CAPDOX

4 February

Summary

Eufranio Desideri was born in Leonessa (Rieti) on 8 January 1556. He received the Capuchin habit on 3 January 1572 in the 'Carcerelle' in Assisi. He made religious profession in 8 January 1573. He was ordained priest in Amelia on 24 September 1580. He received 'patents' for preaching on 21 May 1581. On 1 August 1587 he went to Constantinople as a missionary where he underwent martyrdom of the "hook." In autumbn 1589 returned to the "Carcarelle" in Italy. Until his death he preached in villages throughout Abruzzi and Umbria.

The Circle of Divine Love

Colpetrazzo said about Francesco da Jesi (†1549), who was one of the pillars of the Capuchin reform, and who, together with Bernardino d’Asti and others, was one of the advocates of a reform movement within the Observants, that “in his day he was considered to be outstanding in the Franciscan Order and well qualified in the teachings of Scotus”. (MHOC III, 74) Following a period during which he was occupied in preaching, he committed himself totally to the life of a contemplative hermit following the approach of Bartolomeo Cordoni from Città di Castello. After he had transferred to the Capuchins with Giovanni da Fano in 1534, he took part in the General Chapter in Rome at S. Eufemia in 1536 and was chosen to be the sixth definitor receiving fifty one votes. He was elected Vicar Provincial of Tuscany in 1537, elected Vicar General again in the Chapter of 1538 and was Vicar Provincial of Umbria until 1542 when he became Commissary General following the apostasy of Ochino. He subsequently became Vicar General and governed the Order at the most dramatic time in its history. He retired to Montemalbe in 1545 and died there on 7^th September 1549 at the age of 80 after 58 years in the Order.

He brought a striking variety of the idealism of the spirituals to the reform that went beyond what was typical of the radical attitude of “literal” observance of the Franciscan Rule which prevailed among the leaders of the reform. This variety of idealism was manifested most of all in the special method of contemplation that he developed during long retreats at Monteluco in Spoleto, Cibottola al Buon Riposo near Città di Castello and other Umbrian hermitages.

This text which contains this method is published here for the first time. It is taken from a rare 1539 edition of the Dialogo by Cordoni which was edited by Girolamo of Molfetta, where this writing appears in the fifty third and last chapter under the title: Epilogue of the whole exercise of union reduced to a very brief summary and splendid technique. However its real title appears later in the Latin sentence: Iste est Circulus charitatis divinae, that is The Circle of Divine Love. In this work Francesco da Jesi collects and summarises all his theological, biblical, ascetical, mystical, religious and Franciscan expertise.

 9 February

Summary

The first of four children of Diego Márquez Ayala and Jerónima Sánchez Jiménez, he was born on 24 June 1864 in Alpandeire, a small village south west of Ronda in the Malaga province of Andalusia. Then at the baptismal font, on the 29 June, he was received the name Francisco Tomás.

He felt his called to the Capuchin life during the preaching of two Capuchin friars in Ronda in 1894, during the celebrations for the beatification of the Capuchin Friar Diego José of Cadiz (see 24 March).

At the age of 35, he received the Capuchin habit and the name Leopoldo. On 16 November 1900 he made his simple profession as a Capuchin friar. He then served the fraternity as a gardener in the friaries of Seville, Antequera and Granada. On 23 November 1903 he made his perpetual vows in Granada. He returned to Granada in 1914. The served the fraternity as a questor or alms collector and remained there until his death on 9 February 1956.

His heroic virtue was officially recognised on 17 March 2008, and the first miracle attributed to his intercession was acknowledged formally on 18 December 2009.

At the time of Leopoldo’s beatification, 13 September 2010, Benedict XIV described the life of this Capuchin Friar as “a song of humility and trust in God.”

The Circular Letter of the Capuchin Minister General, fra Mauro Jöhri, on the occasion of Leopoldo’s beatification can be downloaded here.

The Capuchin Reform - A Franciscan Renaissance

Between 1937 and 1955 Raffaele Turrado Riesco, or Br. Melchiorre da Pobladura OFM Cap., (1 February 1904-19 February 1983) published for the first time critical editions of some manuscript 'chronicles' of the Capuchin Reform written in the Sixteenth and early Seventeenth Centuries:

PAULUS A FOLIGNO, Origo et Progressus Ordinis Fratrum Minorum in Monumenta Historica Ordinis Minorum Capuccinorum vol.VII, Istituto Storico OFM Cap, Roma, 1955 

From these editions he selected and published a collection of extracts arranged thematically to represent Capuchin life during the first century of life of the fraternity,. He saw this as a contribution to a return to the sources: since "running water is purer at its source." (cf "La bella e santa Riforma dei Frati Minori Cappuccini". Ratio adhibendi recentes editiones historicae ad Ordinis progressum: a talk he gave at the Interprovincial Congress of the needs of the Modern Apostolate (21-27 November 1948) in Analecta OFMCap (1948) Acta Congressus Interprovincialis de Hodiernis Apostolatus Necessitatibus, p.35-38.

The compilation has the title: La Bella e Santa Riforma dei Frati Minori Cappuccini, Testi scelti e ordinati da Melchiorre da pobladura, con introduzione di Don Giuseppe da Luca, Edizioni Italiane, Roma, 1943, p.XVIII, 315. A more ample compilation was produced after the publication of the 'chronicle' of Paolo da Foligno -  La Bella e Santa Riforma dei Frati Minori Cappuccini, Istituto Storico Cappuccino, Roma, 2a ed., 1963, p.XXV, 443.

You can download this it here (2.4 Mb).

For the necrology of Melchiorre da Pobladura, see Isidoro de Villapadierna, "Padre Melchiorre da Pobladura (1904-1983) Storico e Agiografo" in Collectanea Franciscana 54(1984)101-158; Br. Flavio Carraro (Minister General), "In memoriam clarissimi Patris Melchioris a Pobladura" in Analecta OFMCap, 99(1983)113-120.