About the holy man Brother Dominic of Boschetto, Priest and Preacher

Brother Dominic was from a little castle called Boschetto situated in the dominion of Nocera. His father was Anthony and his mother had the name Bartholomea. She was a holy woman and always led a holy life. She was materially poor but rich in the fear of God. She was very devoted to the Franciscan Order. When her husband died she never wanted to sleep in bed for a period of seventeen years. Instead the servant of God stayed the whole night in a corner of the house where she had arranged a little bench. She spent the whole night there. She spent the first evening spinning and when she felt slept come heavily upon her she began to pray in order to conquer herself and deny her nature of too much sleep. There she spent most of the night. Then as she felt sleep over come her, she laid her head on the bench. When he woke very early in the morning she took up her prayer again. I heard Brother Dominic say many times, “My mother’s prayers have brought me to this Order.” Batholomea’s holy life was not in vane nor fruitless for she raised her son according to her simplicity in the fear of God. When he was about twenty years old he decided that he wanted to serve God in the holy Order of Saint Francis. She took great pleasure in this and encouraged him very much.

Recognising the fallacies of the world, Brother Dominic decided to abandon it and to serve God. He was received into the holy Order of Saint Francis in 1533. We did our Novitiate together and he was always a particular companion of mine. By nature he was very simple with little learning. However he was very fervent in the service of God. In his youth he was very austere. However because his constitution was weak and ate so little the poor fellow could not fast. Nonetheless he kept many vigils on bread and water. For a long time he wore a harsh hairshirt. He slept very little and spent most of the time at holy prayer and because of this the Holy Spirit gave him the gift to talk about God. So when our Fathers became aware of the great fruit he bore, they allowed him to preach. He exercised this office for many years. He always preached in castles, villas and lowly places. The Lord God worked many good things through his holiness and simplicity and inspired everyone in the love of God. Often when these places were offered educated preachers they didn’t want them but the simple Brother Dominic instead. As difficulty as they might have been, he was able to accomplish all the reconciliations. The devotion of the people towards him was such that on considered himself happy if he were blessed by him. He did many miracles with the sign of the cross.

For about twenty years he stayed in the Province of Saint Francis. Then he was sent to the Province of the Marches where he aroused the greatest devotion among the people because of his simple words. His fame increased so much that they brought him the sick from everywhere around. Many of them returned, completely healed by the sign of the cross. This holy man also freed many possessed persons. In the friary where he was, the poor Friars could not bear up because of the multitude who gathered there from all over the Marches. They said that the Our Lord God gave him this grace of healing all those whom he touched with his hand.

He had many visions, especially in the friary at Narni. A holy old man was sick there and Brother Dominic visibly saw a procession of saints who came to accompany the soul of the holy old Friar. Not recognising them, the servant of God took courage and approached them. He asked them who they were. So they answered him, “We are all Friars Minor whom Our Lord God has sent from heaven so that we may honour and lead to heaven in our company the soul of the holy man Brother Justin. Brother Dominic ran to give the good news to the holy old man who replied, “My son, I have seen them. As they greeted me they passed through this cell. Therefore assemble everyone.” When all the poor Friars gathered in the cell of the holy man, he passed away within a short time. Abandoning the burden of the flesh flew away to heaven with that holy company.

Another time he was in the friary at Bettona when someone knocked hurriedly at the door at the beginning of the Angelus bell. When Brother Dominic went out to see who it was ad very poor man presented himself before him. With great humility he asked him alms for the love of God. Brother Dominic went and got him a loaf of bread and said to him, “Brother, forgive us. We are also poor and have little.” The poor man replied, “I know that you are poor. I know how much you have and what you can do.” Immediately he disappeared and at that same moment appeared to the Father Guardian of the same friary and said to him, “I have received this bread from your Friars.” Then he immediately disappeared. Everyone believed that he was Jesus Christ and I heard this from the mouth of Brother Dominic himself.

The zeal this servant of God had for the salvation of souls was such that if was not all to be able to go to preach on Sundays he filled with melancholy since felt he was wasting time. Many times when he felt very badly, the Friars who understood his character said to him, “Brother Dominic, if you were not ill you could go to preach.” The servant of God immediately leapt out of bed and said, “I am not too bad. With the grace of God I will get better. Send me to bear some fruit.” Then he was immediately healed. Once when he was in a castle the assembly of people was such that he withdrew to a big house and preached to them most of the night. Then he let them go, saying, “Come back tomorrow.” While trying to prepare for the morning, he found nothing that he liked very much. While he was praying everyone was overcome by love in the morning and countless reconciliations were accomplished.

In the same friary at Bettona he was fulfilling the office of sacristan. He wanted to draw some water from a very deep cistern and dropped the keys in. It was amazing. With great faith he made the sign of the cross and dropped in a little hook. Straight away he pulled up a cauldron with many other pieces of ironware. Inside were the keys. The iron implements had been thrown in many years earlier because of the war and no one knew this.

At Macerata the wife of a doctor was in bed because of an incurable sickness. The doctor begged him to pray to God for her then said to him, “What do you believe will happen?” The servant of God answered, “I am not God who knows what will happen.” When the doctor begged him to make the sign of the cross he went closer. Having made the sign of the cross he said to her, “Get up and come to the sermon.” Amazing! She immediately got up from bed with he daughter who was also sick. She was as healthy as if she had never been sick and both of them went to the sermon.

Because the countless miracles and other similar things he did have not been collected and examined and proven by some tribunal of holy Church, and also because I am very familiar with them, I am not writing them down – so as not to err.

Suffice to say that in 1589 when the servant of God was praching in some villas in the State of Urbino, about eight miles from Sant’Angelo in Vado, he did so with greater fervour than ever in the past. Like a swan that they say when it is close to death it sings more sweetly that it has ever done. So it was with the servant of God. Since he was already close to death, he bore more fruit and to the greater satisfaction of the people than he had ever done before. When his preaching was finished, with great contentment in his heart, he returned to our friary in Sant’Angelo in Vado. Falling gravely ill there he received all the most holy sacraments. Within a few days he passed away to a better life after having served Our Lord God with great fervour and purity of mind for about sixty [?] years in the holy Congregation of Capuchins. He was buried there. However when this reached the ears of the holy [?] and Illustrious Duke of Urbino, because he loved the Friars and was well acquainted and informed about his holiness, he immediately undertook to have that holy body brought to Pesaro and put in a fitting tomb when it arrived with a great funeral procession However, since the weather was getting cold, it was not moved elsewhere.

Therefore we can piously believe that his soul is in paradise and together with the Angels and blessed spirits he enjoys the Supreme Goodness. Amen.