St. Crispin of Viterbo (1668-1750)

Welcome to INSPIRING LIVES, a series on the lives of Saints in the catholic church from around the world.
In this series we bring you alive the heroic lives lived by the saints. Saints are holy people who lived their ordinary lives in extraordinary ways. Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts. These saints are examples of great holiness and virtue, and thereby inspires others to do so. Their stories are unique, which inspire and invite us to be rooted in our faith. God calls each one of us to be a saint.
In this series we bring you those saints who are canonized by Blessed Pope John Paul II. Today we listen to the heroic life of Saint Crispin of Viterbo. He was canonized on 20^th June 1982 in Rome.xxxSaint Crispin of Viterbo was an Italian member of the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin who is now venerated as a saint for his decades of devoted service, and the spiritual wisdom he developed in the course of his life.
Crispin, who lived during the Age of Enlightenment, showed the enlightenment that gospel living provides. Born in Orvieto, he was apprenticed to a shoemaker. In 1693 he received the Franciscan Capuchin habit and the name Crispin. After serving as a cook at Tolfa and Albano, he was the official beggar of the friary in Orvieto for almost 40 years. He developed a reputation for curing the sick and catechized those he encountered in his work. The poor and needy recognized him as their friend.
Crispin appreciated the people whom God brought into his life and the historical period in which God placed him. Crispin became a living gospel for his confreres and for the people of Orvieto. His holiness encouraged them to live out their baptism more generously.
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Crispin was born to Mr and Mrs Marzia Ubaldo Fioretti in Viterbo, Italy on 13 November 1668. He was baptized two days later and given the name Peter. Christian piety was the worthwhile inheritance Peter received from his parents. The child was known for his piety and knowledge of the saints so that the townsfolk of Viterbo used to call him il santarello meaning ‘the little saint’.
When Peter was five years old his mother took him with her one day to a shrine of the miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Oak near Viterbo. She directed the attention of her little son to the Mother of God and said: "See, that is also your mother. I have made a gift of you to her. Always honor her as a good son would do." Peter did that throughout his life.
When his school days were over, the ambitious boy made the best of a chance to learn a little Latin, and his parents were told that he had the talents to study. But as they had no means to pay for his education and did not want their son to be half-educated, they sent him to his uncle to learn the shoemaker's trade. At the wish of his parents Peter cheerfully entered the workshop and learned the trade to the complete satisfaction of his uncle.
But meanwhile, child of Mary that he was, Peter sought to advance more and more in piety and Christian perfection. Then one day Peter saw the Capuchin novices walking in a procession, and he was inspired with the desire to embrace the religious life. So he went to the monastery and pleaded so urgently for admission that in spite of his delicate appearance he was accepted. His parents, too, gave their consent, and so he was received into the Capuchin Franciscan Order as a simple lay brother, and given his religious name Crispin on the feast of St Magdalen in 1693.
Even as a novice Crispin of Viterbo lived so perfectly that everybody admired him. It was Crispin's constant endeavor to imitate the virtues of his patron, St. Felix, especially in humility, self-abnegation, and continual work joined with prayer. After making his vows, he was sent as cook to the convent at Tolfa. There Saint Crispin of Viterbo made it his first care to erect in his kitchen a little altar to Mary, at which he offered his beloved Mother all his labors. Mary rewarded her faithful son with special proofs of her favor. Many a sick person was restored to health when he gave them some of the fruit which he had previously placed on his little altar after asking the Mother of God to bless them.
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After having served for some time as a cook in the friary at Viterbo, Crispin was sent to Tolfa, to fulfill the same office. From there he was sent to Rome and finally to Albano. Here Crispin was visited by illustrious men of the world, by bishops and cardinals, and even by the pope himself, who always took delight in conversing with the humble lay brother.
When Crispin was cook at the convent in Albano near Rome, one of the pope's chamberlains, having left by the doctors, was brought to him. Crispin led him to his little Marian altar, and soon the sick person was cured for good. The pope's physician said to Crispin: "Brother, your remedies are more effective than ours." Crispin replied: "You are a skillful physician, all Rome knows that. But then, the Blessed Virgin can do more than all the physicians in the world."
A distinguished man, who had until recently led a bad life, lay ill and desired that Crispin should come and cure him. Crispin went there, but said to him: "Sir, you want the Blessed Virgin to cure you. But, tell me, he who offends the Son, does he not also grieve the Mother? True veneration of the Blessed Virgin consists in not offending her Divine Son in any way." At the mild reproach of the holy brother, the sick man was much ashamed. He burst into penitent tears and promised to amend his life. And he faithfully carried out his promise when Crispin cured him.
His superiors and brethren were edified at Crispin's perfection. In company with several of the brothers he was once with his Father Provincial, when the latter received word that in one of their convents all the brothers were down with a contagious disease and that help was needed at once. The superior mentioned his predicament. Whom shall he send there? At once Crispin volunteered. Father Provincial expressed his pleasure at the offer, but insisted that he would not send him against his will. Crispin replied: "Will, my Father? What will? When I entered religion, I left my will at home. Here I recognize only your will." When the others called his attention to the danger of death that he would encounter, Crispin said: "That is nothing. I have a marvelous preventive invented by St Francis - it is the obedience in which I set out." He actually did return in excellent health after all the sick had gotten well under his care.
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Wherever Crispin went, he brought pleasure with his holy cheerfulness. Among the sick he banished all discontent and complaint; it was as if an angel had come from heaven. He often held several charges at the same time in the friary, but when work piled up, he used to say: "That is good; Paradise is not for lazybones."
Even at the door of death he preserved this cheerful spirit. When he was near death as a result of old age and by his numerous austerities, and the physician drew his attention to it, he said joyfully with the Psalmist: "I rejoiced at the things that were said to me: We shall go into the house of the Lord." With the sweet names of Jesus and Mary on his lips, he breathed forth his soul on May 19, 1750, at the age of 82. His body, which is still incorrupt, rests under one of the side altars in the famed Capuchin Church of the Immaculate Conception in Rome.
One of Crispin’s favorite sayings was, "God’s power creates us, his wisdom governs us, his mercy saves us." Crispin was beatified by Pope Pius VII on September 7, 1806, and was the first saint canonized by Pope John Paul II on June 20, 1982. During his homily at Crispin’s canonization, Pope John Paul II said that the human family is frequently "tempted by false autonomy, by denial of Gospel values, for which it necessarily needs saints, that is, models who concretely express by their lives the reality of Transcendence, the values of the Revelation and Redemption achieved by Christ."
P.J. Joseph SJ