About Padre Ludovico and when he went to Sicily and was beaten back by a storm several times

290 How Saint Francis founded his Order on divine providence 291 Fra Ludovico leaves Rome directly for Naples 292 Repeated vain attempts to reach Sicily 293 His timely return to Rome where he stays 296 The teaching of Fr Francis of Iesi on the government of Superiors

(290) With good reason our Seraphic Father said that his order was founded upon the providence of God. So the Three Companions say in their Legend that in the beginning Saint Francis did not know the will of the Lord God about what Rule and way of life with which he should regulate all those who would come to the Order. One day, like many other days, he was in a solitary place. The Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him just as if he were on the cross. He spoke to him and said, “Francis, found yourself and all those who will want to follow you on my cross and my will. Because I have sought from my Father a people who may content itself in my will alone in these last days; that they may rest in me just as I rest in my Father and He in me. Therefore your rule will be my Gospel and your life will be my life. Go therefore, Francis, and write the Rule which I will give you.”

Saint Francis was at Fonto Palombo when he wrote the Rule. When Christ revealed to him the word: Want to have nothing under heaven, it seemed to Father Saint Francis that such a great multitude could not live without anything. He turned to Jesus Christ to know how this could be. The Lord answered him, “Francis, I don’t want it that you Friars have nothing under heaven. Rather, I want to provide for all their needs. Therefore they will be founded on my providence. I know how much human nature can endure and how much I can provide for them.”

(291) All this is demonstrated in what I want to write now. Father George of Calabria had preached in the cities of Palermo and Messina, as well as many other cities on that Island. He so effectively that in everyone from the least to the greatest there was a burning desire to have a friary of Capuchins in their city. They immediately wrote to Fra Ludovico asking him that he might go to Sicily because they had all decided to build as many friaries as he wanted. When Fra Ludovico saw he had been asked to go Sicily by personages staying in Rome and more so by letters, he decided on day to go. However, on the other hand, he feared the anger of that Prelate who had put him in prison. He left Rome with misgivings but not after seeking counsel of some of his friends. One morning he left and decided to go straight to Naples, then for Sicily. When that Prelate saw that Fra Ludovico had departed he went straight to His Holiness. He put the poor Congregation in such a bad light with His Holiness that the Pope had almost completely decided to destroy it. When the friends of the Congregation heard this they offered great resistance. However the fire grew greater. Because of this many of them wrote to Fra Ludovico that he should return quickly to Rome because the Congregation was falling. All these letters were tied in a bundle and confidently sent to Fra Ludovico all together.

(292) At that time Fra Ludovico had arrived at Faro to make the crossing to Sicily. However the passage seemed bad so they waited some days. One day, seeing that the weather had calmed, he set out to sea with many others. When they were a short way out when an unusual storm arose. The sailors, terrified by the horrendous storm, hurried back to port. Whey they entered port and Fra Ludovico had disembarked from the frigate, the tranquil weather and fair passage returned. Again the sailors got everything in order. Calling Fra Ludovico they began to row, however, like before, the same storm arose so that when the sailors had returned to port they began to think among themselves that their luck wan not natural. The storm stopped when they returned. Although they still wanted to make the crossing, this time they were delayed two days. The third time they set out to sea they went further then the other two times. However when they had arrived about halfway such a storm rose again that they almost drowned and rebutted with great fury. This caused great awe among the crew and all the passengers. So they said to one another, “This is a miracle of God because the sea is calm and it is not the time for storms. Nonetheless, when this Friar comes aboard, it seems as though the gates of hell will open. How the sea boils! Then as soon as we return the bad weather stops. Could it be that he is a prophet Jonah? Where is this Friar escaping from? God wants to send us all to the bottom because he is a sorcerer or because of some sin of his! Let him go about his own affairs, but he is not boarding this frigate any more.” And they said to each other, “I have never seen this kind of Friar before.” Calling Fra Ludovico and examining him carefully, they said to him, “Father, where do you come from?” When he told them he was from the Marches and a Friar of Saint Francis, belonging to a new Reform, a sailor said to him, “Tell me, please, what business you have in Sicily?” Fra Ludovico answered, “My business is good. I am going there to start some friaries of our Order.” They discussed this a lot. However, when they saw he truly was a Religious they calmed down and remained astonished by the novel behaviour of the sea.

(293) A little later, while Fra Ludovico was walking, a messenger arrived and handed him a bundle of letters in which he saw how much danger the Congregation was in. Because of this he left the port immediately and revealed to his companion that the Congregation was about to be completely ruined. Falling to their knees, they commended themselves to God with many tears. They gave him infinite thanks for his having prevented the passage. Fra Ludovico knew clearly that this had been a miracle of God, because if he had crossed over to Sicily and that Prelate had a little more time, it would have gone badly for the poor Congregation. He said, “I knew that storm had arisen for me, not to send me to the bottom but so that the poor Congregation would not be sunk by the headlong waves of persecutors and be completely ruined.” Turning to his companion he said, “Now I know that God loves us and wants the Congregation to go forward. Let us return to Rome because if a plot has been organised against us if we can escape it we will be no small thing we do. I hope in Our Lord Jesus Christ to free us from this as he has done all the other times.”

Having returned to Rome very quickly he found that the prelate had used all his possible favours and had obtained from His Holiness that the Congregation be completely eliminated and that no other Reform be done in the Order of Saint Francis except that of the Zoccolanti Fathers. However it pleased the Lord God that as Fra Ludovico appeared and revealed the wickedness of the Prelate to those who supported us, that the diabolical plot was thwarted. Fra Ludovico was heard to say that of all the perils through which the poor Congregation had passed, this was the greatest and most dangerous.

From then on Fra Ludovico took such heart that he no longer feared even if the whole world was opposed to him. For from many signs he was certain that it was the will of God for the Congregation to go ahead. From this time he hardly left Rome and always went carefully inquiring secretly if there had been anything raised again by the adversaries with His Holiness. Not long after, that Prelate, to his great dissatisfaction, left Rome and went to Lombardy. This was very good news for Fra Ludovico because as long as he was in Rome we were not safe. Nonetheless the Lord God guarded the Congregation from this and every other peril.

(294) The venerable Father Francis of Iesi said that nothing was more effective in making him believe that the Congregation was of God and the true Reform, as much as seeing how God governed it from the beginning with the lowliest of instruments and how the providence of God was always demonstrated in it. Nor did the true observance of the Rule ever go as well nor with so much simplicity as when it was governed by simple persons. That holy man said that the more government was lacking in human terms, the more the government of God was manifest. Therefore when God chooses a man for spiritual government, His Majesty supplies wherever the natural man is deficient. For example, one who governs would have to be learned, speculative and of sound natural intellect in order to know naturally all the deceits the infernal enemy uses to tempt his subjects. However when these things are lacking in a Superior our Lord God supplies for them with good inspirations. Therefore every Superior should have to know and hold as certain that his strengths will not succeed in ruling and governing his subjects according to God. Recognising himself as unfit he humbles himself before God and has recourse to him assiduously in holy prayer so that His Majesty may deign to govern him and not let him govern himself. He ought to hold as certain that he can never govern except badly and in prejudice of the sheep of God.” So this holy man said, “If we consider it carefully, the Order has never badly governed more nor ever relaxed more and given birth to more scandals in the world than when it was full of learned men. While the Order was governed by Father Saint Francis with his simplicity and by his companions and all the simple Friars during his time, it always stayed in perfect observance of the rule. However when the learned Brother Elias with many of his other learned followers began to rule the Order with the teaching and prudence of the flesh of the flesh, it immediately with ambitious persons. The beloved Order of God began to decline under their government. This happened because the learned generally trust themselves and rule according to their own prudence which has no place in the Order because the Order is founded on God and on his providence and on simplicity. Remove simplicity from the Order and the foundation upon the Order it is established is removed. There is nothing more repugnant to simplicity than human, carnal prudence that always keeps an eye on how to accommodate the flesh. Therefore, when a Superior does not know how to stand in the place of God; when he doesn’t know that truly his government is ordered by God; and when he doesn’t know that he has been put in that position by God and not by himself, and for the benefit of the sheep of God, he cannot rule and govern well. This is especially true when he organises the government for his own glory and does not seek the honour of God nor the good of the sheep, but his own honour and comfort, he perverts the office of superior because he does not seek the honour of God. Our Lord orders not only the Order but the whole Church when he says, “Without me you can do nothing. I am the vine. You are the branches.” Therefore government comes from God and not just from man. However, when there is teaching and holiness, there is nothing better, despite the other circumstances.”