Dear Readers,
August is NOT the month the feast of St. Francis of Paola (Calabria) is traditionally celebrated. His feast is in April. S. Francesco di Paola However, since he was in my “A” file, I’ll share some of his saintly history with you now: St. Francis of Paola is greatly venerated in Sicily and Calabria, where he performed many miracles. He was also the founder of the Minim Friars, and it was Fr. Boyl, OM who was the first missionary to set foot on American soil when he accompanied Christopher Columbus on his second voyage of discovery in 1493.
Today priests in the order of the Minims can be found serving in Europe, the Philippines, in Canada (Toronto and Ontario), as wells as in the U.S. cities of Chicago, Illinois; San Antonio, Texas; and Los Angeles, California, where since 1967 a group of Minim Friars have been staffing All Saints Catholic Church.
One of the Minim Friars in residence is Calabrian born Fr. Gino Vanzillotta, who is a fountain of information on St. Francis of Paola. If you wish to join a group of local devotees or buy books or videos on the Saint, just contact Fr. Gino Vanzillotta, OM (c/o All Saints Church, 3431 Portola Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90032, tel. 323.223.1101).
***
My main source of information is St. Francis of Paola, a book authored in 1977 by Mario Segretti and Gino Simi and published by Tan Books (Box 424, Rockford, IL 61105, tel. 1-800- 437-5876). At one time few jet-set visited Paola. Then, as many beaches on the Northern Riviera became inquinato (polluted), many of the wealthier signors built summer villas along the shoreline of San Lucido. Soon St. Eufemia Airport provided impatient industrialists a place to land their private airplanes.
Paola’s size and importance is partly due to its function as the main rail and road junction for Cosenza and partly to its Santuario di San Francesco di Paola in a ravine above the town.
***
Farmers Giacomo and Vienna D’Alessio, a deeply religious couple, married in the year 1400 and after 15 years still remained childless despite their fervent prayers. On Friday, March 27, 1416, St. Francis was born at Paola in Calabria (died age 91 on April 2, 1507). It was a great joy to the D’Alessios. They recalled the flame that danced over the roof of their house nine months before. It had been a sign from Heaven and that made their newborn son someone special. Giacomo was from a family that had long resided in Paola.
The mother came from the nearby town of Fuscadio, 9 kilometers northeast of Paola. The towns were part of the Kingdom of Naples. Devoted to the worship of St. Francis of Assisi, the D’Alessios were sure that the great Saint of the poor had been instrumental in answering their prayers and named their boy Francis. Francis lived humbly and simply. He was educated by the Franciscans at San Marco and went to live as a hermit in a cave at the age of 15. Five years later in 1436 three companions joined him.
The first of these disciples was Fra Fiorentino, a townsman of the Saint-to-be, who lived many years doing deeds of char- ity. The second, Fra Angelo Alipatti, was a native of Saracena near Castrovillari, 30 miles north of Paola. The third was Fra Nicola of San Lucido. With the approval of the ordinary of Consenza, Francis arranged to build a chapel and three cells on his parents’ property.
The townspeople called them the “Hermits of Fra Francesco.” His disciples wore simple brown robes made like a sack, tied around the waist with a rope, with holes for their arms. His religious community of men were known as the Minims. The community was officially recognized by Rome in 1474 and called the Hermits of St. Francis. In 1492, they changed their name to the Minim Friars.
Francis impressed not only his neighbors, but also the king and high officials because of his simple wisdom and his ability to read the human heart. The Archbishop of Cosenza gave Francis permission to erect a large monastery and church. Great enthusiasm and devotion on the part of the people were shown towards Francis. Their spiritual life was kindled into flame by the many miracles which the Saint wrought in answer to their prayers.
News of Francis’ reputation as a prophet and as a worker of great miracles soon reached the Vatican and various royal courts. His gift of prophesybenefited a shoemaker, Andrea di Rosetto of Paola. One day in the autumn of 1478 Francis said to him, “My dear Andrea, do not fail to buy as quickly as possible all of this year’s grain that you can store, so that it will be available throughout next year.”
“But grain is so plentiful that it costs almost nothing,” Andrea replied. “You do what I tell you, and you will have no reason to regret it,” Francis told him. The shoemaker hastened to do as the Saint had suggested. The next year the harvest was extremely poor and the price of grain went sky high. Needless to say, the shoemaker and his family were most grateful to the Saint for his prophetic warning.
***
When the powerful King of France, Louis XI, fell sick he tried every possible remedy, but in vain. Having nothing to lose he accepted a suggestion to call on Francis, a hermit from Calabria, who performed miracles of every kind. Neither his plea nor the intervention of the King of Naples were good enough for the monk. He could not see the will of God in that project, but only the desperate wish of a very sick man to keep death as far from him as possi- ble, and Francis did not want to go. Only the intervention of the Pope, Sixtus IV, made the holy man decide to go to France, but felt it was not God’s will to cure him.
The King’s doctor resented the presence of the Calabrian Holy Man in the court, for the Saint had greatly diminished his control over the dying King and he wanted to discredit him. He suggested that the King, on his next daily visit to the Saint, offer him a purse full of money. The King agreed and the next time he visited Francis he pulled the purse from under his mantle and offered it, saying, “Good Man, now that we are hidden from all eyes, accept this money. It will help you establish a monastery of your order in Rome.”
The Saint recoiled, obviously deeply offended and told the King bluntly, “Majesty, instead of giving it to me, why do you not return this money to your subjects from whom you have unjustly taken it.” Shocked by his stinging rebuke, the King hurriedly excused himself. Like King Ferrante of Naples, the proud King of France had to learn the hard way that Francis was truly holy, a man who lived solely by his faith in God and his love for his neighbor. King Louis XI and the Royal family finally accepted Francis for the true Saint that he was.
Though King Louis XI died, Francis made a profound impression on Charles VIII, the King’s son. Charles became both a friend and a benefactor of Francis and had monasteries built in France and Rome for the Minims. Francis died in Pleiss, France on Good Friday, April 2, 1507, at the age of 91.
***
St. Francis of Paola’s miracu- lous powers continued to operate even after his death: In 1598 Sicily was suffering a great drought that had continued for months, withering all crops and vegetation, and drying up streams. Toward the end of April the Bishop of Catania called the people together for a penitential procession to the Church of Saint Francis, where he exhorted them to ask the Calabrian Saint to pray to God.
A Jesuit, Father Bernardo Colmago led them in the prayer. Suddenly the skies became clouded and a tremendous rain started to fall, lasting for hours and completely restoring the farms and gardens throughout the island.
***
On March 27, 1638, on the Saturday before Palm Sunday, an earthquake devastated the Calabrian provinces of Cosenza and Reggio, destroying many homes and other buildings and killing or maiming many people. The quake shook Paola and the statue of Saint Francis erected at the entrance of the city was spun around by the tremor until it faced the city.
Despite the shock, Paola sustained no noticeable damage, and none of its people were injured. Over the years, Paola survived several other earthquakes that devastated the Calabrian peninsula, including the tremendous earthquakes of 1905 and 1908.
***
On March 27, 1943, Pope Pius XII made the Calabrian the “Patron Saint of All Italian Sea Workers.” This was because the Saint had been party to many activities involving the sea, including his miraculous passage of the treacherous Strait of Messina on his cloak in 1464.
The Papal decree indicated that the Saint’s patronage was to cover all Italian navigation companies, along with all other Italian maritime activities. The seal that designated him as the Patron of Italian Sea Workers shows him traversing the Strait of Messina on his cloak with the description, “St. Francis of Paola, Patron to the People of the Sea.”
The establishment of the Saint as the Patron of the Sea was celebrated with processions and jubilee masses in Genoa, despite World War II, then in progress. The Genoese festivities were marked by the ringing of the Bell of the Sea, which was forged in 1930.
***
The Spanish city of Malaga, which, through intermediaries, the Saint had helped King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella wrest from the Moors, was in the throes of the Black Plague in 1637, with some 15,000 people dying each month. A Spanish Minim Priest, Father Andrea Perez, touched one of the victims with a rosary that had been blessed by St. Francis. The sick man was immediately cured, and the city’s epidemic ended.
***
More on St. Francis of Paola The Saint had four nephews and one niece, the children of his sister Brigida. The first of these was Andrea, who went with him to France in 1483 and held important posi- tions in the French court until his death shortly after his uncle was canonized.
Andrea married Jacqueline Molandrin of Blois. They had four children, three of whom joined religious orders – the two boys the Minims, and the girl, the Poor Clares. The fourth child, Francis, was born unable to speak and with crippled hands and feet. His uncle quickly cured him and he later became a Minim and provincial of the Turenne monasteries.
The third son, John, held many important court positions, including counselor to the King and head of the Chamber of Counts. Two of the Saint’s nephews, Nicolas and Peter, became Minims and remained in Calabria, and the girl, Angela, and the youngest nephew, Paul, married and raised families in Paola.
