Father Corapi's Biography

There seems to be no independent passio of this group of martyrs, but there is a summary account in the Chronicle of Prosper of Aquitaine. The letter of Bishop Antoninus Honoratus is printed in Migne, PL., vol. I, cc. 567—570. 

There is a Latin life of late date, which was printed for the first time in the Analecta Bollandiana, vol. xx (1901), pp. 431—444. It has since been edited by B. Krusch in MGH., Scriptores Merov., vol. v. On this Kenney (Sources, vol. i, pp. 494—495) remarks “the extant life contains much that is absurd” but Hildegaire (c. 889) speaks of a Life of Kilian in his possession, so that it is possible there may have been some foundation in authentic materials. See also A. Perret, Histoire de S. Kilien d’Aubigny (1920), and L. Gougaud, Les Saints irlandais hors d’Irlande (1936).  

   He filled this office for two years, having himself studied in the schools of Paris, Rheims and Orleans, and then returned to Fleury to resume his own studies in philosophy, mathematics and astronomy. He was not allowed to pursue these in quietness, for on the death of the governing abbot he was elected to take his place. But the election was disputed, and a contest ensued which spread far beyond the walls of the monastery. It was eventually decided in favour of Abbo, with the help of Gerbert, who a few years later was to become pope as Silvester II.

Abbo’s career as a prelate was very lively, for he threw himself into the affairs of his time with great energy: he strove for the exemption of monasteries from episcopal control he made himself conspicuous at synods, and failed to get King Robert II’s very irregular second marriage recognized at Rome. He is perhaps better remembered for his writings, notably a collection of canons and, in England, his Life of St Edmund, king and martyr.

1199 Homobonus of Cremona life of the utmost rectitude integrity known for his charity concern for poor devoted profits to relief some he looked after in his own house.(RM)
Cremónæ, in Insúbria, sancti Homobóni Confessóris; quem, miráculis clarum, Innocéntius Papa Tértius in Sanctórum númerum rétulit.
    At Cremona, in the duchy of Milan, St. Homobonus, confessor, renowned for miracles, whom Innocent III placed among the saints.

1197 ST HOMOBONUS: lay saint; honest merchant, prayer accompanied all his actions; not content with giving his tenths to the distressed members of Christ, he seemed to set no bounds to his alms; he sought out the poor in their homes and, whilst he relieved their corporal necessities, he exhorted them to a good life;

COMMERCE, as Alban Butler justly remarks, is often looked upon as an occasion of too great attachment to the things of this world and of too eager a desire of gain, as well as of lying, fraud and injustice. That these are the vices of men, not the faults of the profession, is clear from the example of this and other saints. Homo­bonus was son of a merchant at Cremona in Lombardy, who gave him this name (which signifies “good man”) at baptism. Whilst he trained his son up to his own mercantile business without any school education, he inspired in him both by example and instruction a love of probity, integrity and virtue. The saint from his childhood abhorred the very shadow of untruth or injustice. To honesty Homobonus added economy, care and industry. His business he looked upon as an employment given him by God, and he pursued it with diligence and a proper regard to himself, his family and the commonwealth of which he was a member. If a tradesman’s books are not well kept, if there is not order and regularity in the conduct of his business, if he does not give his mind seriously to it, he neglects an essential and Christian duty. Homobonus was a saint by acquitting himself diligently and uprightly, for supernatural motives, of all the obligations of his profession.

In due course St Homobonus married, and his wife was a prudent and faithful assistant in the government of his household. Ambition, vanity and ostentation are no less preposterous than destructive vices in the middle classes of society, whose characteristics should be modesty, moderation and simplicity. Whatever exceeds this in dress, housekeeping or other expenses is unnatural and affected, offensive to others, and uneasy and painful to the persons themselves. A man of low stature only becomes frightful by strutting upon stilts. The merchant may be an honour and support of society, but an ostentatious parade least of all suits his character or conduces to the happiness of his state. St Homobonus avoided such common rocks on which so many traders dash. And, moreover, not content with giving his tenths to the distressed members of Christ, he seemed to set no bounds to his alms; he sought out the poor in their homes and, whilst he relieved their corporal necessities, he exhorted them to a good life. The author of his life assures us that God often recognized his charity by miracles in favour of those whom he relieved. It was his custom every night to go to the church of St Giles, for prayer accompanied all his actions and it was in its exercise that he gave up his soul to God. For, on November 13, 1197, during Mass, at the Gloria in Excelsis he stretched out his arms in the figure of a cross and fell on his face to the ground, which those who saw him thought he had done out of devotion. When he did not stand up at the gospel they took more notice and, coming to him, found he was dead. Sicard, Bishop of Cremona, went himself to Rome to solicit his canonization, which Pope Innocent III decreed in 1199.

   From the first Stanislaus gave as much of his time as possible to prayer and study, and he was notably sensitive to any coarseness of talk. “Don’t tell that story before Stanislaus”, his father would say to his free-spoken guests, “he would faint.” When he arrived at Vienna and was lodged among the pupils of the Jesuits, everyone was struck by the recollection and devotion with which he lived and prayed. Eight months after their arrival the Emperor Maximilian II took from the Jesuits the house which Ferdinand I had lent them for their students. Paul Kostka, two years older than his brother, was a high-spirited youth, fond of amusement, and he prevailed on Bilinsky to take lodgings in a Lutheran’s house in the city. This did not at all please Stanislaus, but Paul treated his brother’s devotion and reserve with contemptuous amusement. One day when Paul had been ill-treating him Stanislaus rounded on him with the boyish taunt, “This will end in my running away and not coming back. And then you’ll have to explain to father and mother.” Meanwhile he communicated every Sunday and holy day, always fasted the day before his communion, and when he was not at church or college he was always to be found at his devotions or studies in his own room. He dressed quietly, practised bodily mortifications, and particularly disliked having to attend dancing classes. Paul’s lack of sympathy became downright bullying and Dr Bilinsky himself, though not unreasonable, was far from being sufficiently sympathetic.

After nearly two years of this Stanislaus was taken ill and wished to receive viaticum; but the Lutheran landlord would not allow the Blessed Sacrament to be brought to his house. The boy in extreme affliction recommended himself to the intercession of St Barbara (to whose confraternity he belonged), and he seemed in a vision to be communicated by two angels. The Blessed Virgin is said to have appeared to him in another vision, told him that the hour of his death was not yet come, and bade him devote himself to God in the Society of Jesus. He had already entertained such a thought, and after his recovery petitioned to be admitted. At Vienna the provincial, Father Maggi, dared not receive him, for fear of incurring the anger of his father. Stanislaus therefore determined to walk if necessary to Rome itself to ask the father general of the Society in person. He stole away on foot to Augsburg and thence to Dillingen, to make the same request first to St Peter Canisius, provincial of Upper Germany. He set out on his 350-mile walk, dressed in coarse clothes, and immediately his flight was discovered: Paul Kostka and Bilinsky rode off in pursuit. Various reasons are given to account for their failure to overtake or recognize him. St Peter Canisius received him encouragingly and set him to wait on the students of the college at table and clean out their rooms, which he did with such respect and humility that the students were astonished, though he was utterly unknown to them. Canisius, after having kept him three weeks, sent him with two companions to Rome, where he went to St Francis Borgia, then general of the Society, and earnestly renewed his petition. St Francis granted it, and Stanislaus was admitted in 1567, when he was seventeen years old. He had received from his father a most angry letter, threatening that he would procure the banishment of the Jesuits out of Poland and abusing Stanislaus for putting on “contemptible dress and following a profession unworthy of his birth”. Stanis­laus answered it in the most dutiful manner, but expressed a firm purpose of serving God according to his vocation. Without disturbance or trouble of mind he applied himself to his duties, recommending all things to God.

It was the saint’s utmost endeavour, declared his novice-master, Father Fazio, to sanctify in the most perfect manner all his ordinary actions, and he set no bounds to his mortifications except what obedience to his director prescribed. His faults he exaggerated with unfeigned simplicity, and the whole life of this novice seemed a continual prayer. The love, which he had for Jesus Christ in the Holy Sacrament, was so ardent that his face appeared on fire as soon as he entered the church, and he was often seen in a kind of ecstasy at Mass and after receiving communion. But his model novitiate was not destined to last more than nine months. The summer heat of Rome was too much for St Stanislaus, he had frequent fainting-fits, and he knew that he had not long to live. On the feast of the dedication of St Mary Major, talking with Father Emmanuel de Sa about the Assumption of our Lady, he said: “How happy a day for all the saints was that on which the Blessed Virgin was received into Heaven Perhaps the blessed celebrate it with special joy, as we do on earth. I hope myself to be there for the next feast they will keep of it.” No particular significance was attached to this remark at the time, but ten days later it was remembered. On St Laurence’s day he found himself ill and two days later, when taken to a better bedroom, he made the sign of the cross upon his bed, saying he should never more rise from it. Father Fazio jokingly rallied him on his physical weakness. “0 man of little heart” he said. “Do you give up for so slight a thing?” “I am a man of little heart”, replied Stanislaus, “but it is not so slight a matter, for I shall die of it.” Early in the morning of the Assumption he whispered to Father Ruiz that he saw the Blessed Virgin accompanied with many angels, and quietly died a little after three o’clock in the morning.

A month later Paul Kostka arrived in Rome with instructions from his father to bring back Stanislaus to Poland at all costs. The shock of finding him dead made Paul carefully consider his own behaviour with regard to his brother, and during the process of beatification he was one of the principal witnesses. Dr Bilinsky was another. He said among other things that, “The blessed boy never had a good word from Paul. And we both knew all the time the holiness and devotion of all that he did.” Paul was bitterly remorseful all his life, and at the age of sixty himself asked for admission to the Society of Jesus. St Stanislaus was canonized in 1726, and is venerated as a lesser patron of his native country.