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By Father Candide Chalippe
WHEREIN THE PREJUDICES OF CERTAIN PERSONS AGAINST MIRACLES WHICH ARE
RECORDED IN THE LIVES OF THE SAINTS ARE SHOWN TO BE BOTH UNREASONABLE
AND DANGEROUS, AND THAT THE MIRACLES ATTRIBUTED TO SAINT FRANCIS ARE
VERY WELL AUTHENTICATED.
A very common failing amongst men is to adopt one extreme in the
endeavor to avoid another, and sometimes not to perceive that the
extreme into which they fall is greater than that which they had sought
to flee from. To insure themselves against weak incredulity, some have
imbibed such prejudice against the miracles in the Lives of the Saints,
that they cannot endure to hear of them; the very ideas of miracles,
revelations, ecstasies, visions, apparitions, are hateful and disgusting
to them; all that is said on these subjects they look upon as fabulous
and incredible; they call in question the most undeniable evidence,
or attribute these wonders to natural and unknown causes. The wonders
which are recorded in the Life of St, Francis, afford an opportunity
of grappling with these prejudices.
In the first place, no man using his right reason will reject the
wonders recorded in the Lives of the Saints, because of their
impossibility. Miracles are extraordinary events, which break through
the laws of nature, and exceed the force of all natural causes; it is
only necessary to make use of our reason to be aware that God, whose
power is infinite, having freely established these laws, may, whenever
He thinks fit, break through them Himself by the ministry of His
creatures, whom He makes use of as He pleases; that these suspensions
may enter into the external designs of His wisdom and providence, and
that they occur by successive acts, without there having been any
change in Him, because it is an act of His will which causes them, as
it does every other thing. Now this proves that miracles are possible,
and that there is no impossibility in the wonders recorded in the Lives
of the Saints.
In the second place, these wonders ought not to cause an incredulous
surprise in any sensible person who pays due attention to the wonders
of nature. "Man," says St. Augustine, "sees extraordinary things happen,
and he admires them, while he himself, the admirer, is a great wonder,
and a much greater miracle than any things which are done by the
intervention of man. There is nothing more marvellous done in the
world, which is not less wonderful than the world itself. All nature
is full of what is miraculous; we seem unconscious of it, because we
see those things daily, and because this daily repetition lowers them
in our eyes. And this is one reason why God has reserved to Himself
other things out of the common course of nature, on which He shows His
power from time to time, in order that their novelty may strike us;
but when we consider attentively, and with reflection, the miracles
we constantly see, we find that they are far greater than others,
however surprising and uncommon these may be."
The holy doctor admits that the prodigies which are out of the common
course of nature, and which are properly called miracles, are to be
viewed with astonishment, since they are works of God, worthy of
admiration; he only requires that the surprise they cause shall be
qualified by a consideration of the wonders of nature, to which he
likewise gives the name of miracles, in a more extended sense: on the
same principle, and _a fortiori_, what there is surprising in them
should not make them appear to us incredible. An enlightened mind
does not believe in miracles which are communicated to him, unless due
proof of them is adduced; but it is not because what is wonderful in
them renders him incredulous, because he sees more marvellous things
in the universe and in himself. If men who apply themselves to the
study of nature, are pertinacious in refusing to believe in the miracles
of the saints, it is because they do not make use of the light they
have received, and do not reason deductively; they have only sought
to gratify their curiosity, or to gain credit for their discoveries;
and do not some of them lose themselves in their speculations, and
become impious, even so as to recognize no other God than nature itself?
In the third place, faith in the great mysteries of religion must
incline us to believe in the wonders we read in the Lives of the Saints.
Are we, then, not called upon to say to those whose prejudices we
oppose: "As you belong to the society of the faithful, you not only
believe that three Persons make only one God; that the Son of God was
made man; that the dead shall rise again; but also, that Jesus Christ
becomes every day present on our altars, under the species of bread
and wine, at the words of consecration; and you believe all the other
astonishing wonders that are proposed to you in our holy religion:
why, then, do you find such repugnance in believing those of the Lives
of the Saints, which are far inferior to the former"?
It is useless to say in answer, that these last are only based on human
testimony, which we are not obliged to receive; that the mysteries are
propounded to us by Divine authority, to which we are bound to submit;
for this is not the question before us. We only compare one wonder
with another, and we maintain that the belief in the one should
facilitate the belief in the other. In fact, if we believe with a firm
and unshaken faith what God, in His goodness, has been pleased to
effect for the salvation of all men, and what He continues daily to
effect in the Eucharist; may we not easily convince ourselves that He
may have given extraordinary marks of His affection for his most
faithful servants?
In the fourth place, similar wonders to those which are found in the
Lives of the Saints are also found in the Holy Scriptures. Raptures,
ecstasies, frequent visions and apparitions, continual revelations,
an infinity of miracles, miraculous fasts of forty days, are things
recorded in the Old and New Testaments. We believe all these wonderful
circumstances, and we are obliged to believe them, although they far
surpass our understanding; on what, then, shall we rely for maintaining
that the wonders recorded in the Lives of the Saints are improbable,
and that we may reasonably call them in question? Reason, on the
contrary, marks them as so much the more probable and worthy of credit,
as we know and believe similar ones which we may not doubt of.
Christians should be accustomed to what is marvellous, and require
nothing but proofs for the most unusual prodigies.
In the fifth place, the promise which Jesus made that the power of
working miracles should be given to true believers, gives authority
to the belief in miracles in the Lives of the Saints. "Amen, amen, I
say to you, he that believeth in me, the works that I do he shall do
also, and greater than these shall he do; because I go to the Father.
And whatsoever you ask the Father in my name, that will I do." "And
these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall cast
out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up
serpents; and if they shall drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt
them; they shall lay their hands upon the sick, and they shall recover."
Our Saviour, according to the doctrine of the Holy Fathers, has promised
the gift of miracles, not to each one of the faithful in particular,
but to the Church in general; and His promise is for all times, when
the good of religion requires its accomplishment. Heretics pretend
that it only related to the days of the apostles, and that miracles
were only required for the establishment of the faith. What right have
they to limit the words of the Son of God? Do they imagine that they
understand the Scriptures better than the holy doctors? How will they
prove that since the time of the apostles there have been no
combinations of circumstances in which the good of religion shall have
required that miracles should be performed? They were required for the
infidels, to whom the Gospel has been preached in different centuries,
as well as for the Greek and Roman idolaters, to whom it was first
announced. The Church has required them to silence the heretics who
have successively endeavored to impugn her dogmas, and to strengthen
the faith of her own children. They have been always useful for
manifesting the eminence of virtue, for the glory of God, for the
conversion of sinners, for reanimating piety, for nourishing and
strengthening the hopes of the good things of another life. We are,
therefore, justified in saying that the promise of Jesus Christ is for
all times, in certain occasions, and that the belief in the miracles
in the Lives of the Saints is authorized thereby.
In the sixth place, that there have been miracles in the Lives of the
Saints are facts, the proofs of which are unquestionable. The Acts of
the Martyrs, which have always been read in the Church, and the
genuineness of which has been admitted by the most talented critics,
contain recitals of the most wonderful events: the confessors of the
faith instantaneously cured, after having undergone the most cruel
tortures; wild beasts tamed and crouching at their feet; lights and
celestial voices, apparitions of Jesus Christ and His angels, and many
other wonderful circumstances.
In the first six centuries there are scarcely any ecclesiastical writers
and Holy Fathers who do not record miracles worked by the servants of
God, and by their relics; and they speak of them as of things which
they have either seen with their own eyes, or were of public notoriety.
Saint Justin Martyr, in the second century, speaking of the power of
Jesus Christ over the demons, in his Apology, addressed to the Emperors
Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, and to the Roman Senate, says: "You
have proofs of what passes before your eyes, and in your city, and in
all the rest of the world; for you know that many of those possessed,
not having been able to be delivered by your exorcists, enchanters,
and magicians, have been so by the Christians who have exorcised them
in the name of Jesus Christ, who was crucified under Pontius Pilate."
Saint Ireneus assures us that in the same century some true disciples
of Jesus Christ had received supernatural gifts, which they made use
of advantageously for other men: "Some," says he, "drive away devils;
and this is certain, that often those who have been delivered embrace
the faith, and join the Church. To others it is given to know the
future, and to have prophetic visions. Others cure the sick by the
imposition of hands, and restore them to perfect health. Very often,
even in every place, and for some requisite cause, the brethren solicit,
by fasting and fervent prayers, the resurrection of a dead person, and
obtain it; these dead, thus revived, have lived with us for several
years afterwards. What shall I say further? It is not possible to
enumerate the extraordinary gifts which the Church receives from God,
and what she operates in every part of the world, in favor of the
nations, in the name of Jesus Christ crucified."
"We can," says Origen, writing against Celsus, "show an immense
multitude of Greeks and barbarians who believe in our Lord Jesus Christ;
there are some who prove their faith by the power of working miracles.
They cure the sick by invoking their God, the Creator and the Sovereign
Lord of all things; and the name of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, of whose
Gospel they recite a part. We ourselves have seen several sick persons
delivered from the most formidable maladies, and the cured are too
numerous to be counted."
Tertullian, in his Apology, and in another work, records plainly the
miraculous fall of rain which was obtained from heaven by the prayers
of the Christian soldiers, which saved the army of the Emperor Marcus
Aurelius, which was reduced to the last extremity. He proves the truth
of this fact by the very letter of the emperor. We have also authentic
proofs of this event in the authors and records of paganism itself.
Tertullian, likewise, tells us that the pagans received extraordinary
graces by means of the Christians, some of which he quotes, and he
adds: "How many persons of distinction, without mentioning other people,
have been thus delivered from the devil, and cured of their evils!"
St. Cyprian upbraided an idolater in the following terms, while refuting
him: "The gods whom you adore we exorcise in the name of the true God,
and they are compelled to leave the bodies which they possessed. Oh,
if you chose to see and hear them, when suffering under the power of
our words, as if they were spiritual scourges, and feeling the secret
operation of the Divine Mastery! They howl terrifically, entreat of
us to spare them, declare, in presence of their adorers, whence they
came, and confess a future judgment. Come and be convinced of the truth
of what we say; to be at least moved. Those whom you adore, fear us;
those to whom you pray, entreat of us to spare them; those whom you
revere as sovereigns, are as prisoners in our hands, and tremble as
so many slaves. We interrogate them, and in your presence they declare
what they are; they cannot dissemble the impostures which they make
use of to deceive you."
Such are the miracles which many of God's servants operated in the
second and third centuries, and which cannot be called in question.
How many different kinds are recorded in subsequent times by St. Basil,
and by St. Gregory of Nyssa, in the life of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus;
by St. Athanasius in the life of St. Anthony; by Sulpicius Severus,
in the life of St. Martin; by St. Chrysostom, St. Jerome, St. Ambrose,
St. Augustine, St. Paulinus, in many parts of their works; by Theodoret,
in his religious history; by Pope St. Gregory, in his dialogues; by
St. Hilary of Arles, St. Ouen, and very many others worthy of credit!
These saintly and learned Bishops, Avitus, Metropolitan of Vienne,
Stephen of Lyons, Eon of Arles, conferring with the Arians, in presence
of Gondebauld, King of the Burgundians, after having proved the
consubstantiality of the Word, by the testimony of the Scripture, and
by powerful arguments, offered to give additional proof thereof by
miracles, if the heretics would promise to acquiesce in consequence;
and quoted the example of St. Remigius, Apostle of the French, who was
then living, and setting up the faith on the ruins of idolatry by a
multitude of prodigies.
The miracles operated by means of relics are neither less well
authenticated, nor less celebrated; they were known to the whole world.
St. Augustine was an eyewitness of them; being at Milan when St. Ambrose
discovered, by means of a revelation, the spot where the bodies of SS.
Gervasius and Protasius reposed. He saw a great many miracles performed
in Africa by the relics of St. Stephen, of which he makes mention in
his book of the City of God, written for the confutation of the most
learned of the pagans, wherein he says that, to quote only those
operated in the Dioceses of Calame and Hippo, several books would not
suffice. Nicetius, Bishop of Treves, writing to Clodosvinda, or
Glotinda, Queen of the Lombards, to exhort her to solicit the conversion
of King Alboin, her husband, advised her to make use of the visible
miracles which were operated at the tomb of St Martin, and by the
invocation of St. Germanus, St. Hilary, St. Lupus, St. Remigius, and
St. Medardus. They were so evident, that the heretics dared not call
them in question, and could not deprive them of their splendor. God
made use of these for the conversion of kings, and of the entire
nations.
In all ages after the six first centuries, the prodigies of the Lives
of the Saints are noticed by numerous authors of all countries, whose
talents, learning, probity, holiness, and dignity, render them
respectable to the most searching critics. They are supported by
incontrovertible evidence, by juridical depositions, by authentic acts,
and by splendid monuments which have been erected to their memory by
bishops, princes, magistrates, cities and kingdoms to perpetuate the
recollections of these splendid achievements. We find that the saints
have made numerous predictions, which have been justified by the event;
and that, either moved by the Spirit of God, or compelled by obedience,
they have admitted the supernatural operations which they felt in their
souls. Finally, the prodigies which are found in the Lives of the
Saints have always been considered as indubitable facts amongst the
faithful; the Church recognizes them, and they form one of the objects
of their piety and devotion; no one is placed in the catalogue of
saints whose sanctity has not been attested from heaven, by means of
miracles; and she takes such rigorous precautions, and carries their
strictness so far, that, according to all human prudence, it is
impossible she should be deceived.
We now ask whether it can be permitted to think and to say that such
facts are absolutely false, and should only be looked upon as fables
unworthy of credence? In such case it would be necessary to abrogate
the rule judiciously and universally received in the world, that facts
which have nothing incredible in themselves are not to be controverted
when duly proved; it would be also necessary to refuse credence to all
that is related in sacred and profane history; to lay down as a maxim
to believe nothing but what we see, and to refuse to receive the
testimony of the honorable people with whom we live. Now, this is what
is requisite to prove and convince every man of good sense that the
prejudice against the miracles of the Lives of the Saints is quite
unreasonable; but this does not point out its quality sufficiently;
it is senseless and ridiculous, it is rash, and, what is more, it is
dangerous.
Whoever denies what the Fathers of the Church attest as having seen,
or having been authentically informed of, must conclude that they were
either very credulous, or deceived the people. To refuse to believe
the marvels which have reached us by an uniform and universal tradition,
is to call in question all tradition; to render all its channels
suspicious, and to cause it to be looked upon as a questionable
proposition. What can be thought of the saints, if the miraculous
graces, which they certify that they have received from God, are to
be treated as chimeras; if the accomplishment of what they have
foretold, is to be attributed to chance? What even can be thought of
their most heroic victims? What opinion will be formed of their acts?
Will they be deemed more trustworthy in other matters? When it is
asserted that there have been no miracles since the days of the
apostles, it must be said, by a necessary consequence, that the Church,
which grounds canonization on miracles, makes use of falsehood in that
most solemn and religious act, and that the public worship which the
Church directs is uncertain. Now this very much resembles heresy; for
the great principles of religion teach us that on these occasions the
Church receives peculiar enlightenment from the Holy Ghost, by which
she can neither be deceived herself, nor can she deceive others.
These miracles, it is said, are not articles of faith, and the Church
does not oblige us to believe them. As if nothing was believed in the
world but such things as are of faith; as if it was not dangerous
obstinately to reject those things which are sanctioned by the authority
of the Holy Fathers, by reason and by piety, by tradition and by the
Church, and which cannot be rejected without fatal consequences!
This incredulity attacks, moreover, one of the proofs of the divinity
of Jesus Christ, which the fathers adduced against the pagans. St.
Chrysostom having asserted, on the subject of the miracles of the
martyr, St. Babylas, that our Saviour, on the night of His Passion,
had promised to those who should believe in Him, the power of working
these miracles, adds: "It had been antecedently seen that many had
taken upon themselves the character of masters, who had disciples, and
who boast of performing wonders; nevertheless, we do not hear of any
who had ventured to promise their disciples the same power. The
insolence of their impostures did not go so far, because they knew
that no one would believe them; all the world being convinced that it
is only given to God to make a similar promise, and to fulfil it." On
this principle the holy doctor proves that Jesus Christ is God, since
He has given to those who believe in Him the power of working miracles,
which His disciples actually did, and which His servants now do. St.
Augustine makes use of the same proofs, in his book of the City of
God. Thus the miracles of the saints have in all ages been adduced as
proofs of the Divinity of our Saviour; and this is what those endeavor
to do away with, who, without reflection, consider them as fables.
Another danger is, that they speak of these marvels according to their
own prejudices. They openly say that they do not believe them, and
that persons ought not to have the weakness to believe them; they speak
contemptuously of the books in which they are recorded; they cannot
endure that they should form part of panegyrics of the saints. They
make use of impious derisions, and turn into ridicule the faithful who
credit them, and they censure the conduct of the Church which
consecrates them. Such discourse sanctions heresy and licentiousness;
worldlings and the indevout applaud it, the tepid seem to consent to
it, and the falsely devout approve it; it is a scandal to the weak,
and a dishonor to religion.
It is also to be feared that prejudices against what is wonderful in
the Lives of the Saints may spread to other subjects, if we only judge
from the principles which are the cause of them. For, in what do these
principles consist? They are not grounded on reason or religion; they
must, therefore, have a basis of incredulity for everything which they
do not understand: the foolish vanity of being thought singular;
ignorance, which boldly repudiates what it knows nothing of; keeping
company with libertines; a conformity of feeling with heretics, and
the spirit of the world, which is the enemy of all piety. Such
calamitous causes give room to fear the most fatal effects.
In general, the liberty only to believe those things which we choose,
on points in which religion is concerned, is very dangerous; it often
makes a destructive progress, for its first attempts embolden it.
Persons are easily persuaded that all miraculous narratives are false,
though the Church guarantees the truth of many; and when this same
Church pronounces on dogmatical facts, declaring: such and such
propositions to be heretical which are in such and such a book, and
exacts an interior submission of heart and mind, do these doubters
show more docility? Do they not cloak their disobedience by a respectful
silence, always ill kept and finally broken through by open rebellion?
Do we not see persons in the world speaking irreverently of relics,
purgatory, indulgences, and even of the holy mysteries, after having
treated contemptuously the marvels of the Lives of the Saints?
Certain critics admit these marvels, but have imbibed the idea that
falsehood is so mixed up with the truth, that they cannot be separated
but by using certain rules, which they take upon themselves to lay
down. This prejudice is not less dangerous, nor less unreasonable than
the other.
Because some inconsiderate writers, who cannot be too severely censured,
have given scope to their imagination in certain legends, and have
employed fiction for the embellishment of their narratives, the doubters
pretend that the whole history of the saints is full of impostures;
nevertheless, pure sources have been the basis of their authentic acts,
in the works of the Fathers, and in an infinity of authors well worthy
of credit, and in the Bulls of Canonization. An Asiatic priest, as
related by St. Jerome, who quotes Tertullian, composed false acts of
St. Thecla through an ill-understood sentiment of devotion:--does it
follow from that that the truth of many other acts which were there
read, and which we still possess, is to be set aside? Moreover, the
Church has remedied the evil; she has rejected the false prodigies;
she has expunged from the legends the indiscreet additions; a new
edition has been long since placed in the hands of the faithful, which
only contains the well-authenticated and certain miracles.
A learned man has demonstrated that the rules of these critics for the
elucidation of these miracles are not judicious; that they are
extravagant, and that it would be risking too much to follow them;
that they are contradictory, and not in unison with each other; that
it often happens that they reject or admit miracles against their own
principles. If they find splendid ones, and many of them in the same
legend, they hold them to be suppositions or altered, although, the
oldest and most authentic documents contain similar ones; they reject
them as false, without assigning any reason in proof of their having
been falsified; they pretend that the authors who have recorded them
were too credulous, though they received other articles on the testimony
of these same authors. In order to believe them, they require perfect
certainty, although they give credit to many circumstances in
ecclesiastical and profane history on mere probabilities. One of them
professes not to omit a single miracle which is vouched for by good
authority, nevertheless, he suppresses many of the most considerable;
and many of those which he feels compelled to bring forward, he does
so in terms which mark doubtfulness, to say nothing more.
Thus, the ultra-critics while admitting the wonders of the Lives of
the Saints, reduce them to nothing by rules, which they invent for
separating truth from falsehood, as those who profess to believe an
infallible authority in the Church make that infallibility to depend
on so many conditions, that they may always maintain that the Church,
dispersed or assembled, has never come to any decision in opposition
to their errors.
It is, they say, the love of truth which induces them to examine most
scrupulously the miracles of the saints; nothing should be believed,
or be proposed to belief, but what is true. But Bossuet said of bad
critics: "They are content, provided they can pass for more subtle
observers than others, and they find themselves sharper, in not giving
credit to so many wonders." The love of truth does not consist in
denying its existence, where so many persons of first-rate genius have
found it; it does not depend on rendering obscure the light it sheds,
nor in giving to the public Lives of Saints accompanied by a dry,
bitter, and licentious criticism, calculated to throw doubt on all
that is extraordinary in them, and thereby to give scandal. The learned
Jesuits, the continuators of Bollandus, show, by the precision of their
researches, that they are sincere lovers of truth, but we do not see
that they endeavor to diminish the number of miracles: "They have no
idea of taking them for fictions; nothing astonishes them in the lives
of the friends of God, provided it be well attested." Father Thomassen,
of the Oratory, in his treatise on the Celebration of Festivals, speaks
of a miraculous event which occurred in the sixth century, and which
is reported by Bollandus, and he adds: "These sorts of miracles are
by no means articles of faith, but nevertheless, they are not to be
rejected by sage and considerate persons. Upon reading the works of
St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, and St. Jerome, and those of
St. Gregory of Nyssa, of St. Basil, and St. Athanasius, we can have
no doubt that these fathers had no difficulty in believing similar
occurrences, similarly attested. St. Augustine, indeed, has related
several much more incredible; and it is greatly to be feared that to
set one's self above the Augustines, the Jeromes, the Gregories, and
the most learned Fathers of the Church, must be the effect of a most
dangerous pride."
It is objected that the multitude is credulous; that it likes the
marvellous, and should not be exposed to believe untruths. But credulity
is far less dangerous than incredulity; the one admits of cure much
easier than the other; the former, in proper limits, may be very useful,
the latter engenders nothing but evil. Some one has said, that the
love of the marvellous is the ancient malady of mankind; it would,
perhaps, be more accurate to say, that it is a remainder of their
original greatness; and that, being created to witness the marvels of
the Divinity, they are impelled, by an interior impulse, to believe
whatsoever seems to them to approach to them, until such, time as their
visions shall be fully gratified. This impulse only becomes a malady
when it receives wonderful things which are absurd, or without any
foundation. Aversion from the marvellous, which has its origin in the
weakness of a mind oppressed by sin, is a much greater malady, and may
have most dangerous consequences, in a wholly marvellous religion which
we must love. These marvels are displeasing in pious narratives, where
they are fully proved, and they are sought for in theatrical
compositions, where they are mere fictions: the distinction is
dishonorable to Christians. Finally, as to the falsehood: What risk
does the pious multitude run, in believing the miracles of the Lives
of the Saints? They find nothing in them which is not proved, or worthy
of belief; nothing but what may very prudently be believed; nothing
but what is edifying; and this, according to St. Augustine, is a
sufficient guarantee from falling into any dangerous credulity.
We should be very dangerously credulous, if we put our faith in false
and deceitful miracles, which only tend to seduce the mind, and corrupt
our belief. We are warned in the Gospel, that "there shall arise false
christs and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders,
insomuch as to deceive (if it be possible) even the elect;" and St.
Paul teaches us that Antichrist, "that man of perdition, will come
according to the working of Satan in all power, and signs, and lying
wonders." The father of lies has often inspired the heretics to produce
miracles, which they have asserted to have been performed by persons
of their party, living or dead, from whence they inferred that God
authorized the doctrines they taught. Ecclesiastical history furnishes
many examples of this, and there are some very recent ones.
But Jesus Christ has furnished us with a sure and infallible rule to
avoid the contagion: it is to hear the Church; it is to consider those
only as true miracles of which she approves, and of which she sanctions
the publication; it is to believe firmly that no one who is in revolt
against the Church will ever perform a miracle favorable to his sect,
whatever appearance of austerity, piety, charity, or sanctity, he may
put on; which St. Thomas bases mainly on this principle: that it is
impossible that God, who alone can give the power of working a true
miracle, shall ever communicate that power to confirm a false doctrine;
from whence it follows, that all the miracles produced by sectarians,
notwithstanding all their evidence, and all their pretended
attestations, must neither be examined nor listened to, and must only
be looked upon as purely natural effects, or as impostures, or as
delusions and diabolical operations. This is the way in which St.
Augustine expresses himself on the subject of the miracles which the
Donatists claimed to have performed, and claimed as evidence in favor
of their schism. Let Catholics, therefore, reject with horror the false
prodigies of sectarians, but let them piously give credit to the
miracles of the saints, without paying attention to the ultra-criticism
which strives to throw doubts upon them; and let them be intimately
persuaded that the Church, which approves of them, has founded that
approval on evidence irreproachable.
The marvels which are found in the Life of St. Francis are perfectly
well attested. That Life was first written by Thomas de Celano, one
of his companions, who was directed by Pope Gregory IX. to compile it,
and who afterwards added a second part on additional memoirs. John or
Thomas de Ceperano, Apostolic Notary, who was a staunch friend of the
Saint, published at the same time what he knew of his actions.
Crescentius de Jesi, General of the Order of the Friars Minors, gave
directions, by circular letters, to collect and transmit to him whatever
had been seen or learnt, relative to the sanctity and miracles of the
blessed Father. He addressed himself particularly to three of his
twelve first companions: Leo, his secretary and his confessor; Angelus
and Rufinus: all three joined in compiling what is called "The Legend
of the Three Companions." The others noted separately what they had
themselves seen, and the things which they had learnt from others.
Saint Bonaventure, being at the head of the Order, was urgently
entreated, by the general chapter, to write the life of their holy
Patriarch. With the intention of learning, with certainty, the truth
of the facts, he went expressly to Assisi, "There," he says, in the
preface to his work, "I had frequent and serious conferences with those
who had been in the confidence of the great man, and who were still
living; and principally with those who were most intimately consociated
with him, and who have become the most faithful imitators of his holy
life, to whose testimony we must undoubtedly give credit, because their
acknowledged sanctity assures us that they have spoken truth." Now,
what can the most exact and severe criticism wish more, in order to
give warranty to the marvels in the Life of St. Francis, than
contemporaries, ocular witnesses, holy persons, his own companions,
who lived with him and enjoyed his confidence?
The legend of Saint Bonaventure was spread everywhere, as soon as it
appeared, and was everywhere highly approved: there are many manuscripts
of it. Lipoman, Bishop of Verona, caused it to be printed in 1556. No
one ever attempted to call its accuracy in question. Octavian quoted
it, in his petition to Pope Sixtus IV. for the canonization of the
holy doctor, in 1482.
The first legends have been preserved in manuscript; the celebrated
annalist of the Order of Friars Minors, Luke Wading, saw them and made
use of them. He was one of the most learned men of his time, and all
other learned men have been loud in his praise, not only on account
of his profound erudition, but because he was so ardent a lover of
truth, which he sought for with great care, and having developed it,
nothing could hinder him from publishing it and committing it to
writing.
The uprightness of his heart was conspicuous on a certain occasion,
which is too honorable to him for us to pass it over in silence. He
had been one of the examiners nominated by Pope Innocent X. to inquire
into the writings of Jansenius, Bishop of Ypres, and he had convinced
himself that the five propositions which appeared to be censurable in
those writings might be tolerably explained in a certain theological
sense. Those who are themselves upright are not easily brought to think
ill of others, particularly in difficult affairs, and they sometimes
endeavor to justify them, through charitable feelings, which are
praiseworthy in principle, but which may have evil consequences, when
a doctrine is in question which has been widely spread, and which is
supported by a cabal. Wading, seeing that the five propositions were
censured by various constitutions of the Pope, made a report on the
whole affair, with the following beautiful declaration, worthy of a
truly Catholic Doctor: "If, before this decision, any one shall have
been of a different opinion (as to the five propositions) on whatever
reasonings, or whatsoever authority of doctrine, he is now obliged to
bend his mind to the yoke of faith, according to the advice of the
apostle. I declare it to be what I do with all my heart, condemning
and anathematizing all the aforesaid propositions, in all and every
sense in which His Holiness has proposed to condemn them, although,
before this decision, I thought they might have been maintained in a
certain sense, in the manner I have explained in the suffrage which
has been just seen."
We may feel assured that a man of this upright character, such a lover
of truth, and, moreover, one of such eminent talents, would not have
made use of the two Legends of Thomas de Celano and that of the Three
Companions, without having ascertained their correctness. Moreover,
the critics of his time, who were particular, and in great numbers,
had it in their power to examine them as those of our times have, also,
since they are still extant in the convent of St. Isidore at Rome.
The first, which was composed under the Pontificate of Gregory IX.,
was quoted by Luke, Bishop of Tuy, when he wrote against the Albigenses,
in 1231. It is to be found in the Abbey of Longpont, of the Order of
Citeaux, in the diocese of Soissons, and in the Abbey of Jouy, of the
same order, in the Diocese of Sens. The Legend of the Three Companions
is in the king's library, at the Recollets of Louvain, and in their
convent at Malines.
These are the principal sources which were consulted by Wading for
writing the Life of St. Francis, which forms part of the first tome
of his Annals. He also consulted the acts and public monuments, the
constant tradition, and some manuscripts of the thirteenth century,
which contain other testimonials from the companions of St. Francis,
and were published by contemporaries who lived with them, who collected
their very words, and who are worthy of credence. But the most
marvellous thing which he relates, relative to the actions of the
Saint, he has taken from the legends, as well as a great number of the
splendid miracles which were operated by his intercession after his
death, and of which Pope Gregory IX. was fully informed, as he declares
in the Bull of Canonization.
All modern authors who have given the Life of St. Francis in various
languages, have adhered mostly to Wading; in this work, also, we have
made a point of following him; and the learned, who have so much esteem
for that great man, will agree that we could not have taken a better
guide. Baillet admits that, among the writers of the Life of St.
Francis, Luke Wading is one of the most careful and most accurate; and
yet he taxes him with not having written methodically, when he adds:
"After all the labors of so many persons, who have been zealous for
his glory, we are still compelled to wish for a methodical history of
his life." Whoever may read the Annals of Wading, and his notes on the
works of St. Francis, will find in them as much method as research and
accuracy; but according to some ultra-critics, it is not considered
writing methodically, when marvels which they dislike are permitted
to find their way into history.
Baillet might have said that it has been long a subject of complaint
that we have not in our language a complete and methodical Life of St.
Francis. This complaint is the more just, as the saint had a particular
liking for France; he had learned the language with so much facility,
and spoke it so readily, that they gave him the name of Francis,
although he was baptized John. Paris was one of the first objects of
his zeal; he would even have gone thither, if a cardinal had not
detained him in Italy for reasons which related to his Order. Not
having it in his power to undertake this mission, which he had much
at heart, he destined for it some of his principal followers.
There are some who affect to think that, in the Lives of the Saints,
their example should alone be proposed to the public, imagining that
the miracles they have performed can nowise contribute to the
edification of souls; and two authors of this century have ventured
to suppress all miracles in the Lives of Saints which they have
published. The Church, nevertheless, causes them to be recited in the
Divine Office, and they are carefully related by the holy fathers;
neither does any author of repute, of the centuries preceding, fail
to bring them forward. In fact, no one can deny that they add great
resplendency to the merits of the saints, and, consequently, give great
weight to the example they afford us. They uphold and increase the
idea we have of the power of God, of His providence, His justice, His
bounty, and His mercy, by which they excite us to glorify, love, and
serve Him; and, in showing His special good-will to His servants, they
induce us to invoke their mediation with confidence. Moreover, miracles
strengthen the faithful in their faith, because, being performed in
the bosom of the Catholic Church, they confirm the truth she teaches.
Now, it is not of less consequence to strengthen faith, than to propose
that which tends to the correction of morals, particularly when
incredulity makes as much progress as licentiousness. Moreover, the
miraculous actions of the saints frequently contain most salutary
instructions, and are always accompanied by virtues which may be
imitated, which will be very apparent in the Life of St. Francis.
Some may, perhaps, think that his virtues are too transcendent for
imitation, and content themselves with admiring them, without gathering
any fruit from them. A celebrated heresiarch admired them in this
manner, in the last century. Bossuet remarks, in his excellent "History
of the Variations," that "Luther reckoned among the saints not only
St. Bernard, but also St. Francis, St. Bonaventure, and others of the
thirteenth century; and that St. Francis, amongst all the rest, appeared
to him to be an admirable character, animated with wonderful fervor
of mind." But the faithful in admiring his virtues, must not think
them not to be imitated, for they consisted in following the Gospel;
and they are all obliged to live according to the precepts of the
Gospel.
REV. CANDIDE CHALIPPE, O.F.M.
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