This group of facts shows Vernazza’s directness and independence of observation, his initiative and energy, and his courage and respectful liberty of speech, qualities which are all reminiscent of Catherine’s scene with the Friar; the rapidity with which a necessary work, which has been delayed for centuries, and which has required the whole-hearted vigour of a rare personality to call it into being, grows and multiplies, when once it is in existence; and the manner in which the petty, sterilizing ambitions of men can be efficiently checked only by a combination of strength of will, administrative ability, gentle tact and complete disinterestedness,—a combination which again reminds one of Catherine, the successful Rettora.
2. Ettore in Naples.
It will have been after this second visit to Rome that Vernazza first went to Naples. And there again “he formed a Hospital,” in this case “at the risk of his life; for some evil-wishers there wanted to kill him, being unable to bear the idea that a ‘foreigner’ should have anything to do with the affairs of the city (ordinasse quella città). Once the ‘Ave Maria’ had sounded, he did not again issue from his lodging during that day. And yet” even among such untoward circumstances, “he managed not to leave Naples before having, with God’s help, achieved his object,—of providing his much-loved poor with such an institution ready to their hand.”
It was in Naples, too, evidently at the beginning of this very visit, that another generous idea and institution of his first occurred to him, or at least was first put into execution. The whole occurrence reveals a curious mixture of the most divers qualities and, indeed, requires in part to be excused, on the ground of numerous external difficulties which stood in the way of an excellent work, and of the finessing methods evidently deemed, even by good people, to be quite allowable for attaining a good end, in this age of violence, suspicion and intrigue. “A certain Religious, Padre Callisto of Piacenza, was preaching at that time in Naples. Vernazza went to him and said: ‘Father, these Neapolitans are a haughty people, and refuse to bend so low as to found hospitals. But during last night the thought came to me that if a person refuses to mount ten steps—it is still possible to get him to go up fifteen; and when such a person had done the latter, he would find that he had unconsciously mounted the ten as well. Now I cannot discover a more humiliating act than the accompanying of those who have been condemned to death, on their way to execution; and in this city they are led to the gallows with their minds in a state of desperation and without any one to comfort them. Well, then, do this. Preach to the people and tell them that the very first men of Naples have been to see you, with a view to founding a society for escorting these unhappy persons; and say to them: “Let him who cares to enter this society, come to me, to be inscribed on the rolls in a secrecy so complete that even a husband shall be unable to tell his wife.”’ And Padre Callisto, after hearing these words, did, devoted man that he was, his very best, and with such good effect that many went to have themselves inscribed. “But many of those Neapolitan nobles reproved him, saying: ‘Perchance you think yourself still in your Lombardy! We are nobles, and we refuse to form an escort for these culprits.’ And he would answer: ‘If your Lordship does not care to go, do not go. It was the very first men of Naples who sought me out, for the purpose of instituting this society.’ And thus it was actually founded, and indeed became very numerous and much honoured; and those unhappy men received much comfort. And later on, this same society proceeded to found the Hospital.”[317]
There is one repulsive feature in this story. For if the declaration that the very first men of the city had visited the preacher was a statement that damaged no one; which but anticipated what actually occurred soon after; and was the means for the effecting of two works, profoundly useful to all concerned in them and which could not, otherwise, at that time and place, have been carried out at all: yet it was a clear untruth. But all the rest, how admirable it is! Moral, and indeed physical courage; cool-headed, humorous, manly because unflinching, and yet quite uncynical and hopeful, knowledge of the petty perversities of the human heart; and entirely devoted, slow excogitation, concentration of will, and toughly resisting perseverance in a work of the purest philanthropy: all this and much else is visibly present.
3. Ettore’s Will of 1517.
It may well have been after his return from this journey that Vernazza drew up the Will which we still possess, dated 7th November 1517, and which is interesting in several respects.[318] For one thing, he orders his body to be buried in the Church of the SS. Annunziata,—the Hospital Church, and leaves a legacy for Masses “to the Friars of the Annunziata of Genoa.”[319] And he leaves a similar bequest to the Benedictines of San Nicolò in Boschetto. It is clear that he wanted to be buried in the same Hospital Church as Catherine, and had a devotion similar to hers for the Pilgrimage Church upon the hill.
Secondly, there are careful records and provisions concerning his three children. As to his two eldest, Tommasa (Battista) and Catetta (Daniela), he simply looks back and “declares that he gave to his two daughters that are in the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, to them or to the said Monastery, three thousand Genoese pounds from his own property, and two hundred pounds in addition,—(the latter) spent upon their rooms, habits, and other requisites.” And that “these sums are to be counted as taking the place of dowries which would have accrued to them” (in case of marriage). But as to the youngest, Ginevrina, he looks both back and forwards. “The same Testator is well aware that he placed the said Ginevrina in the Monastery of Saint Andrew,[320] that she might grow up with good morals and in the fear of God, since Testator was unable to keep her by him, having very often been obliged, for the transaction of business in favour of the poor and for other charitable works, to proceed to Rome and other places; and that there existed written directions (of his) in the hands of the Nuns, as to Ginevrina being free, in due time and at the proper age, to choose either to serve God (in Religion), or to marry according to the social rank of the Testator.” And he confirms a legacy of £500, already promised by him to Ginevrina “as appears from a certain document signed by the Abbess of the said Monastery of Saint Andrew”: this money being no doubt in addition to another sum already paid by him to the Convent; and the whole is evidently intended to pay for Ginevrina’s keep, if necessary for life, in case she neither entered Religion nor married. “In case of her becoming a Nun and making her Profession in the said Monastery, he leaves her £100, for the adapting and furnishing of one room for her use; nor can these £100 be spent otherwise.” And if she chooses to wed, the Protectors of the Incurables, his Executors and Heirs, “are to marry her to some young man of good reputation and behaviour, apt at managing his own affairs and at earning money,—all this as perfectly as possible, according to the judgment of the said Protectors.” If she thus marries with their consent, she is to have £3,000 for her dowry; but if she marries without it, she is to have only £1,500.
Here we note Ettore’s high esteem for business capabilities: they are to be required of his possible son-in-law, as one of the conditions for gaining the full dowry; and the curiously unmodern certainty with which he assumes that his still quite young daughter will desire, should she become a Nun, to do so at Sant’ Andrea, and, should she neither wed nor enter Religion, is sure to care to live on for life in this one convent. As a matter of fact Ginevrina, who was evidently very happy at Sant’ Andrea, took the veil there, still during her father’s lifetime, hence within seven years of this date, as Sister Maria Archangela.[321]
And thirdly, we get the striking provision that “any member of the Society of Priests and Laymen” who administer the Hospital for Incurables, “shall have the use of the furniture of the Testator (there remaining), on condition that such member live in this Hospital or in that of the Pammatone (hard by), and not otherwise.” He thus comes back here, once again, to one of the deepest convictions of his life: that only by actually living amongst and with the poor, poor yourself; only by doing the work which the right hand finds to do, with such might and thoroughness that both hands, indeed the whole man, body and soul, are drawn into, and are, as it were, coloured by it: that only by such fraternal-paternal sympathetic identification with its object can such service really rise above the dreary perfunctoriness and the ghastly optimism of mere officialism, and have the fruitfulness begotten only by life directly touching life. And here Catherine’s spirit and example, her long life in the very midst of the great Hospital close at hand, are once more fully apparent.