1640 St Jean François
Regis Confessor of the Society of Jesus: True virtue, or Christian
perfection, consists not in great or shining actions, but resides in the
heart, and appears to great edification, though in the usual train of common
and religious duties constantly performed fidelity and fervor.
Such a life has its trials, and
often a severer martyrdom than that which stands the test of the flames.
This we find in the life of the holy servant of God, John Francis Regis.
ST JOHN FRANCIS REGIS (A.D. 1640)
ST JOHN FRANCIS REGIS was born in 1597 at Fontcouverte, in the diocese of
Narbonne, of a family that had recently emerged from the bourgeoisie into
the ranks of the small landed gentry. He was educated at the Jesuit college
of Beziers, and in 1615 sought admittance into the Society of Jesus. His
conduct from the time he was allowed to begin his noviciate was exemplary:
so marked was his severity towards himself and his tenderness towards others
that it was said that he vilified himself beyond measure but canonized everyone
else. The first year of noviciate ended, he passed on to follow courses of
rhetoric and philosophy at Cahors and Tournon. Whilst at Tournon, every Sunday
and holiday, he accompanied the father who served the little town of Andance,
and through the catechetical instructions he gave when the priest was hearing
confessions he gained a wonderful influence not only over the children but
also over their elders. He was then only twenty-two years of age.
In 1628 he was sent to Toulouse to begin his theology course.
A companion who shared his room at this time informed the superior that Regis
spent the greater part of the night at prayer in the chapel. The reply he
received was prophetic; "Take care not to disturb his devotions", said Father
Francis Tarbes, "nor to hinder his communion with God. He is a saint; and
if I am not greatly mistaken, the Society will some day celebrate a feast
in his honour." In 1631 he was ordained, and on Trinity Sunday, June 15,
he celebrated his first Mass. His superiors had already destined him for
the missionary work that was to occupy the last ten years of his life: beginning
in Languedoc, it was to extend throughout the Vivarais, and to end in the
Velay, of which Le Puy was the capital. The summers were spent in the towns,
but the winter months were to be devoted to the villages and the countryside.
He may be said to have initiated his campaign in the autumn of that same
year, 1631, by a mission which he conducted in the Jesuit church at Montpellier.
Unlike the formal rhetorical sermons of the day, his discourses were plain-even
homely-but so eloquently expressive of the fervour that burnt within him
that they attracted enormous congregations, drawn from all classes. He addressed
himself particularly to the poor: the rich, he was wont to say, never lack
confessors. He would himself convey to his humble protégés
any comforts he could procure for them, and when warned that he was making
himself ridiculous he retorted, "So much the better: we are doubly blest
if we can relieve a poor brother at the expense of our dignity." His mornings
were spent in the confessional, at the altar and in the pulpit: the afternoons
he devoted to prisons and hospitals. Very often he was so busy that he forgot
to take his meals. Before he left Montpellier he had converted several Huguenots
and many lax Catholics, he had formed a committee of ladies to look after
prisoners, and had reclaimed a number of women from a life of sin. To the
critics who contended that the penitence of such rescue cases is seldom sincere,
he replied, "If my efforts do no more than to hinder one sin I shall consider
them well expended." After Montpellier he made his temporary headquarters
at Sommières, from whence he penetrated into the most out-of-the-way
places, winning the confidence of the people by talking to them and instructing
them in their own patois.
His success at Montpellier and Sommières prompted Mgr
de la Baume, bishop of Viviers, to apply for the services of Father Regis
and of another Jesuit to help him in his diocese. No part of France had suffered
more as the result of prolonged civil and religious strife than the wild,
mountainous regions of south-eastern France known as the Vivarais and the
Velay. Law and order seemed to have disappeared, the poverty-stricken peasantry
were lapsing into savagery, and the nobles were often no better than brigands.
Absentee prelates and negligent priests had allowed the churches to fall
into ruin, whole parishes having been deprived of the sacraments for twenty
years or more. A considerable proportion of the inhabitants, indeed, were
traditionally Calvinist, but their Protestantism in many cases was a mere
party badge, and in laxity of morals and indifference to religion there was
little to choose between Catholics and Protestants. With the help of his
Jesuit assistants Bishop de la Baume undertook a thorough visitation of his
diocese, and Father Regis went everywhere a day or two in advance of him,
conducting a kind of mission. It proved the beginning of a three-years' ministry,
during the course of which he succeeded in effectively bringing back religious
observance, as well as in converting a great number of Protestants.
That such a vigorous campaign should remain unopposed was scarcely to be
expected, and in fact there was actually a moment when those who resented
his activities were on the point of obtaining his recall. He himself never
said a word in his own defence; but the bishop's eyes were opened in time
to the baselessness of the charges that had been made against him. About
this time Father Regis made the first of several unsuccessful applications
to be sent on the Canadian mission to the North American Indians. His superiors
were no doubt satisfied with the work he was doing in France, but he always
regarded it as a punishment for his sins that he was not allowed the chance
of winning the crown of martyrdom. So instead he extended his missions to
the wildest and most desolate part of all that highland district, a region
where no man went unarmed, and where the winters were rigorous in the extreme.
On one occasion he was held up by a snow-drift for three weeks, with only
a little bread to eat and with the bare ground for a bed.
Graphic and touching descriptions of those expeditions are to be found
in the depositions for the saint's canonization furnished by those who could
still remember them. "After the mission I did not recognize my own parishioners,
so completely had he reformed them", stated the curè of Marlhes. "No
cold, no snow-blocked path, no mountains, no rain-swollen torrent could stop
him. His fervour inspired others with courage, for wherever he went countless
multitudes followed him and came out to bid him welcome, in spite of danger
and difficulties. I have seen him stop in the middle of a forest to satisfy
a crowd who wished to hear him. I have seen him stand all day on a heap of
snow at the top of a mountain instructing and preaching, and then spend the
whole night hearing confessions." Another witness had been passing through
the district when he noticed a procession winding its way in the distance.
"It is the saint", he was told, "and the people are following." As he entered
the town of Saint-Andre he came upon a huge crowd assembled in front of the
church. "We are waiting for the saint", was the explanation he received.
"He is coming to give us a mission." Men and women would walk a dozen leagues
or more to seek him, confident that however late they might arrive Father
Regis would always be ready to minister to them. He, on his part, would often
set off to visit a distant hamlet at three o'clock in the morning with a
few apples in his pocket. Never did he fail to keep an appointment. Once
he had stumbled and broken his leg: nevertheless, with the help of a stick
and the shoulder of his companion, he arrived at his destination and entered
the confessional as though nothing had happened. When after his day's work
was over he submitted himself to a medical examination, the leg was found
to be healed.
The four last years of the saint's life were spent in Velay.
All through the summer he worked in Le Puy, where the Jesuit church proved
too small for congregations which often numbered four or five thousand. His
influence reached all classes and brought about a very real and lasting spiritual
revival. He established and organized a complete social service with prison
visitors, sick-nurses and guardians of the poor drawn from his women penitents.
With the help of money freely given to him by the well-to-do he set up a
granary for the poor, and a refuge for women and girls who had been leading
sinful lives. This last enterprise involved him in many difficulties. Evil
men, robbed of their victims, assaulted him and blackened his character,
whilst some of his own brethren questioned his prudence. For a short time
his activities were checked by an over-timorous superior, and Father Regis
made no attempt to justify himself; but God, who exalts the humble, was pleased
to set the seal of His approval upon His servant by granting him the gift
of miracles. Numerous cures were wrought by him, including the restoration
of sight to a boy, and to a middle-aged man who had been blind for eight
years. In a time of dearth, when many demands upon his granary had to be
satisfied, the store of corn was three times miraculously renewed-to the
utter bewilderment of the good woman who had been left in charge.
The work went on until the autumn of 1640, when St John Francis
seems to have realized that his days were numbered. He had to give a mission
at La Louvesc towards the end of Advent. Before doing so he made a three-days'
retreat at the college of Le Puy and settled a few small debts. On the eve
of his departure he was invited to stay on until the semi-annual renewal
of vows, but replied: "The Master does not wish it. He wishes me to leave
to-morrow," adding," I shall not be back for the renewal of vows: my companion
will." They set out in appalling weather, lost their way, and were overtaken
by night in the woods. They were obliged to rest in a ruined house open to
the piercing wind, and Father Regis, already completely exhausted, contracted
pleurisy. Nevertheless, the next morning he managed to crawl to La Louvesc,
where he opened his mission. He preached three times on Christmas day, three
times on St Stephen's day, and spent the rest of those days in the tribunal
of penance. At the close of the last address when he again entered the confessional
he fainted twice. He was carried to the cure's house and was found to be
dying. On December 31, during the whole day, he kept his eyes on the crucifix:
in the evening he suddenly exclaimed, "Brother! I see our Lord and His Mother
opening Heaven for me!" Then with the words: "Into Thy hands I commend my
spirit", he passed to his eternal reward. He was forty-three years of age.
His body remains to this day at La Louvesc, where he died, and his tomb is
annually visited by some fifty thousand pilgrims from every part of France.
It was such a pilgrimage to La Louvesc that St John Vianney, the Cure d'
Ars, made in 1806: he ascribed to St Francis Regis the realization of his
vocation to the priesthood.
There are many excellent lives
of St John Francis Regis (who was canonized in 1737) especially in French.
The biography by C. de la Broüe, printed ten years after his death has
a special charm, but much fuller detail is available in more modern works,
especially those of de Curley and L. J. M. Cros. An excellent short life
is that of J. Vianney in the series "Les Saints". See also L. Pize, La
perpetuelle mission de St jean François Regis (1924); the admirable
account by Fr Van Ortroy in the Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. viii. pp. 464-465,
and that by Fr Martindale which forms a chapter of his little book, In God's
Army.
June 16, 2010 St. John Francis Regis (1597-1640)
Born into a family of some wealth, John Francis was so impressed by his Jesuit
educators that he himself wished to enter the Society of Jesus. He did so
at age 18. Despite his rigorous academic schedule he spent many hours in
chapel, often to the dismay of fellow seminarians who were concerned about
his health. Following his ordination to the priesthood, he undertook missionary
work in various French towns. While the formal sermons of the day tended
toward the poetic, his discourses were plain. But they revealed the fervor
within him and attracted people of all classes. Father Regis especially made
himself available to the poor. Many mornings were spent in the confessional
or at the altar celebrating Mass; afternoons were reserved for visits to
prisons and hospitals.
The Bishop of Viviers, observing the success of Father Regis in communicating
with people, sought to draw on his many gifts, especially needed during the
prolonged civil and religious strife then rampant throughout France. With
many prelates absent and priests negligent, the people had been deprived
of the sacraments for 20 years or more. Various forms of Protestantism were
thriving in some cases while a general indifference toward religion was evident
in other instances. For three years Father Regis traveled throughout the
diocese, conducting missions in advance of a visit by the bishop. He succeeded
in converting many people and in bringing many others back to religious observances.
Though Father Regis longed to work as a missionary among the North American
Indians in Canada, he was to live out his days working for the Lord in the
wildest and most desolate part of his native France. There he encountered
rigorous winters, snowdrifts and other deprivations. Meanwhile, he continued
preaching missions and earned a reputation as a saint. One man, entering
the town of Saint-Andé, came upon a large crowd in front of a church
and was told that people were waiting for "t he saint" who was coming to
preach a mission.
The last four years of his life were spent preaching and in organizing social
services, especially for prisoners, the sick and the poor. In the autumn
of 1640, Father Regis sensed that his days were coming to a conclusion. He
settled some of his affairs and prepared for the end by continuing to do
what he did so well: speaking to the people about the God who loved them.
On December 31, he spent most of the day with his eyes on the crucifix. That
evening, he died. His final words were: "Into thy hands I commend my spirit."
He was canonized in 1737.
He was born on the 31st of January, in 1597, at Foncouverte, a village in
the diocese of Narbonne in Languedoc. His parents, John Regis, who was descended
from a younger branch of the noble house of Deplas, in Rovergue, and Magdalen
Darcis, daughter to the lord of Segur, were distinguished amongst the nobility
of Lower Languedoc by their virtue.
Their eldest son was killed in the siege of Villemur, in a rally made by
the Huguenot garrison. Francis was one of the youngest brothers.
At five years of age he fainted away hearing his mother speak of the horrible
misfortune of being eternally damned; which discourse made a lasting impression
on his tender heart. In his childhood he never discovered any inclination
to the amusements of that age. The same disposition made him refuse at his
school to join his companions in the innocent diversions of an age generally
too eager for play.
His first master was one of a morose, hasty temper, under whom this modest
and bashful child had much to suffer; all which he bore without the least
complaint.
The Jesuits having opened a public school at Beziers, he was one of the first
whom the reputation of its professors drew to the new college. His gravity
increased with his years, nor was he to be seen in the beautiful walks which
were chiefly crowded by his school fellows. Avaricious of his time, he scarcely
allowed himself any for necessary relaxation. Sundays and holidays were a
most precious time to him, and he divided them entirely between pious reading
and devotions at home and in the church.
He was often seen on those days
retired in a chapel and bathed in tears in the presence of Jesus Christ,
the tender object of his affections. His conduct made him for some time the
subject of his young companions' score and railleries; which his constancy
changed at last into veneration. He performed many exercises in honor of
the Blessed Virgin, with a particular confidence in her patronage, especially
after he was enrolled in a confraternity under her name erected in the Jesuits
college. He had a singular devotion to his good angel, and improved every
escape from any danger into a motive of redoubling his fervor and gratitude
towards God.
By the influence of his holy example, and by his religious discourses,
which were animated with a peculiar unction and divine fire, he inflamed
many of his companions with the love of virtue, and reclaimed several from
dangerous courses. Six of the most fervent associated themselves with him
in the same lodgings, and formed a kind of regular seminary, looking upon
him as their living rule, and honoring him as a saint and their master in
a spiritual life.
In the eighteenth year of his age he was visited with a dangerous
sickness, under which his patience and piety moved exceedingly all that came
to see him. Soon after his recovery he made a spiritual retreat to deliberate
on the choice of a state of life; and finding in his heart a strong impulse
to devote himself to labor in procuring the salvation of souls in the Society
of Jesus, and being confirmed by the advice of his confessor that this desire
was a call of God, he earnestly begged to be admitted, and was readily received
by F. Francis Suarez, provincial of the Jesuits, then at Beziers, upon his
visitation of that college.
The postulant entered his noviceship with great joy at Toulouse,
in the nineteenth year of his age, on the 8th of December, 1616. Here being
no longer divided between study and prayer, he gave himself to so close a
union with God as to seem to he never without attention to his presence.
His punctual exactness and fervor in the minutes actions and duties, raised
them all to a great value: and by the excellence and purity of his motives,
they became steps to an eminent into nor perfection. Here he laid the
deep foundation of those virtues which formed his distinguishing character
during his whole life, humility,
contempt of the world, holy
hatred of himself, charity to the poor, and love of God, and zeal for his glory.
The meanest employs were his delight, such as the most humbling
duties of a religious state, to wait at table, and cleanse the house: also
to make the beds, and dress the sores of the poorest and most loathsome patients
in the hospital, where he considered Jesus Christ in his most afflicted members.
He was as austere to himself as he was tender to others, which made his companions
say, that he was his own eternal persecutor. He seemed never to do anything
to indulge his senses, which he studied to curb and mortify. The spirit
of prayer accompanied all his actions. The interior fire of his breast appeared
in his looks.
He was often seen at the foot
of the altar without motion as in a kind of rapture; and he spoke of God
with such a feeling unction, that he inspired all that heard him with his
holy love, and excited the most tepid to fervor.
After two years of probation,
he made his religious vows in 1618, and was then sent to Cahors to finish
his rhetoric, and the following year to Tournon to perform his course of
philosophy; but to preserve the fire of devotion in his heart under the dissipation
of those studies, he joined to them frequent visits of the blessed sacrament,
pious reading, and set times of holy recollection, though he made even his
studies a continuation of his commerce with God, in a continual recourse
to him by devout aspirations. Such was his fidelity in every action, that
his superiors attested they never observed in him the least breach of any
college duty; which procured him the name of the angel of the college.
Desiring to form himself principally to the sacred function of
teaching the poor the ways of salvation he undertook, by his superior's consent,
the charge of instructing the menial servants, and the poor of the town of
Tournon, to whom he distributed the alms of the college. On Sundays
and holidays he preached in the adjacent villages, and summoned the children
to catechism with a little bell. The little township of Andance having the
happiness to fall under his particular care, it quite changed its face: the
saint's zeal soon banished out of it drunkenness licentiousness, and swearing,
restored the frequent use of the sacraments and established there first the
confraternity of the blessed sacrament, the rules of which this holy man,
then only two-and-twenty years old, but full of the spirit of devotion, drew
up, and which was afterwards propagated to other places. He regulated families,
composed differences, and reformed all manner of irregularities: such was
the authority which his sanctity and holy prudence procured him.
Having finished his course of philosophy in 1621, he was sent
to teach the schools of humanity at Billom, Auch, and Puy; in which employ
he spared no application for the assistance of his scholars, both in their
studies and in exciting them to virtue, loving them as a tender mother does
her children, and being beloved and reverenced by them as a saint.
He was particularly diligent in procuring them all relief in sickness,
and by his prayers obtained the sudden recovery of one whose life was despaired
of but he was most sensible to their spiritual infirmities.
Being informed
of a grievous sin committed by one of them, he burst into a torrent of tears,
and after a short recollection, he made, in the transport that had seized
him, so pathetic a discourse to his scholars on the severity of God's judgments,
that the terrors with which it struck their minds never forsook them their
whole lives after, as several of them used to say.
The edifying example, simplicity,
humility, modesty, and penitential air of the master, was a most moving and
continual sermon to them; and such was the powerful influence it had, that
they were visibly distinguished from others by the regularity of their lives.
To solicit the blessings of heaven for them he always spent some
time at the foot of the altar before he entered the school, and implored
the assistance of their angel guardians in their behalf.
His union with God was perpetual;
and from hence flowed his other virtues, particularly his saintly exterior
comportment. To animate himself in spirit, notwithstanding the fatigues of
his employment, he added many other devotions to the daily hour's meditation,
and other prayers enjoined by the rules of the society. He often begged leave
of the superior to make extraordinary communions, besides those that were
regular in the house; and having obtained it, broke out in transports of
joy, which testified his insatiable desire of, and the great comfort he received
from that divine food. He prepared himself to receive it by private austerities
and public humiliations, and by spending a great part of the night before
in the church. On Sundays and holidays he continued to instruct the
poor people with wonderful unction and fruit, and even in his familiar conversation
turned all to some spiritual advantage. After he had taught the
lower classes seven years; two at Billom, one at Auch, and four at Puy; he
began the study of divinity at Toulouse, in 1628, in which, by his assiduity
and the pregnancy of his wit, he made an uncommon progress; yet, out of a
fear of applause, he sought to make himself contemptible by an affected simplicity
and pretended ignorance.
In the vacation, at the time which the students spent in their
country-house for the necessary relaxation of their mind, Regis withdrew
into private places
to converse with God almost the whole day; and in the night, after a short
sleep, he arose and stole secretly into the domestic chapel; which
a companion having discovered, and informed the superior thereof, he received
this answer: "Interrupt not the sweet communications of that angel with God."
Notice being given him by his superiors, in the beginning
of the year 1630, to prepare himself for holy orders, he felt in his breast
the struggle of the strongest sentiments of an humble terror and a glowing
zeal; but as he saw the will of God intimated in the order of his superiors,
his fears were calmed, and he disposed himself for that sacrament, by retirement,
austerities, prayer, and fervorous desires. He then longed for the happiness
of approaching the altars, so that he promised his superior to say thirty
masses for him, because he had hastened the time of his ordination. When
ordained, he took time to prepare, by prayer and penance, to offer the divine
sacrifice, and celebrated his first mass with the most tender devotion, and
in one continued torrent of tears, so that those who were present could not
contain theirs, and, by the divine fire which sparkled in his countenance,
thought him like an angel than a man at the altar.
The same year, Toulouse being
afflicted with a violent plague, Francis made pressing instances to obtain
leave to serve the sick.
In 1631, after the course of his studies was over, he made
the third year of his novitiate, during which he was obliged to go to Foncouverte
to settle some family affairs, where he spent his time in visiting the poor
and sick, catechizing the children every morning, and preaching to the people
twice a day. His begging for the poor, going through the streets followed
by crowds of them and children, and carrying upon his shoulders a fagot,
a straw bed, or such like things for the necessitous, drew on him many insults,
once from the very soldiers, and bitter remonstrances from his brothers and
other friends; but he rejoiced in the humiliations of the cross, and answered
that they became a minister of the gospel which had been established by them.
Their contempt of him was at last converted into admiration, and everyone
discerned in his actions a divine wisdom and zeal which differs from worldly
prudence, and rejoices with David if its simplicity appeals contemptible
to men.
He lived among his kindred as one truly deal to the world: not
like those religious persons, who, wanting the spirit of a their vocation,
seek earthly comforts among them. Having composed the differences his relations,
and edified them by his humility and heavenly life, he was ordered to go
to the college of Pamiers to supply the place of a master who was fallen
sick.
In the mean time his superiors, from the experience they had of
his vocation and talents for an apostolic life, resolved to apply him solely
to the missions; in which he accordingly spent the last ten years of his
life, beginning them in Languedoc, continuing them through the Vivarez, and
ending them with his life in the Velay, of which Le Puy is the capital.
The summer he employed in cities and towns, as the husbandmen
then were taken up with their tillage; but the winter seasons he consecrated
to the villages and the country.
F. Regis entered upon his apostolic
course at Montpellier in 1631 arriving there in the beginning of summer;
and immediately opening his mission by instructing the children and preaching
to the people upon Sundays and holidays in the church of the college.
His discourses were plain and familiar; after a clear exposition of the Christian
truth, which he had taken for his subject, he closed them with moral and
pathetic exhortations he delivered them with such vehemence that sometimes
his voice and strength failed him; and with such unction that both preacher
and audience often were dissolved in tears, anti the most hardened left the
church with hearts full of compunction.
He was always resorted to by a numberless audience of all ranks,
though principally of the poor. A famous preacher was astonished to see how
his catechisms were admired, and the great conversions they effected, while
elegant sermons had so few to hear them, and produced so little fruit.
The reason was, the word of God became a two edged sword in the mouth of
Regis, who spoke it from a heart full of the spirit of God, whereas it was
lost under the pomp of an affected rhetoric
The saint never refused himself to the rich, but he used to say
they would never want confessors,
and that the poor destitute
part of Christ's flock were his share and his delight.
He thought that he ought to live only for them.
He spent usually the whole morning
in the confessional, at the altar, or in the pulpit; the afternoon he devoted
to the hospitals and prisons, sometimes forgetting his meals, having, as
he once said, no leisure to think of them. He begged from door to door
for the poor; procured them physicians and all necessaries when sick, and
dressed himself their most loathsome sores.
He was seen loaded with bundles of straw for them; and when laughed
a by the children, and told that this made him ridiculous, he answered:
"With all my heart, we receive
a double advantage when we purchase a brother's relief with our own disgrace."
He established an association
of thirty gentlewomen to procure assistance for the prisoners.
He converted several Huguenots, and many lewd women; and when
told the repentance of these latter is seldom sincere, he answered;
"If my labors hinder one sin
they will be well bestowed."
Towards winter he went to Sommiers, the capital of Lavonage, twelve
miles from Montpellier, and with incredible labor declaring war against vice
and extreme ignorance, saw his endeavors crowned with the most surprising
success all over that country, penetrating into the most inaccessible places,
and deterred by no rigors of weather, living chiefly on bread and water,
taking sometimes a little milk; always abstaining from fish, flesh, eggs,
and wine; allowing himself very little rest at night on some hard bench
or floor and wearing a hair-shirt.
With a crucifix
in his hand, he boldly stopped a troop of enraged soldiers from plundering
a church, and another time demanded and obtained of a Calvinist officer the
restitution of a poor man's goods which had been plundered, without mentioning
the high indignities and ill treatment he had received from the soldiers
to the commander's great astonishment.
The Vivarez had been for fifty
years the center of Calvinism in France, and the seat of horrible wars and
desolation.
The pious bishop of Viviers, in 1633, by earnest entreaties drew
Regis into his diocese, received him with great veneration, and took him
with him in his visitation, during which the father made a most successful
mission over that whole diocese. The count de la Mothe Brion, who had lived
as a wise man of the world, was so moved with the unction of the holy man's
sermons, as entirely to devote himself to fasting, prayer, and alms. This
nobleman, by his zeal and charities, very much contributed to assist the
saint in his holy enterprises; in which he was seconded by another gentleman,
named De la Suchere, who had formerly been the saint's scholar.
At Puy, Regis undertook the reformation of many negligent pastors,
brought many lewd women, and some the most obstinate and abandoned, to become
patterns of fervor among the penitents, and converted a Calvinist lady of
great reputation at Usez. About that time God permitted a storm to
be raised against his servant for his trial; for amidst these glorious successes
he was accused loudly as a disturber of the peace of families by his indiscreet
zeal, and as a violent man, who spared no one in his invectives and satires.
The bishop defended him, till wearied out with repeated complaints,
he wrote to his superior to recall him, and sending for the saint, gave him
a severe reprimand; adding that he found himself under a necessity of dismissing
him.
Regis, who had all along neglected
to take any measures for his own justification, answered him with such humility,
and with such an unfeigned love of humiliations and the cross, that the prelate
was charmed with his virtue; and being undeceived by others in regard to him,
he praised him in public, and continued him with his employ till the beginning
of the year 1634, when the missionary was ordered by his superiors to repair
to Puy, but went loaded with letters full of the highest commendations of
his virtue and prudence from the good bishop.
The saint wrote earnestly to the general of the society, desiring
to be employed on a mission to the barbarous Hurons and Iroquois in Canada,
and received a favorable answer; but at the request of count de la Mothe,
he returned early the next year to the diocese of Viviers, to labor in the
conversion of Calvinists, and in the instruction of the ignorant at Cheylard,
and on the other estates of that gentleman. It is incredible how much the
apostolic man underwent in this rough country, in the highest mountains,
in which he was once locked up three weeks by the snows, lying on the bare
ground, eating only black bread, and drinking water, with the addition of
astonishing voluntary mortification,- fasts, disciplines to blood, and hair
shirts. The count was so edified, and so moved with the inexpressible fruits
of his labors, that he founded a perpetual mission for two Jesuits at Cheylard,
giving to it a principal of sixteen thousand livres, and his fine house there
for their residence.
Regis made his next mission at Privas with equal fruit, and thence
was called by the bishop of Valence to St. Aggreve, a mountainous savage place,
the nest of heresy in his diocese. Among his heroic actions and virtues here,
it is recorded, that one Sunday going into an inn to stop the excesses committed
by lewd company assembled in it, he received from one a box on the ear, without
any other reply than this: "I thank you; if you knew me you would judge that
I deserve much more."
Which meekness overcame their obstinacy. After three months' labors
in this neighborhood, by the same bishop's orders he repaired to Saint Andre
des Fangas, and was from thence recalled to Marlhes in the Vivarez about
the end of the year 1635
In the first of these two
places, a boy falling from the top of a high pair of stairs to the bottom
near the holy man,
then at his prayer in a corner, was found without hurt;
in the latter,
a woman would take his tapered cloak to mend, keeping two rags as relics
by applying them to two of her children, cured one of a fever, the
other her of a formed dropsy.
The curate of Marlhes, in a deposition upon oath, for the process of
the canonization of the servant of God, gave this testimony of him:
"He was indefatigable,
and employed both night and day in his sacred functions."
He was under
the bitterest affliction whenever he was informed that God had been offended.
Then he forgot his natural meekness, and appearing transported
with holy anger, he with a voice of thunder deterred the most resolute libertines.
He would have sacrificed a thousand lives to prevent one sin. A word
from him sufficed to inflame the coldest hearts and to soften the hardest.
After the mission, I knew not my own parishioners, so much I found them reformed.
No violence of cold, no snows blocking up all passages, no mountains, or
torrents swelled by rains, could be an obstacle to his zeal. His ardor communicated
an intrepidity to others; for when he went to any place, innumerable troops
followed, and met him through all sorts of difficulties and dangers.
I have seen him in the most rigorous season stop in the middle
of a forest, to content the crowds, desirous to hear him speak concerning
salvation.
I have seen him at the top of a mountain, raised on a heap of
snow, hardened by the frost, preach and instruct the whole day, and after
that spend the whole night in hearing confessions.
Winter being over he returned to Puy about the end of April, in
1636, testifying that he found his strength and courage not abated, but increased
by his labors. He met at the college here his general's refusal of the mission
of Canada, which frustrated his hopes of martyrdom. This refusal he imputed
to his sins.
The four remaining years of
his life were taken up in missions in the Velay, a mountainous country, the
winters in the villages, the summers in Puy, the bishop of which city made
use of his counsels and ministry to reform his flock. He preached and catechized
at Puy, first in the Jesuits' church; but this being too little, he removed
to that of St. Peter le Monstiers, belonging to the Benedictines. His discourses
were without art, but clear to the meanest capacities, and delivered with
that emotion of heart, and so moving a tone of voice, that he seemed transported
by a divine fire above himself; and all who heard him declared, that "Francis
preached the word of God as it is in itself; whereas others seemed, in comparison
of him, to preach themselves." His audience usually consisted of four or
fire thousand. His provincial in his visitation, hearing him, wept during
the whole sermon. He formed an association of virtuous ladies to relieve
the poor, and another in favor of the prisoners; for both which incredible
funds were raised; and in times of need God miraculously multiplied the corn
he had stored up, three several times: of which verbal processes were drawn
up, and juridical information taken before ecclesiastical and secular judges:
and these miracles were confirmed by fourteen credible witnesses in the acts
of his canonization.
His constant readiness and extreme diligence to run to the sick,
and his happy success in assisting them in spirituals, were recompensed by
several cures effected on the spot by his prayers, the unexceptionable relation
of which may be read at length in F. Daubenton's History of his life. Nor
were the conversions of many sinners less miraculous. Among these, a certain
voluptuous rich merchant had long endeavored to blacken the saint's reputation
by his slanders; who in return bought of him all he wanted for his poor.
Having softened him to a more tractable temper by these and other good offices,
he laid hold of a favorable opportunity of representing to sum what could
be the end of his pains, and the fruit of all his riches which death must
soon bereave him of; the man was struck, and having revolved in his mind
all night the reflections the words of the man of God raised in him, came
the next day to lay open the agitation of his soul to him.
The saint having for some time
continued to excite in him still l ivelier apprehensions of the divine judgments,
and conducted him through sentiments of hope and divine love to the dispositions
of a perfect penitent, he heard his general confession, which the other made
with such a flood of tears that the confessor judged the greatness of his
contrition might require a smaller penance. The penitent asked him why he
had so much spared his weakness. The zealous pastor answered that he took
upon himself to discharge the rest of his debt, which mildness added still
more to the fervor of this repenting sinner. His meekness and patience made
a conquest of those souls which were so hardened as to be able to resist his
zeal. A young man enraged that the saint had converted and drawn from him
the object of his impure passion, resolved to kill him. The man of God discovered
by a divine light his wicked intention, and said to him: "Dear brother, why
do you bear this ill-will to one that would hazard his life to procure you
the greatest of blessings, eternal salvation?" The sinner, overcome by his
sweetness, fell at his feet, begged his pardon, and became a sincere convert.
Three other young noblemen, on a like occasion, resolved revenge
Regis met them with courage, saying to them:
"You come with a design upon
my life. What concerns me is not death,
which is the object of my wishes: but the state of damnation that you are
in, and regard so little."
The libertines stood as if stunned:
Regis embracing them with the tenderness of a parent, induced them to repent;
and they made their confessions to him, and led regular lives till their
deaths.
Addressing drunkards and other sinners, with his eyes all on
fire with zeal, he often by one moving sentence reclaimed them from their
disorders. When he had received a blow on the cheek, the magistrates could
not prevail upon him to denounce the delinquent; but the offender, moved
by his charity, became of his own accord his sincere penitent.
The servant of God was extremely solicitous in removing all occasions
of sin, and preventing the promiscuous company of young men and women. He
converted many prostitutes with the help of charitable contributions, founded
a retreat to secure the virtue of such penitents, till his rector fearing
that house could not be maintained, forbade him to meddle in it; he moreover
gave him many severe reprimands even in public, accused his zeal as too forward,
and forbade him to hear confessions, instruct the poor, or visit the sick,
only on certain days and at appointed times.
Regis suffered many humiliations and mortification under this
superior, without even allowing anyone to speak in his justification; till
the succeeding rector, convinced of his innocence and prudence, restored
to him the care of the refuge, and the whole field of his former labors.
His zeal exposed him often to occasions of martyrdom, and to open
insults; and once he was cruelly beaten. He was also censured bitterly by
many, and even by several of his own brethren; but his rector undertook his
defense, and God crowned his labors with incredible success; in which he
was seconded by the great vicar Peter le
Blanc, his constant friend, without whose counsel he undertook nothing.
This is the summary of
his transactions at Puy during the four last summers of his missions: the
winters he employed in laboring in the country, the most abandoned part of
which was his first care and chief delight.
The country inhabitants of the Velay
in some parts, especially in the mountains, were very rustic, and perfectly
savage: Calvinism had insinuated itself, and ignorance and the grossest vices
prevailed in many of the wilder places. The boroughs and villages are situated
in the diocese of Puy Vienne, Valence, and Viviers. The saint's first mission
among them was in the beginning of the year 1636, to Fay and the neighboring
places. Hugh Sourdon, LL. D. engaged him to lodge in his house.
The man of God finding his kind host's son Claudius Sourdon,
aged fourteen years, entirely deprived of all sight for the six months past,
from a deflection; upon his eyes, with excessive pain, he exhorted him to
confidence in God, and retired into a neighboring room to prayer with some
of the family, which he had not ended when the child recovered his sight,
and distinguished everybody in the assembly which then met to hear the first
catechistical instruction; and from that time never felt any more either
of that pain or deflection, as he attested before the bishops of Puy and
Valence, being then fourscore years old.
Upon this, another man forty years of age, who had been blind
eight years, was brought to the saint, who making the sign of the cross over
him, immediately restored his sight. By the fame of these two miracles, this
mission was opened with wonderful concourse and fruit. His conduct in it
is thus described by Claudius Sourdon, with whom he lodged, in a juridical
deposition that grave person gave before two bishops:
"His whole behavior breathed
sanctity. Men could neither see nor hear him without being inflamed with
the love of God. He celebrated the divine mysteries with such devotion that
he seemed like an angel at the altar. I have observed him in familiar intercourse
become silent and recollected, and all on fire: then speaking of God with
a fervor and rapidity that proved his heart to be carried away with an impulse
from heaven."
John Francis Regis, SJ (PC) (also known as Jean-François
Regie) Born at Fontcouverte near Narbonne, Languedoc, France, on January
31, 1597; died at La Louvesc in Dauphine, France, on December 30, 1640; canonized
in 1737; feast day formerly December 31; he may have another feast on July
2.
While John Francis Regis was born into a family of landed gentry, he preferred
the company of humble people. His father was a prosperous merchant. He attended
the Jesuit college of Béziers before seeking admission into the Society
of Jesus when he was 18. After a successful year as a novice, John Francis
went to study at Cahors, Le Puy, Auch, and Tournon. While in Tournon, he
accompanied the priest who served the town of Andance on Sundays and holidays,
and his catechism instruction was so effective that he inspired the parents
through their children.
He returned to Toulouse to begin his theology course, and he spent much of
each night in prayer. The plague raged in the town for four consecutive years
and he was sent into the country. Finally, he was ordained in 1631. He tended
the plague-stricken in Saint James Hospital in Toulouse, where "he did the
most menial tasks in the kitchens with greater willingness and pleasure than
vain people derive from the glory of dignified offices." But when his companion
in this work died, he was sent to Pamiers to teach.
So successful was the preaching of John Francis Regis that, in 1632, he was
commissioned to devote himself entirely to evangelization of the illiterate
farmers in the diocese of Montpellier. The area had suffered tragically during
the Wars of Religion, which ended in France with the Edict of Nantes in 1598.
The Huguenots had overrun the churches and many Catholics had abandoned their
faith. The rest of his life was spent in this missionary work among the lapsed.
He worked in Languedoc, throughout the Vivarais, and ended in Velay.
To some people his preaching was "banal and common, mediocre and crude, and
even quite vulgar." To such people he appeared as a "man of wretched appearance,
dressed in tattered clothes, without any talent for preaching. . . . Father
Regis, no matter how saintly he may be, is a disgrace to his ministry because
of the triviality and indelicacy of his language."
One of his colleagues said, "Ah,
how vainly do we study to polish and ornament our sermons!
Crowds hasten to hear the simple
catechisms of this man and conversions multiply, while our own studied eloquence
produces nothing."
This tall, attractive, physically
strong man had a simple, homely style of preaching that drew large crowds.
He gained the confidence of the people by speaking to them in their own patois.
While people of all ranks were eager to hear him, Regis preferred a congregation
of poor and unlettered people, saying "the rich never lack confessors." There
was little that he would not do for the poor, and when he was warned that
by doing so he appeared foolish, he responded, "So much the better."
He was as severe with himself as he was gentle with others. He
loved the poor and wished to associate himself with them. He never ate meat
or fish, and his usual diet was apples and black bread. But sometimes there
were so many penitents after his preaching, he had no time for any meal.
"I cannot remember my dinner," he said, "when I am ministering
to these poor wounded souls." Like his admirer, the Curé d'Ars, he
spent long hours in the confessional and slept no more than three hours a
night. Among the many mortifications he inflicted upon himself, he used to
expose his hands to the freezing cold "so that they were sometimes
so red and blotched that they aroused compassion."
For ten years he preached his
way through France with simplicity, joy, emotion, and fierceness. He concentrated
his efforts on the Auvergne and Languedoc. In the summer he preached in the
towns and in winter he evangelized in the villages, when the farmers had
time to listen. In Montpellier he converted several Huguenots and many lapsed
Catholics, and also established hostels for fallen women, called "Daughters
of Refuge," for which he was physically assaulted numerous times.
Among his converts were people of wealth and distinction. At Puy
Regis devoted himself to the care of the poor, the sick, and prostitutes.
He helped the young country girls who did not want to leave the city but could
not find employment by providing them materials with which they could make
a living. They worked at home, making lace, embroidering, and doing other
types of needlework. Regis collected and sold the work for them at the best
possible price.
To handle the rest, Regis made
two lists: one of those in need, and the other a register of the devout who
were ready to engage in acts of charity. This was the beginning of his social
service called the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament. To the ladies
of high society he offered the "gift" of a few hungry mouths to feed. To
others he sent notes such as: "Sir, you will provide food for the poor people
who names are listed below and you will give them six sous for their lodging.
If you are unable to provide them with food, you will give them a further
six sous so that they may buy it themselves. For this is the decision that
has been made by the office of the poor at the town hall on May 9, 1631."
Pretty audacious, isn't it? Not really; for the simple reason that
he engaged others with his unstinted enthusiasm. Regis established a granary
for the poor. Several times it was miraculously refilled. He called for nurses
and doctors, asked pharmacists to provide medicine, sought out guardians
of the poor, and assigned overseers of prisons to ensure humane conditions.
Nothing could deter him: vermin, ulcers, outbreaks of plague. He faced them
all and entered hovels and hospitals "with joy, as if he were entering a
palace."
He became the infirmarian of sick bodies and sick souls. When
a Jesuit visiting from Lyons asked Regis to show him the most interesting
sights of Puy, the saint took him to see a sick pauper who "was rotting in
his bed." Afterwards the visitor reported, "I was more pleased than if I had
seen all the wonders of Europe." Occasionally John effected miraculous cures
by commanding something as simple as:
"Fever, leave this young girl
for she needs her health to earn her living." And the girl was immediately
cured.
He did not put much stock in this kind of miracle. He was known to say:
"Every time that God converts a hardened sinner he is working a far greater
miracle."
His greatest effort, however, was the establishment of the Daughters of the Refuge in imitation of
Saint Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Jesuits, who opened the Refuge of Saint
Martha at Rome for repentent women. When Regis experimented with the idea
at Montpellier, he placed the girls in private homes, but found it necessary
to house them under one roof. His second and more important Refuge was at
Puy. He succeeded with these women because he treated them
"in a manner full of honor
and respect... So great was his deference and politeness he might have been
talking to queens."
The refuge for women and girls
was endangered by the vindictive slander of unprincipled people who had lost
the supply of females that they wished to exploit, and his activities were
stopped for a time. But the bishop of Puy, Just de Serres, stoutly defended
Regis before the rector of the Jesuit College.
But Regis did not limit himself
to healing bodies; souls were more important.
The regions of the Vivarais had experienced civil and religious
discord, and the people had become uncivilized. Churches were neglected and
some parishes had not received the sacrament for twenty years. In the course
of a three-year ministry launched by Bishop de la Baume and his assistants,
with John traveling a day or so ahead of them, the mission returned the area
to religious observance, in addition to converting a large number of Protestants.
Charges made by those who resented his zeal. Such "signs of simplicity
and indiscretion" were forbidden and he was ordered to make reparation by
"being recalled to the College from the mission where he is conducting himself
so badly." Nor was that enough for "he must also be punished in proportion
to his fault." These accusations came close to causing his recall, but the
excellent bishop of Viviers, Louis de Suze, recognized them for what they
were: the attack of lethargic priests whose comfort had been disturbed. After
this, Regis asked to be allowed to go to Canada. But the answer from the
Jesuit general in Rome, Father Vitelleschi, was categorically: "Your Canada
is the Vivarais."
And, indeed, it was as difficult to evangelize these former Catholics
and Huguenots as it would be those who had never heard the name Jesus.
In 1629, the Edict of Alès
reneged on the guarantees made in the Edict of Nantes. Protestants were now
deprived of the "places of security" they had been promised. Those who refused
to surrender were subject to the "Dragonnades"--a persecution whereby "dragons"
(soldiers) were quartered in Protestant homes with permission to behave as
badly as they willed. It was very difficult for a missionary to follow in
the wake of these troops and encounter the bitter hostility of the Protestants.
Nevertheless, Regis continued. He sought out the peasants in the mountains,
slept in barns and forests, often lost his way, and wherever he went he kindled
a flame of evangelism.
Men hung on his words, were moved
by his very presence, and came in their need to seek his guidance and blessing.
One day as he was leaving the
church after preaching, he found a group of weary peasants waiting at the
gate. "We have walked all night," they said, "we have come 12 leagues to
hear you, and now we are too late!" Though Regis himself was exhausted, he
answered, "No, my children, you are not too late. Come with me." And returning
with them into the church, he preached to them with his usual power.
On another occasion, a Jesuit father, on a journey, saw from a
hilltop a swarm of people approaching in the distance and, as they came nearer,
heard them singing. He enquired what it meant, and was told: "It is the saint
followed by the inhabitants of whole villages who cannot leave him." As he
was about to proceed on his way, he was overtaken by another crowd, approaching
from the opposite direction. "And who are these?" he asked. "We are going
out to meet the saint," was their answer.
When he reached his destination he found the small town full of
excitement, with lines waiting at the church doors. Again he asked and again
received the answer: "The saint! We are waiting to hear the saint." Then
he remembered how in the ancient days men came to Christ from every quarter
and the common people heard Him gladly.
"That man," said one who went
to hear Regis, "is full of God. I do not know his equal. I would walk forty
leagues to hear him."
In mid-September 1640 (age 43), Regis had a premonition of his
death. He spent the next three days in retreat, made a general confession,
and continued his mission to Louvesc, a remote mountain village. Thus, on
a cold December day, he travelled to his last mission. Overtaken by a snowstorm,
he slept that night in a wayside barn and developed pleurisy. The next day
he continued his journey in great pain and discomfort. They reached
the village on Christmas Eve and travelled directly to the church, where
Regis began to preach immediately without stopping to rest. He spent the
whole of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day without intermission conducting
services, preaching, and giving counsel. Zealous to save souls, the following
day he preached three times in the draughty church and contracted pneumonia.
On leaving the pulpit the third time, he fainted. Four days later he died,
his last words were: "Jesus, my Savior, I recommend my soul to You."
John Francis Regis was
one of those saints, like the Curé d'Ars and Saint Vincent de Paul,
who was eminently likeable and approachable.
He is one of those saints for whom sanctity is not a personal
adventure but something which is to be put to the service of others. His
tomb is still the destination of thousands of pilgrims each year (Attwater,
Benedictines, Encyclopedia, Gill, Farmer, White).
In art, he is a Jesuit wearing a leather cape and holding a staff
surmounted by a crucifix. He is venerated in the Auvergne, particularly Montfauçon
and Puy (Roeder). A contemporary portrait shows that Regis was a handsome,
distinguished-looking man. John Francis Regis is the patron of lace-makers
(Encyclopedia).
There are many excellent lives of St John Francis Regis (who was
canonized in 1737), especially in French. The biography by C. de Ia Broüe,
printed ten years after his death, has a special charm, but much fuller detail
is available in more modern works, especially those of de Curley and L. J.
M. Cros. An excellent short life is that of J. Vianney in the series “Les Saints“. See also L. Pize, La perpetuelle
mission de St Jean François Regis (1924) ; the admirable account by
Fr Van Ortroy in the Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. viii, pp. 464—465, and that
by Fr Martindale which forms a chapter of his little book, In God’s Army. |
Mary Mother of GOD
Saints of this Day June 16 Sextodécimo Kaléndas Júlii. 
Quote: Pope Paul VI’s 1969 
Benedict XVI met with Aram I Catholicos
of Cilicia, the highest authority of the Orthodox Church.
The Pope remembered the martyrs of the Armenian
Church and the Armenian genocide, without explicitly mentioning it,
and denounced the persecution of Christians in modern times.
Benedict XVI
As we watch the spectacle of the world
seeming to self-destruct before our eyes, we can’t help but be
saddened and even frightened by so much evil run rampant. Iraq, Lebanon,
Afghanistan, Somalia, North Korea—It is all a disaster of epic
proportions displayed in living color on our television screens.
