Post #5808

In the religion his virtues shone of great splendour: he conserved the body and the soul in such purity, that he never felt polluted from any stain of mortal sin. He tormented the flesh with fasting and vigils; and exercised the spirit in contemplation of the divine things. He assiduously occupied himself in bringing salvation to souls. Because of his holiness of life and proven faith, he was charged with the eradication of the Manichean heresy that was wreaking havoc in the whole of Northern Italy: Gregory IX in 1232 sent him as Inquisitor against the Cathars in Lombardy. He then worked in Tuscany and finally in 1252, by mandate of Innocent IV, he returned to Lombardy as Inquisitor of Milan and Como. He refuted the heretics with such force that it was particular gift of grace, and he had so much efficacy in preaching, that flocked to listen to him countless multitudes of men and many converted to penance. The ardour of the faith enflamed him so much, that he desired to suffer death for such, and constantly requested God such grace. Therefore the heretics made him die just as he had predicted a little earlier in a sermon. As he was exercising the holy office of Inquisitor, while returning to Milan from Como, in the forest of Seveso he was reached by two heretical assassins (one of which, the blessed Carino, converted) who ferociously hit him on the skull with two strikes of sickle (falcastrum). And although half dead, before giving up his spirit the Martyr dipped his finger in the blood and on the ground wrote "Credo in unum Deum", the beginning of the Symbol of faith that he had already professed and defended with manly courage since he was a child. Then pierced again with the sword at his sides, he went to heaven to receive the palm of martyrdom, on the 6th of April in the year of salvation 1252. Illustrious by many miracles, Innocent IV enrolled him in the group of holy martyrs on the 24th of March 1453 with the bull Magnis et crebris, in which we read: «A bunch chosen from the vineyard of the Church has filled the royal chalice with its generous juice; the branch from which it was detached with iron was one of the most adherent to the divine stock». Sixtus V commanded the celebration of the feast by the whole Church.