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Preface.
his spiritual director, by a letter dated August 27, 1770, in which
he thus expresses himself: To-day I again began to say Mass,
and I
hope to be able to continue. The whole difficulty was in
taking the precious blood but a
;
means of doing so with ease has
been pointed out to me. Gloria Patri!"
Writing to the same
Father on the following September i, he says: Thanks be to
God ! I continue to say Mass, but with great difficulty
;
when
I finish Mass, I am nearly worn out and in great perspiration."
He afterwards obtained permission from Rome to say everyday
the Mass of the Blessed Virgin.
While making his thanksgiving after Mass he heard another
Mass, which was said by his chaplain or another priest. During
the recitation of the Credo, at the words Et incarnates est he
threw himself on his knees, holding himself profoundly inclined,
notwithstanding the intense pain that he suffered he did the
;
same thing at the Consecration, although each time great efforts
had .to be made to raise him up (and put him back into his
chair. 1
He thus had the consolation of offering the Holy Sacrifice
till
his eighty-eighth year, either in his diocese or in the house of
his Institute at Nocera, to which he retired in 1775, when Pope
Pius VI. finally consented to relieve him of the burden of the
episcopate. When at the altar, he was always most exact in
observing all the Rubrics, even in
making the genuflections down
to the floor, although
it was most difficult for him to do so,
and each time great effort was required to raise him up. In
1784, when Father Villani saw that the difficulty of saying
Mass was becoming extreme, so much so that it was often feared
that the saint would not be able to finish it, he begged him to
abstain from celebrating Mass in future, telling him that such
was the will of God. The words the will of God made the
saint bow his head in submission. On November 25, which was
on a Friday, he made to God this great and perpetual sacrifice.
He had still three years to live, during which he finished his
eternal crown in the midst of new sufferings and the greatest
trials, both interior and exterior, which he bore till the end in
perfect conformity to the holy will of his God.
1
Tannoia and Villecoiirt, 1. iii ch. xliv.
2
Villt court, 1. iv. ch. xxvii.