Saint Anthony Mary Zaccaria, physician of bodies and souls

Summary:

Anthony Mary Zaccaria was born in Cremona, Italy (Lombardy, Duchy of Milan) in 1502, into a loving and pious family. A few months after his birth, his father Lazzaro died unexpectedly. His wife, Antonia Pescaroli, aged 18, did not need to work to support herself and her young son. Several men wanted to marry her, but she preferred to be a loving and dedicated mother and to bring up her son by herself.

She instilled in Anthony a steadfast faith and an immense love for the poor. A lover of prayer and the liturgy, the young boy met many of the city's poor, to whom Antonia gave constant help. Anthony attended religious services without showing impatience or signs of fatigue. He became an altar server and set up a small altar in a corner of his mother's house, decorating it to his liking. The family servant would sometimes agree to "hear his mass" as the boy pretended to offer the holy sacrifice.

The child's intelligence delighted those around him. At the age of 18, in agreement with his mother, he decided to study medicine. He first went to Pavia to study philosophy, then to Padua, where he studied medicine. As a student, Anthony raised some curiosity and mockery among his peers, for going to daily Mass, studying hard, practicing asceticism and frugality, going to regular confession, etc.. He was derided as a "devout". But after a few months, without being "preachy" or moralizing, Anthony managed to convert his friends, including the ones most opposed to religion.

In 1524, he became a doctor of medicine. He returned to his home town where he practised for three years. The accounts we have of his practice as a young doctor all show him to be gentle, considerate and attentive to the suffering of others. Some saw him spending long periods with the destitute and giving them free medical care.

His confessor, a Dominican priest, realised that the young doctor aspired to something different. "God is no longer calling you to heal bodies," he told him one day, "it is to the salvation of souls that you must work." Anthony reflected on it, prayed, and then recognized this call to be from God. He acquired books on theology, exegesis and patristics. Working on these subjects late into the night, and continuing his medical work during the day, he still found time to spend long periods at the Cremona hospital to help the sick, to teach religion to street children, to gather together the young nobles of the city in the church of Saint Vital to talk to them about spiritual topics, etc. Those around him could not understand how he found the time and energy to accomplish so many things, and how his health never failed.

Antohony was ordained in 1528. He wanted to celebrate his first Mass alone, in quiet contemplation. But from that time on, his fame attracted many curious onlookers. Many witnesses gathered around him on the day. At the moment of consecration, a brilliant light suddenly enveloped the altar and the future saint. In the midst of this light, a "multitude of angels" formed a circle around the host that had just been consecrated. All bowed respectfully and remained in an attitude of adoration until the end of communion.

This miracle, recorded by dozens of witnesses and perfectly consistent with the Church's doctrinal teaching, made Anthony one of Cremona's most famous citizen, a popularity he never sought and which earned him the nicknames of "God's angel" and "the angelic man". In fact, Anthony's zeal is inexplicable in human terms: he would untiredly celebrate masses, pray the liturgy of the hours, teach catechism, preach and give lectures in the parish of Saint Vital, caring for the poor and the prisoners of Cremona... His days and nights gave him little rest, but he never complained of being tired. His heart, people thought, had become "an asylum of compassion", just as his house had become the "refuge of the poor".

At the end of 1530, he travelled to Milan, where his preaching was just as popular. There he met two young nobles, Bartolomeo Ferrari and Giacomo Antonio Morigia, and invited them to join him in his evangelization. They were soon joined by two priests from Milan: this was the original nucleus of what was to become the Congregation of Clerics Regular of Saint Paul (later known as the Barnabites).

Under the leadership of Anthony Mary Zaccaria, the small group visited the neighbourhoods of Milan, practising charity, converting souls and providing for the needy. Moved by their example, a number of residents asked to join the group. In view of this success, the saint drew up a rule of life for the members and contacted Rome for approval. A brief from Pope Clement VII, dated February 18, 1533, recognized the existence of the new congregation, whose aim was to bring back to God not only the poor, but all social categories and walks of life (clerics and laity), by giving priority to Eucharistic devotion and the teachings of Saint Paul.

To this end, the saint began giving a series of spiritual conferences for priests. For the laity, he founded the Congregation of the Married, whose priority objectives were to return to, or intensify, religious practice in conjunction with charity towards the poor. Finally, in 1534, he instituted a branch for women: the Angelic Sisters of Saint Paul, entrusted with the education and care of poor young girls. These nuns were in turn approved by Pope Paul III on January 15, 1535. Saint Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, definitively established their constitutions.

These achievements should not obscure what was essential for Anthony, namely Jesus. Concerned about ignorance and the lack of respect for the Blessed Sacrament, he established a new devotion in the church of St Catherine in Milan, which was soon extended to all the city's parishes and then to the entire Catholic world: the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament for forty hours, in remembrance of the time during which Jesus remained in the tomb. It was a success from the end of 1534.

But his detractors denounced the practices of the new congregation to the archbishop of Milan and to Rome, accusing the saint of introducing dubious innovations into the Church and of being crazy and hypocritical. The saint called his religious together and told them: "Saint Paul, our guide and teacher, said that we are fools for the love of Jesus Christ. So we don't need to be surprised or fearful if we now find ourselves in various snares set by the devil or slandered by the wicked. The disciple is not above the master [...]. Far from hating those who persecute us, we should rather pity them, love them, pray for them, not allow ourselves to be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."

Shortly afterwards, Anthony asked Pope Paul III for confirmation of his order. His response was definitive: his bull of July 24, 1535, renewed the approval given by his predecessor and placed the Clerics Regular of Saint Paul under the direct authority of the Holy See. In 1537, the congregation was established in Vicenza, Italy (Veneto) at the request of the diocesan authorities. This was the first expansion of the Barnabites.

Witnesses of the time recount a number of remarkable and miraculous events. One day, Anthony came across a group of noisy young people, who were probably drunk and calling on passers-by. He approached the oldest of them, looked at him and made the sign of the cross on his forehead without saying anything. A few days later, the stranger asked to be admitted to the Barnabites.

On another occasion, during a visit to Guastalla, near Milan, the founder was walking along the banks of the River Po when he saw an adolescent coming towards him. He greeted him, looked at him fixedly and said: "I would like you, my son, to think about the salvation of your soul. Nothing is more fragile than human life. My heart tells me that God will call you to himself much sooner than you think." The young man, who was in perfect health, didn't understand what he meant, but, struck by the saint's extraordinary charisma, he knelt at his feet and confessed his sins to him with "sincere repentance". The next day, the boy died in an accident.

At the age of 36, Antonio Maria was exhausted from so much activity. Anticipating his imminent death, he asked his brothers: "Take me to Cremona. Before the end of the octave of the holy apostles, I must leave this world, and I want to hand my soul over to my Creator in the same place where I received life." When he reached his home town, he predicted the exact date of his mother's death: "Ah! My good mother, stop weeping, for soon you will enjoy with me that eternal glory into which I now hope to enter." Antonia Zaccaria died shortly after her son.

Witnesses report that the saint received the last rites with great joy. When the viaticum was brought to him, his face took on a "radiant expression that he kept until death". God called him back to himself on Saturday, July 5, 1539.

His funeral was held in Cremona. He was buried in the cemetery of the convent of the Sisters of Saint Paul. Seventeen years later, his remains were found incorrupt. They were then transferred to the monastery of San Paolo delle Suore Angeliche in Milan, before being moved to the church of Saint Barnabas in 1891.

As soon as his death was announced, public veneration began. Faced with such public demonstrations, Urban VIII demanded that they cease in 1636. The Barnabites immediately obeyed. The introduction of his cause was signed by Pius VII in 1807. On February 2, 1849, Pius IX promulgated the decree of the heroicity of his virtues and, on January 3, 1890, his successor Leo XIII granted the Barnabites the reinstatement of the veneration of their founder, which was equivalent to a beatification. The following year, the cause for canonisation was relaunched.

Anthony Mary Zaccaria was raised to the altars on May 27, 1897. On the following December 7, Leo XIII extended his feast to the universal Church.

Countless people, clerics, religious, lay people and even non-believers paid tribute to Anthony Mary Zaccaria and his incredible devotion to the poorest of the poor. In the 19th century, Dom Prosper Guéranger said of him that, after Cajetan of Thiene and before Ignatius of Loyola, he was "the father of a religious family called to repair the ruins of the house of God [...], the precursor of Saint Charles Borromeo."

Beyond reasons to believe:

Even if we subtract the many inexplicable phenomena from Anthony Mary Zaccaria's life, the superhuman scope of his charity would continue to challenge our reason.

Going further:

Igniting the Flame of Faith: St. Anthony Mary Zaccaria (1502-1539) by Angelo Montonati (Leonine Publishers, 2015 - Foreword by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger)

More information:

• Barnabites official website 
• Audience of Pope John Paul II to the members of the General Chapter of the Clerics Regular of St Paul (Barnabites), July 8, 2000, available online.