Chapter Two
Fray Leopoldo and the Church
The existence of a formal vita , or Life, of Fray Leopoldo, which was authored by a Capuchin and actively disseminated by the order, has had a profound, if often indirect, impact on the orally transmitted stories on which its author claims to have based his text.[1] The Life, however, can in no way be assumed to represent the views of the ecclesiastical establishment as a whole. The Granada religious establishment has an array of opinions about the friar, views that I shall address in the initial part of this chapter. I then turn to the narrative strategies used by the friar's biographer to bolster his conception of Fray Leopoldo as the embodiment of timeless values. As a literary construction, the Life both relies on and departs from older hagiographical models—above all, the Fioretti (or Little Flowers ) of Saint Francis—but it is also the reflection of a particular individual and a specific time and place.
The Politics of Canonization: Fray Leopoldo and the Granada Church
For nearly two thousand years the Roman Catholic Church has singled out a very few of the faithful as saints.[2] It is thought that their virtuous lives imbue them with posthumous thaumaturgic or intercessory powers. In recent years Catholic theologians have argued about whether the
[1] The author emphasizes his debt to the oral tradition on numerous occasions. See, for example, pp. 202-3 in Fray Angel de Léon, Mendigo pot Dios .
[2] I am grateful to both David Alvarez and Brother Ronald Isetti for a careful reading of this section, and for various bibliographical references and thoughtful observations. For a comparative discussion of the conception of sanctity see Kieckhefer and Bond, eds., Sainthood . The evolution of the cult of the saints in early European Catholicism is discussed by Brown in Cult of the Saints .
actions of holy figures, in order to qualify as miracles, must clearly transcend natural laws.[3] Despite this speculation, the church's official position is that saints have the power to aid those who seek their intervention.
Until well into the Middle Ages canonization was a largely informal process involving many local as well as regional or national constituencies. As a result, the criteria for selection varied widely. Over time, however, Rome came to assume an ever more central role in articulating and enforcing guidelines governing official declarations of sanctity.[4] The Gregorian Reforms of the first half of the thirteenth century confirmed the pontiff's supreme authority in all matters regarding canonization. The Immensa aeterni Dei promulgated by Sixtus V in 1588 codified the steps to be taken in the official recognition of a saint. These rules became available in printed form a half-century later under Urban VIII.[5]
The increased time, effort, and expense involved in official canonization proceedings do much to explain why a disproportionate number of saints from the late Middle Ages onward were members and often founders of religious orders.[6] But partisan backing did not always guarantee a positive outcome and might actually work against the candidate by exciting the animosity of rival interest groups.[7] Moreover, if the individual in question did not already enjoy considerable support among the lay population, his or her sponsors often had difficulty producing the requisite proofs of posthumous thaumaturgic action.
A certain degree of generalized enthusiasm for a candidate is useful and even necessary in achieving a successful outcome, but it is definitely not sufficient grounds for canonization. (John XXIII is a case in point: his candidacy for sainthood is an extremely popular cause that has garnered scant support at the highest levels.) In the canonization process,
[3] For an exposition of the official position see Douillet, What Is a Saint? The special issue of the Revue d'Histoire de la spiritualité 48 (1972) entitled La Fonction du miracle dans la spiritualité chrétienne conveys an idea of the ongoing debate about the relationship between sanctity and the supernatural.
[4] For a discussion of the canonization process in the late medieval period see Vauchez, La Saintété en Occident aux derniers siècles du Moyen Age . For changing conceptions of sanctity among different groups of people see a number of the chapters in Trinkhaus, ed., Pursuit of Holiness , and Obelkevich, ed., Religion and the People .
[5] An account of the legal and institutional aspects of the history of formal canonization is available in Kemp, Canonization and Authority in the Western Church . The latest revision of the canonization process is represented by the apostolic constitution, Divinus Perfectionis Magister , which simplifies and somewhat decentralizes the early stages of the process.
[6] The identity of successful candidates for canonization is discussed at length in Weinstein and Bell, Saints and Society . See also Delooz, Sociologie et canonisation , and "Towards a Sociological Study of Canonized Sainthood in the Catholic Church."
[7] See Geary, "Humiliation of Saints."
what matters is not what people are saying, but what the directors of the process choose to emphasize in the customarily massive collection of reports, anecdotes, and legends. Because canonizations are powerful symbols of the direction in which a pope wishes the church as an institution to move, only a handful of candidacies are chosen from the thousands proposed.[8]
The Vatican may use a cause to make an explicit political point, as in the case of Joan of Arc, whose canonization signaled the reconciliation of church and state in France's Third Republic.[9] It may also seek to reinforce a particular theological position by elevating a model of celibacy, obedience, or orthodoxy or to encourage a local church (the Philippines, Korea, and Zaire are recent illustrations). Religious orders may energetically support a cause in the hope of improving morale and enhancing recruitment, as well as to defend or define an institutional tradition.[10]
The case of Fray Leopoldo offers an excellent present-day example of an individual championed by a particular order—in this instance, the Capuchins—who is at the same time acceptable to many in the religious establishment and lay population alike. Yet if the archbishop of Granada's public support for Fray Leopoldo's cause reflects first and foremost a desire to reach out to the laity, it also underscores political realities within the local ecclesiastical community. (As the friar completed the diocesan stage of the canonization process only in 1984, the Vatican's position on his candidacy is not yet clear.)
In the preceding chapter I refer to younger members of the clergy who became active during the 1960s in both Catholic workers' groups and grass-roots parish organizations. With time, the desire for more sweeping social changes led some of these individuals to branch out beyond strictly religious associations and to ally themselves with political movements with no religious affiliation. This direct involvement in secular affairs displeased a number of generally older and more traditional members of the clergy, who looked askance at their colleagues' some-
[8] Some popes, to be sure, are quicker to canonize than others. Pope John Paul II, for instance, has declared canonized and beatified more individuals than all of the other popes of the twentieth century combined.
[9] On the canonization of Joan of Arc as political reconciliation see Hebblethwaite, In the Vatican , p. 114.
[10] These more practical considerations are in no way a new development. For a discussion of the canonization strategies of the mendicant orders and the Franciscans in particular during the Middle Ages see Goodich, Vita Perfecta , pp. 159-68.
One should note, however, that the recent addition of saints to the rosters has not necessarily improved morale. This is because most of the men and women proposed for canonization lived before Vatican II, in a period when the "blind obedience" and "exacting regularity" repudiated by the council were often taken as the twin pillars of the religious life.
times blatantly Marxist rhetoric. Their opponents pointed to the church's longtime support for Franco, but traditional clergy dismissed this as an invidious comparison and declared themselves opposed on doctrinal grounds to political participation by priests and members of religious orders.[11]
In Granada, growing friction between a significant minority of socially committed priests—many of whom had specifically requested working-class parishes—and their often vocal critics had become unmistakable by the time of Franco's death. In 1977 a group of the former decided to prepare an informal report on religious practice in the City and Province of Granada for the newly appointed archbishop, Monsignor José Méndez Asensio, who they hoped might prove more sympathetic to their viewpoint than his extremely conservative predecessor. The resulting mimeographed pamphlet outlined the region's pressing socioeconomic problems, urging the church leaders to play a more active role in their solution.[12]
The report also attacked a number of popular religious practices within Granada. Singling out the devotion to Fray Leopoldo as the most egregious among a number of "pernicious superstitions," its authors accused those members of the religious establishment sympathetic to the devotion of "fomenting miracle-ism" and "atrophying the faith."[13]
The new prelate greeted the widely disseminated report with neither approval nor disapproval. A good portion of the local clergy, however, reacted angrily to the writers' specific criticisms as well as to what some saw as the report's self-righteous tone. A number went so far as to denounce the authors as political agitators masquerading as priests. One of the most active "troublemakers," Padre José Antonio Moreno Rodríguez of the San Ildefonso parish, had spent some years in Cuba. His experience there, coupled with his open support of leftist candidates for public office in Granada, led his critics to accuse him of harboring Communist sympathies. They therefore began pressuring the archbishop to remove him from the public eye. When Méndez Asensio did not actively defend Moreno Rodríguez from his attackers, the priest's supporters accused the hierarchy of political expediency.
[11] For an overview of these tensions see Payne, Spanish Catholicism , pp. 192-227.
[12] See "Informe sobre la diócesis para el nuevo obispo." The authors are identified as "un grupo de sacerdotes de Granada" (a group of Granada's priests). Although specifically directed to Méndez Asensio, the report was clearly conceived as a broader public opinion tool.
[13] "Informe," p. 12. On the same page, the devotion to Fray Leopoldo is described as an "interesada promoción" (self-interested promotion) and "foco de desviación de la re" (focal point of deviation from the faith).
Tensions between these opposing factions continued to mount for almost seven years. Finally, in March 1984 the forced cancelation of a scheduled public meeting by the Christian base communities prompted a bitter demonstration against the church hierarchy.[14] Moreno Rodríguez's involvement in this defiant gesture led Méndez Asensio to remove him from his post. The parishioners of San Ildefonso responded to the archbishop's decision by marching from their church toward the center of the city. When the group confronted Méndez Asensio in the cathedral, he suggested that its members meet with him next day at the episcopal residence. Unhappy with this response, the demonstrators followed the archbishop down the street until he disappeared into an acquaintance's car. The regional church-affiliated newspaper, El Ideal , gave the event wide publicity, and expressions of protest continued for a number of days.[15] The archbishop, however, remained adamant in his decision, giving Moreno Rodríguez no choice but to accept his new position or resign from the clergy. The priest's enemies hailed his departure as a victory for moderation. His supporters decried it as decisive proof of the church leadership's resistance to much-needed change.
This synopsis, while greatly simplified, suggests the extent to which reactions of individual clergy to Fray Leopoldo must be understood as part of a far larger debate regarding the church's role within contemporary Spanish society. Conservatives reacted with such energy to the charges of abuses, including the devotion, because they saw these as a personal assault. Their analysis was correct to the extent that those who assailed the devotion did so with an energy they would almost certainly not have mustered were it focused on a politically active figure—such as E1 Salvador's openly reformist Archbishop Oscar Arnulfo Romero, assassinated in 1980—and not a self-effacing member of a historically conservative religious order.[16]
"Fray Leopoldo," Moreno Rodríguez observed in a tape-recorded conversation with me several days before the announcement of his transfer, "was probably a good person who knew how to listen—a talent
[14] One might surmise that this cancelation was linked to the expected celebration in the cathedral the same day of a mass in honor of Saint Joseph, conducted by the archbishop with various other priests, as well as to various other solemnities surrounding the Day of the Seminarian (18 March) and the ordination of a new deacon.
[15] See "Granada: feligreses de San Ildefonso increparon al arzobispo por el traslado de su párroco," pp. 1 and 14. Further details appear in "Asamblea de vecinos de S. Ildefonso contra el traslado de su párroco," pp. 1 and 20. In both cases, the newspaper, which is linked to the ecclesiastical establishment, ran separate, adulatory articles about the mass and the archbishop.
[16] I witnessed various street murals favorably depicting Romero and supporting revolutionary movements in Central America during my fieldwork in 1984 and again in 1986.
not all that common in any age."[17] He emphasized that his disapproval of the devotion had little or nothing to do with the friar's personal qualities ("Fray Leopoldo could, perhaps, have tried to make people more aware of their situation, but at least he tried to help other human beings," he affirmed). Rather, explained Moreno Rodríguez, he and his group objected to their fellow clerics' willingness to accede to, when not to actively exploit, their parishioners' propensity to seek supernatural solutions to the problems of daily life. "The church's role," he asserted, "is to teach, not to purposely misguide the faithful for its own benefit. And for this reason I feel that the Capuchins and all those who support them are doing a great disservice to those whom it is their duty to help."
Moreno Rodríguez went on to denounce the veneration of the friar as an overtly commercial operation. "You have probably seen how hundreds upon hundreds of people flock to the crypt to leave money in the hope of a miracle," he said, asking:
What better opportunity to explain to them that all power comes from God? But, no, instead of using this occasion to insist that a person is responsible for his own life, that we all must work as well as pray to achieve the things we want for ourselves and our families, the church encourages such escapist behavior in the expectation of financial gain. And this is what I call a scandal.
The priest concluded by expressing his opposition to the canonization proceedings. "I consider them a mockery," he declared point-blank.
Although there is no formal measure of the Granada religious establishment's views on Fray Leopoldo, one would expect to find a range of beliefs and practices today, even more than in the past. It is certainly possible that some clerics actively promote the devotion to the friar. My own exchanges with priests, nuns, and members of religious orders, however, did not reveal this sort of active involvement.[18] In fact, my overriding impression was one of coolness. Various older individuals remembered the historical Fray Leopoldo with respect, but they expressed little interest, let alone belief in, reports of miraculous powers. Other
[17] Interview, José Moreno Rodríguez, Granada, 14 March 1984. All quotations are from this tape-recorded conversation. English translations are my own.
[18] I interviewed approximately three-dozen priests, nuns, and members of religious orders. The group included both older, sometimes extremely conservative individuals and a number of their younger, generally more liberal counterparts. Although I made a conscious effort to speak with a range of persons, there may indeed be viewpoints which I did not encounter.
generally younger and more socially active clerics, including several Capuchins, were clearly uncomfortable about the "fanaticism" surrounding the friar. None of these individuals had ever visited the crypt, and given their emphasis on this-world ethics and communal solutions to practical problems, I found it hard to imagine them encouraging their parishioners to venerate Fray Leopoldo, or indeed any official saint.
A significant percentage of the individuals with whom I spoke, including a number of the Capuchins, did evince a certain pragmatism in regard to the friar, which Moreno Rodríguez and his colleagues would probably object to as outright support. For many, the devotion was a fact of life. "Frankly," one young priest says, "I do not share my parishioners' feelings for Fray Leopoldo. But what good would it do for me to say this to them? They would lose confidence in me, not him! Furthermore, in my opinion the devotion does less harm than the arrogance of those who in the name of progress rush to tell the people what they can and cannot believe."[19]
Asked if detractors might not find his stance an example of the sort of official condonement of the "devotionalism" and paraliturgical practices criticized by Vatican II, the speaker demurs. "The same council," he asserts, "made a point of recognizing the validity of the spirit, if not necessarily the form of popular religious manifestations." It is worth noting in this connection that several of the parish priests least enthusiastic about Fray Leopoldo nonetheless underscored the church's obligation to treat such expressions with respect ("it is not every friar that people insist on seeing as a saint," one of the otherwise most critical observed).[20]
The apparent tolerance (or resignation, depending on one's perspective) manifested by a sizable and diverse segment of the Granada clergy and religious orders toward the Fray Leopoldo devotion has undoubtedly influenced the archbishop. For Méndez Asensio, as for a number of his fellows, the friar is a personal memory.[21] The archbishop spent his years as a student in Granada and recalls seeing Fray Leopoldo on numerous occasions in the city streets. In addition, Méndez Asensio's mother, who lived in the countryside, was a firm believer in Fray Leopoldo and invariably stopped by the Capuchin church to ask his blessing whenever
[19] Man, age twenty-seven, born Valencia, seminary education. Single, diocesan priest, attends mass regularly.
[20] Man, age sixty-one, born Granada province, seminary. Single, diocesan priest, attends mass regularly.
[21] I am grateful to the archbishop for granting me an interview on 29 June 1984 in his official residence in Granada. All quotations, unless otherwise noted, are from this tape-recorded conversation. Translations into English are my own.
she came to town. So although the archbishop's opinon of Fray Leopoldo is decidedly very different from that of his mother, the recollection of her faith would make it difficult for him to ignore or dismiss the loyalty that the friar inspires among a segment of the lay population.
Méndez Asensio appears well aware of the friar's symbolic potential. The homily he delivered at the mass commemorating the close of the diocesan, or Cognicionale , stage of the canonization proceedings in June 1984 begins with a reference to the continuing relevance of spiritual attributes he sees embodied in the friar.[22] Fray Leopoldo's life "of simplicity, of mercy, of kindness" underscores the vitality of the Christian ideal whose ultimate guardian is the church. "The saint in modern times," asserts Méndez Asensio, "is an individual who is speaking to all men of the possibilities of achievement and of greatness which they too possess if they follow in the path of goodness." Clearly, for the archbishop, this "path of goodness" (el camino del Bien) is none other than that set of beliefs and practices that constitutes Roman Catholic dogma.
Méndez Asensio's emphasis on enduring values does not lead him to negate the friar's particular historical identity. On the contrary, he calls attention to the close association between him and the recent past. "Fray Leopoldo," he declares in the homily, "does not belong to the Middle Ages, he is not a Franciscan of that epoch or even of the last century. He is . . . of our own century, of this very Granada, of our own place and our own era." The archbishop is quick to draw attention to the friar's exemplary actions during what he delicately describes as "a time of troubles." While admitting that errors may have been committed by "even the best-intentioned" during the civil war, Méndez Asensio hails Fray Leopoldo as "a breath of fresh, young air" (un aire fresco y joven). According to him, the friar offers proof of the church's capacity for adaptation and renewal—its "unequivocal modernity."
The homily pointedly identifies the canonization effort as a joint enterprise of the Catholic hierarchy and the lay population. While reminding his listeners that it is Rome that renders final judgment on all questions regarding sanctity, the archbishop underscores the diocese's full support for the friar and thus the receptivity of the local religious establishment to the feelings and opinions of the community. "When the church calls you together to this Eucharistic celebration this morning," he says, "it does not claim that Fray Leopoldo is a saint. We do not celebrate Saint Leopoldo, but we nonetheless take pleasure in offering a
[22] The text of this homily appears in El Ideal , 10 June 1984, p. 15. There are minor differences between it and the spoken version (which I tape-recorded), delivered in the city cathedral by Méndez Asensio the day before. I have relied on the printed version in this discussion. English translations are once again my own.
mass in Fray Leopoldo's honor. Because testimony from this Granada will appear before the Holy Father so that he sees all that Granada thinks, says, and feels about this humble friar. " (my italics).
The archbishop's repeated stress on Fray Leopoldo's spiritual attributes contrasts with his conspicuous silence vis-à-vis the friar's reputedly miraculous powers. Méndez Asensio explains in private conversation that as the requisite authorities have not yet rendered their verdict on the testimony collected in Granada, he finds it inappropriate to express his own opinion at this point. His unwillingness to weaken the church's position by dividing the clergy almost certainly would encourage restraint in this regard. He is equally reluctant to risk alienating the friar's devotees by taking a stand on miracles, an issue the next two chapters will show to be highly controversial. His own seeming propensity to see the saints primarily as earthly models rather than as heavenly intercessors is almost certainly another likely motive for his concentration on the more concrete, didactic aspects of the Fray Leopoldo case.
Asked specifically about the charges of "miracle-ism" voiced by critics of the devotion, the archbishop replies that some visitors to the crypt "probably make the error of believing they can pay God for his favors." He insists, however, that this sort of misconception has little if any effect on Fray Leopoldo's value as a paradigm of the Christian life. Indeed, he argues, the church's role has always been "to channel" and "to purify" spontaneous outpourings of "the people's simple faith" (Es que cabe a la iglesia canalizar, purificar esta fe sencilla del pueblo cristiano).
In answer to the question of whether the friar would exert the same sort of appeal today as he did during his lifetime, Méndez Asensio observes diplomatically that "every epoch has its own expression" and that Fray Leopoldo must therefore be understood as a reflection of an earlier Granada. He adds that there is clearly more interest in the friar among older adults who knew him than among their children, who are now seeking their "own models, different models, for the present." "I find this completely normal," he continues. "Why should the young look to the past when the world is always changing, always new?"
Asked directly what he thinks about the miracles attributed to the friar by some individuals, the archbishop is equally circumspect. "These things are very complicated," he observes. "I say to you sincerely that they have no easy answer."
Fray Leopoldo and the Life
The friar's exemplary qualities occupy a similarly central role in the formal Life prepared and disseminated by the Capuchins.[23] Whereas
[23] Fray Angel de León, Mendigo por Dios .
Méndez Asensio stresses the personal attributes and practical achievements that made the friar a fitting model for his era, the Life focuses on the unchanging spiritual qualities he embodies. Its marked concern for miracles and the miraculous and its insistence on Fray Leopoldo as representative of not just Christian, but rather specifically Franciscan, values suggest a different perspective and different purposes from those expressed in the archbishop's homily.
The Capuchins are an autonomous yet integral branch of the Order of Friars Minor ("Little Brothers") founded by Saint Francis of Assisi in 1209; they have long been known as preachers and missionaries.[24] Though one of the smaller religious communities within Spain (the Jesuits rank first with almost four thousand members; the Capuchins twelfth with only a thousand), the order as a whole has been quite effective in gaining recognition for its members.[25] The great majority of successful candidates have been from either Italy or Spain.
Like many other religious orders during the last few decades, the Capuchins have experienced both external and internal pressures to change. At the order's General Chapter in 1985 the pope explicitly charged the friars to abandon recent nontraditional practices and ideas that have ostensibly diverted some of their number from their "authentic" Franciscan heritage. Although the movement to canonize Fray Leopoldo predates this official communication, one can see the Life and related publications as the Capuchins' response to larger pressures, which the pope's directive underscores.[26]
The author of the Life and principal director (vice-postulator) of the canonization effort in Granada was Fray Angel de León (1920-1984). Undaunted by a heart attack in 1978 Fray Angel continued to treat Fray Leopoldo's cause as a full-time job. He might, for instance, talk about the friar on a local radio station in the morning, receive a visitor from Valencia wanting to report a case of miraculous intervention in the afternoon, and oversee a special program at the Fray Leopoldo Home for the Elderly before going on to work on next Sunday's sermon. An
[24] For a general history of the Capuchin order in Spain see González Caballero, Los capuchinos en la Península Ibérica .
[25] These statistics are from the Guía de las comunidades religiosas masculinas de España , published in 1984 by CONFER (Conferencia Española de Religiosos), as reported in the monarchist daily ABC (Madrid), 9 June 1984, p. 45.
[26] The sense of generalized crisis within the religious orders is effectively conveyed in Nebreda, O renacer o morir .
For a discussion of the pope's communication see Granfield, Limits of the Papacy , p. 19. The letter insists that Franciscanism is an "established way of life" and not a "movement open to new options continually substituted by others in the insistent search for an identity, as if this identity had not been found."
unpublished poet and inveterate armchair traveler, he wore the traditional Capuchin robes over checkered shirts and comfortably scuffed shoes.
Born in a small village in the mountains of northern Spain, Fray Angel was the son of a schoolteacher who became involved in commercial ventures in Cuba and Peru.[27] When these failed, the family returned home to farm. Like Fray Leopoldo at a later age, the boy decided to join the Capuchin order after hearing the impassioned sermon of an itinerant preacher. As there were no seminaries near his home, he headed south to Antequera, now some two hours by highway from Granada.
The civil war erupted during his years as a student. In August of 1936 an anticlerical mob killed five senior members of the order on the seminary doorstep, then threatened the teen-aged seminarians who had remained inside the building. Although the attackers eventually allowed Fray Angel and his companions to leave the building unharmed, the image of the blood-stained doorway remained with him all his life. "A thing of this sort leaves a deep mark" (Una cosa de estas deja mucha huella), he once confided. "Even today I dream about it."[28]
Fray Angel first heard about Fray Leopoldo in Antequera. "The other students told many marvelous stories about him," he explained, "because even in those early days many people thought he was a saint." His personal association with the friar occurred during the two years in the early 1950s when both men lived in the Granada monastery. During this time, he was deeply impressed by Fray Leopoldo's kindness and concern for the lay population, as well as his success in the day-to-day life of the monastery, which, he noted, "is not the bed of roses an outsider might believe."[29]
In 1952 Fray Angel left the city, only to return in 1958, two years after Fray Leopoldo's death. A year later he was named vice-postulator and primary advocate of the friar's canonization process, which was formally initiated in 1961. ("Did I want the title?" he responded when I asked him. "Well, one does not request these things. But of course one
[27] This biographical information is from one of various tape-recorded conversations with Fray Angel, all of which were conducted in the Capuchin monastery in Granada. The exchange in question occurred on 23 March 1984. English translations are my own.
[28] Interview, 14 April 1984. The dead, known as "the martyrs of Antequera," have been proposed for canonization.
For the fullest account of anticlerical violence during the civil war see Montero Moreno, Historia de la persecución religiosa en España .
[29] Both statements are from the 14 April interview.
does not accept them if one does not believe in the cause very strongly.")[30]
A former professor of rhetoric and a fiery preacher in the Capuchin tradition, Fray Angel ruefully acknowledged himself to be the product of "a very different era." Fully conscious of the order's increased emphasis on the more human aspects of sainthood, he sought to follow his superiors' injunction to write about Fray Leopoldo "as he lived and worked within the monastery and among the men surrounding him." "Miracles are not in style," he once informed me wryly.[31]
Fray Angel himself, however, was fully convinced of the friar's extraordinary powers. Although he claimed to see these first and foremost as confirmation of spiritual superiority, his own unshakable faith in divine intercession led him to express a certain irritation with skeptics, both inside and outside the religious establishment. "The Roman Catholic Church," he declared in one conversation, "has its norms by which it beatifies the saints, and the church demands miracles as one proof of sanctity. If the saints did not perform miraculous actions, if miracles were not fully possible, why then would the church demand them as a proof of sanctity?"[32] On another occasion, he emphasized his belief in progress. "But I ask you," he demanded at the end of our conversation, "has anything, could anything, ever replace the saints? Fray Leopoldo had so much love for his fellow human beings, he felt so deeply for the people who suffered, that I believe God has given him the gift of continuing, even after death, to help those in need."[33]
As part of the canonization effort, Fray Angel interviewed several hundred persons who had known Fray Leopoldo during his lifetime, plus various others who claimed to have benefited from the friar's posthumous intercession. The results of this investigation—oral testimony recorded in handwritten notes (Fray Angel was not comfortable with, and did not own, a tape recorder) as well as official typed or written communications from various witnesses—appear in the official Articles of
[30] Interview, 2 April 1984. The twenty-five years that Fray Angel, at the time of this conversation, had devoted to the friar's cause must certainly have reinforced his initial sense of conviction.
[31] A directive to portray Fray Leopoldo "focusing upon how he lived and worked among his brothers and the people of his community, rather than reported supernatural exploits" (my translation) appears in a letter addressed to Fray Angel by the editor of the three-volume series, Santi e santità nell'Ordine cappuccino , ed. D'Alatri. Fray Angel showed me the letter and made the comment, which I quote, in an interview on 14 April.
[32] Interview, 2 April 1984.
[33] Interview, 22 June 1984.
Apostolic Process.[34] (This document in turn provides the basis for the more general vita of Fray Leopoldo, Mendigo pot Dios [Beggar for God ].[35] The title is an allusion to the friar's activities as alms collector. First published in 1970, this book had gone through three editions as of 1987 for a total of more than forty thousand copies.) New accounts of alleged posthumous favors continue to appear in a bimonthly Fray Leopoldo bulletin with a circulation of approximately sixty thousand.[36] In addition, numerous summaries of various portions of the Life are available in abridged form. The book is available for a nominal fee (approximately two dollars), the pamphlets are usually free.
In line with the norms governing canonization, the Articles of Apostolic Process set out to document Fray Leopoldo's "reputation as a saint, his virtues and his miracles" (la lama de santidad, virtudes y milagros). They are intended for an ecclesiastical jury thoroughly versed in Roman Catholic dogma. In conformance with standard procedure, the two hundred and fifty propositions that make up the text are grouped in sections corresponding to the three theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity; the four moral, or "cardinal," virtues of fortitude, justice, prudence, and temperance; and the triple vow of poverty, chastity, and obedience taken by members of religious communities. Each subdivision contains from one to a dozen illustrations. The second-to-last section, "Supernatural Gifts" (Dones sobrenaturales), describes miraculous actions credited to the friar during his lifetime. Reports of seven favors attributed by those involved to his posthumous intercession follow.
Although individual sections of the articles are brief, the extremely formal and formulaic text finds reinforcement in a series of unusually long and syntactically complex sentences. As is customary, each new subdivision in this extended catalogue begins with the stock phrase Es
[34] Granatensis causa de beatificación y canonización . Witnesses are identified by name in the concluding section devoted to the friar's posthumous intercession (pp. 51-54). Proper names also appear within the body of the text.
[35] There is an enormous body on the vita and on various aspects of hagiographical literature. Important general studies include Aigrain, L'Hagiographie ; Delehaye, The Legends of the Saints , and Cinq felons sur la méthode hagiographique ; Günter, Psychologie der Legende ; Gaiffier, Études critiques d'hagiographie et d'iconologie . See also, in a markedly different vein, Gurevich's interesting discussion of a number of medieval Latin literary classics in Medieval Popular Culture .
[36] The bulletin customarily offers summaries of two- to three-dozen miraculous favors credited to Fray Leopoldo by letter writers identified by name and city of residence. These narratives are followed by a list of persons who have contributed to the Fray Leopoldo Home for the Elderly and other charitable causes, and by a list of others either expressing appreciation for favors they believe they have obtained through the friar's intercession, or seeking his help. Approximately fifteen thousand copies are distributed along with the Capuchins' devotional magazine, El Adalid Seráfico , based in Seville and sold by subscription. The other forty-five thousand are avilable to visitors to the friar's crypt.
cierto (it is certain) or Es verdad (it is true) and ends with the affirmation Esto será probado (this will be proven). Specific actions are reduced to the bare essentials. Dialogue is rare; background information sketchy or nonexistent. As he is presenting this material to the theologically sophisticated, the author employs an elevated, studiously impersonal style.
The articles' legalistic, pared-down, and often abstract language is not characteristic of the Life, which is intended for a more heterogeneous, predominantly lay readership with little knowledge of or interest in the more technical aspects of the canonization process. Because the author of the Life includes a greater number of incidents, which he recounts in greater detail, this second version is more than four times longer than the first (330 as opposed to 54 pages). As is evident from Appendix A in the present study, an appreciable percentage of the events described are identical or similar to others in the juridical document. The biography, however, is no longer an extended catalogue of discrete elements, but, rather, a full-fledged narrative.
Its readily recognizable, largely chronological story line does not keep the Life from conveying a limited sense of evolution. The author's emphasis on the larger moral underlying individual incidents makes the anecdotes largely interchangeable. As a result, the text, like a number of other vitae , reveals a certain circularity that belies its apparently linear plan.[37]
This repetitive structure underscores the enduring and essentially changeless values of Christianity and the Franciscan way of life. So do a number of other factors not necessarily characteristic of either the Fioretti of Saint Francis, to which its author pointedly refers on various occasions, or to saints' legends as a whole.[38] The conscious juxtaposition of Fray Leopoldo with both an apparently unchanging countryside and an urban landscape representing countless centuries of cultural achieve-
[37] On the circularity of the vita see Olsen," 'De Historiis Sanctorum.'" There are, to be sure, some texts in which this quality is more pronounced than others.
[38] Fray Angel's most immediate model is unquestionably the Fioretti of Saint Francis, a Latin compilation of which dates from the first half of the fourteenth century and which is thought to be the work of the Franciscan friar, Ugolino of Monte Giorgio. (For an English-language translation see Francis of Assisi, The Little Flowers .) The Life of Fray Leopoldo unquestionably resembles these stories of the founder of the Franciscan orders in its stress on the protagonist's dedication to a life of simplicity and poverty and its detailed descriptions of his activities amidst the needy of the city as well as an everyday, compassionate example to his fellow friars. The Fioretti , however, does not reveal the idealization of the countryside, the numerous references to well-known figures from various centuries, or the extremely cautious treatment of the supernatural, all of which characterize Fray Angel's text. (Saint Francis, for his part, engages in a number of frankly marvelous exploits such as converting to Christianity a "very fierce" wolf.) In addition, the note of defensiveness so obvious in the Life's portrayal of recent Spanish history is absent from the Fioretti .
ments is one of these. The establishment of a larger, more universal context for the friar through frequent references to artists, intellectuals, and holy figures from other times and places is another. A third, particularly important strategy for suggesting Fray Leopoldo's atemporality is the insistence on a large number of extraordinary deeds that stand outside the confines of space and time. Finally, the author recasts recent Spanish history as one more battle in an ongoing war between good and evil.[39]
We have already noted oral storytellers' interest in Fray Leopoldo's close association with the countryside. Following their lead while bending this theme to his own purpose, his biographer presents the friar's birthplace, Alpandeire, as a "heraldic" hamlet encrusted "like a jewel" in the rugged mountain gorges. (He will later reinforce this theme through references to its subterranean veins of gold and silver.) His description underscores not only the inherent value and nobility but also the persistence of the rural tradition. "One would think," he remarks, "that in those places inaccessible to the modern industrial movement, time has stopped as if it remained frozen among the thick masses of stone, age-old refuge of large bands of crows or in the depth of its valleys, cultivated with primitive tools inherited from one of the preceding civilizations which farmed them" (my italics).[40]
And yet if Fray Leopoldo is the product of a pristine rural landscape marked by fertile fields, happy children, and warbling swallows, the Life also insists on his ties to Granada. The author dwells on his subject's intimate association with a city whose "long and glorious history—and more than history, prehistory—goes back to the first generations of the New Adam." Triumphant conquest of Ferdinand and Isabella, Granada also appears here as the paradise of Moorish sovereigns. Contrast and complement to Alpandeire, which confirms age-old ties between human beings and the earth, Granada is a symbol of "historical constancy." Nature and culture thus unite in the figure of the friar.
Fray Angel cannot restrain his nostalgia for a vanished Eden on occasion. An almost audible sigh accompanies his observation that if the
[39] This division of the world into good and evil is characteristic of much hagiographical literature. See Altman, "Two Types of Opposition."
[40] "Se pensaría queen aquellos parajes, inaccesibles al movimiento industrial moderno, $e ha parado el tiempo, como si permaneciera congelado entre los ingentes macizos de piedra, secular guarida de densas bandadas de cuervos, o en la profundidad de sus valles, cultivados con primitivas herramientas de trabajo heredadas de cualquiera de las civilizaciones pretéritas que los roturaron," Mendigo de Dios , p. 22.
It is worth noting here that the Franquist glorification of Catholicism, in which religion and power became inextricably mingled, was closely tied to the celebration of rural life and the image of rural traditionalism. See Behar, "The Struggle for the Church," pp. 15-16.
landscape is now lovely it must have been even more so in the past. He is nevertheless quick to emphasize the city's continuing hold on the imagination. According to him, Granada's beauty is "a palpable reality" whose continuing ability to inspire artists from every corner of the world is evidence of its universal and unwavering appeal.
Fray Leopoldo first appears as a product of this larger "forge of sanctity and sanctuary of mystic ecstasies."[41] He is one more page from Granada's golden legend, "the latest aureola" in its painstakingly elaborated altar screen. The author, however, almost immediately amplifies this initially limited vision of the friar by proceeding to suggest his ties to a far larger past. Apparent touristic reveries effectively emphasize the subject's membership in a community transcending a less exotic here-and-now. "But it is necessary to skip over this epoch of romance and mystery," asserts the author in a typical passage, "even though it has left an indelible mark . . . upon the city, even though we often see our Fray Leopoldo pass beneath the horseshoe-shaped arches or enter mansions which were formerly Moorish palaces."[42]
As the account progresses, the friar gradually becomes synonymous with his surroundings, his interior, spiritual qualities fusing with a familiar landscape. Recurrent images of water serve to link countryside and city as well as to suggest Fray Leopoldo's larger-than-life identity. The author describes the friar's soul as "crystalline and jubilant as the small streams of the mountain area which saw his birth."[43] His resolve proves as steadfast as the "eternal snows" that cap Granada's summits. Frequently portrayed against a backdrop of fruits and flowers, the friar speaks in a voice recalling both the mountain brooks and city fountains.[44] His life in retrospect resembles a beautiful landscape unruffled by relentless winds of change.
References to well-known writers, artists, and thinkers pepper the Life and further reinforce the notion of a larger legacy extending back over the centuries. This broader framework offers a counterbalance to the more specific bonds between the friar and "his" Granada. The author cites approximately sixty individuals, including the medieval poet Gonzalo de Berceo, the baroque painter Bartolomé Murillo, and play-
[41] "Forja de santidades y santuario de místicos arrobos. . . ." (p. 75)
[42] "Pero es forzoso pasar de largo por esta época de romance y misterio, aunque v "Bad Text" os muchas veces a nuestro Fray Leopoldo transitar bajo sus arcos de herradura, o penetrar en mansiones que antaño fueron palacios moriscos. . . ." (p. 78)
[43] "Cristalina y jubilosa, como los arroyuelos de la Serranía que le vio nacer." (p. 93)
[44] The association of saints with water is common in medieval hagiographical literature and undoubtedly recalls earlier, pagan sources. For a long list of water-related miracles see Loomis, White Magic , pp. 37-43.
wright Calderón de la Barca, the nineteenth-century literary critic and writer Marcelino Menéndez y Pelayo, and the modern lyric poet Antonio Machado. Most of these individuals are from Spain, some are both saints and Spaniards. (Among the latter category are Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, and John of the Cross.) A few others—among them the poet Al-Kattib, novelist Romain Rolland, and statesman Mahatma Gandhi—represent a larger, international community.
The author usually links these individuals to Fray Leopoldo directly by proclaiming them representatives of the same venerable tradition. But on some occasions he is content to confirm his subject's importance through association with one or another well-known figure. Noting, for instance, that the friar was a contemporary of the celebrated poet Federico García Lorca, Fray Angel conjectures that the two men's paths must have crossed on more than one occasion.[45] Although admitting that they represent opposing spiritual directions, he goes on to express certainty that Fray Leopoldo's austere appearance must have made some impression ("if only esthetic") on the poet. As García Lorca is familiar to a far wider public than is Fray Leopoldo, this coupling allows his fame to rub off on the friar. Likewise, the often lengthy quotations from a host of similarly famous figures reinforce the reader's sense of the Life's protagonist as a member of a prestigious intellectual and spiritual elite.
The Role of Miracles in the Life
The Life's repetitiveness, its association of Fray Leopoldo with a particular rural and urban landscape, and its references to a long list of famous persons from various centuries all contribute to that aura of eternity that is the author's goal. By far his single most important narrative strategy, however, is his presentation of a series of extraordinary actions. Over and over, Fray Leopoldo displays supernatural powers that place him beyond the bounds of everyday experience.[46]
[45] Lorca, internationally known for his plays and poetry, was murdered by members of a Falangist "Black Squad" in Granada on 19 August 1936. Although, theoretically, it is possible that the friar and poet could have met in the years before the latter's death, it is hard to imagine two more different people. Lorca, for instance, was closely connected with the moderate left. He had publicly expressed the opinion that the conquest of Granada in 1492 by Ferdinand and Isabella had destroyed a unique civilization and created "a wasteland population by the worst bourgeoisie in Spain today." (See Preston, Spanish Civil War , p. 55.)
[46] There is an extensive bibliography on miracles. For a definition of what constitutes a miracle and an introduction to the literature about them see the corresponding entry in New Catholic Encyclopedia . A more detailed discussion is Moule, ed., Miracles . For further bibliographical information see Wilson, Saints and Society , pp. 390-400.
These incidents, like all those in the Life, can be understood on a structural level wherein the friar is depicted as rising to meet a challenge. In some cases, this challenge comes directly from God, and the friar responds with exemplary humility or faith. Sometimes, as when Fray Leopoldo levitates in prayer, this response is shown to be supernatural. When the challenge originates with other human beings, Fray Leopoldo proves himself to be a model of Christian virtues and may or may not demonstrate thaumaturgic powers. Miracles are most common in situations in which an unbeliever seeks to belittle the friar or affronts God. They also occur when virtuous individuals seek his intervention in times of need.
The Life not only cites more than twice as many frankly marvelous actions as do the articles but is also far more likely to describe these deeds in detail. Moreover, incidents whose only purpose is to illustrate the friar's virtues in the juridical document tend to take on a supernatural flavor in the biography. In one story in the articles, for instance, the young Leopoldo gives away money that was needed for the purchase of cooking oil, thus confirming his innate generosity. In the account that appears in the Life, however, the focus shifts to his mysterious powers. Although he displays the same generosity in the Life, the coins inexplicably reappear in his pocket; this event now occupies the very center of the tale.[47]
This focus on the miraculous is also evident in the story of the servant girl who willfully fails to relay her mistress's message to the friar. In the articles this incident is used to exemplify Fray Leopoldo's horror of prevarication. But the Life dwells instead on his powers as a clairvoyant. Although he scolds the girl, as he does in the articles, for failing to tell the truth, his mysterious knowledge of another's mind is the true focus of the tale.
Yet in spite of the Life's considerably greater emphasis on the supernatural, its author exhibits caution in his presentation of extraordinary events. In place of the term milagro (miracle), for instance, he consistently prefers the less sensational term prodigio (prodigious or extraordinary).
The reasons for this relative circumspection are at least threefold. First, Fray Angel, like Méndez Asensio, is writing about events still not verified by the church. Second, he is, as already suggested, unquestionably responding to specific injunctions from his superiors within the Ca-
[47] The incident corresponds to motif number V224 ("miraculous replacement of objects for saints") in Thompson, Motif-Index of Folk Literature , a standard reference tool for folklorists. See also Loomis, White Magic , pp. 86-88. The reader may also wish to consult Boggs's Index of Spanish Folktales , an index of Aarne-Thompson tale types.
puchin order, as well as to a more general perception of the de-emphasis of the supernatural within society as a whole. Finally and particularly important in the case of the Life, he is eager not to alienate those whom he is seeking to win over to Fray Leopoldo's cause. As a result, he tends to stress the friar's power over the human psyche instead of over natural forces and to favor improbable as opposed to frankly impossible actions. Proceeding through implication rather than direct assertion, Fray Angel relies on everyday, often humorous details in order to lighten the air of solemnity that surrounds similar accounts of holy figures.
By no coincidence, the so-called intellectual miracles of prophecy and clairvoyance performed by Fray Leopoldo account for just over half of the forty extraordinary actions in the text (twelve instances of the former, nine of the latter, appear in the course of the Life). Fray Leopoldo may allude to a future operation on an apparently healthy child, assure an anxious landlady that a tenant will indeed pay the overdue rent at exactly three o'clock the next day, or foretell the death of someone many miles away. Likewise, he may express hope for a recently conceived child whose mother has told no one of her pregnancy, answer an unspoken question, or gently chide individuals for thoughts and deeds of which only they had been aware.[48]
All of these cases invite psychological as well as supernatural interpretations. While some readers might proclaim them outright miracles, others will be more inclined to see merely Fray Leopoldo's powers of discernment or of the propensity of third parties to confide in him. They may similarly credit the friar's prophetic abilities to his unusually well developed, but nonetheless distinctly human, powers of deduction. In short, even though the author clearly nudges his readers to see thaumaturgy at work, his Life permits, and even encourages, h range of interpretations.
While only half as numerous as cases of prophecy/clairvoyance, challenges to physical laws do play a role within the Life (eleven of the latter are interspersed throughout the text). The friar may heal a badly fractured arm or a cracked skull, shrink the tumor in a boy's knee, or intervene to save the victim of an inadvertent poisoning. Likewise, he may plow an entire field in a matter of minutes, manage to make an appearance in two places at one time, or levitate several inches above the ground on various occasions.[49]
[48] See V223 ("saints have miraculous knowledge") and V223.3 ("saint can perceive the thoughts of another man and reveal hidden sins") in Thompson, Motif-Index . See also Loomis, White Magic , pp. 71-77, and Brewer, Dictionary of Miracles , pp. 256 and 466.
[49] For miraculous cures see Thompson, Motif-Index , V221 ("miraculous healing by saints") and Loomis, White Magic , pp. 103-6. Bilocation is Thompson, V225 ("saint in several places at once"), and Loomis, p. 131. See also Brewer, Dictionary of Miracles , pp. 470-71. Levitation is Thompson, D2135.0.1; Loomis, pp. 47-48; and Brewer, pp. 215-18.
Although all of these events are highly improbable, the majority are not outright impossibilities. Readers are free, for instance, to take issue with the initial diagnosis of a supposedly mortal illness, or to argue that some afflictions were psychosomatic. They may also question the reliability of eyewitnesses because the author, by no coincidence, consistently invokes the testimony of others in direct challenges to natural law. The great majority of cases involving levitation and bilocation, for instance, depend on collective sources or hearsay. When there is a particular eyewitness, the report cannot be substantiated.
Fray Angel does his best to favorably dispose the reader toward the testimony in question. Thus in one instance—in which the protagonist is said to have hovered several inches above a hospital bed—he underscores the stupefaction of the young nurse's aide as well as her lack of ulterior motives in reporting the event. "But the person who heard her affirm over and over what had happened in tones of deepest sincerity had no other choice but to believe her," the author affirms, "because, among other things, there was not the slightest motive to regard her as a visionary."[50] At the same time, however, he makes clear that the young woman's fellow workers arrive too late to corroborate her testimony, and that the sole responsibility for the truth of the event therefore rests with her. As a result, the reader may dismiss the incident in question without endangering the Life's credibility.
This tendency to place the burden of proof on others is equally obvious in Fray Leopoldo's apparently miraculous extrication of a pair of frenzied mules from a deep ditch. After narrating the bulk of the incident in the present tense, the author switches to the past. An equally abrupt transition from the first person to a collective source accompanies this shift in tense. ("They say that . . . ," he interjects.) The effect is once again to dissociate the author from the reported action, thereby reinforcing an impression of objectivity.
These sorts of distancing techniques are particularly apparent in the small number of incidents that hinge on divine intervention. Although conspicuously absent from the articles, a half-dozen of these appear in the Life. They include two cases said to be drawn from Fray Leopoldo's childhood. In the first, previously mentioned, coins reappear in young Leopoldo's pocket. In the second, which the author credits to a group of
[50] "Pero quien la oyera afirmar una y otra vez lo sucedido con acentos de la más profunda sinceridad, no tenía más remedio que creerla, porque, entre otras cosas, no había el menor motivo para tratarla de visonaria," Mendigo por Dios , p. 154.
elderly informants in Alpandeire, lightning strikes a taunting peer. The Life also recounts how a mysterious soldier saves Fray Leopoldo from almost certain death and how a dove singles him out in a tumultuous crowd. In two other instances the friar encounters an angel-like figure behind the locked doors of the monastery and succeeds in finding a mysterious confessor for a remorseful man at an unlikely predawn hour.[51]
In the last, particularly noteworthy example, a man experiencing extreme guilt in the wake of a drinking binge pleads with Fray Leopoldo to find him a confessor. Because it is before dawn and all of the monastery's residents are sound asleep, the friar initially dismisses his request. The man's continued entreaties, however, finally move him to go off in search of a priest. Moments later, a Christ-like figure appears before the penitent to hear his confession.
As in the episode in which Fray Leopoldo appears to levitate above his sickbed, the biographer relies on an eyewitness whom he identifies in only the most general terms. (In the first case, she is introduced only as "Brígida"; here, he withholds his informant's name ostensibly in order to spare him embarrassment.) And once again, he fosters doubts about the individual's testimony, this time by calling attention to the man's inebriation.
Then too, the eyewitness in this case is almost as circumspect as the author. Although the man strongly implies his mysterious visitor is none other than Christ, he refrains from any sort of explicit identification. This reserve is entirely in line with the Life's more general propensity to suggest rather than to assert. The author clearly hopes to influence his readers' perception of individual events by bombarding them with case after case of "curious" (his word) examples. He himself, however, consistently avoids unequivocal statements that would oblige the reader to agree or disagree. His Fray Leopoldo is equally prone to indirect assertion. "Couldn't it happen," the friar asks his fellow Capuchins on another, similar occasion, "that the Lord might send one of his angels to our monasteries?"[52]
The Life's always cautious, sometimes frankly tentative quality owes much to its dependence on various hypothetical constructions. The author regularly employs the subjunctive, the conditional, and the future and future perfect with a subjunctive force. He also relies heavily on the
[51] Retributive punishment is Thompson, Q559.5 ("punishment for opposition to saint"), Loomis, 99-100, and Brewer, 275-77. Doves single out a long list of other holy figures in Loomis, pp. 66-67, and Brewer, pp. 107-10. Mysterious strangers appear in Loomis, p. 131. See also Thompson, V232 ("angel as helper").
[52] "¿No podrá suceder que el Señor enviara a alguno de sus ángeles a nuestros conventos?" (p. 192)
passive voice, on various key terms indicating uncertainty or doubt, and on parallelisms that offer the reader more than one possible interpretation of an event.
Often, the subjunctive follows close on a declarative statement as if to soften its force. An unequivocal assertion of Fray Leopoldo's joy in taking monastic vows thus introduces a hypothetical construction underscoring the bishop's unawareness of the gravity of the event. "And we can also believe," the author says, "that if the holy bishop would have been aware that he had just finished confirming in the faith a candidate for canonization, he would have evinced great joy" (my italics).[53]
Just as frequently, the friar's biographer employs the conditional to suggest what he does not care or dare to state outright: for example, "And Francis of Assisi would smile down at him from the sky, remembering a similar afternoon" (my italics).[54] "Jesus would have raised him up over the powerful and the Poor Little One of Assisi would have smiled at him with love," he notes on another occasion (my italics).[55]
The Life also makes heavy use of the passive voice. "There was in him a spiritual force that could only be interpreted as a struggle," the author observes of Fray Leopoldo.[56] Or "it could be said of his days that they were pages from the Rule of Saint Francis."[57]
Terms such as casi, tal vez , and quizá (all meaning "perhaps" or "maybe"), verbs such as parecer (to seem, or to appear), and impersonal constructions such as es posible (it is possible) and no es seguro (it is not sure) provide further distance. On a number of occasions the author introduces parallel constructions suggesting alternative interpretations of the same event. In describing Fray Leopoldo's death, for instance, he claims not to know whether the smile that lingers on the friar's face is one of hope or of eternal joy.[58] Likewise, he asks if the bell that announces the friar's death is simply ringing or ringing out glory, which would confirm his subject's sanctity.[59]
Simile and metaphor also give the author and his readers added latitude. In the story of the trapped mules, for instance, he hints that Fray
[53] "Y podemos igualmente creer que si el santo obispo hubiera tenido revelación de que acababa de confirmar en la fe a un candidato a los altares, hubiera confesado lleno de gozo." (p. 39)
[54] "Y Francisco de Asís le sonreiría del cielo, recordando una tarde similar." (p. 40)
[55] "Jesús le habrá ensalzado sobre los poderosos, y el Pobrecillo de Asís le habrá sonreído con amor." (p. 17)
[56] "Hubo en é1 una contienda espiritual que só1o podría interpretarse como una lucha." (p. 43)
[57] "Podría decirse de sus días que eran páginas de la regla de San Francisco." (p. 57)
[58] "No sabríamos decir si de esperanza o de posesión de goces eternos." (p. 13)
[59] "¿Doblaba? ¿Tocaba a gloria?" (p. 15)
Leopoldo, like Saint Francis (known for his preaching to the swallow and his taming of a wolf and a pair of turtle doves), has the ability to communicate with animals.[60] He nonetheless stops short of any sort of outright claim to this effect, noting only that the beasts he addresses respond "as if they understood his compassionate and soothing words."[61] In the same vein, the friar succeeds in leading the first mule out of the ditch "with no more trouble than if it had been a level road" (my italics in both cases).[62] The earth does not close with a thunderclap, nor do the chastened creatures lie down at his feet. He does nothing more—or less—than extricate them from an apparent impasse, and it is once again left up to the reader to judge the true scope of the event.
The Life's account of Fray Leopoldo's involvement in the removal of a burdensome stone provides another excellent example of its author's reliance on metaphor.[63] A group of workers who have been trying to move the obstacle for hours finally do so when the friar appears on the scene. Suddenly the stone appears to weigh almost nothing, although no actual physical transformation occurs. "It seemed to us a bundle of straw," the man remarks (my italics here and below).[64] Finally, even though the eyewitness stresses his companions' openmouthed astonishment, he stops short of pronouncing the actual suspension of a natural law. ("It was like magic ," he says.)[65]
The rhetorical question is another of the author-preacher's stock devices. "Who can say whether this is fact or fiction?" and "But how could this be?" he demands time and again.[66] Studiously refusing to draw the logical conclusion, he once again affects neutrality. "Let us restrain our flights of imagination," he interjects after presenting the testimony of the repentant sinner in the story of the mysterious confessor. "Who knows the resources these saintly men have at their disposal!" he exclaims on this and various other occasions.[67]
[60] See Francis of Assisi, The Little Flowers , chaps. XVI (swallows), XXII (turtle doves), and XXI (wolf). There is, to be sure, precedent for such communication in much other hagiographical literature. The incident corresponds to Thompson, D2156.2 ("saint controls animals"), Loomis, pp. 58-70, and Brewer, pp. 360-65.
[61] "Como si comprendieran sus frases compasivas y de aliento." (p. 276)
[62] "Con no mayor dificultad que si se tratara de camino llano. " (p. 276)
[63] See Thompson, D1654.1 ("rock refuses to be moved"), Loomis, pp. 88-89, and Brewer, pp. 161-62 and 448, for other stubborn stones. In virtually all of the examples offered by Loomis and Brewer, the holy figure personally removes or transforms the obstacle.
[64] "Nos pareció una alpaca de paja." (p. 280)
[65] "Era como de magia. " (p. 280)
[66] "¿Quién puede decir si es verdad o es mentira?" and "¿Pero cómo podría ser?"
[67] "Cortémosle los vuelos a la imaginación: ¡Quién sabe los recursos con que cuentan estos santos varones!" (p. 145)
Not infrequently, Fray Angel begins by dissociating himself from information that he nonetheless proceeds to share. He may note, for instance, that a self-respecting biographer cannot give credence to rumors ("even though he may appreciate their importance"). Instead of moving on to documented claims, however, he proceeds to offer a detailed example of the sort of thing which he will supposedly exclude. He then once again calls readers' attention to his reliance only on "witnesses of proven responsibility," thus encouraging them to accept as truth that information he presents.[68]
The simple language laced with colloquialisms and diminutives that Fray Leopoldo is depicted as using creates an air of intimacy absent from the articles. "But my good man [literally "man of God"], where am I supposed to find a confessor at this hour?" the friar demands of the predawn penitent.[69] "Brother, in order to get to heaven you have to swallow plenty," he informs one of his fellow friars when the subject of penance arises.[70] References to the friar's appealing provincial accent are likely designed to endear him to readers while underscoring his earthy wisdom. "Voice of the people, voice of God," he has Fray Leopoldo assert.[71]
Down-to-earth details provide a particularly effective counterbalance to intimations of the miraculous while further reinforcing the friar's popular appeal. On more than one occasion Fray Leopoldo cures an apparently fatal illness with a pat on the shoulder or a bowl of chicken soup. As in the Fioretti , humor may accompany these homespun touches. The author, for instance, clearly intends for the reader to chuckle over the peasant boy whose overwhelming affection for the old friar prompts him to practically knock him off his feet.
Likewise, the incident of the reappearing coins begins with a distinctly unextraordinary description of a country housewife preparing dinner. His mother's reference to the future monastic as "Frasquito Tomás" ("Frasquito" is a pet name and diminutive of "Francisco") intensifies the air of familiarity. So does the portrait of him at play among the other children of the hamlet. The exchange between mother and son, which cli-
[68] "Un biógrafo que se precie de tal," remarks the author, "no puede dar fe a todo rumor, aunque valore su importancia. Se impone, pues, una selección de aquellos cuya autenticidad conste; no sin advertir, en este caso, que la inclusión de cuantos corren de boca en boca exigiría un volumen muy superior al presente. . . . Será necesario prescindir de muchos datos tan curiosos o más que este, no por juzgarlos infundados, sino por carecer de testimonios de probada responsabilidad." (pp. 202-3)
[69] "Pero hombre de Dios, ¿dónde voy yo a estas horas por un sacerdote?" (p. 144)
[70] "Hermano, para ganar el cielo hay que tragar mucha saliva." (p. 198)
[71] "La voz del pueblo, voz de Dios." (p. 202)
maxes in her energetic search of the boy's pockets, is almost funny. Her discovery of the coin does not prompt her to cry out or to throw up her hands in amazement. Instead, the author notes simply that "her surprise was great."[72]
The coin incident concludes with the assurance that Fray Leopoldo's continuing acts of charity do not always have extraordinary consequences. The author suggests that the future friar must have often found himself at day's end without money, barefoot, and half-naked. Like the image of the mother searching the child's pockets, that of the small boy eagerly stripping off articles of clothing to offer to bemused passersby is intended to soften, though in no way obviate, the presence of the supernatural.
History as Ongoing Struggle between Good and Evil
A final means of emphasizing Fray Leopoldo's timelessness is the presentation of his particular historical circumstances as a variation on a recurrent theme. The Life devotes considerable space and emotional energy to the hostilities directed at the religious establishment in general, and the friar in particular, during the Spanish civil war.[73] Although its author attempts to enlist readers' sympathies through a barrage of details, he ultimately sees this era as one more battle in a much larger contest between good and evil.[74]
The view of history as a protracted struggle illustrating eternal truths is obvious very early in the Life. Fray Angel devotes much of his second chapter to contrasting Fray Leopoldo's peaceful childhood in isolated Alpandeire with the intrigue and turmoil embroiling the nation. Dismissing the liberal, urban-based revolution of 1868, known as the Gloriosa , as "glorious in name only," he proceeds to catalogue its negative effects on a "defenseless" countryside.
The theme of combat continues to dominate his descriptions of the twentieth century. Chapter 18, which bears the revealing title, "Blessed
[72] "Su sorpresa fue grande. . . ." (p. 28)
[73] These hostile actions included the sacking and burning of churches and convents, the wide-scale humiliation and killing of members of the religious establishment, the desecration and destruction of cultic objects, and also the exhumation and public display of long-buried corpses of the priests, nuns, and reputed holy figures. See Lincoln, "Revolutionary Exhumations," for a provocative discussion of the latter. Although one may question the author's assertions regarding the millenarian impulse underlying these manifestations, his essay elucidates the sense of persecution underlying the Life.
[74] Certainly Fray Angel's perspective was, and is still to some extent, shared by other members of the ecclesiastical establishment. See, for example, the wartime pastorals of Gomá, Por Dios y por España . See also Bustamante's emotional Mártires capuchinos .
Persecution" (Bienaventuranza de la persecución), deals with the events leading up to the civil war. The author sees the Republican movement as a uniformly negative (and frightening) "eruption of Vandals," in which the cry of liberty produces only "bursts of libertinism."[75]
A full ten pages of the chapter are devoted to the sufferings of the religious establishment during what he repeatedly calls this "time of terror." Although the author dutifully acknowledges the presence of well-intentioned persons within the leftist government, he clearly cannot forgive its active opposition to the church. He describes, often in considerable detail, specific, physical attacks on property and individuals associated with religious institutions. Although striving to maintain a neutral tone in these passages, he regularly betrays a deep indignation. He refers, for instance, to the flames that destroyed many religious landmarks as "indispensable pyrotechnics," and to the left's attempts to repress its opponents as the era's "favorite sport." His description of one of various attacks on the Capuchin monastery in Granada is equally sarcastic. "Seized by iconoclastic zeal," he says, "they [the attackers] knocked over the religious images and altars, slashed the monastery's paintings, and there must have even been a music hater among them, because the harmonium was thrown down from the choir loft onto the church floor."[76]
After a prolonged description of abuses directed at the ecclesiastical establishment during this period, the author details affronts endured by Fray Leopoldo. On one occasion, a crowd pelts the friar with rocks and cobblestones. On another, a group of thugs threatens to cut off his head. In line with the challenge structure already outlined, the friar responds to threats and insults with equanimity. (Steadfastness in the face of persecution is, after all, the basis for the early martyr's tale, or passio .) Rather than running from the angry crowd, he kneels before the rain of stones. When the mob assures him that all members of religious orders must die, he coolly bares his throat.
The author, however, is not content to illustrate Fray Leopoldo's courage in adversity. He is even more insistent on presenting the hardships of the civil war as a spiritual test. In the eyes of his biographer, Fray Leopoldo's sufferings link him to the early martyrs and indeed to all those who have ever suffered for the Christian faith. Thus, instead of a
[75] "Una irrupción vandálica surgió de las entrañas mismas del país," remarks the author, and "El grito de libertad produjo estallidos de libertinaje." (p. 218)
[76] "Llevados de furor iconoclasta, derribaron imágenes y altares, acuchillaron los lienzos de los claustros, y hasta no faltó algún musicófobo, pues el armonio fue arrojado desde el coro contra el pavimento de la iglesia." (p. 221)
unique conjunction of social, economic, and political causes with equally specific consequences, the civil war becomes a variation on "the eternal supplication, the ceaseless mortification," which the author finds synonymous with human history.[77] For him, the recent past is, in the end, less a peculiarly Spanish tragedy than yet another cataclysmic scene from a cosmic drama of purification whose final act will only be played out on an apocalytpic judgment day.
The Concern for Timelessness
Our analysis of the Life's principal narrative strategy has documented its author's overwhelming concern for the principle of atemporality. We have seen how he suggests the enduring nature of those spiritual qualities embodied in Fray Leopoldo through the circular structure of his narrative, through emphasis on the friar's ties to a pristine countryside and a historic city, through insistence on his subject's thaumaturgic powers, and through the presentation of history as an ongoing contest between good and evil. The all-important question of motivation nevertheless remains. Why , one must finally ask, is the Life so intent on setting Fray Leopoldo outside the normal confines of space and time? Is the biographer simply following hagiographic convention, or are there other, more pressing personal and historical reasons for his insistence on atemporality?
The question is particularly interesting because of the contrast between the Life's insistence on the friar's timelessness and the archbishop's presentation of him as a reflection of and model for a specific and bygone era. Although the archbishop too speaks of the enduring values he sees embodied in the friar, Méndez Asensio is far more willing to see history as a series of discrete and basically nonrepeatable events ("every epoch has its own expression," he says). In addition, he displays little if any interest in the supernatural, playing down the links between the present and the past. He thus presents a stark contrast to Fray Angel, who enthusiastically assigns Fray Leopoldo near-mythic proportions ("he was like a friar out of a legend," he remarks at one point).[78]
Although the differences between the archbishop and the friar's biographer must reflect to some extent temperament and personal history, they owe in large part to Fray Angel's identity as a Capuchin, an order that has seen a marked falloff of new vocations and a decline in prestige.
[77] "La plegaria perenne, la mortificación extenuante." (p. 231)
[78] "Era como un fraile de leyenda." (p. 68)
As representative of the church as an overarching institution, the archbishop is interested in those aspects of Fray Leopoldo's cause that have meaning to the largest number of persons. The author of the Life, for his part, is far more concerned with the Capuchin order, to whose members he dedicates his book. If he speaks in its pages primarily to a larger, lay public, it is because he is seeking to win their acceptance of Fray Leopoldo, and through him the validation of the entire Franciscan way of life .
The Life, by no coincidence, begins with a specific reference to Saint Francis of Assisi, founder of the Franciscan order, to whom the author insists on regularly comparing Fray Leopoldo. He envisages Saint Francis, for instance, looking down in approval on the future friar when the latter offers a poor man his shoes. On another occasion Fray Leopoldo appears "as if he had become detached from the leaves of the calendar of the centuries in order to pass before our gaze like a figure from 'The Little Flowers'"[79] "Seven centuries separate us from 'The Little Flowers,'" remarks the author on yet another occasion, "But who wouldn't say that on this page their full fragrance cannot still be perceived?"[80]
In further contrast to the archbishop's homily—which concentrates on the close, ongoing relationship between the friar and the lay population—the Life depicts Fray Leopoldo as equally at home on the city streets as within the monastery walls. Its author corroborates the archbishop's remarks about the friar's outward-looking nature and activities within the larger lay community. He nevertheless devotes at least an equal amount of attention to the friar's intensely solitary struggle to uphold his vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience.
The Life stresses how hard it is, particularly in the present, for religious orders to live up to the standards they impose on themselves. Throughout the book, the friar's biographer calls attention to his psychic as well as (sometimes) physical strength, and refers to him as a "varón de Dios." Although the literal translation of this term is "man of God," the word varón has connotations of virility and power intended to suggest how austere and demanding the Capuchin regime is. The text dwells on the friar's pain in renouncing family life in order to assume "the
[79] "Como si hubiera desprendido de las hojas del calendario de los siglos para pasar ante nuestra mirada como una figura de 'Las Florecillas.'" (p. 78)
[80] "Nos separan siete siglos de 'Las Florecillas' pero ¿quién no diría queen esta página se percibe aú toda sua fragancia?" (p. 166)
Once again, although the author clearly wants the reader to make the connection between his own account of Fray Leopoldo and the Fioretti of Saint Francis, there are significant differences between the context in which they present the Franciscan ideal, as well as at least some of the rhetorical devices they employ.
cross of the Capuchin life."[81] "A genuinely Franciscan soul," Fray Leopoldo engages in an ongoing struggle to be faithful "not only to the Founder's Rule, but also to the other laws and praiseworthy traditions of the Order."[82]
In short, the Life both recalls and departs from older hagiographic models in its implicit rebuttal of charges or suspicions that the members of religious orders are effeminate and lazy or that the Franciscan ideal is hermetic and outmoded. The injustices he suffers attest not only to his personal strength but also to the continued resilience of the particular religious regime he represents in what Fray Angel pointedly identifies on multiple occasions as a "supposedly secular age" (my italics). The latter's insistence on eternal truths is from this perspective a defense against a historical moment characterized by intense questioning of traditional values by some sectors of the clergy and religious orders, as well as by the populace at large.
Fray Angel's urgency in this mission is hardly surprising given his early traumatic experiences during the civil war—the "barbarous assassination" of seven Capuchin friars in the Antequera seminary which he has Fray Leopoldo so strongly decry. He, like Móndez Asensio, sees the friar as a compelling symbol through which to address and, he hopes, to move a larger public. But while the archbishop attempts above all to reconcile the lay population with the ecclesiastical hierarchy and thus to fortify the church's image as a socially responsive, forward-looking institution, Fray Angel seeks to wash the blood from a distant doorstep and to vindicate a way—his way—of life.
[81] "La cruz de la vida capuchina." (p. 58)
[82] An "alma genuinamente franciscana" (p. 80), Fray Leopoldo is "fidelísimo, no só1o a la Regla, sino alas restantes leyes y laudables tradiciones de la Orden." (p. 126)