the fame of his sanctity and miracles had
caused him to be looked upon by the people as an oracle. No sooner was his voice
heard once more in Florence, than the whole flock was so stirred, that the
unworthy pastor, seeing he could no longer dissemble, cast off his disguise and
showed what he really was: a thief who had come only to rob and kill and
destroy. By his orders a body of armed men descended upon San Salvi, set fire
to the monastery, fell upon the brethren in the midst of the Night-Office, and
put them all to the sword; each monk continuing to chant till he received the
fatal stroke. John Gualbert, hearing at Vallombrosa of the martyrdom of his
sons, intoned a canticle of triumph. Florence was seized with horror, and
refused to communicate with the assassin bishop. Nevertheless four years had
yet to elapse before deliverance could come; and the trials of St. John had
scarcely begun.
St. Peter Damian, invested with full authority by the Sovereign Pontiff,
had just arrived from the Eternal City. All expected that no quarter would be
given to simony by its sworn enemy, and that peace would be restored to the
afflicted Church. The very contrary took place. The greatest saints may be
mistaken, and so become to one another the cause of sufferings by so much the
more bitter as their will, being less subject to caprice than that of other
men, remains more firmly set upon the course they have adopted for the interests
of God and His Church. Perhaps the great bishop of Ostia did not sufficiently take
into consideration the exceptional position in which the Florentines were
placed by the notorious simony of Peter of Pavia, and the violent manner in which
he put to death, without form of trial, all who dared to withstand him;
Starting from the indisputable principle that inferiors have no right to depose
their superiors, the legate reprehended the conduct of the monks, and of all
who had separated themselves from the bishop. There was but one refuge for
them, the Apostolic See, to which they fearlessly appealed; a proceeding which
no one could call uncanonical. But there, says the historian, many who feared
for themselves, rose up against them, declaring that these monks were worthy of
death for having dared to attack the prelates of the Church; while Peter Damian
severely reproached them before the whole Roman Council. The holy and glorious
Pope Alexander II. took the monks under his own protection, and praised the
uprightness of their intention. Yet he dared not comply with their request and
proceed further, because the greater number of the bishops sided with Peter of
Pavia; the archdeacon Hildebrand alone was entirely in favour of the Abbot of
Vallombrosa.
Nevertheless the hour was at hand when God Himself would pronounce the
judgment refused them by men. While overwhelmed with threats and treated as
lambs amongst wolves, John Gualbert and his sons cried to heaven with the
Psalmist: "Arise, O Lord, and help us; arise, why dost Thou sleep, O Lord;
arise, O God, and judge our cause." At Florence the storm continued to
rage. St. Saviour's at Settimo had become the refuge of such of the clergy as
were banished from the town by the persecution; the holy founder, who was then
residing in that monastery, multiplied in their behalf the resources of his
charity. At length the situation became so
critical, that one day in Lent of the year 1067 the rest of the clergy and the
whole population left the simoniac alone in his deserted palace, and fled to
Settimo. Neither the length of the road, deep in mud from the rain, nor the
rigorous fast observed by all, says the narrative written at that very time to
the Sovereign Pontiff by the clergy and people of Florence, could stay the most
delicate matrons, women about to become mothers, or even children. Evidently
the Holy Ghost was actuating the crowd; they called for the judgment of God.
John Gualbert, under the inspiration of the same Holy Spirit, gave his consent
to the trial; and in testimony of the truth of the accusation brought by him
against the Bishop of Florence, Peter, one of his monks, since known as Peter
Igneus, walked slowly before the eyes of the multitude through an immense fire,
without receiving the smallest injury. Heaven had spoken: the Bishop was
deposed by Rome, and ended his days a happy penitent in that very monastery of
Settimo. In 1073, the year in which his friend Hildebrand was raised to the
Apostolic See, John was called to God. His influence against simony had reached
far beyond Tuscany. The Republic of Florence ordered his feast to be kept as a
holiday, and the following words were engraved upon his tomb-stone:
TO
JOHN GUALBERT, CITIZEN OF FLORENCE, DELIVERER OF ITALY.
Let us read the notice which
the Church consecrates to his blessed memory, though with a few differences of
detail.
 |
St. Gualbert and the
murderer of his brother before the crucifix by Alessandro Pieroni
|
John Gualbert was born at Florence of a
noble family. While, in compliance with his father's wishes, he was following
the career of arms, it happened that his only brother Hugh was slain by a kinsman.
On Good Friday, John, at the head of an armed band, met the murderer alone and
unarmed, in a spot where they could not avoid each other. Seeing death imminent,
the murderer, with arms out stretched in the form of a cross, begged for mercy,
and John, through reverence for the sacred sign, graciously spared him. Having
thus changed his enemy into a brother, he went to pray in the church of San Miniato,
which was near at hand; and as he was adoring the image of Christ crucified, he
saw it bend its head towards him. John was deeply touched by this miracle, and
determined thenceforward to fight for God alone, even against his father's wish;
so, on the spot he cut off his own hair and put on the monastic habit. Very soon
his pious and religious manner of life shed abroad so great a lustre that he
became to many a living rule and pattern of perfection. Hence on the death of
the Abbot of the place he was unanimously chosen superior. But the servant of God,
preferring obedience to superiority, and moreover being reserved by the divine
Will for greater things, betook himself to Romuald who was then living in the
desert of Camaldoli, and who, inspired by heaven, announced to him the institute
he was to form; whereupon he laid the foundations of his Order under the Rule
of St. Benedict at Vallombrosa.
Soon afterwards many, attracted by the renown of his sanctity, flocked
to him from all sides. He received them into his society, and together with them
he zealously devoted himself to rooting out heresy and simony, and propagating
the Apostolic faith; on account of which devotedness both he and his disciples
suffered innumerable injuries. Thus, his enemies in their eagerness to destroy
him and his brethren, suddenly at tacked the monastery of San Salvi by night, burned
the church, demolished the buildings, and mortally wounded all the monks. The
man of God, however, restored them all forthwith to health by a single sign of
the Cross. Peter, one of his monks, miraculously walked unhurt through a huge blazing fire, and thus John
obtained for himself and his sons the peace they so much desired. From that time
forward every stain of simony disappeared from Tuscany; and faith, throughout
all Italy, was restored to its former purity.
John built many entirely new monasteries, and restored many others both
as to their material buildings and as to regular observance, strengthening them
all with the bulwark of holy regulations. In order to feed the poor he sold the
sacred vessels of the Altar. The elements were obedient to his will when he
sought to check evil-doers; and the sign of the Cross was the sword he used
whereby to conquer the devils. At length worn out by abstinence, watchings,
fasting, prayer, maceration of the flesh and finally old age, he fell into a
grievous malady, during which he repeated unceasingly those words of David:
"My soul hath thirsted after the strong living God: when shall I
come and appear before the face of God?" When death drew near, calling together
his disciples, he exhorted them to preserve fraternal union. Then he caused
these words to be written on a paper which he wished should be buried with him:
"I, John, believe and confess the faith which the holy Apostles preached,
and the holy Fathers in the four Councils have confirmed." At length
having been honoured during three days with the gracious presence of Angels, in
the seventy-eighth year of his age, he departed to the Lord at Passignano,
where he is honoured with the highest veneration. He died in the year of salvation
1073 on the 4th of the Ides of July; and having become celebrated by in numerable
miracles, was enrolled by Celestine III. in the number of the Saints.
O true disciple of the New Law, who
didst know how to spare an enemy for the love of the Holy Cross! teach us to practise,
as thou didst, the lessons conveyed by the instrument of our salvation, which
will then become to us, as to thee, a weapon ever victorious over the powers of
hell. Could we look upon the Cross, and then refuse to forgive our
brother an injury, when God Himself not only forgets our heinous offences
against His Sovereign Majesty, but even died upon the Tree to expiate them? The
most generous pardon a creature can grant is but a feeble shadow of the pardon we
daily obtain from our Father in heaven. Still, the Gospel which the Church
sings in thy honour, may well teach us that the love of our enemies is the nearest
resemblance we can have to our heavenly Father, and the sign that we are truly
His children.
 |
St. Michael and St.
Gualbert by Andrea del Sarto
|
Thou hadst, O John, this grand trait of resemblance. He who in virtue of
His eternal generation is the true Son of God by nature, recognized in thee the
mark of nobility which made thee His brother. When He bowed His sacred Head to
thee, He saluted in thee the character of a child of God, which thou hadst just
so beautifully maintained: a title a thousand times more glorious than those of
thy noble ancestry. What a powerful germ was the Holy Ghost
planting at that moment in thy heart! And how richly does God recompense a single generous act!
Thy sanctification, the glorious share thou didst take in the Church's victory, the fecundity whereby
thou livest still in the Order sprung from thee: all these choice graces for
thy own soul and for so many others, hung upon that critical moment. Fate, or
the Justice of God, as thy contemporaries would have
said, had brought thy enemy within thy power: how wouldst thou treat him? He
was deserving of death; and in those days every man was his own avenger. Hadst
thou then inflicted due punishment upon him, thy reputation would have rather
increased than diminished. Thou wouldst have obtained the esteem of thy
comrades; but the only glory which is of any worth before God, indeed the only
glory which lasts long even in the sight of men, would never have been thine. Who
would have known thee at the present day? Who would have felt the admiration
and gratitude with which thy very name now inspires the children of the Church?
The Son of God, seeing that thy
dispositions were conformable to those of His Sacred Heart, filled thee with
His own jealous love of the holy City for whose redemption He shed His Blood. O
thou that wert zealous for the beauty of the Bride, watch over her still;
deliver her from hirelings who would fain receive from men the right of holding
the place of the Bride groom. In our days venality is less to be feared than compromise.
Simony would take another form; there is not so much danger of bribery, as of
fawning, paying homage, making advances, entering into implicit contracts; all
which proceedings are as contrary to the holy Canons, as are pecuniary transactions.
And after all, is the evil any the less for taking a milder form, if it enables
princes to bind the Church again in fetters such as thou didst labour to break?
Suffer not, O John Gualbert, such a misfortune, which would be the forerunner
of terrible disasters. Continue to support with thy powerful arm the common Mother
of men. Save thy fatherland a second time, even in spite of itself. Protect, in
these sad times, the Order of which thou art the glory and the father; give it
strength to outlive the confiscations and the cruelties it is suffering from that
same Italy which once hailed thee as its deliverer. Obtain for Christians of
every condition the courage required for the warfare in which all are bound to engage.
The
Same Day
Ss. Nabor and Felix, Martyrs
On this same day the whole Church unites
in the solemn homage which Milan continues to pay, after a lapse of sixteen
centuries, to two valiant witnesses of Christ. Our martyrs Felix and Nabor,
says St. Ambrose, are the grain of mustard-seed mentioned in the Gospel. They
possessed the good odour of faith, though it did not appear to men; persecution
arose, they laid down their arms, and bowed their heads to the sword, and
immediately the grace that was hidden within them was shed abroad even to the ends of the world ; so that we can
now in all truth say of them: Their sound has gone forth into all the earth.
Let us honour them and ask
their intercession by the prayer which the Church addresses to God in commemoration
of their glorious combat.
COLLECT
Grant, we beseech thee, Lord, that as
the festival of thy holy Martyrs, Nabor and Felix, returns for us to celebrate,
it may always be accompanied by their intercession. Through our Lord.
Praesta, quaesumus Domine: ut, sicut nos
sanctorum Martyrum tuorum Naboris et Felicis natalítia celebranda non deserunt,
ita jugiter suffragiis comitentur. Per Dominum.
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