ST. TORIBIO, or TIIRIBIUS ALPHONSUS MOGROBEJO, was second son to the
lord of Mogrobejo, and born in the kingdom of Leon, on the 16th of
November, in 1538. From his infancy he discovered a strong inclination
to piety; and, in his childhood, it was his delight, at times of
recreation, to erect and adorn altars, and to serve the poor. He
trembled at the very shadow of sin. One day, seeing a poor pedler-woman
angry because she had lost something out of her pack, he most movingly
entreated and exhorted her, that she would not offend God by passion;
and, in order to appease her, gave her the value of her loss, which he
had begged of his mother for that purpose. He was very devout to the
Blessed Virgin, said every day her Office and Rosary, and fasted every
Saturday in her honor. While at school, he usually gave part of his
slender dinner to the poor, and was so much addicted to fasting, that
his superiors were obliged, by strict commands, to compel him to
moderate his austerities. He began his higher studies at Valladolid, but
completed them at Salamanca. He was introduced early to the notice of
king Philip II., honored by him with several dignities, and made
president or chief judge at Granada. This office he discharged during
five years with so much integrity, prudence, and virtue, that the eyes
of the whole kingdom were fixed on him, and his life in the world {646}
was a holy noviceship to the pastoral charge. The pressing necessities
of the infant church of Peru required a prelate who inherited, in a
distinguished manner, the spirit of the apostles; and the archbishopric
of Lima falling vacant, Turibius was unanimously judged the person of
all others the best qualified to be an apostle of so large a country,
and to remedy the scandals which obstructed the conversion of the
infidels. The king readily nominated him to that dignity, and all
parties concerned applauded the choice. Turibius was thunderstruck at
this unexpected news, and had no sooner received the message, but he
cast himself on the ground at the foot of his crucifix, praying with
many tears that God would deliver him from so heavy a burden, which he
thought absolutely above his strength. He wrote the most urgent letters
to the king's council, in which he pleaded his incapacity, and other
impediments, and laid great stress on the canons, which forbid laymen to
be promoted to such dignities in the church. This humility it was that
obtained the succor of heaven by which he performed wonders in the
service of souls. Being compelled by obedience to acquiesce, he at
length testified his submission by falling on his knees and kissing the
ground.
After a suitable preparation, he received the four minor orders on four
successive Sundays, the better to dispose himself for the functions of
each; and after passing through the other orders, he was consecrated
bishop. Immediately after which he set out for Peru, and landed at Lima,
in the year 1581, of his age the forty-third. That diocese is extended
one hundred and thirty leagues along the coast, comprising three cities,
and many towns and villages, with innumerable cottages scattered over
two ridges of the mountains of the Andes, esteemed the highest and the
most rugged in the whole world. Some of the European generals, who first
invaded that country, were men who seemed to measure every thing by
their insatiable avarice and ambition, and had so far lost all
sentiments of humanity towards the poor savages, that they deserved the
name rather of tyrants and plunderers than of conquerors. Civil wars and
dissensions completed the misfortune of that country; and covetousness,
cruelty, treachery, fraud, and debauchery, seemed triumphant. Nor were
the repeated orders of the Spanish court able to redress these evils.
The sight of these disorders moved the good pastor often to tears, but
his prudence and zeal overcame all difficulties, extirpated public
scandals, and made that kingdom a flourishing portion of the Christian
church. Upon his arrival he immediately began a visitation of his vast
diocese: an undertaking of incredible fatigue, and attended with many
dangers. He often crept over the steepest and most rugged mountains,
covered with ice or snow, to visit some poor hut of Indians, and give
them suitable comfort and instruction. He travelled often on foot, and
sometimes barefoot, and by fasting and prayer never ceased to implore
the divine mercy for the salvation of the souls committed to his charge.
He placed everywhere able and zealous pastors, and took care that no one
in the most remote corners of the rocks should be left destitute of the
means of instruction and of the benefit of the sacraments. To settle and
maintain discipline, he appointed diocesan synods to be held every two
years, and provincial synods every seven; and was vigilant and severe in
chastising the least scandal, especially of avarice, in the clergy.
Without respect of persons, he reproved injustice and vice, and made use
of all the means which his authority put into his hands, to check the
insolence of public sinners, and to protect the poor from oppression.
Many of the first conquerors and governors of Peru, before the arrival
of the most virtuous viceroy Francis of Toledo, were men who often
sacrificed every thing to their passions, and for their private ends.
From some of these saint suffered many persecutions, and was {647} often
thwarted by them in the discharge of his duty. But by the arms of
meekness and patience he overcame all affronts and injuries, and with an
invincible constancy he maintained the rights of justice and truth. He
showed that many sinners misconstrued the law of God to make it favor
their passions; but that, as Tertullian observes, "Christ calls himself
the truth, not custom," and will weigh our actions not in the false
balance of the world, but in the true scales of the sanctuary. Thus he
extirpated the most inveterate abuses,[1] and established with so great
fervor the pure maxims of the gospel, as to revive in many the primitive
spirit of Christianity. To extend and perpetuate the advantages of
religion, which by his zeal he had procured, he filled this country with
seminaries, churches, and many hospitals; but would never suffer his own
name to be recorded in any of his munificent charities or foundations.
When he was at Lima, he every day visited several hospitals, comforted
and exhorted the sick, and administered the sacraments. When a
pestilence, though that calamity is seldom known in Peru, raged in some
parts of his diocese, Turibius distributed his own necessaries in
relieving the afflicted: he preached penance, because sins are the cause
of chastisements, and infinitely the worst of evils. He walked in the
processions, bathed in tears, with his eyes always fixed on a crucifix,
and offering himself to God for his flock; fasted, watched, and prayed
for them, without intermission, till God was pleased to remove his
scourge.
Nothing gave the saint so much pleasure as the greatest labors and
dangers, to procure the least spiritual advantage to one soul. Burning
with the most vehement desire of laying down his life for his flock, and
of suffering all things for him who died for us, he feared no dangers.
When he heard that poor Indians wandered in the mountains and deserts,
he sought them out; and to comfort, instruct, or gain one of them, he
often suffered incredible fatigues, and dangers in the wildernesses, and
boldly travelled through the haunts of lions and tigers. He spent seven
years in performing his first visitation: his second employed him four
years, but the third was shorter. He converted innumerable infidels, and
left everywhere monuments of his charity. In travelling, he either
prayed or discoursed on heavenly things. On his arrival at a place, it
was his custom to repair first to the church to pray before the altar.
To catechise the poor, he would sometimes stay two or three days in
places where he had neither bed nor any kind of food. He visited every
part of his vast diocese: and when others suggested to him the dangers
that threatened him from rocks, precipices, marshes, rivers, robbers,
{648} and savages, his answer was that Christ came from heaven to save
man, we ought not therefore to fear dangers for the sake of immortal
glory. He preached and catechised without intermission, having for this
purpose learned, in his old age, all the various languages of the
barbarous nations of that country. Even on his journeys he said mass
every day with wonderful fervor and devotion. He always made a long
meditation before and after it, and usually went to confession every
morning; though they who best knew his interior, testified, that they
were persuaded he had never in his whole life forfeited his baptismal
innocence by any mortal sin. He seemed to have God and the divine honor
alone before his eyes in all his words and actions, so as to give little
or no attention to any thing else; by which means his prayer was
perpetual. He retired in private to that exercise often in the day, and
for a long time together. In it his countenance seemed often to shine
with a divine light. The care with which he studied to disguise and
conceal his great mortifications and works of piety, was the proof of
his sincere humility. His munificence in relieving the poor of every
class, especially those who were too bashful to make their necessities
publicly known, always exhausted his revenues. The decrees of his
provincial councils are monuments of his zeal, piety, learning, and
discretion: they have been ever since esteemed, not only in the new
world, but also in Europe, and at Rome itself, as oracles. The
flourishing state of the church of Peru, the great number of saints and
eminent pastors with which it abounded, and the establishment of
innumerable seminaries of piety and learning, and hospitals for the
poor, were the fruit of his zeal. If he did not originally plant the
faith, he was at least the great propagator of it, and the chief
instrument of God in removing scandals and advancing true piety in that
vast country, which till then had been a land of abominations; while
Francis of Toledo, the great viceroy, first settled the civil government
in peace and tranquillity by salutary laws, which have procured him the
title of the Legislator of Peru. St. Turibius, in the sixty-eighth year
of his age, in 1606, during the visitation of his diocese, fell sick at
Santa, a town one hundred and ten leagues distant from Lima. He foretold
his death, and ordered him to be rewarded who should bring him the first
account from his physician, that his recovery was despaired of. The
ardor of his faith, his hope, his love of his Creator and Redeemer, his
resignation and perfect sacrifice of himself, gathered strength in the
fervent exercises and aspirations which he repeated almost without
ceasing in his illness. By his last will he ordered what he had about
him to be distributed among his servants, and whatever else he otherwise
possessed to be given to the poor. He would be carried to the church,
there to receive the holy viaticum: but received extreme unction in his
sick bed. He often repeated those words of St. Paul: _I desire to be
dissolved, and to be with Christ._ And in his last moments he ordered to
be sung, by his bedside, those of the Psalmist: _I rejoiced in the ibwgs
that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord._ He died
on the 23d of March, repeating those other words of the same prophet:
_Into thy hands I commend my spirit._ His body being translated the year
after to Lima, was found incorrupt, the joints flexible, and the skin
soft. His historian, and the acts of the canonization, mention many sick
restored to their health, and a girl raised to life by him while he was
living: also many miracles wrought through his intercession after his
death. He was beatified by Innocent XI. in 1679,[2] and solemnly
canonized by pope Benedict XIII. in 1726. On the miracles wrought by his
intercession, see Benedict XIV.,[3] and especially the acts of his
canonization.
{649}
A pastor of souls must be careful to animate all his exterior actions
and labors in the service of his neighbor, with the interior spirit of
compunction, humility, zeal, charity, and tender devotion. Without this
he loses the fruit of all the pains he takes, and by them will often
deserve only chastisements in the world to come; so much will his
intention and the affections of his heart be infected with self-love,
and depraved by various imperfections, and secret sinister desires even
in the most holy functions. Therefore, a fervent novitiate, employed in
the exercises of an interior life, ought to be a part of the preparation
for this state; and in the discharge of his duties, a person ought
always to unite contemplation with action, and reserve to himself
sufficient time for conversing with God and his own soul, and taking a
frequent review of his own interior. From his labors he must return
frequently to prayer, and constantly nourish in his soul a spirit of
fervent devotion, which will thus accompany all his exterior actions,
and keep his thoughts and affections always united to God. Those who are
not faithful in thus maintaining and improving in themselves an interior
spirit of piety, and in watching with fear and compunction over the
motions of their own hearts, will generally advance very little the
kingdom of Christ in the souls of others, and are in great danger of
losing their own. This is what St. Bernard feared in his disciple pope
Eugeuius III., whom he conjured with tears never to give himself up
entirely to the care of others, so as not to live also for himself; so
to communicate a spirit of piety to others, as not to suffer it to be
drained in his own heart; to be a basin to hold it, not a pipe for it to
run through.[4] This lesson is applicable, with due proportion, to other
states, especially that of teaching the sciences, in which the exercises
of an interior life are so much the more necessary, as the employment is
more distracting, more tumultuous, and more exposed to the waves of
vanity, jealousy, and other secret petty passions.
Footnotes:
1. The Indians were infamous for their debaucheries, and became so fond
of the Spanish wines, after having once tasted them, that to
purchase a small quantity they would give all their gold, and were
never sober as long as they had wine to drink. But their crimes,
which justly provoked the anger of heaven, could not justify the
cruelty of their European enemies, in whom avarice seemed to have
extinguished the sentiments both of humanity and religion. The
missionary priests endeavored in vain to put a stop to the outrages
of their countrymen; and the Dominicans carried repeated complaints
against them to the kings of Spain. At their remonstrances,
Ferdinand, king of Castile, declared the Indians free, and forbade
the Spaniards to employ them in carrying burdens, or to use a stick
or whip in chastising them. The emperor, Charles V., was prevailed
upon to send into America severe orders and regulations in their
favor, but to very little effect. The officers, who assumed the
haughty titles of conquerors of Mexico and Peru, would not be
controlled. Bartholomew de las Casas, a Dominican, and bishop of
Chiapa, in New Spain, made four fruitless voyages into Castile to
plead the cause of the poor Indians; he obtained ample rescripts
from the king, and was constituted by him protector-general of the
Indians in America. But these expedients proved too weak against men
that were armed. He therefore resigned his bishopric into the hands
of the pope, in 1551, and returned into the convent of his order at
Valhutolid; where he wrote his books, On the Destruction of the
Indians by the Spaniards, and On the Tyranny of the Spaniards in the
Indies, both dedicated to king Philip II. The archbishop of Seville,
and the universities of Salamanca and Alcala, forbade the impression
of the answers which some wrote to defend the Spanish governors, on
principles repugnant to the law of nature and of nations. These
books of las Casas, being translated into French, were scattered
among the people in the Low Countries, who had taken up arms against
the Spaniards, and animated them exceedingly in their revolt. But
the crimes of some ought not to be imputed to a nation: and the same
country which gave birth to some monsters was most fruitful in
saints, and produced the most zealous apostles and defenders of the
Indians. The great principle which las Casas defended in the
emperor's council, and in his writings, was, that the conquered
Indians could not, without injustice, be made slaves to the
Spaniards, which the king's council and the divines agreed to with
regard to those who had not been taken armed in just wars. See the
history of the Isle of St. Domingo, by {} Charlevoix.
2. Bened. XIV. De Beatif. et Canoniz. {} 1. Append. p. 496.
3. De Servor. Dei Canoniz. Roma. 1728. {}4. Tr. de Miraculis, c. 16, p.
196.
4. Tuus esto ubique: concha esto non canalis. S. Bern. l. d. Consid.