What Has Been Said Is Confirmed by Some Examples

ST. JEROME relates that in the desert of Nitria one of the monks, who earned their livelihood by the labor of their hands, conceived a desire of getting together some money. He was a spinner of flax, and, covetousness lending energy to his labor, and he at the same time eating very little, he came to save a hundred solidi, or, as we might say, a hundred ducats. He died with them in his possession, and when they came to bury him they found the money. The monks assembled to see what should be done in such a case and what use to make of the money. St. Jerome says that there were dwelling there about five thousand monks in separate cells. Some said it should be distributed among the poor; others, that it should be given to the Church; others, that it should be sent to his parents, who were likely to be in some necessity. But the great Macarius, and Abbot Pambo, and Isidore, and others of those graver personages whom they called Fathers—the Holy Ghost speaking in them—said and determined that they should bury the money along with the corpse, saying: Thy money be with thee unto thy perdition (Acts viii. 20). And so it was done. St. Jerome goes on to say: “And let no one think that this was cruelty; it was not cruelty, but a sense of religion. This example struck such terror and consternation into all the monks throughout Egypt, that they counted it for a great offense that there should be found in their possession at the hour of death either a sovereign or a Ssixpence.”

St. Augustine [Pseudo-Augustinus, Sermones ad Fratres in Eremo, Serm. 5, in S. Aug. Opera, tom. vi. p. 311, inter spuria, ed. Bened. The original, a different account, is in one of the saint’s Letters] relates an example of a certain Januarius, a religious, held to be a saint, which I will quote in his own words, which show deep feeling and grief: “Tears and loud lamentations again and again and again should we put forth for the perdition of our Januarius, who was’ reckoned amongst us a pillar of obedience and poverty, and came to a miserable end. He came to us with tears in his eyes and promised to observe poverty as long as he lived, and yet he possessed in the world, without our knowing it, a vineyard and land. O deadly profession! O treacherous promise! His mouth uttered what his heart abhorred. We believed him a saint, while he was the worst of men. In this manner our Januarius lived for twelve years and more, a bad life, followed by a bad death. A bad life, because he kept secretly hidden away that which he had no right to call his own. A bad death, because not even at the end of his life did he renounce his deviation from the right way, but died obstinate in his sin; and without our knowledge he made a will, and left as his heir a son that he had in the world. Oh, would that, at least in the hour of death, he had told us this, that he might have obtained pardon by our prayers; but he neither confessed nor repented; therefore he is none of our company, nor ever was in his lifetime. Bind, then, the hands of his corpse and put in them, tied up in a cloth, the hundred and eleven shekels which he kept in a cupboard in his cell; and say with tears: Thy money be to thee unto perdition (Acts viii. 20). For it is not lawful for us, servants of God, to expend in the food, clothing, or labor of the monastery, what is the price of his eternal damnation.”

Caesarius relates that among the Cistercians there was a religious who fell sick and made his confession to the abbot. They then brought him the Blessed Sacrament, and he opened his mouth to receive it, but he could not close his mouth to swallow the host; and to the surprise of all the priest took the particle from the sick man’s mouth and gave it to another sick religious who was there, who received it with much devotion and swallowed it without any difficulty. Not long after, that other religious died, and the cause was discovered that hindered his salvation and benefit; for when they came to wash the body they found attached to it five solidi, not of silver, but of copper, and that was an unlawful thing to have. At sight of this all praised God; and when the abbot was informed of it, by his direction they buried him in unconsecrated ground, throwing his bit of money atop of him, and all saying together: “May thy money, that thou didst keep concealed contrary to thy profession, be with thee to thy eternal damnation.” And the abbot, relating this occurrence in the next general chapter, added: “And that it may be understood that the reason why he could not swallow the most Holy Sacrament was not any hindrance arising from bodily infirmity, the same day he ate a whole chicken.”

It is related in the chronicles of St. Francis that there was a brother in one of the convents of the order who knew how to read a little and, desirous to learn more, found means to get himself a psalter. But the rule forbidding lay brothers to learn to read, the guardian, knowing this, asked him for it. He answered that he had not got it. The guardian pressed him to say where it was, that he might not live proprietor of anything, but the lay brother would not obey. Not long after this he fell dangerously sick, and the guardian, for fear that he should die a proprietor, commanded him in virtue of holy obedience to give him the psalter or tell him where he had hidden it. But the unhappy man, hardened and obstinate in his denial, died without divesting himself of it. When on the night following the burial the sacristan rang for matins at midnight, he felt coming over him a great, heavy shadow, and heard at the same time a frightful inarticulate cry. He fell to the ground like a dead man. The friars, hearing the first peal of the bell for matins and seeing that it stopped, waited a considerable time and then came to look for the sacristan. They found him in a swoon, like one dead; when he came to himself, they learned from him the reason. They started matins, and this horrible shade appeared, making a hideous noise like a hoarse trumpet, without their being able to understand anything of what it said. The whole choir was upset, but the guardian encouraged them and said to the shade: “On the part of our Lord Jesus Christ and His sacred Passion, I call on thee to tell us who thou art, and what thou seekest in this place.” It replied: “I am the lay brother whom you buried yesterday.” The guardian said to it: “Dost thou want any of our suffrages and prayers, or why hast thou come hither?” It replied: “I want none of your prayers; they will avail me nothing, since I am damned forever on account of the psalter, in the ownership of which I died.” The guardian then said: “I command thee in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that since we can do thee no good, thou go away at once and return no more to this place to trouble us.”” The shade at once disappeared and was never there seen or heard again.

Denis the Carthusian relates the following. A religious, finding his habit torn, went into the tailor’s shop and took a piece of cloth to mend it without having asked leave. He fell sick soon after, and must have been a great servant of God, for there he lay dying in great joy and contentment, with no remorse of conscience, nor could the devil find anything wherewith to disturb him. Being thus disposed, he chanced to look towards the corner of his cell where his habit hung, and saw the devil in the shape of a monkey, sitting upon it, and licking with satisfaction the piece of cloth wherewith he had mended it. Then he came to take account of the fault he had committed in taking the piece of cloth without leave; whereupon he sent to call the superior, told his fault and was reconciled, and the devil immediately vanished.

In the history of the Order of St. Dominic it is related that, when the holy Friar Reginald was Prior of Bologna, a religious had received for alms a piece of cloth of the sort they used, to mend his habit with, but he had received it without leave. The holy man called him to chapter, reproached him in severe language as a thief and proprietor, gave him a good discipline besides, and burned on the spot the piece of cloth in sight of the other religious.

In the same history it is related that, when Albertus Magnus was provincial in that holy order, he gave strict command that no friar should have in his possession or in the possession of a third person, any money to any amount whatsoever, whether his own or another’s, or for himself or for another, and that under the severest penalties. And it coming to be proved in a general chapter against a certain friar that he had violated this ordinance and statute, he punished him severely, even to the length of disinterring him from his grave, for he had been dead for some time, and casting him out from consecrated ground onto the dunghill, in imitation of those saints of old who were wont thus to treat brethren who died proprietors.

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