About the holy and devout son Brother Louis of Foligno, priest

Brother Louis was from a city called Foligno in the Province of Saint Francis. He was born to honest parents. He attended school until he learned to read and write. Then he learned the art of a rope maker. However when he turned approximately eighteen years of age, touched by the Holy Spirit, he decided to leave this world and serve God in some Order, even though it saddened him very much to leave his father who was not very well off. Nonetheless it pleased the Lord God that his desire to serve His Majesty prevailed over worldly love, for one day he left secretly and took the habit of the Franciscan Order. He always led a holy life.

Father Louis of Fossombrone received him and then he was sent to the Province of the Marches where he practised every virtue, especially holy humility, by doing all the lowly tasks in the Order for as long as he lived. He became a Priest and celebrated (Mass) with great devotion almost every day. When Brother Louis saw that he was a man of great example, even though he was not very well educated, nonetheless because there was great shortage of any who could preach, he gave him authority to be able to preach in the villages, castles and lowly places. He fulfilled this office with great simplicity, preaching the commandments of God and other useful things. Through the preaching of this servant of His, the Lord God bore the greatest fruit in simple persons. Once he was preaching in the mountains of Foligno in a village where a great enmity had started between two may households. Although many important persons and the Priors of the city of Foligno had tried to make peace among them, no one was ever able to prove victorious. It pleased the Lord God that both parties were present at the sermon when this servant of His was preaching. In great fervour he held a crucifix and had a dialogue with it. He said, “O Lord, who has put you on this cross? Were they scribes and Pharisees?” The Lord answered, “No.” Then he said, “Was it the Jews?” The Lord always answered, “No.” When he had made a long dialogue he finished when the Lord replied and said, “Those here at the sermon who do not want to forgive have put me on the cross.” At this he burned with such fervour that with a loud voice he turned to both parties and threatened them with the anger of God. Terrified by these words they all embraced there in the church.

He bore such miraculous fruits in countless numbers. When he had preached he wanted no one to provide food. Rather he went himself with his companion to quest a little bread. Then he withdrew to some wood where there was some water. There he gladly ate the bread soaked in water with some onion, garlic or some truly pungent herb. The servant of led his life in this way. The fame of his holiness spread so much that when he preached in a village, people came from five or six miles around. He organised societies so that when he left they would continue in some devotion.

He was very austere regarding his body. He never wanted anything other than only one completely patched habit both in summer and in winter. In front of his legs he had sewn a patch where he carried a book of his ordinary sermons. He did this so as not to have pockets. For a long time he wore harsh sackcloth. He always went barefoot in summer and winter. Most of the time he fasted on bread and water. He rarely ate minestra and almost never ate meat. He was the one who made the old friary at Fano called Santa Lia. He built it in such a poor style that it was finished in twenty-two days. He said the Mass of the Holy Spirit and began to live in the place with his companions. One day while it was being built the Priors of Fano went to visit the place. When they asked who was the Guardian the Friars immediately called Brother Louis and said that the lords wanted to see him. They saw him with his habit all dirty with clay, with more in his beard than anywhere else because they were applying clay to the lattice-work of the cells and a lot of it fell on him. When the Priors saw this holy man so despicable and wearied they were all amazed. Looking at one another they said, “Oh, is this man the Father Guardian?” With a joyful face he said, “I am that miserable sinner.” Frequently speaking among themselves the Priors said, “I know that these poor fellows are not idlers. If the Father Guardian is so worn out, imagine what the others are doing. These are truly servants of God.” On going inside they saw their simplicity and the poor friary they had built and they all began to weep. They said to one another, “You have seen beautiful dormitories, refectories and beautiful lodgings! These ones are imitators of Saint Francis who have put the world beneath their feet with such fervour.” They felt such compunction in their hearts that they went back weeping and they did not speak to one another. When they had built it, they lived in that friary with such austerity that they rarely cooked anything. Instead they went into the fields and collected wild greens. That was the greatest delicacy that they ate.

It pleased the Lord God for Brother Louis of Fossombrone to send this holy man to the Province of Saint Francis where he was Guardian many times. He governed with great maturity and delighted in holy prayer most of all. He fled the friendship of seculars in every way to the extent that even though he had been in the friary for ten years he never had a friendship with anyone. I was often with him in the same fraternity, and heard him say, “Friendship with seculars is the cause of great laxity in the Order. They often give you alms for friendship and not for the love of God. Thus they lose merit. Their coming to our friaries makes the Friars waste a lot of time. When the Friars establish friendships they are ashamed about not showing affection, as it fitting, and often give a lot of bother to the officials and great reason for murmuring. And if affection is not shown them they are scandalised. Therefore if anyone wants to remain in peace let him not get attached to seculars. Usually all the secular Friars are enemies of the Order. There is no Friar who is able to see them and because of this many are ruined. Our dealings with seculars should be rare and of the very best example. When they come to our friaries, let them come out of devotion in order to receive some good instruction for the salvation of their souls and not for secular friendship. For just as Religious have left the world and its goods for the love of God, so they should leave friendship which impedes the spirit in us more than goods do.”

When he was the Guardian at Narni in the summer time this servant of God staid continuously in the woods. Once I found him in the woods. He was so lifted up in spirit and outside of himself in rapture that when I passed nearby he heard nothing and did not move. I saw him with his face turned towards heaven and his feet were motionless, as if he were a statue. He did not bat an eyelid. On many of the more devout times he withdrew into the woods. During the Holy Week of the Lord, the forty-days of the Archangel Michael and other devout times he took the discipline there, beating himself continuously for five hours just at the holy man Brother Anthony of Corso taught him.

When he was Guardian in the friary at Coldipedo he withdrew with Brother John of Ancaiano, a Lay friar, to the ruined and abandoned Abbey of Saint Apollinarius and to caves. They stayed there eating a little bread and water once a day. Sometimes for a week, three days or the like they did the discipline. They occupied themselves continuously in holy prayers without ever speaking to one another. He desired very much to die in solitude, but under holy obedience. This is why he went one day to be advised by the great doctor called Mons. Leonard. He said to him, “Would it be permissible for a servant of God to come out from an Order and go away to solitude, if while he was there would he be obliged to hear Mass on Sunday?” The doctor answered him, “Without doubt it would be permissible because one may always go to greater perfection. If God gave you the grace so that you may contemplate Him continuously and if you were lifted up in God you would not be obliged to anything else because all the things that religious persons do have the love of God as their end. When one arrives at the end the means are no longer necessary. However for my advice no one should ever make such an undertaking unless it has first been certified by God that such is His will because it is a very difficult thing. Unless it is a particular calling from God that a Religious can do better outside of obedience than by living under obedience which is a bond which binds all religious persons with God Himself, and with the Church and with the Order, for it is necessary for them to regulate all their actions so that they may be acceptable to God. One must think that there may always be enlightened, learned and spiritual men in the Order who shed light for the simple ones so that they may not be easily deceived. Solitude however is very dangerous unless it is some gift of God. The one who does as much as he can in the Order does a great deal when it is well ordered and lives according to the precepts of the one who ordained it. Therefore it is called a Rule because if you follow the precepts of that Rule it will bring you infallibly to its purpose. Otherwise it could not be called a Rule. You do not have this in the desert. Rather you would walk according to the rule of your own will which errs easily if it is not regulated by God.”

The reply very much calmed the servant of God Brother Louis, for earlier he had always been bothered by the desire to go off into solitude in order not to see anyone and to give himself completely to holy prayer.

It pleased the Lord God that when he was Guardian in that devout friary of Saint Valentine in Foligno he fell gravely ill with acute colic. In that illness he prepared himself very devoutly by receiving all the most holy sacraments. Thus well disposed that holy soul passed away to its Creator. He was buried there. It was a miracle of God that his body remained in tact in the grave for more than twenty years. However when the new place was built near Foligno the Friars transferred his bones. When the venerable Father Stephen of Foligno saw them, with great devotion and teras he kissed them and said to the Friars, “You did not know this man as I knew him. I am more than certain that his soul has been canonised in heaven.”

To the praise and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.