Page 32 - FLIPBOOK - Life of Saint Gerard Majella - Vassall-Phillips

CHAPTER 4
HIS NOVICIATE

G
erard, duly armed with Father Cafaro's little note of
introduction, proceeded in all haste to the Redemptorist
House at Iliceto Situated in a solitude rather more than a
mile outside the little town, this convent had originally been built by
the Blessed Felix of Corsano for the Augustinians, but it had been
abandoned by them some time before it was accepted by Saint
Alphonsus as a home for his Religious. The House was always very
dear to the holy Founder, who loved it especially because of an
ancient and miraculous picture of the Blessed Virgin, venerated under
the title of Our Lady of Consolation, which was preserved in the
church attached to the convent. It was here that St. Alphonsus wrote
his first book, the well-known Visits to the Blessed Sacrament, and it was
here that Gerard was to spend the greater part of his short Religious
Life.
He had hardly been a few days in the house before it became
evident that the new Brother was a model of every virtue. As soon
then as the Father Rector returned home, he was told that the
postulant whom he had sent to Iliceto, far from being “useless,” as
he had feared would be the case, was on the contrary the greatest
blessing to the whole Community. Gerard was soon after this
admitted formally into the Noviciate, and given the holy Habit of
Religion.
Never, surely, had there been seen a more fervent novice. If his
life in the world had been most admirable, his life in the cloister was
still more so. According to the testimony of the other Brothers, he

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