About the holy man Brother John of Puglia, Lay Friar

Brother John was from an ancient city in Puglia called Troia. He was born to honest, though not very wealthy parents. When he was young he was the servant of a Spanish gentleman. When he was returning to Spain, and since the young fellow had served him well, he asked him to go with him to Spain. Not long after while he was staying he Spain at the service of his patron, one day he saw some Friars of the Spanish Reform from the Holy Angel Province. Moved by the Holy Spirit he decided to leave the world and become one of those Friars when he heard of their extraordinary reputation. They went barefoot continuously. They did not drink wine. They dressed roughly and were very zealous about the observance of the Rule. In order to do harsh penance for his sins he was clothed in that Province of the Holy Angel where he spent many years in harsh penance. Because of this he was called Brother John of Spain. He always went barefoot, clothed in a rough habit of natural wool. He fast almost continuously. The desire came to him to die for Christ, to go among the infidels and preach the faith of Jesus Christ in order to receive holy martyrdom from them. Because many holy men told him that this was an undertaking of perfect men, the servant of God applied himself to every kind of mortification so that when he was given the permission he would have been well prepared and will practiced in the holy virtues, especially in humility, the foundation of every spiritual edifice.

As it pleased the Lord God, it happened that he received the obedience from the General to go to preach the faith in the land of the infidels. When he arrived in Italy he was accompanied by the holy man Brother Bartholomew of Città di Castello and they crossed over to the land of the Moors. With great constancy they preached the Christian faith, disregarding the false law of Mohammed. They received many beatings from the Moors then they put them more dead than alive into a dry, very deep well where the Moors were accustomed to keep grain. There every morning they threw a tub of urine over them as well as other filth. The stench was such, and because the place was so confined that they were about to expire. There were four Friars and they staid there about twenty tow days. The leader of the Moors however did not want them martyred but wanted to profit from them and had them removed and gave them to a Christian merchant who paid a lot of money for them on the strength of an agreement that they stay with him in the land of the Christians. In that pit at the time there certain Jews moved to compassion who gave them some bread and other necessary things.

Brother John was not happy about this and was restless because of being so close to martyrdom and yet did not die for the love of Jesus Christ. He never rested until he returned alone once, though to a different country of the infidels. Since he found certain Christian merchants who went to various parts belonging to the infidels, he begged them insistently to take him on their ship until they arrived in the land of Turkey where, when they were near a beach they would put him ashore secretly so that they came to no harm. That is how it was done. Not long after some Turks found him and gave him many blows. Then on tying him tightly they him quickly to their leader with whom he spoke through an interpreter. However the Turkish interpreter said to him many times in Italian, “Father, you are saying these things to our Bishop who will have you burned alive.” Brother John replied, “This is what I desire – to die for the love of my Lord, Jesus Christ.” The interpreter replied, “I don’t believe that you want to die because if you had such a desire it is not necessary that you come to us. It would have been enough to go off to Rome and speak the truth to your Pope and he would have had you killed.” Brother John replied, “You scoundrel, you are a renegade Christian because you speak our way so well.” The interpreter said, “That is not true. Rather I am a true Moor, but I have learned to speak the Christian language.” Brother John said, “Say to your Lord what I say to you: Since I am the servant of Christ I tell you on His behalf that if you do not convert you will die damned like Mohammed and all those who have followed him.” The Turk said, “Be warned that this will cost you dearly.” “Say it nonetheless,” replied Brother John. Turning to his Bishop, called a Cadì in their language, the interpreter did not tell him what Brother John had imposed upon him but more pleasing words instead. When Brother John saw that the Cadì did not get angry he realised the interpreter’s trick and so with great fervour turned to towards him and said, “Tell him what I tell you.” Provoked by these words the interpreter told the Cadì everything. When he heard these things the Cadì immediately became furious and commanded him to be bound and had him thrown to the ground and given more than fifty strokes to the soles of his feet with a piece of wood. Brother John also received countless other blows to the head. Then he had him put in prison. Taking advantage of some merchants, without seeing him again, the Cadì had him returned to the land of the Christians without Brother John being satisfied.

Brother John did not settle for this and returned there two more times but the Lord God never allowed him to die completely. Nonetheless he received countless scourgings from them every time. I heard this from his own mouth and he showed me his scalp covered with wounds, albeit healed.

It pleased the Lord God that when he was in Spain he was told that the Capuchins had emerged in Italy. Thinking that he could obtain permission more easily through the Capuchins he came to Rome with the obedience of the General. Although he had the obedience, he nonetheless suffered many tribulations on the journey because he came alone. Out of devotion this servant of God came to Mount Alverna and when had visited those holy places he left with the intention of go off to Rome and become a Capuchin. However he did not reveal this intention to anyone. However the Lord who always gives his servants the opportunity to merit allowed him the gravest tribulation as he come down from Mount Alverna. For when he arrived at the castle called Pioppi situated in Casentino under the dominion of Florence, and when the people there saw him going barefoot in that way wearing an unusual habit, they wondered if he were a spy because at that time in Florence there was a big war. Therefore they put him in the basement of a tower. In that tower basement, and because he was tall, there was a plank wide enough which he was able to use for a bed. He stayed there for fifty four days where that servant of God ate nothing except for the stagnant water and a little straw he drank and ate from underneath the plank. None of those people remembered to give him even a slice of bread. When he told them he was a Friar of Saint Francis they sent for the Friars who denied that he was one of their Friars or followed their Rule. I don’t believe they remembered that he was not dressed like them because he went barefoot like the Discalced (Friars) of France. However the just retribution of God did not fail him because the Pope’s army arrived there shortly afterwards and gave battle to that castle which they took and sacked. When the servant of God heard the noise he began to cry out as loudly as he could from the bottom of that tower. When the soldiers heard him they went around the tower but could find where the voice was coming from. This was because it did not have a lower gate. Rather its entrance was through a portcullis almost in the middle. Looking through the portcullis they saw the poor Religious there half dead and lying on that plank. The Lord Alexander Vitelli ordered that he be brought out to him. When he saw that he had been so mistreated that he could no longer open his mouth or speak, he had his mouth forced open with a knife and gave him some soothing drinks so that within a short time he was himself. When Brother John showed him the obedience he knew that he was one of the Spanish Reformed Friars of Saint Francis and that he was a great servant of God. He gave him a very warm welcome and sure passage to be able to go off to Rome.

When he arrived he immediately went to find the Capuchins and commended himself to them with great humility. Father Louis of Fossombrone received him and clothed him in the Capuchin habit. He was sent to his home country of Puglia. Because he desired nothing else than to suffer for Jesus Christ, he begged the Father Guardian to be able to stay withdrawn into a cave on the site of the Friary where he continuously practised contemplation and fasted on bread and water, desiring above all to be conformed in his suffering with Our Lord Jesus Christ. Because the Lord saw him eager and well prepared to merit, he always gave him great opportunities to do so at different times. For it happened that the Father Guardian sent him with another companion to quest for alms in some mountains when there was a very heavy fall of snow. When the poor fellow found himself barefoot in a place where there were no dwellings he set out as best he could through the snow in order to arrive at a Friary of our Conventual Fathers. When Brother John arrived there more dead than alive after having walked barefoot through knee deep snow, out of compassion those Fathers heated a pale of water to wash his feet. However Brother John Brother John knew that the hot water would have hurt him said, “Father Guardian, do not make me wash because it will hurt me.” Still thinking that it would do him some good, the good Father said to him, “Oh Brother John, you want to be a martyr and you can’t suffer a little heat!” When the servant of God heard martyrdom mentioned with great fervour he thrust his feet into that hot water. As a result of the cold fighting with heat he lost the tips of his toes up to the first joint which fell off. Because of this the poor fellow was martyred continuously by intense pain for months.

Not long after the General Chapter was convened in Naples. The servant of God Brother John was there and out of devotion towards Father Saint Francis he sought from the Father General the obedience to come to the Province of Saint Francis and to be able to stay in devout Friary at Borgo San Sepolcro called Monte Casale. He was added to that friary and on the site of the Friars there is a place called the Spisciolo because a little river of water falls from that crag down a very high precipice and because of this it makes a very loud noise. Below that cliff there is a cave that could easily hold three hundred persons. The overhang is so big that is just like a flat roof. Underneath it the servant of God made a little cell of wattle daubed with mud and there he stayed at contemplation. He ate only once a day just a bowl of beans or other vegetables – what ever was there, cooked only with water and without slat or other condiments. When he wanted to drink he had put the neck of a gourd on a pole. With that he collected water which fell down the crag and drank from the gourd. In that cell he never kept anything except a small pot, a bowl and a poor mantle that the servant of God used to cover himself at night. He slept on the ground. He also had a very beautiful crucifix about half a metre long in the cell. Most the time, day and night, the servant of God poured out his tears there. Often both seculars and Friars heard him weep so bitterly over the Passion of Our Lord that he could have been heard easily up to half a mile away. Once I said to him, “I think it is wrong when you cry out so loudly.” He replied, “I cannot contain myself when I think that Our Lord died for us and when I think about the terrible agony He suffered for such a bad sinner. I cannot be calm until I have poured out a bowl of tears. I wear myself out so much from weeping that my physical strength fails me completely.”

This was the crucifix that he carried in the armada when Charles V took Tunis from Barbarossa. He told me that during the assault at Tunis he carried that crucifix ahead of the army in the ships. It was something amazing that falconet struck stand of the cross and blew away the figure, leaving only part of the cross in his hand. Nonetheless neither he nor the figure came to any harm. Because of this wherever he went always carried it with him in a twine cloth.

He staid in the friary of Spisciolo for about eight months in such harsh penance, dressed in a habit of natural wool which was completely patched and only came halfway down his leg. Every morning he came to Mass at dawn at the friary and received Holy Communion nearly every day. On a journey he could be heard from a good distance say with a sad and tearful voice, “O my Jesus! O my Jesus!” When he was at Mass he always languished, often emitting ardent sighs that penetrated heaven and inspired the heart of everyone who heard him.

In that place he suffered great trials from the infernal enemy. Often appearing to him under different guises the enemy troubled him very much with his words. However, armed with the holy sign of the cross Brother John did not worry about any of these things. Once the servant of God was working with a window that he had made for his cell and wanted to fix it to its opening. He hit a nail with the little hatchet he had. When he was about to hit it, the devil cried out loudly behind him. At the sudden voice, he missed the nail and hit his hand. Realising it had been the devil he said to him, “May it be for the love of god. Do to me the worst you can. I am not frightened of you.” The devil laughed at this response.

Once three thieves had been hung up on the mountain. The following night the devil gave him so much trouble that it seemed as though he wanted to make the mountain collapse so that the servant of God could not sleep. Crying out once with a loud voice he said, “What do you think you are doing, devil!?” He answered, “It is not the devil. We are the three the Duke of Urbino had hung yesterday.” Brother John answered, “Whoever you are, I am not frightened of you. I have my Lord Jesus Christ who guards me. I am not afraid of your actions.”

Another time the devil called him from above the crag and Brother John said to him, “Who is calling me?” He answered, “I am Beelzebub.” Brother John said, “May God rebuke you, I am not afraid of you.” Beelzebub answered, “You think you will drive me from this place. I was here before you were and before Saint Francis. I don’t care less about you but I do mind that you are converting seculars with your example. They go to confession and because of you they are escaping from my grasp.” And so he disappeared.

Another time Brother John was cutting wood in a very steep place and the devil appeared to him in the guise of a shepherd and said to him, “I have come to make you fall down these cliffs.” Brother John said, “And who are you?” He answered, “I am Beelzebub.” Brother John didn’t want to hear any more and ran after him with the hatchet, saying to him, “Come closer, devil, come closer, because today I want to see what you are made of.” Laughing, the devil immediately disappeared.

Another time the devil went around him in his cell as if he were a rooster and then said to him in a human voice, “Poor Brother John. You have some hens but you don’t eat eggs.”

Often when he was eating the devil threw excrement, dirt, pebbles or other dirty things into his bowl. He endured all these things with great patience and thanked God for giving him the opportunity to suffer. He often said, “You are just, my Lord Jesus Christ. I have offended you, the Creator of all things. It is just that Your creatures make retribution for the offences against their Creator. It is enough for me to suffer willingly for your love who and whenever you please.”

One night the devil grabbed him by the leg and caused him such pain that he was about to die. However, when he commended himself to the Lord, the devil fled away and left him like a cripple for many days.

Another time when he was coming to Mass the devil appeared to him amid some withered briars in a very dark place in the form of a fire-breathing dragon. He told me this gave him the greatest fright and showed me the place where the devil had appeared to him.

I cannot express nor put on paper all the cruel battles that the devil gave this servant of God at different times. I who was unworthily the Guardian in that friary at the time know in some detail all the things that happened around this servant of God. However, so as not to tell too long a story and bore the reader, I pass over them briefly.

However, I feel I should not remain silent about this. When Brother John was at the death of a holy man, that man promised him that if it were the will of God, he would appear to him after his death and make known to him what happened to his soul. Nonetheless for a space of about three months Brother John waited for that Friar to appear to him. He often told me, “I very much want to know what has happened to the soul of that Friar.” I sadi to him, “Brother John, do not wait for visions because we can be deceived by the devil.”’ However the idea could not be taken from him. It pleased the Lord God that at dawn on the morning of Saint Bernardine, when Brother John wished to leave his cell, the Friar appeared to him. Greeting him he said, “Ave Maria, Brother John! When he saw him wearing the habit he had put on him when he was buried with the cowl half over his head, and with a shining and happy face, Brother John said to him very joyfully, “O my brother, why have you been so long and not come sooner?” The Friar answered, “I wasn’t able to. It was not the will of God.” Brother John said, “Have you been saved?” The Friar answered, “By the mercy of God I have been saved, however because I was in a certain friary and because of my simplicity I carelessly and obtained money alms in the wrong way for the building of the friary of Saint Joseph at Foligno, at my death I was in great danger of being damned. Nonetheless, placing my hope in the passion of Our Lord, He helped me by giving me a great apprehension. By His mercy He has given me purgatory where I have been until now with Brother James of Spello, the lay Friar, who is with me here.” He pointed to him but Brother James never said anything. Brother John said, “Do you have great pain?” The Friar replied, “A little, but I will be freed soon.” Brother John said, “Will we Capuchins be saved?” The Friar answered, “Brother John I cannot tell you many things because the Lord god does not want me to. Brother John wanted to ask many things and had him sit down. The Friar said to him, “Most of the Capuchins who die in the fervour of this Order and are not involved in buildings fly straight to heaven with experiencing the pangs of purgatory. All the Friars in the Order of Saint Francis who die as owners and are involved especially in money, if they do not rid themselves of ownership and do not do penance and go to confession with true sorrow are all damned. However if they do penance and go to confession, God forgives them. Those who do not have time to fulfil the penance God sends to purgatory out of His mercy, just as He did with me and these others that you see. (He showed him some other Friars who had appeared in his company. Brother John did not know them by name.) Brother John said to him, “How are the seculars saved?” The Friar answered, “Just as one finds very few white hens, so it happens in the multitude of the world that very few are saved.” Then he added, “Forgive me Brother John, because I cannot say anything else.” Then he disappeared in a flash.

I said to him, “Who knows if you have not been deceived, that it seemed to you he was that Friar but was a demon.” The servant of God replied, “I have received this grace of recognising inwardly when a vision is good, whether it is sent by God and or by the devil. By the grace of God I cannot be deceived.”

Another time he came to the friary very happily and told me, “Father, good news!” When I asked him what the good news was, he answered, “Know, my Father, that the tears I have poured out to obtain from God the gift of martyrdom – to be martyred for His name – will not have been in vane. Now, though I am not worthy, in His mercy He has heard me and I am certain that I will be a martyr because when I was at these prayers before the crucifix, I clearly heard the voice of Our Lord in the air. He said to me, “Be sure that you will be a martyr and you will leave this Province in order to go to holy martyrdom.” This was later fulfilled, as will be told in its place.

He was so enlightened by God. When the venerable Father Francis of Iesi came – the Vicar of the Province of Saint Francis at that time – he gave the most beautiful sermons to that Friars that touched upon the highest things of theology that the learned would have found difficult to understand them. He was present for those sermons and he often told me, “Know that I understood all these things in my mind, however I would not have been able to explain them to others.”

He also told me about a beautiful vision that he had in the old friary at Spoleto. When he was in that friary at prayer in the woods he was lifted up in ecstasy. He saw a beautiful youth draw near to him and take him by the hand and say to him, “Come, Brother John I want to show you amazing things.” Instantly he was led to a very beautiful church covered with a very beautiful, very decorative roof that stood on four columns. Two of these were ruined and brought to the ground. However at one of the other two was a man of terrible stature. Like an angry man he held a hammer and it seemed as though he wanted to strike the column to destroy it completely and make the roof fall. “Coming near to me the youth who was leading me said, ‘What do you make of this?’ I answered, ‘Lord, I do not know the interpretation. Nor do I know what it should mean.’ The young man replied, ‘Know that this represent the Church of God, the bride of Christ. As you see the Holy Spirit gave her four pillars which are the four Orders so that they may sustain her by teaching, good example and holy prayers. As if by four invincible pillars she would be defended from the false opinions and wrong teachings of heretics that contaminate Holy Church through the instigation of the devil. Therefore understand well. The two ruined pillars are the two Order that are almost entirely lax already and have departed form the first fervour and beautiful customs that their holy Founders gave them. The two columns that you see standing upright and hold up the roof are the two Orders which, by the grace of God, in which most of them still strive with their teaching and good example to hold up the roof so that it not fall. The one whom you see holding the hammer in order to strike the pillar is the enemy of human nature who continuously strives at hammering the two columns by sowing wrong teaching, ambition and bad example among them. The beautifully adorned roof is the hypocrisy that reigns in those who rule and that usually dresses up under the appearance of the formalities of religion. However these hypocrites are in great danger of being damned since the Church will not fall because the Holy Spirit rules and governs it. Therefore you will soon see her Divine Spouse reform her and by the grace of God many good shepherds will rise up who will reform her.’”

According to my judgement this was truly a vision and a true prophecy. For not long after that the holy Pastor of the Holy Church gave orders that the sacred Council be assembled. Everyone can see for himself just how many reforms and good things followed on from it in the Church: how many holy and very vigilant shepherds over the flock of God have been raised up in her by God and provided in different parts of Christendom.

He also told me about having seen and known a Friar of our Order who for the love of God usually gave to the poor the crusts that the Friars had left over. The Father Guardian of that friary felt that this Friar was a little excessive in this and commanded him to be more moderate in giving alms. However the servant of God was so compassionate that when the poor increased he could not constrain himself from giving them alms. Once it happened that in the apron he used when he served the Friars at table he carried a large quantity of bread and crusts. Learning of this the Guardian said to him, “You are doing too much. What are you carrying in the apron?” He answered, “Father Guardian, they are fresh roses.” The Guardian said, “It is bread, not roses.” The servant of God replied, “They are indeed roses which in the middle of winter the supreme Creator has created to correct, in part, your avarice because we trust so little in His goodness.” When he opened the apron that which had been bread earlier the Lord God had changed into very fresh roses. When the Father Guardian saw this, stunned with great amazement he threw himself to his knees in front of him and admitted his fault. He added, “From now on, Father, you have permission to give to the poor as much as you want.” He was completely edified by that holy man. This was the reason that when Brother John was in Rome in 1536, when the first Constitutions were composed, he had it written that the Friars should give to the poor whatever was left over from the table, because that is what the Spanish Discalced Friars did.

When he was in the friary at Monte Casale, in the cell of the Spisciolo, there was a certain farmer called Julian. He lived near the friary and his wife had been in danger of death for a long time in childbirth. Because of this the same Julian sent a messenger to Brother John so that he might pray for his wife. With a prophetic spirit he answered the messenger, “Go and say to Julian that I was aware of the danger for his wife before he was and I have prayed for her. Bu the mercy of God I have been heard because she has already given birth to a boy child.” When the messenger returned to Julian who had been working in the field, he found everything just as the servant of God had revealed it to him. Out of devotion towards the holy man he gave the child the name John. News of this spread everywhere.

It pleased the Lord God that the revelations he had in the place of the Spisciolo be fulfilled. For the General of our Order at that time, the venerable Father Bernardine of Asti came for the Assisi Indulgence. Brother John of Spain (of whom we spoke above) also came. Both of these servants of God (both Bothers John) found they had the same wish to die for the holy faith. During a long discussion they consulted together and said, “This is the time, brother, that we completely ready ourselves to lay down our lives for Jesus Christ. Le us make one last effort with Father General so that as Saint Francis orders in the Rule we go to undertake such a deed with holy obedience.”

They were both servants of God – one a Spanish Priest, the other a Lay Friar from Puglia. Both were very austere as was clear from their lives. For the sake of brevity I will leave out writing in this place about their martyrdom, having already amply written about it in the life of Brother John of Spain.

It only remains to be said that this servant of God did many miracles in his life but because I do have adequate knowledge about them I will leave out writing them down. I only have this from his own mouth. Once he was called to visit a lady, a virgin and very devout. The poor woman showed him a cancer which had begun on her face and was eating away at it. When he saw the servant of God had great compassion on her. Raising his mind to God he felt that he heard in his mind, ‘Trust in the Lord Brother John. Bite her in the effected area because the Lord God has heard your prayers. She will be healed by the grace of God.” Feeling himself inflamed with a great charity towards his neighbour, and invoking the name of the blessed Jesus Christ, he approached the girl. Putting his hand on her head he gave her a bite on the effected part and with his teeth removed the rotten part completely. It was something amazing because immediately she was perfectly healed, as if she never had a sickness.

To the praise of God. Amen.