Lessons 4 - 6 from the Divine Office of St. Paul of the Cross, Confessor.
Lessons 4 - 6 from the Divine Office of St. Paul of the Cross, Confessor.
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Paul of the Cross was sprung of a noble family of the Danei, at Castellazzo, hard by Alessandria, in the province of Liguria, but was born at Ovada, in the same province. The holiness with which he was afterwards to shine was foreshewn by a strange light which filled his mother's chamber while she was in labour, and by the remarkable help which was bestowed upon him by the great Queen of Heaven, who delivered him unhurt from certain destruction when he was fallen in to a river as a youth. From the first use of reason, he burnt with love for Jesus crucified, and began to spend long times in contemplating him. He chastised his innocent flesh with watching, scourging, fasting, and all severe hardships, and on Friday he drank vinegar mingled with gall. He was seized with a desire for martyrdom, and enlisted in the army which was being raised at Venice to fight against the Turks; but in consequence of the Will of God, made known to him while he was in prayer, he left the army in order to serve in a more exalted regiment whose duty it should be to defend the Church and to toil for the eternal salvation of men. When he returned home he refused a very honourable marriage, and also the inheritance which was bequeathed to him by his father's brother, and would fain enter upon a straiter way of the cross and be clad by his own Bishop with a rough tunic. By command of the Bishop, on account of his eminent holiness of life and knowledge of the things of God, he began, even before he became a clerk, to toil in the Lord's field with great profit of souls by preaching the Word.
He betook himself to Rome, and when he had there studied a regular course of theology he was ordained Priest in obedience to the command of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XIII, who also gave him permission to gather comrades around him. He withdrew to the solitude of Mount Argentario, whither he had been already called by the Blessed Virgin, at which same time she also shewed him in vision a black habit marked with the emblems of the sufferings of her Son. At Mount Argentario, he laid the foundations of his new Congregation, which under the blessing of God grew quickly, through the labours of Paul, and attracted to it eminent men. It received the confirmation of the Apostolic See more than once, with the rules which Paul himself had received from God in prayer and the addition of a fourth vow, that, namely, to promote the blessed remembrance of the sufferings of the Lord. He founded a congregation of holy virgins also, who should dwell constantly upon the overflowing love of the Divine Bridegroom. Amid all these works his untiring love for souls caused him never to weary in the preaching of the Gospel, and he led into the path of salvation men almost countless, among whom were some of the most lost, or those who had fallen into heresy. The greatest and most wonderful power of his preaching was how he told of the sufferings of Christ, so that he himself and his hearers would alike burst into tears, and hardened hearts were cloven by repentance.
The fire of the love of God burnt so in his heart that the part of his undergarment which was next thereto often presented the appearance of having been scorched, and two of his ribs seemed to be raised. He could not withhold his tears, more especially when he was saying Mass, and when he was in a state of trance, as oftentimes befell, his body was sometimes seen to be raised into the air, and his face to shine as with light from heaven. Sometimes when he was preaching a heavenly voice was heard prompting him, or his words became audible at the distance of several miles. He was eminent for the gifts of prophecy, of speaking with tongues, of reading the heart, and of power over evil spirits, over diseases, and over the inanimate elements of nature. The Supreme Pontiffs themselves regarded him as dear and venerable, but he held himself to be but an unprofitable servant, and a sinful wretch upon whom devils might well trample. He held to the bitter hardships of his life, even unto a great age, and passed to heaven from Rome on the day which he had himself foretold, in the year 1775, after he had addressed to his disciples noble exhortations which are as the heritage of his spirit, and had been comforted by the sacraments of the Church, and by an heavenly vision. The Supreme Pontiff Pius IX numbered his name among those of the blessed, and then, after renewed signs and wonders, among those of the Saints.