St. Francis of Paola: a hermit who gathered crowds, a penitent who lived for twenty-four years in the courts, a prophet and wonder-worker who wanted to call himself “the least”.
Gaudium Press English Edition
Newsdesk (12/04/2022 8:16 PM, Gaudium Press) A curious event was shaking the town of Paola that night: a mysterious tongue of fire, accompanied by angelic melodies, hovering over Giacomo D’Alessio’s modest hovel.
Nobody knew what it meant, but it seemed to be an omen. Everything would become clear nine months later.
The dawn of a great vocation
Providence demanded of Giacomo D’Alessio and Vienna di Fuscaldo the hard test of not having any descendants. The couple then decided they would do violence to Heaven.
Pilgrims to Assisi, they begged St. Francis to give them a son. Shortly after their return to Paola, the enigmatic event described above occurred.
Finally, on March 27, 1416, Giacomo’s home again became the town’s attraction: friends and relatives flocked there to meet the newborn, who was named Francis in honour of the Saint of Assisi.
Giacomo and Vienna, remembering that phenomenon, understood that God had given them an unusual heir. To confirm the predilection that He had for the child, Providence wanted to mark him with the glory of suffering.
When he was still very young, he was stricken with an abscess in his eye that threatened to make him blind. Once again, the pious mother went to the feet of the Father of Assisi and promised to offer her son as an oblate for a year, as soon as he was able to do so.
Mysteriously, on her return to Paola, she felt taken by a great tranquility and certainty of having been attended to; from then on the child was healed, leaving only a small scar as a witness to the fact, until the end of his life.
A peculiar way of living
When Francis was about thirteen years old, Vienna decided that he was ready to be given over to God’s service and presented him to the Franciscan Friary of San Marco Argentano.
When his oblate year was over, Francis returned to his childhood home, but shortly thereafter set out again, accompanied by his parents, on a long pilgrimage that would take in Rome, Assisi, Loreto, Monteluco, and Montecassino. It was on this trip that he discerned, at last, his peculiar mission.
He would return to Paola, but not to his father’s house; his abode would be the caves in the vicinity, where he would live as a hermit. Clad in sackcloth and girded with a rough rope, the young anchorite thus began the period of retreat in which God would forge his soul for the struggles that would come in the future.
His example did not delay in attracting other vocations: after only five years, numerous huts sprang up around Paola, inhabited by ascetics who conformed to the rule of life established by the virtuous man of God and followed his advice.
In a short time, the “hermits of Friar Francis” inspired the creation of new communities in the then Kingdom of Naples, and the fame of the hermit began to spread throughout Europe.
The constitution of the Order of the Minims, however, would not take place without obstacles. In 1467, learning of the curious lifestyle led by these religious, Pope Paul II sent Bishop Baldassare of Gutrossis to Calabria as his legate.
When he arrived at the saint’s rough dwelling, the prelate asked for an audience, which was promptly granted. He then informed the monk that the way of life he imposed on his disciples “was not compatible with the weakness of our nature” and, therefore, was “disapproved by the most prudent people” of the time.
He concluded his exposition by saying that he should change the behavior of his followers. Francis, silent, merely went to the brazier where they were both warming themselves and, taking a handful of burning coals in his hands, said, “Look, Your Eminence: for those who love God, everything is possible!“
The prelate took his leave in astonishment, kissing the wonder-worker’s tunic.
Years later, the holy founder worked hard to draw up a rule that would govern his Order throughout the centuries.
He wrote it among many prayers and penances, leaving well outlined the “perpetual Lenten” lifestyle that defines the charism of the Minims. The growing expansion of the Order soon made it necessary to establish a feminine and a tertiary branch.
Uncommon wonder-worker, example of humility
God wanted to fill him with the gift of performing miracles. In a short time his singular charisma became known, which he always exercised with picturesque simplicity: sometimes he passed unharmed through the flames to repair a furnace; sometimes he made fire appear when he needed to light a lamp.
When some workers stole a lamb that belonged to him, in order to roast it, he did not hesitate to take it out of the oven intact; while on another occasion, when he was offered some fish, he politely answered that he did not want them, and threw them into the water, bringing them back to life…
Naturally, such prodigious power, although used with humility, did not take long to arouse envy. A priest named Antonio Scozzetta began to denigrate him from the pulpit and, not content with this, went to the Saint’s cell to insult him.
Francis welcomed him serenely and listened to the discomposure, then went to the brazier, took some embers and approached the visitor, saying: “Out of charity, my good priest, warm yourself, for you must be very cold. For the rest, nothing can prevent the fulfillment of God’s will.
Terrified by the fire rising from the hermit’s hands, the detractor had no other response than to bow down and, kneeling at his feet, ask for forgiveness. These prodigies, added to the numerous healings of paralytics, lepers, the blind, deaf, and dumb, as well as the resurrections and exorcisms, made some potentates want to have him by their side.
Friar Francis was now to go to the courts to continue his apostolate.
The voice of God resounds in the courts
When Francis arrived at the court of King Ferrante of Naples in 1482, the monarch immediately tried to mitigate his reproaches by buying him gifts.
One day he offered him a silver tray filled with gold coins for the man of God to build a convent, to which the latter replied:
“Your Majesty, your people are oppressed; discontent is general; the flattery of the courtiers prevents the cries of so many misfortunes from reaching your august throne. Remember, Your Majesty, that God put the scepter in your hands to seek the happiness and well-being of the vassals, and not to satisfy your excessive cravings for pride and vanity. Do you believe that there is no hell for those who rule?
And he urged him firmly:
“I adjure you, Your Majesty, to immediately amend your conduct and improve your government. If you do not re-establish order, peace and justice in your people – I must tell you on God’s part – your throne will collapse and your lineage will soon become extinct!”
To confirm his words, the Saint took a coin and, squeezing it, made blood flow from it. Then he continued, “Behold, Your Majesty: the blood of your subjects cries out for vengeance before God!”
Apparently, the fact was not enough to change the wicked heart of the king, whose lineage was extinguished while St. Francis was still alive.
The miracle that nobody expected
The reaction of another sovereign, Louis XI of France, was different.
On the Pope’s mandate, Francis went there in 1483. They prepared a grand procession to welcome him, but the hermit entered the country with a low profile, and when he reached the royal castle, he chose a nearby hut as his quarters.
– Prolong my life, O priest! – pleaded, with emotion, the king.
– The life of kings, Your Majesty,” answered St. Francis, “like that of any of your vassals, is in God’s hands. Put your conscience and your state in order.”
A great miracle began to take place, greater than a cure, greater even than a resurrection. The monarch, who for long years had lived away from the fear of God, was reconciled with the Creator and delivered his spirit to Him on August 30th, 1483, begging, “Our Lady, my good Mother, help me!”
The Hermit of Paola remained still in France as an influential advisor during the regency of Anne, daughter of Louis XI, and in the reign of Charles VIII. He also guided the King of Spain, Ferdinand the Catholic, in some matters, especially regarding the wars of the Reconquista and the expansion of the Faith in the New World.
However, he was yet to accomplish one last glorious work in the lands of the Church’s Firstborn Daughter: to uphold the fidelity of Princess Joan of Valois, “the unloved daughter of Louis XI and the despised wife of Louis XII, founder of the Order of the Annunciation.“
A watershed prophecy
The figure of this incomparable man of God would not be well understood if we failed to mention, finally, the eminent gift of prophecy with which he was graced.
Perhaps the most famous of these prophecies is the one contained in a series of letters dated between the years 1482 and 1496, in which the Saint tells a certain Simon de la Limena, benefactor of the Order of the Minims, what Providence had revealed to him about a mysterious congregation, the Holy Cross-Bearers of Jesus Christ, which would arise in future times.
It is, says St. Francis, “a new Religious Order, very necessary, which will do more good to the world than all the others put together. The founder of the Minims exclaims about it: “O Holy Cross-Bearers, chosen of the Most High, how pleasing you will be to the great God, much more than the people of Israel were! […] O holy people! O blessed people of the Holy Trinity! Victor shall your founder be called, for he shall overcome the world, the flesh, and the devil.”
“Praised be Jesus Christ, for He has deigned to give me, an unworthy and poor sinner, the spirit of prophecy in a very clear way, and not obscurely, as He has given it to other servants of His. I know that unbelievers and reprobates will ridicule and reject my letters, but they will be received by faithful Catholic souls who aspire to the Holy Paradise. […] Through these letters it will be known who belongs to Our Lord Jesus Christ and who does not belong to Him, who is predestined and who is a reprobate.
Beacon of light that time will never extinguish
Lent of 1507 came to announce to the Saint his encounter with God. Feeling his strength dwindling, he recommended his sons to be faithful to the rule, and gave them a final show of humility: he insisted on washing their feet on Holy Thursday.
On Good Friday, April 2, he entrusted himself to the Redeemer and his Blessed Mother, to whom he surrendered his soul at ten o’clock in the morning. He left behind him ninety-one years of countless examples of virtue, and thirty-three convents founded in four nations of Europe.
In 1562, fifty-five years after his entrance into Heaven, the Huguenots invaded the Convent of Plessis, where his incorrupt body was located, and mercilessly set fire to it. Only a few bones were salvaged.
However, the beacon of light that the holy founder of the Minims shed on the future will never be extinguished by time or the hatred of the infidels.
By Daniel Vinicius Almeida da Paixão
Text adapted from the magazine Heralds of the Gospel n. 232, April 2021.
