What Has Been Said Is Confirmed by Some Examples

THEY tell of the holy Abbot Poemen (Ilow2v, Pastor, John x. 11) that there came once to Egypt a judge who, having heard of the fame and reputation of the saint, desired to see him, and therefore sent a messenger to beg of him to be so good as to receive him, since he wished to pay him a visit. Poemen was sad and put out at this message, thinking within himself that, if distinguished persons began to come and visit him and pay him honor, many of the common people would at once flock round him and disturb him in his solitary life and exercises; and the devil would destroy and rob him of the grace of humility, which with so much labor, by favor of the Lord, he had managed to gain and preserve from his youth upwards, and so he might fall into the snare of vainglory. Thinking these things over, he determined to excuse himself and not receive the visit. The judge was greatly grieved at this, and said to one of the officers of the court: “I put it down to my sins that I cannot see this man of God.” Thenceforth he desired to see him by any occasion that offered. In the end he hit upon a plan which seemed to him sufficient to compel Poemen to receive his visit with a good grace, or himself to come out of the desert and pay him a visit. The plan was this. He arrested a nephew of the abbot, his sister’s son, and put him in prison; and secretly told his officer that, not to distress the holy old man by his nephew’s imprisonment, he was sending him a message to the effect that, if he would come and see the judge, the prisoner at once should have his discharge, although the matter against him was so grave and incriminating that it should not be let pass without severe punishment. When the prisoner’s mother heard this and understood that, if her brother would visit the judge, the prisoner should be set free, off she went to the desert and began to knock at the door of her brother’s cell, with many cries and sobs and abundance of tears begging him to go and see the judge and plead for her boy. St. Poemen, though he heard her, said nothing to her, and would not open the door for her to come in. Seeing this, his sister grew angry and began to call him injurious names: “Cruel and hard-hearted man, with bowels of steel, how is it that my great grief and lamentations move you not to compassion, understanding that my boy, the only son I have, is in danger of death!”” Poemen, who heard this, said to the monk his companion, who waited on him: “Go and give her a message in these words: ‘Poemen never had sons, and so does not mourn over them.’” With this message his sister went away disconsolate. The judge learned what had happened in the desert; and, seeing that the abbot excused himself from coming to visit him, he said to certain friends of his: “Persuade him at least to write to me a petition for his release.” Many persons pressed this message on Poemen and begged him to write to the judge. Wearied with their importunities, he wrote in these terms: “Let your honor command diligent inquiry to be made into the case of this youth; and if he has done anything worthy of death, let him die, that he may pay in the present life the penalty of his sin and thereby escape the everlasting pains of hell.”

A similar story is told in the Lives of the Fathers of the holy Abbot Pastor, that they could not induce him to intercede for a nephew of his who was condemned to death, not to implicate himself in things touching flesh and blood.

We read of our blessed Father Ignatius that he never would concern himself with the marriage of his niece, the heiress and lady of the house, nor write a letter on her behalf, much as he was entreated by sundry great lords, as the Dukes of Nejera and Albuquerque. ,He answered them that these affairs did not concern him and were not in keeping with his profession, since it was so many years that he had said good-bye to these cares and become dead to the world; that it was not well for him to take up anew what he had abandoned so long before, and deal with matters foreign to his vocation, and put on the garment that he had stripped himself of, and dirty once more the feet which by the grace of God, at so much cost to himself, he had washed when he went away from home (Cant. v. 3).

Of our Father Francis Borgia we read in his Life that they could never prevail with him to supplicate his holiness for a dispensation for his son, Don Alvaro de Borgia, to marry his niece, daughter of his sister, Dofia Juana de Aragon, who had inherited the marquisate of Aleajiices; and this though his son was so interested in the matter, since it was a question of inheriting so handsome an estate; added to the fact that the pope bore him great good will to favor him and whatever touched his interests. And it is said there in his Life that in his dealing with the emperor there happened another case of the same sort, to the emperor’s great edification, who thence understood the truth of what had been told to him of the detachment of Father Francis from his children, how he behaved to them as though they were not his children.* Let us consider here what business affairs these saints withdrew from, though they might have dispatched them so speedily; and see on the other hand in what affairs some religious are immersed nowadays. If those illustrious men, holy as they were, were so afraid of dealing with such matters, how is it that we, who are not so holy and therefore run greater risk, are not afraid? I believe that the reason why we are not afraid is because we are not so holy; and that, if we were quite in earnest in our pursuit of holiness and perfection, we should dread the great dangers that lurk in such matters, and fly from them as we see the saints did.