About the holy man Brother Angelus of Sant’Angelo in Vado, priest

This servant of God was from an area called Sant’Angelo in Vado, situated in the dominion of the His Excellency the Duke of Urbino. He was born to honest and quite God fearing parents. When he was very young he attended school and learned to read quite well. Then he gave himself to the affairs of the world. However when he was about nineteen years old, enlightened by God he recognised the falsehoods of the world. After rethinking, he decided to leave the world and despise worldly things completely and to go off to some Order where he could do penance for his offences against God and his youthful negligence. He sought advice from some Religious about where he could enter in order to serve God better. They answered, “All the Order are good and you can do good in all of them. However because they have the precept of communal poverty the Order of Saint Francis is the one most free from all the affairs of the world and the most suitable for doing penance because they poor. They fast. The dress poorly and go barefoot. What they eat they beg for at this doorway and that. When the devout youth heard these words an incredible fervour to do penance overcame him. He was received into the body of the Franciscan Order where he did his novitiate with great enthusiasm, humility and fervour. While he was there he remained very devout. He always kept quite withdrawn from seculars in poor places and said his devotions. He was very zealous about time and never wanted to accept being a confessor.

Because there was a lot of discussion about the Reform in his time, the holy man began to look around at the observance of the Rule. At first he did not think about it because of his simplicity. Instead he attended to his devotions and left the Superiors to do what they wanted. However when he heard some learned and authoritative Friars say that the Rule was not observed to the letter, as Father Saint Francis wanted, he became so scrupulous that he could no longer live. He often went to find the old Friars. He said to them, “My Father, is it dangerous in this life?” When that Father told him about things in it failed, he began to commend himself to Jesus Christ with great fervour so that he might give him the opportunity to be able observe what he had promised.

When the servant of God heard that Brother Matthew of Bascio had taken up again the Capuchin habit, and he was told that it was the true habit that Father Saint Francis wore, he was inflamed with an incredible fervour to go and find Father Louis and the others. However because he was told there was the excommunication and that he could not go, he with many others whom we have mentioned above obtained a Brief from His Holiness. This servant of God came to the Congregation in ’28. Brother Louis received him and numbered him with his other companions. He was the tenth Friar in the Congregation. More than the rest of us he carried the heavy cross that was carried by those early Fathers who founded our Congregation. It was a sign of great spirit and that they were enlightened by the Holy spirit and led by the love of Jesus Christ to such a high degree of suffering. For when they left those beautiful friaries they came to dwell in huts, shacks, abandoned churches, and in solitary and mountainous places. They left behind nice habits, tunics and mantles for a simple habit of natural wool in order to come to follow Jesus Christ with the cross. They were barefoot and sickly on account of the cold and the great hunger the poor fellows suffered amid so many persecutions. When I saw him in the Friary of Sant’Angelo in Vado where this servant of God was the Guardian, he could not finish thanking God. The poor fellow said to me, who was a young cleric, “My son, how much we have suffered! Now I feel as though I am in paradise because we have a church where we can say our Masses and our Offices and we have our little cells for resting.”

Because he had heard so much talk that this was not the true Reform, this doubt so occupied the mind of this simple servant of God that he often said in the beginning, “Lord, Lord! A little miracle, a little miracle!” He felt that when the Friars had performed miracles he would be sure that the Reform pleased God supremely. When he saw that God had adorned him and the others with miracles, this servant of God was confirmed even more that his was the true Reform. From then on he lever again listened to anyone who told him the contrary.

He was very eager about holy poverty. He never wanted to wear anything other than an old, totally patched habit and a poor mantle. During the summer he always went barefoot. In winter, because he was already old, he wore soles. Usually he fasted on bread and water on all the vigils of Our Lady and all the Fridays of March. He rarely ate more than once a day. He was very zealous about the Divine Office. When there was a Friar who was zealous about the Office, there was a saying, “He is another Brother Angelus of Sant’Angelo. He was very severe in his reprimands and very kind towards the needy Friars. When there were Friars who were troubled or ill, he comforted them with such kindness that he seemed more like an Angel than a man. He took time into great account and always busied himself in good things, especially in holy contemplation.

Because I had heard certain beautiful spiritual things from Father Francis of Iesi, it was something incredible that with so much holy importunity I was with this servant of God to teach these things to him. Because I was very young I was ashamed to see a Father of such holiness have to beseech me. I was not worthy even to speak with while down on my knees. I was so edified by the humility of that servant of God that I thought I had never seen such a vivid example of humility as I saw in that venerable Father. I understand that when he heard these things, he practised them for a long time and used to say that nothing had ever given him as much light as the teaching of that venerable Father Francis of Iesi.

Nothing was ever seen in that servant of God but edifying things. He was so correct in his speech that one would never have heard him say an idle word. Rather, in the little he conversed he either spoke of the things of God or discussed the Rule. He went to confession almost every day. He was asked why he went to confession so often. He answered, “Because I practise contemplation and because this exercise requires a clear conscience first of all. Venial sins, even if the grace of God removes them, nonetheless they weaken our soul and make it difficult for it rise above itself. For in contemplation we put nothing of our own except to prepare ourselves and make ourselves ready to hear what our Lord God says in us. When the soul is well disposed through confession and contrition, God shows it what is has to contemplate and inflames it in his love, because God communicates himself to pure minds. However when the soul keeps within itself ideas, fantasies and images of every other thing but God, they render it indisposed to contemplation. Therefore the greatest effort we have is that of keeping the mind free from extraneous tangles. All our good consists in this because the purpose of religious life is nothing else than a continuous practice of the love of God.

At the time of this servant of God there were many serious afflictions in our Congregation in which he rejoiced very much. When he heard ti said that the Congregation would be ruined, he smiled and said, “O you simple fellows. How is it possible that those things provided for by God and willed by His Majesty should fail? I am more certain that this is a work of God than I am sure that I am Brother Angelus.” Therefore many thought that the holy man knew this by a revelation from God. For he was one of those that desired the Reform so much and who addressed all their prayers to God in order to obtain the Reform, just like all those who were tired of seeing such a lax life and so many transgressions of the Rule. When they heard that the Capuchin Reform had begun, they pressed Jesus Christ so that he would show them whether it was the true Reform so that when they joined that Reform they would not find themselves deceived. Therefore God revealed to him and many other more united with God that this was the true Reform that had to be done according to the prophecies of holy men. This was the reason that although many times it seemed that the Congregation would have to be completely ruined because of the great persecutions that it suffered, those servants of God were joyful nonetheless. They said to the young and certain ones who worried, “Do not worry, my sons, because our Congregation has never been better as much as now when it is combated by demons. Because now the Lord God will show his strong hand and make it know to everyone that this is his work. Nor can it ever be expunged by any power. It will be led to is desired haven of salvation and blessed are those who persevere until death.

It pleased the Lord God that when his servant of his grew old and infirm he arrived at such a fervour he felt that he would at last serve God. He said many times, “This holy Reform came late for me because since I am old I cannot do all that I want. Still, thanks be to God who has granted me the grace to see and be in it for some years. May God forgive my wasted time. When I was obliged for so many years to observe the rule and how badly I observed it because I didn’t have the opportunity.

When the servant of God was ill in the friary of Sant’Engelo in Vado, it please the Lord God to reward him for his efforts, for after having received the holy sacraments with great devotion, that holy soul pass one to its creator. He was buried in that friary. Because I am not well informed, I will not write about the miracles he did. Amen.