DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.71133#0260
198 ST. JOHN BERCHMANS
tion their hard lot. At night he retired for a short rest to some
church porch, but more frequently to the Colosseum, where he
was favoured with heavenly visions. He was canonized by
Pope Leo XIII in 1881, and his shrine is placed in his favourite
Church of S. Maria ai Monti. The room in which he died can
be visited at No. 3, Via dei Serpenti.
On the steps of S. Maria ai Monti, where St. Benedict
Joseph Labre fell into his agony, St. John Berchmans, the
young Jesuit scholastic, preached a sermon to the people,
under circumstances described by Father Goldie in his Life of
the Saint.1 The church stands in a poor and thickly populated
quarter of the city. The young Saint, accompanied by another
scholastic, placed a table on or near the church steps to serve
as a pulpit; but some rough men of the street, who were
playing at ball, seized hold of the table, telling the two young
Religious they would have none of their preaching, as they
wanted to continue their game. St. John did not answer a
word, but entered the church, threw himself on his knees, and
after a short prayer came out again resolved to begin his
discourse. His companion was timid and warned him that there
would be a disturbance. “ Do not be afraid,” answered tire
Saint, “I have confidence in our Lady, and the moment I begin
they will leave off their game and come and listen to me.” He
got on the table, and while he was saying the Hail Mary as
the opening prayer, the players left their game and all gathered
round to hear. When the sermon was over, the audience,
deeply impressed, escorted the two young Religious back to the
Roman College.
To the left of this church is the Casa de' neofiti (House
of Catechumens), founded by St. Ignatius at 5. Giovanni in
Mercato (S. Venanzio), near the Gesu, and removed to this
building in 1667. In this house lived St. Alphonsus Liguori
during his stay in Rome in the time of Clement XIII. Had
we met him in the street, without knowing him to be a saint,
we should have been impressed at the sight of the holy man,
as Tannoja, his biographer, describes him, “clad in an old
mantle patched all over, with a cassock in the same condition.
Such poverty was itself a sermon, for all knew his noble birth
and were confounded to see him thus clothed like a beggar.”
Opposite the Church of S. Maria ai Monti was the convent
of Capuchin nuns, known as Sefiolte wive, “buried alive,” who
lived entirely cut off from all communication with the outer
world, spending their time in prayer, works of penance, and
perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Their convent
1 P. 179.
tion their hard lot. At night he retired for a short rest to some
church porch, but more frequently to the Colosseum, where he
was favoured with heavenly visions. He was canonized by
Pope Leo XIII in 1881, and his shrine is placed in his favourite
Church of S. Maria ai Monti. The room in which he died can
be visited at No. 3, Via dei Serpenti.
On the steps of S. Maria ai Monti, where St. Benedict
Joseph Labre fell into his agony, St. John Berchmans, the
young Jesuit scholastic, preached a sermon to the people,
under circumstances described by Father Goldie in his Life of
the Saint.1 The church stands in a poor and thickly populated
quarter of the city. The young Saint, accompanied by another
scholastic, placed a table on or near the church steps to serve
as a pulpit; but some rough men of the street, who were
playing at ball, seized hold of the table, telling the two young
Religious they would have none of their preaching, as they
wanted to continue their game. St. John did not answer a
word, but entered the church, threw himself on his knees, and
after a short prayer came out again resolved to begin his
discourse. His companion was timid and warned him that there
would be a disturbance. “ Do not be afraid,” answered tire
Saint, “I have confidence in our Lady, and the moment I begin
they will leave off their game and come and listen to me.” He
got on the table, and while he was saying the Hail Mary as
the opening prayer, the players left their game and all gathered
round to hear. When the sermon was over, the audience,
deeply impressed, escorted the two young Religious back to the
Roman College.
To the left of this church is the Casa de' neofiti (House
of Catechumens), founded by St. Ignatius at 5. Giovanni in
Mercato (S. Venanzio), near the Gesu, and removed to this
building in 1667. In this house lived St. Alphonsus Liguori
during his stay in Rome in the time of Clement XIII. Had
we met him in the street, without knowing him to be a saint,
we should have been impressed at the sight of the holy man,
as Tannoja, his biographer, describes him, “clad in an old
mantle patched all over, with a cassock in the same condition.
Such poverty was itself a sermon, for all knew his noble birth
and were confounded to see him thus clothed like a beggar.”
Opposite the Church of S. Maria ai Monti was the convent
of Capuchin nuns, known as Sefiolte wive, “buried alive,” who
lived entirely cut off from all communication with the outer
world, spending their time in prayer, works of penance, and
perpetual adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. Their convent
1 P. 179.