25 JUNE – SAINT WILLIAM OF VERCELLI (Abbot)

William was born of noble parents at Vercelli in the Piedmont in 1085. His parents died while he was still a child and he was brought up by his relatives. But scarce had be attained his fourteenth year, when already inflamed with wondrous ardour for piety, he performed the pilgrimage to the far-famed Sanctuary of Saint James at Compostella in Spain. He made the journey clad in single tunic with a double chain of iron about his loins, and with bare feet, a prey to extreme cold and heat, to hunger and thirst, and even with danger of life. After returning to Italy he was moved to perform a fresh pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre of our Lord in Jerusalem, but each time he was on the point of carrying it out, various and grave impediments intervened. Divine Providence thus drew the holy inclinations of William to even higher and holier things.

Then passing two years on Monte Solicolo in assiduous prayer and in watchings, in sleeping on the bare ground, and in fastings in which he was divinely assisted, he restored sight to a blind man, the fame of which miracle becoming gradually divulged, at last William could no longer be hidden: for which reason he thought again of undertaking a journey to Jerusalem, and joyfully set out on his way. But God appeared to him, admonishing him to desist from his purpose because he was to be more useful and profitable both in Italy and elsewhere. Ascending Mount Virgilian, since called Monte Vergine, he built a monastery on its summit, on a rugged and inaccessible spot. He there associated to himself religious men who wished to be his companions, and taught them both by word and example a manner of life conformable to the Evangelical precepts and counsels, as well as to certain rules taken for the most part from the institutions of Saint Benedict.

Other monasteries being afterwards built, the sanctity of William became more and more known, and attracted to him many other persons who were drawn by the sweet odour of his holiness and the fame of his miracles. For by his intercession, the dumb received speech, the deaf hearing, the withered new strength, and those labouring under various incurable diseases were restored to health. He changed water into wine, and performed many other wondrous deeds among which, the following must not be passed over in silence, namely, that a courtesan having been sent to make an attempt on his chastity, he rolled himself without hurt amid burning coals spread upon the ground. Roger, king of Naples being certified of this fact, was led to hold the man of God in highest veneration. After having predicted to the king and others the time of his death, resplendent in miracles and innumerable virtues, he passed away in 1042.

Dom Prosper Gueranger:

Martyrs are numerous on the Cycle during the Octave of Saint John. John and Paul, Irenaeus, the very Princes of the Apostles even, come thronging in to confirm with their blood the testimony of him who made known to Earth the arrival of her long expected God. Where can names more illustrious be found, whether as regards human greatness, sacred science, or the holy hierarchy? But not alone in martyrdom’s peerless glory does our Emmanuel reveal the potency of His grace, or the victorious force of example, left to the world by His Precursor. At the very outset we have here presented to our homage one of those countless athletes of penance who succeeded to John in the desert. One of those who fleeing, like him, in early youth, a society in which their soul’s foreboding told only of peril and annoy, consecrated a lifetime to Christ’s complete triumph within them over the triple concupiscence, thus bearing witness to the Lord by deeds which the world ignores, but which make Angels to rejoice and Hell to tremble.

William was one of the chiefs of this holy militia. The Order of Monte Vergine, that owes its origin to him has deserved well of the Monastic institute and of the whole Church, in those southern parts of Italy in which God has been pleased, at different times, to raise up a dyke, as it were, against the encroaching waves of sensual pleasures, by the stern spectacle of austerest virtue. Both personally and by his disciples, William’s mission was to infuse into the kingdom of Sicily, then in process of formation, that element of sanctity on which every Christian nation must necessarily be based. In southern, just as in northern Europe, the Norman race had been providentially called in to promote the reign of Jesus Christ. Just at this moment, Byzantium, powerless to protect against Saracen invasion the last vestiges of her possessions in the West, was anxious nevertheless to hold the Churches of these lands fast bound in that schism into which she had recently been drawn by the intriguing ambition of Michael Cerularius. The Crescent had been forced to recoil before the sons of a Tancred and a Hauteville. And now, in its turn, Greek perfidy had just been outwitted and unmasked by the rude simplicity of these men who learnt fast enough how to oppose no argument to Byzantine knavery, save the sword. The Papacy, though for a moment doubtful, soon came to understand of what great avail these new-comers would be in feudal quarrels, the jar and turmoil of which were to extend far and wide for yet two centuries more, leading at last to the long struggle betwixt Sacerdotalism and Caesarism.

All through this period, as has ever been the case since the day of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost was directing every event for the ultimate good of the Church. He it was that inspired the Normans to give solidity to their conquests by declaring themselves vassals of the Holy See and thus fixing themselves on the Apostolic rock. But at the same time, both to recompense their fidelity at the very opening of their career, and to render them more worthy of the mission which would have ever been their honour and their strength, had they but continued so to understand it, this same Holy Spirit gave them Saints. Roger I beheld Saint Bruno interceding for his people in the solitudes of Calabria, and there also that blessed man miraculously saved the Duke from an ambush laid by treason. Roger II was now given another such heavenly aid to bring him back again into the paths of righteousness from which he had too often strayed, the example and exhortations of the founder of Monte Vergine.

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FOLLOWING the footsteps of John, you understood, William, the charms of the wilderness, and God was pleased to make known by you how useful are such lives as yours, spent afar from the world and apparently wholly unconcerned with human affairs. Complete detachment of the senses disengages the soul, and makes her draw near to the Sovereign Good. Solitude, by stifling Earth’s tumult, permits the voice of the Creator to be heard. Then man, enlightened by the very Author of the world concerning the great interests that are being at that very time put into play in this work of His, becomes in the Creator’s hands an instrument at once powerful and docile for the carrying out of these very interests, in reality identical with those of the creature himself and of nations. Thus did you become, O illustrious Saint, the bulwark of a great people who found in your word the rule of right, in your example the stimulus of loftiest virtue, in your superabundant penance a compensation, in God’s sight, for the excesses of its Princes. The countless miracles which accompanied your exhortations were not without a telling eloquence of their own, in the eyes of new nations among whom success of arms had created violence and had lashed up passion to fury: that wolf, for instance, which after having devoured the ass of the monastery, was enforced by you to take its victim’s place in humble service. Or again, that hapless woman, who beholding you inaccessible to the scorching flames of that bed of burning coals, renounced her criminal life and was led by you to paths even of sanctity!

Many a revolution, upheaving the land in which you once prayed and suffered, has but too well proved the instability of kingdoms and dynasties that seek not first, and before all things else, the Kingdom of God and His Justice. Despite the oblivion, alas too frequent, into which your teaching and example have been thrown, protect the land in which God granted you graces so stupendous — that land which He vouchsafed to confide to your powerful intercession. Faith still lives in its people. Then keep it up, notwithstanding the efforts of the enemy in these sad days. But make it also to produce fruits in virtue’s field. Amid many trials, your Monastic family has been able, up to this present age of persecution, to propagate itself and to serve the Church: obtain that it, together with all other Religious families, may show itself, to the end, stronger than the tempest. Our Lady, whom you served right valiantly, is at hand to second your efforts. From that sanctuary whose name has outlived the memory of the poet (Virgil), who unconsciously sang her glories, may Mary ever smile on the thronging crowds that year by year toil up the holy mount, hailing the triumph of her virginity. May she accept at your hands our hearts’ homage and desire, although we cannot in very deed accomplish this sacred pilgrimage.

Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:

At Beraea, the birthday of St. Sosipater, a disciple of the blessed Apostle St. Paul.

At Rome, St. Lucy, virgin and martyr, with twenty-two others.

At Alexandria, St. Gallicanus, ex-consul and martyr, who had been honoured with a triumph and was held in affection by the emperor Constantine. Converted by Saints John and Paul, he withdrew to Ostia with St. Hilarinus and devoted himself entirely to the duties of hospitality and to the service of the sick. The report of such an event spread through the whole world, and from all sides many persons came to see a man who had been a senator and consul, washing the feet of the poor, preparing their table, serving them, carefully waiting on the infirm, and performing other works of mercy. Driven from this place by Julian the Apostate, he repaired to Alexandria where, for refusing to sacrifice to idols, at the command of the judge Raucian, he was put to the sword and thus became a martyr of Christ.

At Sibapolis in Syria, under the governor Lysimachus in the persecution of Diocletian, St. Febronia, virgin and martyr, who was scourged and racked for defending her faith and her chastity, then torn with iron combs and exposed to fire. Finally, having her teeth plucked out and her breasts cut off, she was condemned to capital punishment and went to her spouse adorned with her sufferings as with so many jewels.

At Besançon in France, St. Antidius, bishop and martyr, who was killed by the Vandals for the faith of Christ.

At Riez, St. Prosper of Aquitaine, bishop of that city, distinguished by his erudition and piety. He valiantly combated the Pelagians in defence of the Catholic faith.

At Turin, the birthday of St. Maximus, bishop and confessor, most celebrated for his learning and sanctity.

In Holland, St. Adelbert, confessor, a disciple of the sainted bishop Willibrord.

And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.

Thanks be to God.