Novena to St Dominic - Day 4
An extract from the testimony of Bro. Buonviso, a witness in the canonization process of our Holy Father St Dominic.
The fourth sworn witness was brother Buonviso of the Order of Preachers. He was with the blessed Dominic, as he says, at Bologna, in the cloister of St. Nicholas, and at Rome and at Milan and he looked after him when he was ill. So he said that when the brethren left the church in the evening to go and rest, the blessed Dominic used to remain secretly in the church to pray, and the witness used to watch him sometimes and heard him praying with shouts and groans. He had no place of his own to lie down; if drowsiness ever overcame him, he would go to sleep on a board or a bench or on the bier they used for the dead. He used to lie down at night exactly as he was, as he had been walking about during the day.
When the blessed Dominic went to Rome with the witness, whenever he left a city or village he always took his shoes off and carried them under his arm, though his companion was quite willing to carry them for him, and when he approached a town or vallage he would put them on again. When they came to a particular path with was full of stones, the blessed father said to his companion, "Here, poor wretch that I am, I was once forced to put my shoes on when I was coming along this path." When his companion asked him why, he said, "Because the rain had made these stones so sharp that I could not bear it." Also on one occasion when it rained very heavily while they were travelling and St. Dominic was caught in it, he quite happily began to sing a hymn; the witness saw this and heard it, because he was travelling with him. When he came to rivers that were swollen because of the heavy rain, he beat them down with the sign of the cross and went over, encouraging his nervous companions to cross too.
0
reviews