Post #6034

But, in 1219, when the bodies of the five blessed martyrs of the Friars Minor were transported to Coimbra (the priests Berard, Otho, Peter, and the lay brothers Accursius and Adjutus), who shortly before had suffered for the faith of Christ in Morocco, ignited by the desire for martyrdom, passed into the Franciscan Order, in September 1220. Under the impulse of such flame, he immediately went, in the autumn of 1220, to the countries of the Saracens; but, after a few months, attacked by an illness and forced to repatriate on a ship that was heading for Spain, the violence of the winds pushed him to Sicily. From Sicily he went to the general chapter of Assisi, that happened from the 30th of May to the 8th of June 1221; and then he retired in the hermitage of Montepaolo, not far from Forlì, in Emilia, where attended for long time to divine contemplation, to fasting and to vigils. Thus, elevated to the sacred orders and sent to preach the Gospel, with wisdom and the faculty of saying brought about such successes and aroused so much admiration of himself that the Supreme Pontiff Gregory IX, having heard him preach once, called him the Ark of the Testament. First of all he fought heresies with extreme energy, hence he was called the perpetual Hammer of the heretics. First of his order, in the grace of his singular doctrine, he taught the sacred letters in Bologna and elsewhere, and directed the studies of his confreres. After crossing many provinces, a year before dying reached Padua, where he left outstanding monuments of holiness. Finally, after having endured great efforts for the glory of God, glorious in merits and miracles, he fell asleep in the Lord, at the age of thirty-five, on June 13, 1231. The Supreme Pontiff Gregory IX inscribed him in the number of saints Confessors, on the 30th of May, 1232. On January 16, 1946 the Supreme Pontiff Pius XII proclaimed him a Doctor of the universal Church with the title of Evangelical.