MOLFETTA’S LETTER

Brother Jerome Molfetta, Preacher - of the Order of the Minor Friars, called Capuchins -

To the dear in Christ Fathers and Brothers, servants of the poor, and to their children - orphans in the institutions of Lombardy.

My dear in Christ Jesus, Fathers and Brothers, the peace and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you always, and with all those who believe in Him and accompany their faith and their Christian names with similar works.

Many days ago, it came into my hands a booklet titled “On Divine Love,” written by the Reverend Father and of sacred memory Friar Bartholomeo della Citta’ di Castello, of our Order of the Minor Friars. He is a man of not lesser holiness, life and customs, and of not lesser ardent love than the Divine Love that his burning and sweet writings show. I thought that charity did not want that such a beautiful and useful work would remain buried either for God’s honor or for the usefulness, that seems to be successful, to those who will read it in silence and with attention (after the prayer, though). In it, the author unveils to us and gives proves of the beautiful and wonderful ways of the Divine union with many effective reasons and irrefutable witnesses of the sacred Scripture. Therefore, I have decided to publish it myself. Looking for someone to whom I would make a so holy and beautiful gift, it came to my mind (not without particular God’s Providence, I believe) that I could not do better than to inscribe it to your charities. You, as burning lamps, show outside rays of works inflamed by Divine Love, and inspired by the example and the teaching of that blessed soul of Sir Jerome Miani, Venetian nobleman. He had a burning desire to draw and join to God people of any status, class, and condition. Of this desire he showed so clear signs: burning of Divine Love, for the sake of the Gospel and for the building of the kingdom of God, he left behind his riches, his noble relatives and his illustrious fatherland. Having thrown himself into the arms of his beloved, naked and crucified Jesus Christ, after a brief wandering, he began to fulfil his desire starting from you poor guys, by rescuing you from the filth, in Bergamo first and then in other cities where you lived. You were distressed with hunger, cold and nakedness, and some of you were found even dead. And those of you who could escape such miserable a fate, in your troubles, would give out a sound no less sad than the one of the tormented souls of the purgatory, as everyone knows.

And he gathered you with so great a sweetness and goodness curing your souls with his holy examples and teachings. With his hands he cured your physical illnesses, such as scabies and many other diseases. He looked for you walking through the neighborhoods, and he got the food for you knocking at the doors. In so doing he has given with his virtues fragrant perfume to the Lord and to all Lombardy the living light of loving God with everything but ceremonies. Proof of this is the hospitals, which were established by him in the most honorable towns. There, yours very voices used to cry, “I’m dying of starvation, I’m dying of cold,” and now they sing praise to the Lord day and night.

And after having gathered you poor things, he led some of you fathers priests and some of you laymen to leave your real estates and patrimonies, to enter the holy works and to join God with him. What else can I say about the many and many acts of charity performed by him in different places and by which he showed his love for God? Was not that a great testimony of his love when, in Milan, he became sick in the church of the Santo Sepolcro with almost all of you poor things sick too, and he was lying on a bed of straw, and, though sick, he kept helping his sick sheep. Then, invited by some gentlemen of that City to go, only by himself, to their houses to get cured, as a good shepherd, he never wanted to depart from you. The Lord, having tried his constancy, provided a place for everybody and gave back to them their health too.

And in Pavia, when the administrators of the hospital of Mercy evicted some people who were living in the hospital in order to give him that place, he preferred to go to live with those who were with him then, at the Sala Grande, which is in the Citadel of that city, rather than to give troubles to anybody. And the Lord gave him the place that now is St. Gervasio. And I do not want to be silent about the other many episodes of which those who knew him can testify, such as to patiently bear with and forgive the miseries, infirmities, shortcomings, not only of those with whom he would live, but of any other people. Therefore, I dedicate it to you, beloved in Christ, given the eagerness that that blessed spirit had to unite you to God, so that this book may produce the desired effect.

And I pray to the Lord that the great fire of his Divine Love may increase in your hearts, as much I truly desire for his glory and for the growth of his kingdom. In this way, you too will dedicate yourselves with greater fervor to the works of mercy and divine love. Many others, because of your example, as you did because of the example of Sir JeromeB-- whom, though dead, I greatly revereB-- will move to do the same and to win over the universal reformation of the Church, of which he was greatly thirsty and for which he compose a particular prayer. Still today this prayer is said during Masses and in our community prayers. It says: Our dear Father Lord Jesus Christ, we pray to you that, for your infinite goodness, you may reform all the Christendom to that status of sanctity which was of the times of the Apostles; and I wish that the Lord Jesus Christ could grant it to us out of his infinite mercy.

And pray to him some times also for me, poor sinner, so that he may lead us all together to the blessed vision in heaven. Amen!