nnacul.
ORGAN OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF PERTH, Registered at the (P.O.,. Perth, for transmission by post as a newspaper. NO. 2,289.
ESTABLISHED 1874.
PERTH, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25, 1947.
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Box A35, G.P.O., Perth.
SEVENTY-FOURTH YEAR.
Four New Saints Raised to the Altars Three Priests and a Layman Witness to the Holiness of the Church On Sunday last the Holy Father declared Bernardi no Realini, Joseph Cafasso. and John de Britto as Saints of the Catholic Church. On Ascension Thursday he had elevated Nicholas de Flue to the honours of the altar. Ac cording as our times grow more materialistic, so the decrees of canonisation increase in importance, bearing new and startling witness to the eternal holiness of the Church of God.
St. Bernadino Realini A sixteenth century Italian, St. Bernadine was a Jesuit who worked for years among the poor in Naples. Despite the uneventfulness of his life there are some curious phenomena recorded concerning certain relics of his blood.
ed in a sworn deposition that he
had personally witnessed the like twice during the year 1852. It has seemed worth while to give these details, which may not have anything whatsoever to do with the holiness of Saint Bernardino Realini, because they are a well -authenticated example of such prodigies which raise an interest and excitement out of all proportion to their importance or significance. In 1895, however, St. Bernardino's biographer could find no trace of the blood pre- ST. JOHN DE BRITTO BEFORE THE RAJAH OF MARAVA. served in a liquid state. At the same time it may be pointed out seems only reasonable to expect cession to excruciating tortures. that just as the mortal flesh of that any similar immunity from They were hung up by chains many saints has been preserved putrefaction in the case of the from trees, and at another time supple, incorrupt, and almost life- blood, if such immunity be really by means of a pulley, were diplike for long years after their de- granted in some instances, should ped repeatedly in stagnant water, cease, eventually hardens, black- only be temporary in its charac- with other indescribable outens, and crumbles away, so it ter. rages. The Father's recovery
St. Bernardino was born at Carpi, near Modena, in 1530, and after having been engaged in the profession of the law entered the Society of Jesus when he was thirty-four years old. He was admitted at Naples by Father Alphonso Salmeron, one of the first companions of St. Ignatius. Father Realini worked for ten years at Naples, preaching, catechising, devoted to the sick, the poor, and the inmates of prisons; he was then transferred to the college at Lecce in Apulia, of was deemed miraculous. which he became rector, and Not long after he was set at where he died at the age of 86. liberty he was summoned back His self-sacrificing zeal and to Lisbon. Great efforts were apostolical fervour had long beBorn in Portugal. St. John de Britto laboured indefati- made by the King himself and by fore earned the veneration.of the gably as a Jesuit missionary in India. He followed along the Papal Nuncio to induce him people, who recognised him as a remain in Europe, but he saint, and a spontaneous cultus the lines of Father de Nobili, living the life of an Indian in to pleaded so strongly that duty sprang up which helped to proso far as it was permissible. Although tortured he would called him back to Madura that vide evidence for some of the renot return to Europe and suffered martyrdom in 1693 be- he was allowed to have his way. markable occurrences which were cause he had opposed the worship of the gods of the For three years more he returntestified to on oath in the proed to his mission to lead the same cess of beatification. Six years country. life of heroic self-sacrifice, and before his death Saint Bernar- ST. BERNARDINO REALINI. It is stated that when John de learn on the unexceptionable tes- then, through the machinations of dine had a bad fall, resulting in two wounds which would not and appeared to increase in vol- Britto as a child fell grievously timony of Sir W. W. Hunter, in one of the repudiated wives of heal; during his last illness the ume; in one, according to wit- ill, his mother, a lady of noble his Imperial Gazetter of India the Rajah's son, who on his conblood discharged from these was nesses at the process, it "boiled" family, connected with the Court (vol. vi., pp. 245-253), "the early version to the Christian faith had collected and kept in phials on and frothed on the anniversary of Lisbon, invoked the aid of St.1 Jesuit missions are particularly ceased to practise polygamy, be' was arrested and eventually put account of the great veneration of St. Bernardino's death and Francis Xavier and dedicated her interesting. Their priests and son to him. in which he was held: Be this as it may, monks became perfect Indians in to death at Ramuad by the Rawhen it was brought near a re- John, though he was the favour- all secular matters, dress, food, jah's orders. Sir W. W. Hunter This blood behaved in various liquary containing his tongue. ite companion of the Infante etc., and had equal success among records: "One very touching epic. extraordinary ways: in some vestie is written De Britto from In 1634 his tomb was opened Don Pedro, who eventually suc- all castes, high and low. in the his prison the by sels it kept liquid for over a cenday before his exe tury, in others it even foamed by the ecclesiastical authorities ceeded to the throne of Portugal, south of the peninsula they cution. 7 await and a good deal of fleshy tissue aspired only to wear the habit of brought the old Christian settle- writes to the Father death,' he Superior, was found unimpaired; this was the great missionary and to de- ments of the Syrian rite into 'and I await with impatience. separated from the bones and put vote his life to the conversion of temporary reunion with Rome, It has always itbeen the object of and converted large sections of my prayers. ST. JOSEPH CAFASSO in two glass receptacles which the infidel. It forms to -day were reburied in the same coffin Born March 1, 1647, he made the native population throughout the most precious reward of my as the skeleton. application at the age of fifteen extensive districts." labours and sufferings,'" A parish priest of the ninebe received into the Society of years later to Seventy-eight It is interesting to note also teenth century, confidant of St. Jesus, and in spite of much opThe next morning, February 4, John Bosco, St. Joseph Cafasso, (ninety-five after his death), in position he accomplished his pur- that he adds: "Schisms troubled 1693, in the presence of a vast The Portuguese played an important part in the 1711, the contents of the coffin pose. His success in his studies the Church. of spectators, the sentence formation of the clergy in Pied- were inspected by the Bishop of was so remarkable that great ef- King claimed, as against the crowd was read out that this teacher. Lecce, before witnesses, to en- forts were to appoint the Archbishop mont. after his ordina- Pope, (guru) was sentenced to die beable him to verify the relics. tion to keepmade of Goa; and the Dutch adventurhim in Portugal, but cause he had forbidden Saint Joseph Cafasso was a One of the glass vessels was grace triumphed, and in :March, ers for a time persecuted the Ca- to be paid to the gods worship priest of the Archdiocese of found to be broken, but in the 1673. of the And he set sail for India with tholics along the coast." Turin in the nineteenth century. other tissues were in an apparwith regard to such missionaries country, and was preaching docBorn in the same parish as St. ently unaltered state but floating sixteen of his fellow -Jesuits. as John de Britto, he remarks: After three years' preparation John Bosco-Castelunovo d' Asti in an inch and a half of dark red that chivalry and enthusias-in 1811, he played a large part liquid. This was carefully ex- at Goa, the rest of his life, except "All tic piety could effect, they accomin the life of that Saint, being amined by physicians and pro- for a brief interval, was spent plished." To describe in detail The biography and porhis counsellor, benefactor and nounced to be human blood and amid incredible hardships and the terrible odds against which trait of the fourth newly confessor over a number of giving off a sweet smell; more- hindrances of all kinds in evan- de Britto had to contend would He be impossible here, not the least years, especially during the early over, they stated that its preser- gelising southern India. canonised Saint, St. Nicyears of Dom Bosco's great apes- vation and smell under such con- was made Superior of the Ma- handicap being the delicacy of holas de Flue, appears on tolate, ditions was miraculous-but there dura Mission, and travelled most his constitution which in the fevpage 6. they exceeded their competence. painfully on foot through all that ers and agues to which he was Dom Cafasso devoted himself vast region, only ten degrees subject repeatedly brought him to the fitting education of midi Just over two years later a north of the Equator. Those face to face with death. dates to the priesthood at a time commission of three bishops, ap- who worked with him, in their when the ravages of Gallicanism pointed by the Congregation of letters to Europe, speak in glow- Politically also the country was trines subversive of their relimade and Jansenism had them- Sacred Rites to investigate the ing terms of his courage and de- in a terribly unsettled state, a gion. A few minutes were alselves felt in the Church in Pied- matter, took the evidence of the votion, of the extraordinary aus- condition which allowed the fan. lowed him for private prayer, and mont. In this work he was as- witnesses of 1711, and examined terity of his life, and of the rich atical pagan priesthood to call then his head was struck from sociated with another eminent the blood. It was then liquid, harvest of conversions which into play at every turn the sup- his body. When the news priest, Dom Guala, in the Eccle- crimson, and foaming into tiny were the fruit of his labours. erstitions of the people. Many reached Lisbon the King sent an siastical College known as the bubbles. Don Gaetano Solazzo, From the beginning he realis- times de Britto and his equerry to his mother, Donna "Convitto Ecceliastico," and in who had charge of a phial of the ed the wisdom of the method pre- native Father catechists were subjected Beatrix, who was still living, to the "Association for Retreats" blood (probably that of 1616) in viously adopted by the missionbrutal violence. On one occa- invite her to attend a solemn serfounded at the Sanctuary of St. the Cathedral of Lecce, in 1804, ary, Father de Nobili, viz., of liv- to in 1686, after preaching vice of thanksgiving. She obeyIgnatius in the Lango Valley. left a statement to the effect ing a life identical with that of sion extraordinary success in the ed and assisted at the function, Here retreats were given for both that it was liquid, had twice the natives of the country, adopt- with Maravar country, he and a hand- not dressed in mourning, but arpriests and laymen, the retreats foamed and bubbled, and was re- ing their dress, abstaining from ful of devoted natives were sea- rayed in the most splendid attire for priests being, for many garded by all as miraculous; animal food, and respecting in all ed ,and upon their refusal to pay which her wardrobe could proyears until his death, the special some nuns saw it do the same things lawful the ineradicable honour to the god Siva, were vide. John de Britt() was beacare of Dom Cafasso. thing, and a Jesuit Father stat- prejudices of caste. As we may subjected for several days in suc- tified in 1853.
St John de Britto
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