From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   December 1st - Blessed John of Vercelli, OP (AC)   
   (also known as John Garbella)   
      
   Born at Mosso Santa Maria (near Vercelli), Italy; died at Montpellier,   
   France,   
   in 1283; cultus approved in 1903.. He studied at Paris and was ordained   
   priest   
   before 1229. He taught canon law at the University of Paris. While he was   
   professor there, Jordan of Saxony (who was a friend of Saint Albert the   
   Great)   
   came to Paris, and John saw one after another of his best pupils desert   
   their   
   careers to join the Dominicans. He seems to have considered them quite   
   objectively, without reference to himself, until the day an interior voice   
   spoke   
   to him that it was God's will for him to join the Dominicans. No one can say   
   that John did not respond with alacrity; he dropped everything and ran down   
   the   
   street. ("Let me go; I am on my way to God!") Jordan received him happily   
   and   
   gave him the habit.   
      
   In 1232, John was sent to Vercelli to establish a convent there. He built   
   this   
   and several other convents in Lombardy as houses of regular observance.   
   While   
   provincial of Lombardy, he also became inquisitor. It was a particularly   
   difficult moment. His brother in religion, Peter of Verona, had just been   
   killed   
   by the heretics in Como. The entire countryside was in a state of war, with   
   roving bands of heretics and robbers. It was the task of the new inquisitor   
   to   
   try to bring order out of this chaos, and what John did was remarkable,   
   considering the situation. In spite of his heavy labors, which included the   
   supervision of 600 friars in 28 different cities (he reached them only by   
   walking), John of Vercelli established the ideals of study and regular   
   observance in all of his houses.   
      
   It was the good fortune of John of Vercelli to live in an age that was well   
   peopled by saints. He formed a close friendship with Saint Louis, the king   
   of   
   France. Several of his tasks in the order, particularly the Commission on   
   the   
   Program of Studies, he shared with Saint Albert the Great, Saint Thomas   
   Aquinas,   
   and Peter of Tarentaise (the future Pope Innocent V). In such company one   
   would   
   need to have a superior set of talents; John did.   
      
   In 1264 the chapter of the order met at Paris. Blessed Humbert had resigned   
   as   
   master general of the order. John went to the chapter hoping that he could   
   resign as provincial of Lombardy. Instead of escaping one office, he fell   
   heir   
   to a still more difficult one. He was elected master general in 1264 and   
   served   
   in that capacity until 1283. John was then a man in his sixties and was,   
   moreover, handicapped by a crippled leg. However, he accepted the office   
   which   
   would require him to walk, not only all over Lombardy, but all over Europe.   
   It   
   took a brand of courage and obedience that was little short of heroic.   
      
   During the generalate of John of Vercelli, the relics of Saint Dominic were   
   transferred to the new tomb that had been prepared for it by Nicholas of   
   Pisa.   
   When the transfer was made, John of Vercelli fixed his seal on the tomb; the   
   seals were still intact on their examination in 1946. During the translation   
   of   
   the relics, according to the account in the "Vitae Fratrum", when the body   
   of   
   Saint Dominic was exposed to view, the head was seen to turn towards John of   
   Vercelli. John, embarrassed, moved to another part of the church and gave   
   his   
   place to a cardinal. Whereupon, the head of Saint Dominic was seen by all to   
   turn again in John's direction.   
      
   On the death of Clement IV, John of Vercelli was very nearly elected pope.   
   Being   
   warned of the possibility, he fled in fright. However, his good friend   
   Cardinal   
   Visconti, was elected and took the name Gregory X. He appointed John as   
   legate   
   on several different missions.   
      
   He was commissioned by the pope to draw up the Schema for the second   
   ecumenical   
   council of Lyons in 1274-that council to which Saint Thomas Aquinas was   
   hurrying   
   when death found him on the road. At the council John distinguished himself   
   for   
   his assistance by offering to the council the talents of his best men. At   
   the   
   council, he accepted for the Dominican Order the special commission of   
   promoting   
   reverence for the Holy Name of Jesus and fighting blasphemy, which was, in   
   that   
   day as in ours, a prevalent vice. He can thus be considered the founder of   
   the   
   Holy Name Society, even though the Confraternity was not formed until 1432.   
      
   Several precious relics were suitably enshrined by John of Vercelli. These   
   included several thorns from the Crown of Our Lord, which had been given him   
   by   
   Saint Louis of France. The cord of Saint Thomas, with which he had been   
   guided   
   by the angels and which he had worn until death, was given into the care of   
   the   
   master general, who gave it to the convent of Vercelli for safe keeping.   
      
   John's career was rapidly reaching its end. In 1279, he presided over the   
   famous   
   chapter of Paris at which the order made the doctrine of Saint Thomas   
   officially   
   its own. The following year he laid the foundations of the Church of Santa   
   Maria   
   Sopra Minerva. One of his last official acts was to provide for a work on   
   the   
   instruction of novices (Benedictines, Dorcy).   
      
      
   Saint Quote:   
   "For He came to save all through means of Himself-all, I say, who through   
   Him   
   are born again to God-infants, and children, and boys, and youths, and old   
   men."   
   -Irenaeus, Against Heresies,2,22:4 (A.D. 180),   
      
   Bible Quote:   
   Who shall find a valiant woman? far and from the uttermost coasts is the   
   price   
   of her. 11 The heart of her husband trusteth in her, and he shall have no   
   need   
   of spoils. 12 She will render him good, and not evil, all the days of her   
   life.   
   (Proverbs 31:10-12)   
      
      
   <<>><<>><<>>   
   A prayer to the Holy Ghost to be freed from evil habits:   
      
   Give to me, I beseech Thee O Holy Ghost, Giver of all good gifts, that   
   powerful grace which converts the stony hearts of mortals into burning   
   furnaces of Thy love. By Thy grace, free my captive soul from the thraldom   
   of every evil habit and concupiscence, to restore to it the Holy   
   liberty  of the children of God, Give me to taste how sweet it is to serve   
   the Lord and crucify the flesh with its vices and concupiscences. Enlarge   
   my heart that I may ever cheerfully run the way of Thy commandments until I   
   reach the goal of my aspirations: the joy and bliss of Thy habitation in   
   Heaven. Amen.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)