About the venerable Father and holy man Brother Louis of Reggio di Calabria, priest and preacher

Brother Louis was from a city called Reggio situated in the province of Calabria. He was born to honest parents. He was a boy he attended school and became a very good grammarian. At that age he was always a devout boy and quiet by nature. His conversation was serious and his appearance was graceful. He was adorned with good ways and fine bearing. Therefore everyone loved him and thought that he should become a holy Religious, seeing him so very much inclined towards devotion to holy things.

It pleased that Lord to call to his service at about the age of sixteen years. He took up the habit in the Franciscan Order where he applied himself to learning. HE became a very good theologian and was well instructed in the scholastic sciences. Nevertheless he never abandoned holy prayer and devotion at which he spent most of his time.

When the Capuchin Reform came, being very zealous for the observance of his profession, he not only took the Capuchin habit for himself in 1532 but also was the reason that very many servants of God followed him as we mentioned earlier in the Chronicle.

Therefore since he grew in the fear of God and good ways from the time he was in nappies, when he was in the holy Reform, he burned more than ever with an incredible fervour to observe the Rule and do penance. For a long he had desired the coming of this Reform in which he could observe his Rule perfectly. He strove very much with holy fasts and disciplines, and with many tears he commended himself to the Lord God so that He might give him the opportunity to be able to live in that holy simplicity and observance of the Rule that Father Saint Francis lived with the early Fathers of the Order. With other Fathers with the same desire he tried to make a Reform. However because of the opposition of lax Friars who impugned them, it never succeeded. However when this servant of God, Brother Louis, saw Congregation of Capuchins come about, he could never rest until he and his companions of like desire could join it. Cautiously he gathered them together in 1531. With persuasive words he inflamed their hearts. As it pleased the Lord God the General Chapter of the Zoccolanti assembled in the city of Messina in 1532 and at this time Father Louis and his companions took the Capuchin habit. It was seven years after the beginning of the Congregation, as has been fully discussed above.

Therefore this Father was the principal who began the Reform in Calabria. He took the habit before all his companions. Just as he preceded everyone in wearing that habit, he surpassed them all in fervour and observance of the Rule. God adorned him with miracles more than He did the others.

So Father John of Terranuova, who was one of his companions, wrote down the noteworthy things that he saw with his own eyes. He was my confrere in the Province of Saint Francis about three years since were both companions of the venerable Father Francis of Iesi. Moreover when Father Jerome of Monte Fiore was General he gathered information when on visitation to the Province of Calabria. He got this from some old Friars who knew about these things very well since they were with this venerable Father Louis. I wrote down this information. Just as it was given to me faithfully, I wrote it down faithfully. Since the above-mentioned Father Jerome desired to know the truth, he commanded those old Fathers under holy obedience to tell him all the noteworthy things that they knew about Father Louis. Like good sons they told him every thing in an orderly fashion. The Father General wrote these things down with great diligence. They are the things I received from His Reverence in our Friary at Foligno when he returned to the Marches on the 20th July 1582.

Therefore the life of the venerable Father Louis of Reggio was full of holiness and he spent all the time he lived in holy prayer especially. He usually persevered in prayer day and night for a period of fourteen hours. His mind was so lifted up in God that he remained a still as a statue. He made no bodily noise as usually happens, like spitting or moving his feet or hands. Such was the purity of his heart and mind that as soon as he started to pray his mind was enraptured in God. This happened because he had practised for many years. And teaching helped him very much. The wonderful effects of this were often seen.

Hence once a lady asked if he would deign to visit a sick person who was lying seriously ill in bed. This man was very devoted towards the Order. Therefore when the holy man went, he no sooner arrived at the house of the lady that he asked her if he could retire to a room alone. She imagined that he something he needed to do. She assigned him a room. After locking the door behind him he fell to his knees praying to God for the sick man. Instructed by the Holy Spirit he knew quite well that all graces are granted and obtained from God by means of holy prayer. And so while he was locked away, the lady wanted to call him to come and visit the sick man. She quick raised the portiere of the room and clearly saw the servant of God suspended and elevated from the ground a good way with his hands and face towards heaven. The lady reported this to trustworthy Friars and to anyone who wanted to hear about it.

Furthermore, Brother Anthony of Reggio, also a man of wonderful holiness and very well acquainted with Brother Louis, told a Friar about having seen this holy man elevated a good distance into the air while he was saying the Office.

This is the reason he always sought to be posted to solitary places in the Order. He avoided every form of superfluous conversation. He was rarely seen outside his cell, or the church or the woods. Unless someone asked him for some act of charity and for the salvation of souls, he was never seen outside the practice of prayer. When he could not contemplate because of exhaustion he said psalms or other devout prayers.

He was of no small benefit at the beginning of the Reform for they suffered such grave persecutions that they would have perished in the middle of the journey if they had had anyone else for their guide. However because of the inspired instructions of this servant of God they were able to face every kind of suffering. Such was his great charity towards his companions who like lost sheep went scattered throughout those mountains. They were fugitives for fear of being taken and dying in prison. Brother Louis, the solicitous shepherd, went around gathering them with such charity like Our Saviour Jesus Christ. When his disciples were scattered because of his death, he appeared now to one and then to another and gathered them together into the sheepfold of Holy Church, a place of safety. Since he had a great friendship with the Most Illustrious Duke of Nocera, a very important personage, this servant of God gathered them in the palace of this great prince in order to free them from the hands of persecutors, resisting all the fiery blows of the adversaries for them.

He also demonstrated his great charity in his holy sermons with which he inspired all the principal cities of Calabria in the love of God and in the desire for their salvation. And they be were ablaze with great devotion towards the Congregation of Capuchins. The servant of God spared no effort that was asked of him. Being sought out by regions, castles and villages he kindly preached to them with such fervour that it seemed as though the preaching of the holy Apostles had been renewed in Calabria. Because of the new way of preaching and the novelty of the habit and the holiness and good ways that they saw in him; and because he did not preach for temporal gain, but inspired by the Holy Spirit he sought nothing else but the honour of Jesus Christ and the salvation of souls, exhorting them to leave their sins and to the observance of the commandments and attendance at the most holy sacraments, news went around that entire country so that everyone wanted to hear him as if he were and Angel of God.

The servant of God went dressed in one poor, rough and completely patched habit, barefoot and thin. It seemed as though he were an Apostle of Christ. He usually ate once a day. With great strictness about foods and wonderful devotion he fasted the forty-days that our Father Saint Francis was accustomed to do. Nonetheless, although he was very austere towards himself, he was very kind towards his neighbour, providing for all of them with great tenderness in their every need in such a way that he fulfilled what Saint Francis said: “There is no mother as tender towards her son as each should be towards his brother.” He was so inclined and dedicated to charity towards his neighbour that whenever he saw one of his sons suffer he did not stop until he provided for him. By way of custom he never or rarely ate meat. Instead of sackcloth He always wore a jacket of mail next to his bare skin. No one ever saw him angry. Rather the tranquillity of his mind in his ways, in his speaking, and in his conversation and in everything was such that he seemed like an earthly Angel. He was so constant and patient in adversity that he shed light through all the holy virtues to everyone around. HE so trusted in the Providence of God that he did not want the Friars to making provision of any thing except what strict necessity required. Quite often out of zeal for poverty he let himself lack the necessary things. Because of this the Lord God often showed how pleased He was with the faith and hope that this servant of His had in Him to provide for him in his every need. For when he was in one friary a poor man came to the door to ask that he be given a little alms. However since there was no bread at the time, Brother Angelus of Calanda, the porter, a man of holy life, reported to the Friars that he went off to Father Louis and said to him, “Father, there is a poor man at the door asking us for alms but I don’t know what to give him because there isn’t any bread.” The holy man replied, “Go, son, and look carefully in the cellar because you will find some.” The porter replied, “Father I have looked there very carefully. I am sure there is none.” The holy man replied, “Go that you may be blessed. Simply do the obedience and you will find some.” With great faith in the words of the holy man, when the porter heard this he went quickly to the cellar. There he found a box full of excellent bread. It was the same box that he had earlier left empty. That bread could not have come except from him who came from heaven for us as living and heavenly bread. So by the merits of this servant of His the Lord God provided some bread for the poor man and supplied for the needs of His servants the Friars because for many days, with much thanksgiving, the Friars ate that bread that had been provided for them from heaven. For many days it was no longer necessary for them to go questing. The porter gave a very generous alms of that bread to the poor man.

The holiness of this holy man was shown another time. Once he was on a journey and he did not take anything to eat, as was his custom. After walked a good deal, his companion who later reported everything to the Friars, feel himself failing since both were fasting. He said to that Father, “Father, I am fainting.” Consoling him he replied to him, “Do not worry son. Let us walk a little further. God will help us.” Therefore after walking a short distance they saw on a little hill near the road a large loaf of white bread. It was fresh and beautiful. It wasn’t made according to the fashion of that region. Rather the divine Clemency provided it miraculously by the merits of His servant. As both ate it they were refreshed more in spirit than in body, pondering such kindness of the supreme Creator. The did that journey weeping all the way without speaking to each other because of the sweetness such a provision left in their hearts. They knew clearly that God had done it because since the place was deserted the bread could not have been put there by any human means.

Another time that Father was going to Rome because of some need of the Order. They took with them a secular servant of the Duke of Nocera. One morning they were leaving the place where they had lodged after spending the night without any provision. After a good distance the secular asked that Father for a little bread. The companion replied, “Father, know that we emptied the pocket last night. There is nothing left.” That Father answered, “Look there carefully. You will find some.” Again he replied that there wasn’t any. Nonetheless, carefully looking into the pocket, he found nothing. Turning to that Father he said to him, “Now you see there is none.” Again the holy man replied, “Look well. The simplicity of little faith.” When his companion looked he found three rolls. Stunned, the companion said in a loud voice, “Dear Father, this is a miracle of God because without a doubt there was no bread in the pocket.” Taking them with great wonder and devotion they ate them one by one. Both the companion and the secular told of this miracle to the Friars and to seculars.

The Lord God displayed another miracle through this servant of his. It happened when he was Guardian in the friary in his home city of Reggio, while the friary was being built. One morning when came the time to eat, and there were many builders and other seculars in the place who were helping, the same thing happened. There was no bread in the house. For the questers were unaware that there was no bread in the cellar, because of the many things going on at the time. However that which was lacking due to the imprudence of the questers prayer to God supplied. When the hour to eat came, he ordered that (the meal) be prepared for the seculars. However he was told that there was not enough bread in the house. However the holy man did not get angry nor did he lose faith that Our Lord god would have provided for them. So he replied, “Prepare it anyway because the Lord will provide.” He immediately raised his mind to God and prayed a little while. Then he said, “God to the cellar because there will be enough bread.” At these words the cellarer went and likewise found the breadbox filled with bread miraculously provided by the Lord God through the prayers of the holy man.

This servant of God was also endowed with the spirit of prophecy. He often predicted things that were about to happen and revealed things that he could not know by human means but only by divine revelation.

Hence when he was preaching in the area called Seminara, one morning it happened that as soon as he climbed the pulpit he raised his hands and fixed his eyes towards heaven. When he had been there a good while without saying a word, he came down from the pulpit. The listeners wondered about this and some of them went to him out back and said to him, “Father, why have you come back down without preaching to us? Do you see something evil?” He answered, “Something quite evil has happened to me and to my city. Know that whenI was praying, raising my mind to God in order to preach to you, it was revealed to me and I saw clearly in the spirit that my city of Reggio had just then been captured by the Turks and sacked and burned by them.” On hearing this each of them was upset and for greater certainty they immediately sent a messenger to go and he found everything exactly as the holy man had said, that on that day and at that hour the city had been captured and with all its goods taken, those dogs burned most of it down.

When he was preaching in Terranuova della Piana he made another prediction. IN the middle of his great fervour he stopped for some time as if something had happened to make him lose his voice. Nonetheless the people realised that this did not happen to him through some accidental impediment but that he had seen something in the spirit, because his fame was widespread. This was the reason that when the sermon was finished one of his close acquaintances asked him with great insistence to tell him the reason for stopping that way in the sermon. With great humility he answered him, “I will tell you but keep it a secret.” He promised to do so and Father Louis told him, “Know that while I was so suspended in the sermon, God showed me that at that hour in my homeland there had been a great quarrel and some citizens had died.” This was later verified. That quarrel had happened in that very same hour.

Another time the holy man was on a journey and he met a nobleman form Montelione who had earlier taken a wife and was then going in order to bring her to his home. Since he was his acquaintance Brother Louis greeted him in a friendly fashion and asked him where he was going. The gentleman answered, “Father, I am going to bring my wife to my home.” The servant of God replied, “Have a good journey and be joyful and thank God because you will have ten children by this wife, five boys and five girls.” It was something amazing that in taking his wife he always remained in that hope because of the widespread reputation that he had the spirit of prophecy. That is exactly what happened, just as the holy man had predicted to him in a spirit of prophecy, because he had ten beautiful and naturally gifted children.

In the city of Reggio there was a good man who commended himself with great faith to this servant of God to pray for him so that if it pleased God, He might give him a son, for his wife was sterile. The servant of God Replied, “You will have one. However he will give you little joy, for by the just judgement of god he will be still born. Do not be sad over this. God does everything well.” Thus it was that not long after his wife became pregnant and gave birth to a stillborn son.

Another time this servant of God was in a certain region where it had rained fro a long time. When the people of that region begged him with great insistence and devotion to pray for them, he replied, “Do not worry. God will soon give you rain.” Not long after there was heavy rainfall.

This servant of God had one of his acquaintances to whom he revealed many things because he was his companion and a man of great holiness called Brother Angelus of Calanda. One day he was with and said to him in a personal way, “Dear Brother Angelus, do not be sad about what I am saying to you because the Lord God orders everything for the benefit of his elect in order to lead them with many merits to the desired goal of glory. Know, my son, that the Lord God wants you to pass through ‘fire and water.’ It will not be long and you will have a great tribulation. Be strong and let yourself be guided by God because not long after on such and such a day you will die.” And so it was for Brother Angelus had a great persecution. When it was over, at that same time, in the very hour that the holy man had said, he passed away to a better life. Brother Angelus told this many times to the Friars before he died.

The spirit of prophecy was not lacking in what he said to his beloved companion Father Bernardine, called “the George.” For one day they were having a spiritual discussion and turning with a very kind eye towards Father George he said to him, “By beloved Father, know that you will pass away to a better life six months before me. I will die on such and such a day and you will die at such and such a time and hour.” And so it was, giving clear testimony that he had spoken not as a man but as a prophet of God.

Once it was necessary for him, because of certain important matters, to send a letter from Reggio where he was staying to Motta di Filocasto to his beloved Father George. Having no one to send it, he asked a tertiary, a close acquaintance of our Friars, if he would do this act of charity for the love of god. The tertiary excused himself saying, “Father, I do not have the courage because I do not know the way.” Turning towards him with great joy he said to him, “You are so simple that you do not have the courage to find the way. Go in the name of God. Take my staff and this will be your companion. Do not worry because you will not lose you way nor will any evil happen to you.” Trusting in these words the tertiary set off on the journey. It was something marvellous, for although the road was quite long and difficult to find, nonetheless he passed through those wild regions without ever losing his way. Later he came across a cattle pen where there were many ferocious dogs that at other times had killed some men. By a miracle of God they didn’t move nor did they bark. Without any harm he passed them by. The shepherds were amazed. When he returned with the reply, before the tertiary could say a single word, the holy man could tell him everything that had happened to him along the way.

As a greater confirmation of the holiness of this servant of God and how he was very dear to God and his confidant he predicted the hour of his death at three times on different occasions. This was verified when it happened later. When he was in the friary at Mota di Philocastro in his final illness, before it became grave and there were no indications of his dying, he said publicly to many Friars who were around him that he had to die from that illness. With a long discussion and very inspired words he exhorted them to the true observance of the Rule and to the perseverance of the holy Reform. One Friar said to him, “Father, we are very much afraid that with Father George dead and being without you now that our Reform will be destroyed, since those who sustained it will no longer be here.” The servant of God replied, “Do not worry, my son, because the Congregation is not founded on men. Just as me didn’t do the Reform but God did, so God will preserve and increase it, because it will grow to a great number. God will spread it in all the parts of Christendom.”

As the hour of his transitus drew near, with great humility he asked to be given the Body of Our Lord Jesus Christ as viaticum. He received this with man tears and then Extreme Unction a little later. Having received this, well armed and quite ready for the passage of death so unknown and final, with a happy face he turned towards heaven and that happy soul passed away to its creator.

When the signs of death began to appear none of the Friars was with him except the Guardian of the friary at Motta. When he became aware of these he quickly called a tertiary that was there in the friary, a man of holy life. He commanded him to hurry to the Church and bring a blessed candle in order to commend the soul of the man of God. The tertiary went straightaway to the church and got the candle. At the exit of the Church he lifted his eyes and in the air he saw a light like a great burning torch come from the cell of the sick man and it went off towards heaven. Hurrying him the Guardian was at the door of the cell waiting for that candle. The tertiary replied to him, “Do not trouble yourself Father Guardian because the candle is no longer needed. The servant of God, Brother Louis, has flown to heaven.” And he told him about the light he had seen. Hearing this he returned into the cell and found that he had expired.

Therefore when the people from all around heard of the passing of this great servant of God Brother Louis, because of the great devotion that they had for him, in a flash there was such a huge gathering of so many people around the friary: men and women, small and great that it seemed like an army. They desired to see and kiss that holy body. And because there was such a multitude that sought with great insistence to see him it was necessary that the Friars keep him three days and nights without giving him a burial so as to satisfy everyone’s devotion. During that time three habits were torn off him for the devotion was such that anyone regarded himself as blessed if he could kiss and kept something that had touched that holy body. They sewed these relics on as if they were very precious relics. It was a wonderful that standing for such a long time that the holy body did not become at all contaminated. Nor did its colour change but always remained white and fresh, much fairer than when he was alive. A very sweet fragrance came from him. Hence there was a priest of holy life who he kissed his hands. Then when he was returning home in the company of many seculars, along the road all those seculars smelled a wonderful fragrance come from the hands of the priest. They said to one another, “Where does this fragrance come from?” the priest answered, “I am very amazed by this fragrance because I am not carrying nor have I touched anything fragrant that could have stayed on my hands.” However when he thought it over he remembered that having touched the hand of the blessed Louis. They all believed that the fragrance came from that. Just as the soul of the holy many was fragrant unto God and his life was always fragrant unto to men of the world through the excellent example that he had given to everyone and through the holy doctrine that he preached, so His Majesty wanted his body to be fragrant.

The Lord God did not fail to make this servant of his illustrious with miracles after his death. For there was a man who was completely cripple and gravely ill. He was in villa or castle of Philcastro called Saint Nicholas. When the wretched man heard of the fame and death of the holy man, with great faith and devotion he had himself carried to the house of the Friars. Touching that holy body, with many tears he commended himself to the Lord God that He might give him health through the merits of this servant of his. It was an amazing thing for he was immediately and completely healed. With great joy he returned home on his own feet, giving endless thanks to the Lord God. He was very devoted to the holy man for as long as he lived and made known the miracle to whoever wanted to hear about it.

Four years after his death the Friars demolished the church where that holy body was buried in order to rebuild it in another place. Wishing to translate the holy body, the found it whole, fresh and fair. What was more important was that his limbs were still flexible, as if he were alive, just like when he was placed in the tomb. Such a fragrance came from that body that it seemed that all the spiceries of Venice were there. This was a clear miracle of his holiness. A trustworthy Friar who was present at the translation of the body testifies to this, after the Father General enjoined on him by obedience to tell the simple truth about this. Many others who were present affirmed the same.

Many other things may be said of this servant of God that are worthy to be put down on paper. However because I do not have a perfect knowledge via trustworthy witnesses I have omitted writing about them.

Therefore no one should wonder that I have not kept the same order that I have used with the others by writing his life first and then his miracles. I have done this because the life and good ways of this servant of God are amply discussed in the Chronicle. Moreover, because his life was illustrious with miracles so that narrating his life I have been compelled to write down the miracles too.

Therefore what I write in bad composition, since I cannot stretch my intelligence any further, may it be enough in order to know the life, virtues, fervour, devotion, austerity of life, love of poverty, full observance of the Rule, constant patience amid adversities and persecutions, deep humility and charity towards his neighbour that this most fervent servant of God had. Through all these things we may know how pleasing his soul is to God and that we can believe piously that his soul is happy and blessed in heaven and that he may pray for us continuously. May He grant us the grace to imitate him so that we may arrive with him to the glory that we desire. Through His mercy may he grant us this so that he may be praised with his most fair Mother and our father Saint Francis. Amen.