On May 19th, the Church celebrates the memory of Saint Crispin of Viterbo. He exercised the most humble functions in the various convents where he lived, leaving a trail of joy wherever he went, because he loved God and his contentment was to be united with Him.
Newsroom (21/05/2023 20:37, Gaudium Press) He came into the world on November 13, 1668, in Viterbo, a city then belonging to the Papal States, and two days later was baptized in the Church of St. John the Baptist, taking the name of his grandfather: Peter. His parents, Ubaldo and Marzia Fioretti, were of humble means, but highly respected for their dignified and pious conduct.
When Peter was still a very young child, his father passed away, but not before entrusting his brother Francisco with the little boy’s education. Marzia, for her part, tried to give him a thorough religious and moral education.
When he was five years old, she took him on a pilgrimage to the Shrine of Santa Maria della Quercia, to consecrate him to Our Lady. When they arrived there, they both knelt before the beautiful image and the mother said to her son: “Do you see? This is your Mother, and I now entrust you to Her. Try always to love her with all your heart and honor her as your Lady. 2 These words struck such a deep chord in the boy’s soul that, until the end of his life, he never failed to address the Blessed Virgin without calling her “Mother and Lady.”
Better a thin saint than a strong sinner
From his earliest childhood, one of his biographers comments, Peter showed himself to have an extremely docile and pleasant temperament, accompanied by a contagious joy, qualities that “showed the most advantageous predispositions to advance in the ways of virtue and presaged his future sanctity.”
With a little more age, he acquired the habit of making sacrifices and penances. He fasted on bread and water on Saturdays and at the vigils of the feasts of Our Lady – and continued to do so as an adult – even when he was ill. Seeing the child always thin and in poor health, Uncle Francis told Marzia with rude frankness that the child was “good for raising chickens, and not children, because Peter did not grow because he did not eat.”
Concerned, the uncle started to personally watch over Peter’s diet. He soon discovered that the problem lay in the young boy’s spirit of sacrifice, and not in the lack of food. So he apologized to his sister-in-law, telling her: “Let him do what he wants, after all, it’s better to have a thin saint at home than a strong sinner.”
When he was ten years old, he was already helping as an altar boy at Holy Masses and other sacristan duties. At this time he went to study grammar with the Jesuit priests and worked as a shoemaker together with his uncle Francisco, a trade he exercised until he was 25. With the money he earned he used to buy the best and most beautiful flowers in the city market to lay them at the feet of his “Mother and Lady”.
“Why do you cry, my mother?”
In 1693 a terrible drought devastated a large part of Italy. The inhabitants of Viterbo made a penitential procession to implore God for mercy, and the young shoemaker made a point of taking part. On the way, he met some friars in brown habits, who walked and prayed with modesty and angelic composure. They were sons of St. Francis of Assisi, and their virtuous appearance awakened in the boy’s soul the desire to follow religious life.
Confident that he had found his vocation, he asked the Father Provincial to be accepted into one of the communities of the order. After examining him, the superior gave him a letter of admission and sent him to the novitiate in Palanzana. Peter showed it to his acquaintances and family, saying: “Goodbye homeland, goodbye relatives, goodbye friends, goodbye everyone. Now I am a son of the Seraphic Patriarch and my place is among the Capuchin lay brothers”.6 Such was his joy that no one dared dissuade him from becoming a religious. However, they suggested in vain that he enter a less austere order, where he could follow the priestly path.
Seeing his mother crying, distressed by his departure, she said to him with great respect: “Why are you crying, my mother? Didn’t you consecrate me to God and the Blessed Virgin when I was only five years old? How is it that now you want to keep with you what you gave? The donation was made freely and spontaneously, and with my consent. Therefore, it is necessary to fulfill it and resign”.
A frail young man in austere Capuchin life
Full of joy, he gathered his belongings and left for the novitiate, in the company of four other young men related to him. On the way, the devil tried to hinder him in various ways. At a certain point along the way, a ferocious mastiff advanced straight at him. Without hesitating, he had recourse to the help of the Blessed Virgin, and the animal stopped, as if prevented by a powerful hand, and slipped into a vineyard, disappearing from his sight.
On July 4 of that year, 1693, they arrived at the convent of Palanzana. The master of novices, seeing Peter’s shriveled physique, concluded that he was not able to bear the austerities of the Capuchin rule, and decided to reject him. Peter threw himself at his feet and begged him to receive him. In the end, after passing several trials, the young man managed to be admitted.
On the feast of St. Mary Magdalene, July 22, he donned the habit of St. Francis and, according to the custom of religious orders, adopted a new name: Brother Crispim, in honor of the martyr St. Crispim, patron saint of shoemakers.
His first occupation was tending the convent’s vegetable garden, together with other lay brothers. He readily accepted the task and worked for four or five hours under the sun, with greater commitment and strength than the others, despite his frail physical condition. It was edifying for everyone to see him perform his tasks, no matter how arduous they were, not only without complaint, but even with joy.
“Friar Swallow of the Lord”
Seeing him more mature in his vocation, the master of novices gave him a new task: to accompany the brother questor. Crispim showed unusual virtues and a remarkable evangelizing spirit.
Before leaving the convent, he would sing the hymn Ave Maris Stella and leave with rosary in hand. On the way, he catechized those he met, obtaining from many people a real change of life.
In a short time, the young religious became known in the neighborhood. Many people came to him to give him their donations, asking in exchange for another even more valuable “alms”: his words and prayers. He answered each one with an unparalleled innocence; sometimes he told the person concerned to come back in a little while, because first he had to talk to his “Mother and Lady”.
The confidence he aroused in his interlocutors was such that many left his presence certain that they had already obtained the desired grace. So much so that the piety of those who were benefited led them to cut off pieces of his cloak to keep as relics.
Once a professed brother, of great kindness and simplicity, noticed in a corner of the convent a nest of swallows and observed with great amazement how joyfully the couple struggled to feed their young. Associating that image with the joy with which Br Crispim toiled to provide for the needs of his brothers in the habit, he nicknamed him “Friar Andorinha do Senhor” (Swallow of the Lord).
Trials and work during the novitiate
In the midst of his duties, our Saint did not abandon corporal penances and mortifications, in which he found supernatural strength to overcome the insufficiencies of human nature. Now, as it usually happens, the devil took advantage of this to tempt him to lose heart.
The infernal enemy instilled in him thoughts that he was doing penance for self-love and not to be expelled from the order, and therefore, it was not the love of God that moved him, but selfishness. So great were the trials that, although he never fell into a bad sadness, his physiognomy changed: he reflected the concern for thinking that he was displeasing Our Lord and His Most Holy Mother.
Realizing the diabolical plot, the novice master and his confessor gave him a formal order, in the name of holy obedience, to refuse immediately such scruples coming from the devil. Friar Crispin obeyed and soon recovered his peace of soul, recovering the serenity of his countenance.
All the novices held him up as a model of religious perfection and fraternal charity. So much so that the master of novices himself said to his subordinates: “Do as Br. Crispim does”
On one occasion, a friar was stricken with tuberculosis. Fearing that the other brothers might catch the disease, the superiors decided to keep him separated from the community. It was necessary to assign him a good nurse. Knowing of the charity and promptness of Friar Crispim, they entrusted him with this responsibility. The young man dedicated himself with such love and care to the sick brother that the latter exclaimed, “Brother Crispin is not a novice, but an Angel!”
Performing the humblest of trades
Having made his perpetual profession, Br. Crispim was appointed cook of the convent of Tolfa and went there. Upon his arrival, the atmosphere in the kitchen changed radically. He erected a small altar there with an image of the Blessed Virgin, to whom he addressed continuous prayers, and he applied to practical things St. Bernard’s maxim: poverty must never exclude cleanliness. All who entered these premises were edified by the order and good disposition that reigned in such a prosaic part of the convent.
There were several other convents that the Saint spent his fifty years of religious life in: Monterotondo, Rome, Albano and Orvieto. In each of them he performed the simplest duties, with singular humility and unpretentiousness. Whatever the function he received, joy and a supernatural spirit never left him. And not a few were the miracles he worked while he was still alive, such as healing several sick people during an epidemic that raged in Italy, just by touching them or tracing over them the sign of the Cross with his medal of Our Lady.
Prelates, nobles, and wise men came to him to beg for healing from the plague, or just to smell the good odor of sanctity that his person exuded. Cardinal de Tremoglie, Minister of France, was cured of a serious illness by eating a special funghi that the Saint had given him, after presenting it to the Blessed Virgin for this purpose. Even Pope Clement XI himself took delight in conversing with him and would go to Albano to pick him up when he resided there.
The peace and joy of a good conscience
In 1750, even though his health was very weak and he was already bedridden, his usual joy did not leave him. He had returned to the convent in Rome, and not wanting to disturb the celebration of the memorial of St. Felix of Cantalice, a Capuchin of his devotion who had been canonized a few decades earlier, Brother Crispim told the infirmarian that he would die only after the two days dedicated to his memory at that time: May 17th and 18th. And, in fact, he did: the Lord took him away on the 19th, at the age of 82.
A veritable multitude came to his funeral. Everyone was begging for graces or trying to obtain some relic. The miracles did not take long to multiply. In the hearts of many of his devotees, certainly, resounded a phrase that he repeated when asked to define sanctity: “Whoever loves God with purity of heart, lives happily and dies contentedly.” Esta frase bem resume toda a sua vida!
In fact, only he who fulfills his mission is capable of genuine joy, because he is at peace with God. He carries in his soul, teaches Msgr. João Scognamiglio Clá Dias, “the true peace, that of the good conscience of one who practices virtue and turns his back on sin.”
By Ir. Clotilde Thaliane Neuburger, EP
(in “Revista Arautos do Evangelho” – Maio/2016, n. 173, pp. 30 a 33)
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