About the holy man Brother Francis of Novara, Priest

Brother Francis was from the city called Novara in Lombardy. He was born to noble parents of the Micchi family. As a child he attended school and became quite a good grammarian. He grew with holy virtues and good ways for from the time he was in nappies he was adorned with a good manner so that in his family home he led such a religious life that everyone regarded him as an Angel of God. What one usually sees in youngsters was never seen in him. Instead he had such respect for his parents that no one ever saw him commit any kind of neglect. All the judicious persons held that he would become a Religious.

It pleased the supreme Creator that when he was at the tender age of about sixteen years the devout youngster began to dislike the world so much that he used to stay withdrawn by himself. He occupied himself either in carrying out some devotion or in reading devout books. So from this it happened that he became so afire with the desire to serve God that after having left his family home he went to be clothed in the Order of Saint Francis. He was received into the Congregation of Zoccolanti Fathers where he led a very religious life.

However, when the Capuchin Reform emerged, burning with an immense fervour, in order to imitate Father Saint Francis more in the perfect observance of the Rule he decided to leave that Congregation and come to eh Capuchins. So when he found himself in the friary in the region of Pallanza, situated at the great lake, he heard about the good reputation of the Capuchins and that the Reform was growing still by the grace of God. Then like a true servant of God he began secretly to speak with and invite to come to that Reform Friars whom he knew had the same desire and zeal to observe the Rule. Because everyone regarded him to be a holy man, his words and holy admonitions were not in vain. Five of those Fathers decided to come with him and when they left that friary they came to Milan where the Capuchins received them with great joy. He then led a life that was more angelic than human and was almost always in the Novice Master in the Province of Milan. He governed them with such prudence and good example that everyone, both Friars and seculars, called him the Master of Bergamo. He continuously gave those Novices sound regulations and good instruction on what they had to do in order to come to perfection, the goal of religious life. Therefore this servant of God said, “The end cannot be achieved without the means. The goal of religious life is to become inflamed with the love of God. The means to come to this end are the holy virtues. And because God communicates Himself to pure minds, therefore the one who wants to have Jesus Christ in his heart and to love Him perfectly above everything needs to purify his heart. This is done in the novitiate because just as a man strips himself of his secular clothes and is clothed in the holy habit that the Seraphic Father Saint Francis wore, so he should strip himself of all bad, worldly behaviour and be clothed in religious ways. Therefore speaking very loudly is not religious behaviour but a worldly abuse. Therefore take care to say little, and about necessary things with a soft voice. All the Rules impose silence except that of Saint Francis. Nonetheless we read that Father Saint Francis took great account of silence as the guardian of all acquired virtue and as a restraint on every vice. I suspect,” he said to his novices, “that if any Friar harms himself it is, he does this no other way than by the sin of the tongue, and that of the then who harm themselves, nine do it with this vice. We see that from the beginning in the Constitutions of the Order silence was included as something very important. This is the one that mainly reminds any one who wants to practice holy contemplation. The beautiful memoir of that holy Father was not without good reason: the tongue is like a fly. One moment it lands on honey, the next it lands on dung. That is what the tongue of the wick religious does who one minute praises God and the next murmurs against his neighbour and speaks evil. A young novice who stays with his eyes lowered and who speaks little and with a soft voice resembles an Angel of God. The one who is badly behaved and poorly disciplined and who talks a lot is like a worldly person- vain and full of vices. Therefore with great care take up this beautiful manner of speaking little. Be in love with holy silence, a virtue so high that anyone who is not adorned with it cannot be called ‘religious.’ That is what Saint James says, “the religion of one who does not restrain his tongue is vain.” We find that Our Lord spoke few times; the same for the Mother of God. The early saints took great account of holy silence. Not without reason did Saint Basil praise it and Father Saint Benedict observe it. These very holy Fathers imposed it in their Rules. Many sins are done with the tongue and many evils come from unnecessary conversations. Therefore just as the stamp imprints a beautiful character, so the novitiate imprints in the novices the beautiful form which those novices have to keep and observe with great care in the holy Order for as long as they live, offering this beautiful norm with their example to those who come to the holy Order after them.”

This servant of God informed his disciples with these and similar instructions. Just as it is said of Our Lord that He first began to do and then He instructed, so he was a very good imitator of His Majesty, for just as the Apostle Paul says, he did not dare to preach any virtue to others if Christ Our Lord had not first exercised it in him. Therefore he was full of every virtue. Especially, he was so regulated in his speaking and well practiced in holy silence that rightly none of his disciples could say to him, “What are you doing?” He spoke so rarely and softly that he truly showed he continuously carried Jesus Christ carved in his heart. His words were so kind, inspired and humane that they restored everyone very much and many desired to hear him speak about the things of God. His reputation was so widespread that every one who was troubled wanted to listen to him and they went away consoled.

Because he was very weak he could not do much abstinence, nonetheless he ate very little. He was very zealous about holy poverty and when he saw something go wrong he was very much afflicted. He never wanted anything for his own use except what the Rule allowed him. He was very zealous about holy modesty and everyone, both seculars and Friars, considered him a virgin with such innate purity and simplicity because he always bore a beautiful disposition of being always united with God in his mind. So it happened that apart from the necessities of nature he was always occupied in mental or vocal prayer to the extent that he was hardly seen outside of his cell or the church. If there had not been the need to teach the novices he would have done little else night and day than pray. He was accustomed to prayer that when he needed to come to some manual exercise for the sake of the novices, he felt the greatest repugnance since he felt he was separating himself somewhat from the beloved spouse of his soul.

Therefore after this servant of God persevered many years in the holy Order with an irreproachable life and was regarded a saint by everyone in public opinion and reputation, it pleased Our Lord God to reward the efforts of this servant of His. When the Fathers of that Province took up the friary of Novara this Father was sent there. He stayed in that city, working with some young men, still with great prudence, to make ready the friary. However since the servant of God was a weak old man, because of the great suffering he fell gravely ill in the house of Messer Joseph Berghamo, a man very kind to us. He lived for many days in that infirmity and endured it with such great patience that was a marvel for the entire city. Many Friars came, some to visit this Father, others because of the friary. They all lodged in the house of that Messer Joseph. Since he was not very rich he could not find a way of meeting the expense, nonetheless because of the great devotion he had for that holy man and the whole Congregation he did not reveal his difficulty to them for fear of distressing them. Instead he fed everyone with a glad face. The Lord God did not want this act of charity to pass in silence without showing through His providence how much that charity pleased Him. For when Messer Joseph went into a church to commend himself to the Lord God so that He might give him the ability to provide for all the needs of those servants of God, someone immediately appeared to him in that church and gave him thirty scudi and said to him, “Take these Messer Joseph because I owe them to you.” Marvelling over this he said to him, “Excuse me, excuse me. I do not know you and I don’t know about your having to give me anything.” He replied, “Take it in good conscience because I owe them to you and do not ask further questions.” Leaving the money he disappeared in an instant and he never saw him again. Messer Joseph told this miracle to anyone who wanted to listen.

Therefore in that house this servant of God passed away to a better life. He was regarded a saint by everyone and the whole city. Because of the great devotion that they had for him since they knew about his holy life from his childhood in the world and also from the great example he gave in his infirmity, almost the whole city and all the clergy and all the Orders were at his funeral. That holy body was buried in the cathedral church.

Because I did not know him I cannot tell about the miracles that this holy man did. Everything that I write I have had from the very venerable and trustworthy Fathers of that Province.

I will only about this miracle about which I have been completely informed. When the funeral service was over and the holy body had to be interred, because the one who had to carry out this task was very poor, it pleased the Lord God that a good man was inspired to give alms to the poor fellow so that he could bury him. Because he was completely blind in one eye and had very poor sight in the other, with great devotion and faith he knelt down on the tomb stone where that holy body was buried and said, “Brother Francis, servant of God, I done this act of charity to have you buried, giving all my means in order to bury your body. I am sure that you holiness is so great that you can do much in the presence of the Lord God. If I have done an act of charity for you, do one now for me. Beg the Lord God that through your merits he may restore my sight.” Wonderful God! As soon as he got up he was healed perfectly. From then on he always saw very well and God returned his sight to him so firmly through the merits of this servant of His, that even when he grew old, until he died, his sight still never failed him as usually happens to the old.

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