Italian Yesterdays, vol. 1

by Mrs. Hugh Fraser

But it was not fated to be so; her foe had only changed his tactics, and now, although still capable of constant interior acts of devotion, the hitherto gentle girl began, to the amazement of all who knew her, to show herself undocile, rough of speech, and extremely resentful of the Signora Bellini’s unkindness to her. This new development, which was altogether contrary to her own inclinations, only brought upon her the increased anger and dislike of her father, who, together with his wife, proceeded to treat her so harshly as to bring her more than once to the verge of the grave. Beaten, starved, and neglected, the friendless child knew not where to find refuge from her misery save only in God, to whom she had completely given herself.

She was now seven years old, timid and crushed by suffering, but with her heart full of charity and faith; nevertheless, her father, being tempted by the father of lies, fell into the belief that Lucrezia, in revenge for his cruelty to her, was minded to poison him—and so he resolved to murder her. From this intention, however, the tempter, having no mind presumably that Lucrezia should be killed and pass in all her innocence to a better world—dissuaded Bellini, so that he changed his mind and sent her instead to the Convent of San Prosdocimo, in the city of Padua, there to finish her education.

Now, during the latter half of the Fifteenth Century, in Italy it was not unusual to find convents of religious orders in which the strict practice of the rules laid down centuries earlier for their guidance by the holy founders of those same orders had become in the course of time somewhat relaxed. The Rule—the very backbone, so to speak, of a religious community—had grown, through long, indulgent gentleness on the part of Superiors, so mild as to be no longer suitable to the special necessities of the enclosed life; there was too much intercourse allowed with the outer world, the affairs and interests of which had come in consequence to occupy too large a part in the thoughts and natural sympathies of those called by their vocation to lead the higher spiritual existence of the cloister. And so we find that many bishops and abbots and abbesses devoted themselves particularly to the task of bringing back their “houses” to the close observance of their various original “Rules”—Franciscan, Dominican, Benedictine, and others.

The convent of San Prosdocimo belonged to the Benedictines, but, unhappily, it was one of those houses that had fallen into slackness, and into which had crept the habit of worldly conversation and of carelessness in regard to the strict observance of the regulations, imposed by their most illustrious father and founder, for the guidance of his spiritual children.

It was, then, to the care of the somewhat relaxed sisterhood of San Prosdocimo that Lucrezia was committed by her father; and, within a short time of her entry as a pupil into the convent, although the youngest of its occupants in years, she showed herself far the ripest in all goodness, the best balanced, and the most intelligent.

Of a cheerful temperament, a lively and captivating personality, Lucrezia was never frivolous or superficial; but, preserving her habitual state of recollection in calm and solitude, her life was one continual prayer. For her patrons she chose three—the Mother of God, Saint Jerome, and Saint Luke the evangelist.

Nine years the girl lived thus without being more than very slightly troubled by the evil spirit who sought her destruction; until the year 1460, when the death of the Abbess brought about great changes in the convent. Upon that event Monsignor Zenoni, who had succeeded Monsignor Donato as Bishop of Padua, considered that the time was come to introduce a more strict administration in the convent and to revive among its inmates the spirit of Saint Benedict. With this object he forbade the nuns to elect their next Superior from among their number until the reformations that he considered necessary should have been brought about in their community. The nuns, though, dismayed by the uncompromising words “reform” and “strict observance,” took fright at Monsignor Zenoni’s salutary projects and transferred themselves in a body with their pupils to another house of the order.

The only one of all the convent’s inmates to accept the Bishop’s ordinance and to remain faithful to her post was the sixteen-year-old Lucrezia; abandoned by her superiors and companions, Lucrezia kept watch and ward alone in the deserted building until the Bishop sent over to join her a body of sisters from the convent of Santa Maria della Misericordia, appointing Donna Giustina Lazzara, a noble lady of Padua, to be their Abbess. With the coming of Donna Giustina and her companions, the primitive practice and regular observance of Saint Benedict’s Rule became again the life of the house of San Prosdocimo.

Lucrezia’s whole being rejoiced exceedingly in the new order of things in the convent and she determined to become, if possible, a nun and a sister in religion of those about her. When she confided her desire to them, however, she met with no encouragement; the truth was that, although they had no fault to find with her personally, yet knowing her history and that of her parents and seeing that she had been brought up hitherto under the influence of more or less careless elders, the nuns could not help feeling rather doubtful of Lucrezia’s fitness for the religious life. Her very piety they were inclined to consider merely superficial, and possibly a trifle simulated in one as yet untried by discipline. At first even Donna Giustina was drawn to this opinion; but, on reflection, she came to the conclusion that, after all, such prejudices might well constitute a grave injustice, and, remembering how Lucrezia had remained in the convent when the others had fled, she at length consented to accept her as a postulant for the stupendous honour of a bride of Christ. And so, to the dissatisfaction of her companions, Lucrezia was invested with the habit of their order, January 15, 1461; in honour of her patron, Saint Jerome, she took the name of Eustochia, the daughter of Saint Paula and the pupil of Saint Jerome. The ceremony, however, was marked for Lucrezia by an untoward incident which served to create a further unfavourable impression towards her on the part of the other nuns; for, as the priest was giving her the Communion, the Sacred Host slipped from his fingers and fell to the ground, an accident which they chose to regard as a mark of the Divine displeasure towards her.

From the day of her thus taking the veil, the real martyrdom of Eustochia began. Until then, since her entry into the convent, her sufferings at the hands of the Adversary had been comparatively light and she had been able to conceal his attacks upon her. But now his possession of her became more malignantly active, manifesting itself by controlling her movements so as to make her commit some slight exterior fault of deportment against the Rule, so that her companions, witnesses of Eustochia’s small breach of discipline, were more than ever confirmed in the opinion that she was a hypocrite. By degrees this feeling increased among them until it arrived at the point of her being shunned by them as a moral leper.