Blessed John of Avellino

At that moment, a venerable religious, a disciple and companion of Saint Francis, arrived in Ave llino; Montfort ran to him as if to a messenger from heaven: "My friend," the monk said to him, "your son will one day be a lay brother and will set an example of all virtues." A few weeks later, this prophecy was fulfilled.

From the year of his novitiate, this converted impious man attained the Christian perfection of the holiest religious. He was sometimes seen in the streets of the city, his eyes full of tears, throwing himself at the feet of one of his former friends, saying: "You who knew me as a wretched sinner, and for whom I was a cause of scandal, I beg you, follow me now on the path of repentance." He brought a number of people back to the good through his example, among others a woman of ill repute who, in the hope of marrying him, had tried to make him fall back into his former excesses. Blessed John of Avellino spared himself no kind of mortification: he fasted, he prolonged his vigils, he practiced severe disciplines, he walked barefoot, his eyes fixed on the ground, fearing like a criminal to encounter gazes that would condemn him. In the chapel, he prayed with the piety of angels. No noise disturbed him from his meditations, and more than once his brothers saw him with astonishment rise from the ground in a whirlwind of light.

However, the fame of his holiness had gradually spread throughout the province, and people flocked from all sides to ask him for consolation, good advice, and examples of virtue. The respect shown to him, of which he believed himself unworthy, caused him true suffering; he asked his superiors and obtained permission to be sent to Umbria, where he hoped to find solitude and calm. He was mistaken; barely arrived at the convent of Todi, he fou nd h imself subjected to what he called the same persecutions. People came to him as if he were an envoy from heaven: the sick to be healed, sinners to be converted, and good men to be supported and encouraged by his example. The good brother did not know how to free himself from this influx; through much prayer, he obtained the grace to no longer perform miracles; he never had the happiness of escaping the veneration of men.

During the year that preceded his death, he was subject to frequent ecstasies, no doubt merited by a redoubling of austerities. The sufferings of his final illness were tempered by the Blessed one's spiritual conversations with Saint Francis, the B lessed Virgin, and the Son of God himself, who appeared to him several times in his full and infinite majesty. It was on June 11, 1313, at the age of sixty-three, that he fell asleep gently in the bosom of the Lord.

The news of his death drew a crowd of men and women to the convent chapel, eager to honor the precious remains of Brother John, to kiss his feet and hands. He was buried in the church of Todi, in the same vault a s Br other John of Todi. Miracles were p erformed at his tomb.

Acta Sanctorum .