Saint Jacques de la Marche
Frère mineur à Naples (+ 1476)
Né à Montebrandone dans les Marches italiennes.
Franciscain, ami de saint
Bernardin de Sienne et de saint Jean de Capistran, il était un grand
orateur et pour cela il parcourut la Dalmatie, la Bosnie, la Hongrie, la
Bohème, la Pologne et l'Italie.
À Naples, en 1476, la mise au tombeau de saint Jacques de la Marche, prêtre de
l'Ordre des Mineurs, célèbre par sa prédication et l'austérité de sa vie.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/141/Saint-Jacques-de-la-Marche.html
Carlo Crivelli (circa
1435 –circa 1495 ). St James of the Marches with Two Kneeling Donors,
1477, 198 X 64, Louvre Museum, Department of
Paintings of the Louvre, Louvre-Lens
Saint Jacques de la Marche
Franciscain
(1391-1476)
Ce grand religieux était originaire de la Marche d'Ancône; son berceau fut entouré d'une vive lumière qui présageait d'une manière évidente son glorieux avenir. Quand il fut en âge de choisir un état de vie, sa première pensée fut de se faire Chartreux: mais quelques relations qu'il eut avec les Franciscains le décidèrent à entrer dans leur Ordre. Il fut, dès son noviciat, le modèle des vertus héroïques. Il ne donnait que trois heures au sommeil et passait le reste de la nuit à prier au pied du crucifix, pendant que des larmes inondaient son visage.
C'est dans la méditation des souffrances de son Sauveur qu'il puisa cette énergie surhumaine dont il montra de si beaux exemples durant ses courses apostoliques. Jamais il ne mangeait de viande; un peu de pain et quelques herbes étaient sa nourriture. Tous les jours il se donnait la discipline jusqu'au sang, et, pendant dix-huit ans, il porta sur sa chair nue un cilice avec une cotte de mailles armée de pointes de fer aiguës. Telle fut la préparation de l'apôtre.
Il eut d'immenses succès, en Allemagne, contre les hérétiques; dans une seule ville, deux cents jeunes gens, entraînés par ses exemples embrassèrent la vie religieuse. Une fois, les hérétiques tentèrent de l'empoisonner; mais voyant le plat se briser, au seul signe de la Croix fait par le Saint, ils s'écrièrent: "Le doigt de Dieu est là", et ils se convertirent. En Norvège et en Danemark, il administra le Baptême à deux cent mille personnes. La Bohème était la proie de l'hérésie. A Prague, les hérétiques, pleins d'admiration pour l'éloquence de l'apôtre, lui promirent de se convertir s'il faisait un miracle. Après avoir invoqué Dieu et fait le signe de la Croix, il avala un breuvage empoisonné sans en ressentir aucun mauvais effet.
De retour en Italie, ayant affaire à un batelier qui refusait de lui faire traverser le Pô, Jacques n'hésita pas, étendit son manteau sur le fleuve et vogua heureusement vers l'autre rive. Un jour qu'il avait combattu avec véhémence le vice de l'impureté, un auditeur, qui s'était cru visé personnellement, alla se poster sur son passage, dans un sanctuaire dédié à Marie, pour l'assassiner; mais il entendit une voix irritée qui lui cria: "Malheureux! Que fais-tu en Ma présence? Tu veux faire mourir Mon serviteur et le serviteur de Mon Fils!" Le coupable, demi-mort de peur, renonça à son criminel dessein. Le prodige le plus étonnant de l'illustre apôtre fut la découverte et la résurrection d'un enfant assassiné par un Juif et coupé en morceaux.
Abbé L. Jaud, Vie des Saints pour tous les jours de l'année, Tours, Mame, 1950
Saint Jacques de la Marche
Né un dimanche de 1391 dans la Marche d'Ancone, il reçut le nom de Dominique en raison du dimanche de sa naissance.
Il fit ses études de droit civil à l'université de Pérouse puis il devint précepteur des enfants d'une famille de Pérouse.
Il suivit cette famille à Florence puis se retira avec le nom de Jacques au couvent franciscain de sainte Marie des Anges à Assise. Il avait 21 ans.
Il ne dormait que trois heures par nuit et ne mangeait jamais de viande. L'ascèse mina sa santé. Il se vit atteint de quatorze différentes maladies, toutes très-douloureuses, comme la pierre, la goutte, le mal d'estomac .
Mais il voulait surtout prêcher. Il alla en pèlerinage à Notre-Dame de Lorette. La Vierge lui apparut en lui promettant que son souhait serait exaucé. En 1426 il reçut la licence pour prêcher.
Puis il voyagea dans l'Europe de l'est, d'abord à Prague où l'on tenta de l'empoisonner puis en Bosnie. En 1436 il fut nommé inquisiteur en Hongrie et en Autriche. Revenu en Italie en 1440, il demanda à partir pour l'Orient. Il tomba malade à Chypre et revint en Italie.
Sa vie fut faite de voyages successifs pendant lesquels il prêchait sans relâche tout en menant une vie ascétique. Au long de ses voyages, il se fit beaucoup d'ennemis et fut l'objet de plusieurs tentatives d'empoisonnement de même qu'il fut agressé physiquement bien souvent. Il parlait de ses ennemis "qui le déchirent comme des chiens..." D'autre part, les gens le prenaient et le suivaient comme un oracle. Cela suscitait de la jalousie chez d'autres religieux qui menacèrent de le faire paraître devant le tribunal de l'inquisition.
Il voyageait toujours en âne ou en cacolet - petit siège double à dossier, placé de part et d'autre sur une mule.
Il fut un ardent disciple de saint Bernardin de Sienne.
Vers la fin de sa vie, le roi de Naples, Ferdinand voulut qu'il vienne dans son royaume. Jacques s'y transporta et vécut au couvent de l'observance.
Vers la soixantaine, après une vie tumultueuse, les souffrances s'intensifièrent. De plus, il n'arrivait pas à dormir. Ses dents étaient toutes tombées. Un flux de sang le rendit étique. Une colique le faisait horriblement souffrir et la soif le tenaillait. A la dernière extrémité, il finit par boire et resta un quart d'heure à se tordre de douleur, en appelant Jésus à son secours, puis il mourut. (à Naples le 28 novembre 1476)
Il laissa un traité contre les Fraticelles (ou Frérots). Il avait lutté contre eux toute sa vie.
Les Fraticelli, formèrent une branche dissidente des Franciscains. Il s'apparentèrent au Béguins en France et aux Beggars d'Allemagne. Il enseignaient qu'il fallait distinguer entre l'Église extérieure, dirigée par le Pape et les évêques qui amassent des biens pour en profiter et celle des pauvres qui n'a que Jésus-Christ pour chef et les Frérots pour membres. Il n'y avait de sacrements qu'au sein de leur église.
A l'origine, une simple communauté Franciscaine de moines dissidents, les Fraticelli grossirent amplement mais s'adjoignirent une bande de brigands. Il assaillirent des monastères et pillèrent des voyageurs. Le schisme fut coupé de ses racines franciscaines et se fondit dans plusieurs petites sectes qui finirent par disparaître.
Par. 14. "La première erreur donc qui sort de leur officine remplie de ténèbres invente deux Églises, l'une charnelle, écrasée par les richesses, débordant de richesses et souillée de méfaits, et sur laquelle règnent, disent- ils, le pontife romain et les autres prélats inférieurs ; l'autre spirituelle, pure de par sa frugalité, ornée de vertus, ceinte par la pauvreté, dans laquelle ils se trouvent seuls avec leurs pareils, et à laquelle ils président également eux-mêmes de par le mérite d'une vie spirituelle, si du moins l'on peut faire crédit à leurs mensonges."
JEAN XXII : (1316-1334) Constitution " Gloriosam Ecclesiam ", 23 janvier 1318.
SOURCE :
http://carmina-carmina.com/carmina/Mytholosaints/marche.htm
Colla del Amatrice. Saint Jacques de la of Marche, XVIe siècle, 140 X
47, Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche
Saint
Jacques de la Marche
Franciscain
(1391-1476)
Ce grand
religieux était originaire de la Marche d’Ancône. Quand il fut en âge de
choisir un état de vie, sa première pensée fut de se faire Chartreux :
mais quelques relations qu’il eut avec les Franciscains le décidèrent à entrer
dans leur Ordre. Il fut, dès son noviciat, le modèle des vertus héroïques. Il
ne donnait que trois heures au sommeil et passait le reste de la nuit à prier
au pied du crucifix.
Il eut
d’immenses succès, en Allemagne, dans une seule ville, deux cents jeunes gens,
entraînés par ses exemples embrassèrent la vie religieuse. Une fois, les
hérétiques tentèrent de l’empoisonner ; mais voyant le plat se briser, au
seul signe de la Croix fait par le Saint, ils s’écrièrent : "Le doigt
de Dieu est là", et ils se convertirent. En Norvège et en Danemark, il
administra le Baptême à deux cent mille personnes. A Prague, des personnes lui
promirent de se convertir s’il faisait un miracle. Après avoir invoqué Dieu et
fait le signe de la Croix, il avala un breuvage empoisonné sans en ressentir
aucun mauvais effet.
De retour
en Italie, ayant affaire à un batelier qui refusait de lui faire traverser le
Pô, Jacques n’hésita pas, étendit son manteau sur le fleuve et vogua
heureusement vers l’autre rive.
SAINT JACQUES DE LA MARCHE, CONFESSEUR.
28 NOVEMBRE
L'an 1476.
Jacques naquit à. Monte-Braudonio, petite ville du Picenum, dans le diocèse d'Ascoli, de parents qui étaient remplis de piété. Dès son enfance il joignit à une grande dévotion beaucoup d'application à l'étude des let-tres et des sciences. Jeune encore, et connaissant déjà la vanité de ce monde, il avait résolu de s'engager dans l'ordre des Chartreux; mais, sous la conduite de Dieu, qui le destinait au salut des Aines et á la propagation de la foi , il entra dans la famille des religieux Mineurs, Pendant son noviciat, qu'il fit à Assise dans le monastère des Prisons, il se distingua tellement par son obéissance, son amour pour la pauvreté, et par toutes les autres vertus, que chacun le regardait comme le modèle le plus accompli de la perfection religieuse. garda toujours intacte la virginité, et il se contentait de trois heures de sommeil, passant le reste de la nuit à louer Dieu, à se flageller cruellement, et à contempler les choses célestes. Pendant presque vingt années, il porta sur la chair une cuirasse de fer, qu'ensuite il changea contre un rude cilice, d'après l'avis de son confesseur. II ne mangeait qu'une fois par jour, encore n'était-ce que du pain avec de l'eau, à quoi il ajoutait, mais bien rarement, des fèves crues et des herbes sauvages : genre de vie extrëmement rigoureux, qu'il pratiqua jus-qu'à ce que son âge avancé, la mauvaise santé qui était la suite de ses travaux assidus, et l'autorité de saint Bernardin de Sienne l'eussent obligé à se traiter un peu moins durement,
Devenu prêtre et chargé des fonétions de prédicateur, Jacques combattit toujours et en toute liberté, dans un langage vif et efficace, les vices de son temps. Il ne craignit jamais de reprendre les nobles eux-mêmes et les puissants, quand il en trouvait quelques- uns qui menaient une vie scandaleuse. On venait en foule pour l'en-tendre; tellement que, les églises les plus vastes ne pouvant contenir la multitude, on lui élevait des estrades çà et là sur les places et au milieu des champs. Les empereurs, les rois, les prélats les plus distingués se disputaient l'avantage de l'avoir pour prédicateur. Un sermon qu'il prêcha à Milan au sujet des larmes de la Madeleine fit sortir de leur honteuse profession trente-six femmes débauchées, à qui il donna ensuite une maison et de l'argent pour les aider à vivre dans la piété. Ce fut alors que le duc de Milan, Sforce, et les habitants de cette ville le pressèrent fortement de devenir leur archevêque, dignité que le religieux ne voulut jamais accepter. On dit qu'il amena au baptême deux cent mille infidèles, et qu'en Hongrie il lit rentrerdans le sein de l'Église cinquante mille hérétiques. En Italie il éteignit tout à fait la secte criminelle des fratricelles, laquelle avait reparu une seconde et une troisième fois. Il assista au concile qui fut transféré à Florence, après avoir été commencé à Ferrare; il aida de ses conseils et de ses actions les empereurs Sigismond et Albert dans des circonstances difficiles : surtout il les excita à faire une expédition contre les Turcs et à combattre les hérétiques. Lorsque saint Jean Capistran mourut en Hongrie, Jacques le remplaça en qualité de légat pontifical, pour exciter les princes à la guerre sainte contre les Turcs. Les papes Martin V, Eugène IV, Nicolas V, Calixte III, Pie I1, Paul 11, et Sixte IV, lui donnèrent des missions à remplir contre les hérétiques fratricelles, manichéens, patares, hussites, et taborites. Ces nombreuses expéditions lui fournirent occasion de parcourir plusieurs fois l'Italie et trois fois l'Il.lyrie, la Pannonie, la Sarmatie, la Bohême et les provinces voisines. II fit tous ces voyages sans sac, sans besace et à pied, comme les apblres, uniquement appuyé sur la protection divine, laquelle se montra principalement lorsque le conducteur d'une barque ayant refusé de le recevoir, le saint étendit son manteau sur les eaux, et sans autre secours que cette frêle embarcation, traversa le Pb avec son colza pagnon. Enfin Jacques fut atteint d'une dangereuse maladie à Naples, où il s'était rendu par ordre de Sixte IV, sur les instances du roi Ferdinand. Il reçut alors avec piété les sacrements de l'Eglìse, et rendit s'on áme a Dieu, l'an 1476, dans sa 95e année, le 28 novembre. Les nombreux miracles qu'il accomplit après sa mort ayant été juridique-ment examinés, Urbain VIII permit aux Frères-Mineurs, ainsi qu'au clergé de Naples, qui regardait Jacques comme un de ses patrons, de célébrer l'office et la messe en son honneur. Le corps du saint se conserve sans corruption et. flexible dans l'église de Sainte-Marie-la-Neuve. Un jour que le cardinal Orsini, depuis Benoît XIII, le touchait de ses mains pour te faire vénérer par Philippe V, roi d'Espagne, ces restes précieux exhaiérant une très-suave odeur. C'est ce pape qui, á l'occasion des miracles que ne cessait d'opérer le serviteur de Dieu, le mit au nombre des saints, en 1726 (Supplément des Franciscains.)
PRATIQUE. -- En considérant les travaux des saints pour la foi, vous devrions rougir de notre propre indifférence d l'égard des intérêts de Dieu.
PRIÈRE. — O Dieu, qui, pour sauver les àmes et ramenerles pécheurs du bourbier du vice dans le chemin de la vertu, avez t'ait de votre bien-heureux confesseur Jacques un héraut distingué de l'Evangile, accordez-nous dans votre bonté que, par son intercession, aprés avoir expié nos péchés , nous arrivions à la raie éternelle. Ainsi soit-il.
Pietro Alemanno (1430–1498), St.
James of the Marches, 128 X 42, Palazzo dei Capitani, Ascoli Piceno
St. James of the Marches
Franciscan, b. of a poor family named Gangala, at Monteprandone, March of Ancona, Italy, 1391; d. at Naples, 28 Nov., 1476. He is
generally represented holding in his right hand a chalice, out of which a snake
is escaping --an allusion to some endeavours of heretics to poison him or, less likely, to the controversy about the Precious Blood.
He
began his studies at Offida under the guidance of his uncle, a priest, who soon afterwards
put him to school atAscoli. At the University of Perugia he took the degree of Doctor in Civil
Law. After a short stay at Florence as tutor in a noble family, and as judge of sorcerers, James was received into the Order of the Friars Minor, in thechapel of the Portiuncula, Assisi, 26 July, 1416. Having
finished his novitiate at the hermitage of the Carceri,
nearAssisi, he studied theology at Fiesole, near Florence, under St. Bernardine of Siena. On 13 June, 1420, be
wasordained priest, and soon began to
preach in Tuscany, in the Marches, and
Umbria; for half a century he carried on his spiritual labours, remarkable for the miracles he performed and the numerous conversions he wrought. From 1427 James preached penance, combated heretics, and was on legations
in Germany, Austria, Sweden,Denmark, Bohemia, Poland, Hungary, and Bosnia. In the last-mentioned country
he was also commissary of theFriars Minor. At the time of the Council of Basle he promoted the union of the moderate Hussites with the Church, and that of the Greeks it the Council of Ferrara-Florence.
Against the Turk, he preached
several crusades, and at the death of St. John Capistran, in 1456, James was sent to Hungary as his successor. In Italy he fought theFraticelli, instituted several montes pietatis, and preached in all the greater cities; Milan offered him the bishopricin 1460, which he
declined. St. James belonged to the Observant branch of the Friars Minor, then rapidly spreading
and exciting much envy. How much he suffered
on this account is shown in a letter written by him toSt. John Capistran,
published by Nic. Dal-Gal,
O.F.M., in "Archivum Franciscanum Historicum",
I (1908), 94-97. Under Callistus III, in 1455, he was
appointed an arbiter on the questions at issue between Conventuals andObservants. His decision was published 2 Feb., 1456, in a papal Bull, which pleased neither
part . A few years later, on Easter Monday, 1462, St. James,
preaching at Brescia, uttered the opinion of
some theologians, that thePrecious Blood shed during the Passion was not united with the Divinity of Christ during the three days of Hisburial.
The Dominican James of Brescia, inquisitor, immediately cited him to
his tribunal. James refused to appear, and after some
troubles appealed to the Holy See. The question was
discussed at Rome, Christmas, 1462 (not 1463, as
some have it), before Pius II and the cardinals, but no decision was
given. James spent the last three years of his life
at Naples, and was buried there in the Franciscan church of S. Maria la Nuova, where his body is still to
be seen. Beatified by Urban VIII, 1624, he was canonized by Benedict XIII, 1726. Naples venerates him as one of its patron saints (feast, 28 Nov.).
The
works of St. James of the Marches
have not as yet been collected. His library and autographs are preserved in part at the Municipio of Monteprandone (see Crivellucci,
"I codici della libreria raccolta da S. Giacomo della Marca nel convento
di S. Maria delle Grazie presso Monteprandone",
Leghorn, 1889). He wrote "Dialogus contra Fraticellos" printed in Baluze-Mansi,
"Miscellanea", II, Lucca, 1761, 595-610 (cf.
Ehrle in "Archiv für Litt. u. Kirchengeschichte", IV, Freiburg im Br., 1888, 107-10). His numerous sermons are not edited. For some of them, and
for his treatise on the "Miracles of the Name
of Jesus", see Candido Mariotti, O.F.M., "Nome di Gesù
ed i Francescani", Fano, 1909, 125-34. On his
notebook, or "Itinerarium", See
Luigi Tasso, O.F.M., in
"Miscellanea Francescana", I (1886), 125-26: "Regula confitendi
peccata" was several times edited in Latin and Italian during the fifteenth century. "De
Sanguine Christi effuse" and some other treatises
remained in manuscript.
Sources
PETRUCCI,
Vita et res gesitæ B. Jacobi Piceni, edited by WADDING (Lyons, 1641). Other original information is found in B. Bernardini
Aquilani Chronica Fratrum Minorum Observuntiæ, ed. LEMMENS (Rome, 1902), 66 sqq.; GLASSBERGER in
Analecta Franciscana, II (Quaracchi, 1887), 393-96. Much material and papal documents are given in WADDING,
Annales, 2nd ed., IX-XVI (Rome, 1724-36), See also WADDING, Scepters (Rome 1806), 126; SBARALEA,
Supplementum ad Scriptores (Rome 1806), 375 ARTUR,
Martyrologium Franciscanum, 2nd ed (Paris 1653), 578-80. Lives: LÉON (de Clary),
Lives of the Saints and Blessed of the three orders of St. Francis, IV (Taunton 1887), 125 -51; JOS. Ma. d'Evora,
Compendio della vita di S, Giacomo della Marca (Rome, 1726); GASPARE DA MONTE SANTO,
Gesta dell' apostolico San Giacomo della Marca Anconitana (Ascoli, 1804); GIUSEPPE ARCANGELO Di FRATTA MAGGIORE,
Vita dell' apostolico eroe S. Giacomo della Marca, 2nd ed. (Naples, 1851); CELSO MARIA Di FFLTRE,
Compendia Storico delta vita di S. Giacomo della Marca (Venice, 1876): CIACINTO NICOLAI, Vita Storica di San Giacomo della Marca (Bologna, 1876); LÉON, V
ita de St-Jacques de la Marche, Franciscain de l'Observance (1391-1476) (Paris, 1894); GAETANO ROCCO DA NAPOLI,
Compendio delta Vita di San Giacomo della Marca (Naples, 1909).
Oliger, Livarius. "St. James of the Marches." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910.25
Oct. 2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08278b.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Tom Burgoyne. In memory of Father Baker, founder of Our Lady of Victory Homes.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil
Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New
York.
Copyright © 2020
by Kevin Knight. Dedicated to the
Immaculate Heart of Mary.
James of the March, OFM
(RM)
(also known as Giacomo della Marca or Jacopo Gangala)
Born in Montebrandone, March of Ancona, September 1, 1394; died in Naples 1475;
canonized 1726.
You may have seen
his portrait by Carlo Crivelli in the Louvre: an emaciated monk with a long,
pointed nose reminiscent of Pinocchio. But long before his portrait was painted
by Crivelli, it had been painted by God. For in his Book of Life God makes a
picture of everything that He creates, and the true saints are those men and
women who in their lives come closest to resembling God's picture of them.
And so on September
1, 1394, God made the portrait of an Italian Franciscan whose zeal and
enterprise would make him a good instrument to carry out God's eternal
purpose--the glorification of His name and the coming of His Kingdom.
At first this
future Franciscan was just an ordinary little boy. He was born into a poor
family living in Montebrandrone, a village in the Marches (the ancient Picenum)
overlooking the Adriatic. He was baptized with the name of Dominic, and we can
easily imagine him one day asking the priest the meaning of his name. When he
heard the Dominic came from Dominus and meant "he who belongs to the
Lord," he must have thought that his name was a call, and that the call
should be answered.
After studying law
he answered it when, at age 22, he took the Franciscan habit in 1416. As he was
to recall much later, his first habit was tailored for him by Father Bernardino
of Siena. Dominic took a new name as well as a new habit. Perhaps he regretted
losing his lordly name, but a new vocation demands a new name, and besides the
name Dominic, being reminiscent of the Dominicans, might have given offense to
some of his Franciscan brothers.
And so, emerging
from the waters of his second baptism, Dominic became James. In accordance with
Franciscan custom, he also took the name of the province from which he came;
thus, he is called James della Marca (of the Marches). This fine-sounding name,
half apostle and half traveller, was well-suited to a man for the next 50 years
was to travel all over Europe spreading the good news of Jesus Christ.
Before beginning
his wandering ministry, however, James studied for the priesthood under Saint
Bernardino of Siena at Fiesole (outside Florence, Italy) and was ordained at
age 29 (1423). He became a zealous and well-attended preacher and is said to
have brought both Blessed Bernardino of Feltre and Blessed Bernardino of Fosso
into the Franciscan Order.
Saint James
preached every day for 40 years. It was his vocation to march, or rather to
run, along the roads of Christendom, trying to be everywhere at once for he was
needed everywhere at once. One day while at supper he was lifting his glass to
take a drink when he was brought a message from Eugene IV sending him to
Hungary. He put down his glass and left immediately.
It would take the
patience of a Benedictine to reconstruct all his missionary journeys, including
those undertaken with Saint John Capistrano throughout Italy, Germany, Bohemia,
Poland, and Hungary. In 1426, with Saint John, he was named inquisitor against
the Fraticelli by Pope Saint Martin V. Their approach was harsh--some of the
Fraticelli were burned at the stake--and they destroyed 36 Fraticelli houses,
provoking opposition.
The most we can do
to tract the progress of this energetic Franciscan is just to mention a few of
the places where he turned up. In 1432, he was in Bosnia, where King Tuertko
received him with open arms and the queen tried to murder him. There he
preached against the heresy of the Bogomils.
In 1436, James
della Marca was in Bohemia, Hungary, and Austria, founding on an average one
monastery a month. In 1437, he was the chief almoner for the crusade that
emperor Sigismond was leading against the Turks. In 1438 he returned to Italy,
made a brief appearance in Bologna, attended a council in Ferrara, and then
went back to Hungary.
In 1440 he fell ill
in Cyprus. In 1444--a rare event--he spent three days resting in a little
monastery on the shores of Lake Trasimene, where he was joined by John of
Capistrano and Bernardine of Siena, who died a month later.
Succeeding Saint
John Capistrano as papal legate in 1456, he went to Austria and Hungary to
combat the Hussites. He was thereafter offered the bishopric of Milan, but
turned it down because he preferred to continue preaching.
In 1462, as a result
of a sermon he preached in Brescia in which he gave a theological opinion on
the precious Blood of Christ, he himself became the subject of a local
inquisition. The case was controversial and James refused to appear before the
Inquisition and appealed to Rome. A silence was imposed upon both the Dominican
inquisitors and the Franciscans, and no decision was ever reached.
And so on, always
hurrying from place to place, always preaching and always fighting the good
fight, until November 28, 1476, the date of his last journey, when he set out
from Naples and arrived in heaven, where we have good reason to believe he
still is.
Not surprisingly in
view of the life he led, James della Marca did not put on much weight. Moreover
he imposed on himself severe penances. He allowed himself only three hours of
sleep nightly and wore a threadbare habit. He fasted every day and had,
according to his biographer "a poor stomach and severe inflammation of the
liver." Towards the end of his life the pope forbade him to fast, for his
health was "in the public interest." It should be noted that Saint
James was also a very strong supporter for the establishment of charitable
pawnshops (montes pietatis).
The common sense of
the good pope--Sixtus IV--is to be commended, ordering a saint to take care of
his health, but even more admirable is the monk who set out every morning with
his satchel containing a piece of bread, some beans, salt, garlic, and a few
onions. He knew only too well that to be a witness of God among men it is far
better to be full of the Holy Spirit than full of food.
And it was the Holy
Spirit that inspired him to speak with such power and fire and amazing success.
At Camerino he inflamed the townsfolk to such a point that they nearly burned
his adversary alive. At Aquila 40,000 people waited for him to come down from
the pulpit so that they could get what was then the equivalent of his
autograph--a piece of parchment with the name of Jesus written on it. To meet
the demand, the friars in the monastery had to mass-produce them and then give
them to James to touch before distributing them among his admirers.
More enduring than
these bonfires that are so easy to light under the hot Italian sun was his work
as a peace-maker, for which he had a special gift. During the turbulent 15th
century peace had disappeared nearly everywhere. James reconciled the
conventuals and the observants, the two opposed branches of the Franciscans who
were at loggerheads about their interpretations of the true spirit of their
founder. He reconciled Catholics and heretics of every kind. For example, he
moderated his opposition to the Hussites of Hungary by offering at the Council
of Basle (part of the Council of Ferrara-Florence) the practice of Communion
under both species (1431). At the Council of Florence (1438), he participated
in the reunion of the Eastern and Western Churches. He reconciled Guelphs and
Ghibellines who quarreled out of habit. Above all he reconciled men with God,
which is surely the best way of reconciling men with each other.
In 1473, James was
moved to Naples, where he died and was buried in the church of Santa Maria
Nuova.
While nearly every
day brought a different landscape before the eyes of Saint James della Marca,
he gaze remained fixed unceasingly on the Eternal and Unchangeable. Popes,
kings, and crowds called him, but in their call he always heard the same unique
voice of God. Every evening he was breathless, yet each morning he preached
because he had spent half the night breathing the Holy Spirit (Attwater,
Attwater 2, Benedictines, Coulson, Encyclopedia, Farmer, White).
Saint James' emblem
is a chalice and a serpent. He is generally depicted as a Franciscan holding a
chalice and a veil; sometimes the image includes a staff and lily; or staff,
castanets at his girdle, pointing to IHS (not to be confused with Saint Bernardino,
whose face, old and toothless, is invariable). Venerated at Ancona (Roeder,
White).
Ignoto napoletano-fiammingo, San Michele, San Girorlamo e San Giacomo
della Marca, vers 1490,
Galleria Napoletana, Museo di Capodimonte
November 28
St. James of La Marca of
Ancona, Confessor
THE SMALL town
of Montbrandon, in the Marca of Ancona, the ancient Picenum, a province of the
ecclesiastical state in Italy, gave birth to this saint. His parents, though of
low condition, were very virtuous, and educated him in sentiments of true piety
and religion. A neighbouring priest taught him Latin, and he was young when he
was sent to the university of Perugia, where his progress in learning soon
qualified him to be chosen preceptor to a young gentleman of Florence. This
student’s father, who was a magistrate of that city, was much taken with the
virtue and prudence of our saint, engaged him to accompany his son to Florence,
and procured him a considerable post in that republic. St. James observed, that
in the hurry of worldly business men easily forget to converse sufficiently
with God and themselves, and that shutting themselves up in it, they become
part of that vortex which hurries time and the world away without looking any
further: also, that whilst we hear continually the discourse of men, we are apt
insensibly to take in, and freight ourselves with the vices of men. Against
these dangers, persons who live in the world, must use the antidote of
conversing much with God. This James did by assiduous prayer and recollection,
in which exercises he found such charms that he resolved to embrace a religious
and penitential life. These were the dispositions of his soul when, travelling
near Assisium, he went into the great church of the Portiuncula to pray, and
being animated by the fervour of the holy religious men who there served God,
and by the example of their blessed founder St. Francis, he determined to
petition in that very place for the habit of the Order. The brethren received
him with open arms, and he was sent to perform his novitiate in a small austere
convent near Assisium, called, Of the Prisons. He began his spiritual war
against the devil, the world, and the flesh, with assiduous prayer, and
extraordinary fasts and watchings: and the fervour of his first beginnings was,
by his fidelity in corresponding with divine grace, crowned with such constancy
and perseverance as never to suffer any abatement. After the year of his
probation was completed he returned to the Portiuncula, and by his solemn vows
offered himself a holocaust to God. For forty years he never passed a day
without taking the discipline; he always wore either a rough hair shirt, or an
iron coat of mail armed with short sharp spikes; allowing himself only three
hours for sleep he spent the rest of the night in holy meditation and prayer: flesh
meat he never touched, and he ate so little that it seemed a miracle how he
could live. He said mass every day with wonderful devotion. Out of a true
spirit of humility and penance he was a great lover of poverty, and it was a
subject of joy to him to see himself often destitute of the most necessary
things. He copied for himself most of the few books he allowed himself the use
of, and he always wore a mean threadbare habit. His purity during the course of
his whole life was spotless; and he shunned as much as possible all
conversation with persons of the other sex, and made this very short, when it
was necessary for their spiritual direction; and he never looked any woman in
the face. In the practice of obedience he was so exact, that, once having received
an order to go abroad, when he had lifted up the cup near his mouth to drink he
set it down again, and went out immediately without drinking; for he was afraid
to lose the merit of obedience by the least delay.
His zeal for
the salvation of souls seemed to have no bounds, and for forty years together
he never passed a single day without preaching the word of God either to the
people or to the religious of his own Order. His exhortations were vehement and
efficacious; by one sermon at Milan he converted thirty-six lewd women to a
most fervent course of penance. Being chosen archbishop of that city he fled,
and being taken he prevailed by entreaties and persuasions to be allowed to
pursue his call in the functions of a private religious missionary. He
accompanied St. John Capistran in some of his missions in Germany, Bohemia, and
Hungary, and was sent thrice by the popes Eugenius IV. Nicholas V. and Calixtus
III. into this last kingdom. He wrought several miracles at Venice, and at
other places, and raised from dangerous sicknesses the duke of Calabria, and
king of Naples. A question was at that time agitated with great warmth,
particularly between the Franciscan and Dominican friars, whether the precious
blood of Christ, which was separated from the body during his passion, remained
always hypostatically united to the Divine Word; and St. James was accused in
the inquisition of having advanced the negative: but was dismissed with honour.
The saint died of a most painful cholic in the convent of the Holy Trinity of
his Order, near Naples, on the 28th of November, in the year 1476, being ninety
years old, of which he had spent seventy in a religious state. His body is
enshrined in a rich chapel which bears his name in the church called our Lady’s
the New, at Naples. He was beatified by Urban VIII. and canonized in 1726, by
Benedict XIII. who had been himself an eye-witness to a miracle performed in
favour of a person who had recourse to his intercession. See his life by Mark
of Lisbon, bishop of Porto, and and in verse by Sanazar; also the life of
Benedict XIII. by Touron, t. 6.
Rev. Alban
Butler (1711–73). Volume XI: November. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
Vittore Crivelli (1440–1501). St
James of the Marches, Pinacoteca Comunale, Ripatransone
Also known as
- Dominic Gangala
- Giacomo della Marca
- Jacopo Gangala
- James della Marca
- James Gangala
- James of La Marca of Ancona
- James of Picenum
Profile
San Giacomo della Marca Religioso
e sacerdote
Monteprandone, Ascoli Piceno, 1394 - Napoli, 28
novembre 1476
E' nato a
Monteprandone (Ascoli Piceno) nel 1394, fu discepolo di san Bernardino da
Siena, dal quale ricevette a 22 anni il saio francescano. Come il maestro,
anch'egli si diede alla predicazione, in Italia, Polonia, Boemia, Bosnia e in
Ungheria dove si recò per ordine del Papa. Oratore ardente, si scagliò
soprattutto contro i vizi dell'avarizia e dell'usura. Proprio per combattere
quest'ultima, san Giacomo della Marca ideò i Monti di Pietà, dove i poveri
potevano impegnare le proprie cose, non più all'esoso tasso preteso dai privati
usurai ma ad un interesse minimo. Già debilitato per la vita di penitenza e
colpito da coliche fortissime, morì a Napoli, nel 1476. Le sue ultime parole
furono: «Gesù, Maria. Benedetta la Passione di Gesù». (Avvenire)
Etimologia:
Giacomo = che segue Dio, dall'ebraico
Martirologio
Romano: A Napoli, deposizione di san Giacomo della Marca, sacerdote dell’Ordine
dei Minori, insigne per la predicazione e per l’austerità di vita.
Il tempo
che precedette la Riforma protestante fu caratterizzato dalla solida e
grandiosa opera di alcuni predicatori, fra loro uno fu davvero grande e venne
anche scomunicato, si chiamava San Giacomo della Marca (1393-1476), la cui
festa liturgica cade il 28 novembre. Fra il XIV e XV secolo la Chiesa era
soggetta alle corruzioni e allo stesso tempo molti eretici andavano
imbrogliando sia Fede che dottrina. Un poco di ordine, benché si stesse
preparando il terreno sul quale avrebbe agito l’eresiarca Lutero, venne portato
da questi impavidi predicatori.
Nato a Monteprandone (Ascoli Piceno), a 22 anni, in Santa Maria degli Angeli,
prese il saio francescano dalle mani di San Bernardino da Siena. La sua vita fu
di estrema penitenza. Si sottoponeva a sette quaresime durante l’anno e negli
altri giorni i suoi pasti consistevano in una scodella di fave cotte
nell’acqua.
Malato, ricevette sei volte l’Estrema Unzione, eppure resistette nella faticosa
vita dei predicatori itineranti. Una cosa sola temette nella sua esistenza, che
il dolore fisico lo distraesse dalla preghiera. Dalla catechesi di San
Bernardino (intorno al quale si formarono altri valenti predicatori come San
Giovanni da Capestrano, Alberto da Sarteano, Matteo di Girgenti) mutua le
tecniche vocali e gestuali, i contenuti e la struttura del sermo, prediligendo
la trattazione di temi etico-politici, utilizzando materiali provenienti dai
testi della teologia morale e del diritto canonico; fa ampio uso di exempla,
spesso presentati in forma drammatizzata; utilizza per lo più il volgare; si
impegna nel sostenere la diffusione della devozione al nome di Gesù e insiste
su alcuni obiettivi polemici ricorrenti: le pratiche superstiziose, il lusso,
il gioco, la bestemmia, l’usura (ideò i Monti di Pietà per liberare le vittime
degli usurai).
Le sue omelie sono tuoni che destano anche gli spiriti più recalcitranti. Esse
si nutrono di riferimenti biblici, ma il santo prende spunti anche dalla
scrittura dantesca. Nessuno può sonnecchiare o distrarsi quando si assiste a queste
prediche di formidabile efficacia, dall’andamento anche teatrale, ma che spesso
raggiungono lo scopo: convertire. È un francescano fuori dal comune per la sua
signorilità: sicuro e determinato, sa conciliare carità e fuoco del Giudizio di
Dio; è teologo e inquisitore severo, ma pietoso. La sua predicazione, oltre a
suscitare fin da subito apprezzamento ed entusiasmo da parte dei fedeli, si
traduce in riforme degli Statuti di alcune città e in numerose fondazioni di
confraternite. Dal 1423 al 1425 predica a più riprese nella zona di Jesi, dove
sono presenti gruppi aderenti alla setta dei fraticelli e nel 1426 Papa Martino
V lo incarica di predicare contro questa setta in tutta Italia e viene
affiancato dal confratello Giovanni da Capestrano.
Nel 1432 è inviato in Europa orientale e i suoi successi non si fanno
attendere, così, alla fine del 1435, Sigismondo di Lussemburgo, re di Ungheria,
lo vuole nella sua residenza di Tata, presso Buda, come consulente
nell’incontro tra i delegati del Concilio di Basilea e i rappresentanti del
Regno di Boemia, nel quale era ancora viva l’eresia hussita. Da quel momento la
sua azione antiereticale si estende dalla Bosnia all’Ungheria, dove predica
contro gli hussiti in fuga dalla Boemia.
Nell’agosto del 1436 il Papa lo nomina inquisitore di Austria e Ungheria
concedendogli ampi poteri e permettendogli di erigere nuovi conventi in quelle
terre. L’appoggio dell’Imperatore e del Pontefice, oltre che il titolo di
legatus del Concilio di Basilea, non sono però sufficienti a garantirgli
l’intoccabilità e non solo riceve persecuzioni da parte del clero locale, non
solo tentano di ucciderlo più volte, ma subisce anche una scomunica da parte di
Simone, arcidiacono di Bacs. Assunse anche il compito di predicare a favore
della crociata contro i Turchi: a questo scopo nel 1443 fu nominato da Eugenio
IV nunzio apostolico.
Venne proposto pure Arcivescovo di Milano, ma rifiutò l’incarico. Tra le
attività dell’ultima fase della sua vita va ricordata la costituzione della
biblioteca del convento di Santa Maria delle Grazie di Monteprandone, nella
quale il Santo riuscì a radunare circa duecento codici; essi costituivano una
vera e propria officina del predicatore, contenente modelli e abbozzi di
sermoni, raccolte di passi scritturali, exempla e auctoritates teologiche e
giuridiche. Tutto ciò serviva per combattere gli errori e salvare le anime.
Oggi, sotto la tirannia del relativismo, San Giacomo della Marca non sarebbe
considerato un combattente per la Fede, ma uno, probabilmente, da scomunicare,
come qualcuno già all’epoca fece.
Autore: Cristina
Siccardi
Voir aussi :
http://365rosaries.blogspot.ca/2011/11/november-28-saint-james-of-marches.html