His Spirituality

Watching his example and how he talked could be the best way see Gaetano’s spirituality. His biographers have handed down to us a clear picture about this and they wrote about his humility and especially his silent example. But his inner spirituality and what was on his mind can now be seen from the letters he wrote. It is now easier to decipher the meaning of these since they were translated into modern Italian and published by scholars as recently as 1989. These open up to us the best way of knowing what he thought about himself, the scope of his life especially spiritual. There are other letters written by contemporaries of his which also help shed light on how he was seen close up.

It is interesting to know that his close friend Bishop Carafa, when he was superior of the order, wrote to Bartolomeo of Pisa from Venice on the 17th September 1532: "We thought of sending you Gaetano, our dearest friend. When you see him you are going to see and hear not only him but all our brethren and all your spiritual children who are here with me: one for all".

Humility

His first work was among lay people and with these he exercised his humility more than his intelligence and cultural background. He wished that the involved lay person, man or woman, commoner or of noble birth, did not look for human respect or vanity. For Gaetano these things dishonour a Christian, blemish genuine faith and paralyze that human and spiritual action that should be inspired by the gospel and the teachings of the Church. With these sentiments at heart, he expressed his suffering in a letter to Sister Laura Mignani on the 31st July 1517. He was talking about the total decadence in Rome when he wrote her: ".. this city that was once a Holy city, became a Babylon". He started by reforming himself without opposing anybody: ".. bound in humility with the Church". "No one is like Jesus Christ especially myself, neither inside nor out". He did not want to blame the Church itself for the rampant shortcomings of his time. He did not do like Martin Luther who when he did not agree, left the church. Gaetano stayed in the church working from inside and exhorting his brethren: "I pray you to keep yourselves bound in humility to the Holy Church of Christ which in itself is blameless even though she is living as a prostitute in its ministers”. These words he wrote to Bartolomeo Sciani in a letter of 1529. Not only Humility but courtesy and gentleness speak out in his letters. To Suor Maria Carafa he wrote on the 5th April 1541: ".. that my hand is so feeble that I do not know if it's right to use it in writing to someone; at the same time I cannot but answer those who wrote, with this same feeble hand", and he would sign "Don Gaetano, as best as I could". The letters sent to him were promptly answered even in the midst of his hectic life of intense service in the hospitals, at church and among the members of his order. To Bartolomeo Sciani he once wrote: "Your dear brother, in great haste". Showing the urgency he felt to answer people who wrote, this manner was at the same time part of the charitable way he used. He gave two motives for humility: one based on the all knowing truth that is conscious of the gravity and goodness of human acts; the other based on love that sees all, understands all and forgives all. One day, a situation was presented to him which he could not approve, so he answered the sisters of Hope in the Naples monastery by writing back in a simple, delicate but loving manner in the plain truth only charity knows: "This thing, if it is like that, it is wrong". He was very considerate writing, "If it is like that" making way for the possibility that it was not actually as the nuns were saying. His expressions about himself are a deprecatory litany. Spiritual progress he thought, is measured more by fact than words. Gaetano was not flattered or deluded by words and his spirituality led him to continually put himself down and exalt others. This is how he usually ended his letters: "Priest without deserving it"; or "Unworthy servant of God"; or "Useless servant of Christ"; or "Ark of ignorance"; or "I am so feeble that an ant can trip me"; but at the same time people around him knew he was a giant of holiness; a fountain of spiritual life for others. Humility in Don Gaetano was deep, and the fruit of continuous and rigorous control, but at the same time he could show authority and dignity with the result of others respecting him and submitting to him. In one of his letters he wrote: "I want to turn the world upside down but at the same time hide my hand". In his humility he wanted to do the will of God: "I want Jesus to cleanse my heart as soon as possible so I will not be rebellious to His will any more, so that I will not desire anything except being where He desires me to be. In this submission and in dying for myself, lies the glory of my Creator". These intimate spiritual expressions he wrote on the 8th June 1520 to Suor Laura Mignani. In another letter to her two years before, he had written: "I do not desire anything more than the will of the Father being always done in me, this I pray, this I desire". Gaetano went through a very particular incident at Loreto. Historians tell us, in fact, that while he was passing through the city at the time of his mother's illness, a curious and moving episode happened to him. The pious priest, preparing himself in the sacristy for Mass in the sanctuary, while walking to the altar, was taken by a very profound sense of humility that he did not feel deign to celebrate in such a Holy place. All of a sudden he stopped, in fact he wanted to return to the sacristy but had to move on because of the helping cleric. Once before the altar, feeling unworthy to stay in the room where the Son of God became flesh, was filled with such horror that he broke down in tears. He could not start the celebration because of his sobbing and his tears so he had to return to the sacristy full of emotion and confusion. Why Gaetano should feel all this emotion and why he thought he was in the place where Christ was born is contained in the legend about Mary's house which the Encyclopedia Britannica explains thus: According to this narrative the house at Nazareth in which Mary had been born and brought up had received the annunciation, and had lived during the childhood of Jesus and after His ascension, was converted into a church by the apostles. In 336 the empress Helena made a pilgrimage to Nazareth and caused a basilica to be erected over it, in which worship continued until the fall of the kingdom of Jerusalem. Threatened with destruction by the Turks, it was carried by angels through the air and deposited (1291) in the first instance on a hill at Tersatto in Dalmatia, where an appearance of the Virgin and numerous miraculous cures attested its sanctity, which was confirmed by investigations made at Nazareth by messengers from the governor of Dalmatia. In 1294 the angels carried it across the Adriatic to a wood near Recanati; from this wood (lauretum), or from the name of its proprietress (Laureta), the chapel derived the name, which it still retains ("sacellum gloriosae Virginis in Laureto"). From this spot it was afterwards (1295) removed to the present hill, one other slight adjustment being required to fix it in its actual site.

The Holy Eucharist.

It was the Sacrament of the Eucharist in Holy Mass that gave energy to the spiritual life of Gaetano's priests. The Eucharist was also his focal point in Rome when he first became a priest. The impact of the secular city moved him closer to Christ, and this comes out in a letter that his friend Bartolomeo Stella wrote to Suor Laura Mignani on the 2nd March of 1517: ".. he has already been ten years in Rome, a holy person, celebrating daily Mass in his room". He had transformed his humble lodgings into a house of God. "Always first for the Holy Office during the night; then after the Holy Matins you could see him in the choir kneeling at his place with the beads in his hands until it's time for Mass, and he used to celebrate Mass more likely on the main altar". - This was written about him in 1600 after his death, by Don Erasmo Danese, canon of the Gaeta Cathedral. He had become one of Gaetano's disciples in the church of San Paolo Maggiore in Naples during the latter part of our Saint's life. In silence and by force of example, Gaetano was giving the other priests a clear picture of how they should have been carrying out their main duties, his main lesson to them in trying to activate reforms from within the church. In fact, the Eucharist was the Light that led him throughout his life. To his niece Elizabeth Porto he wrote on the 10th July of 1522: "I am a sinner and for myself I do not have any esteem but appeal to the Saints, servants of God, to pray for you to the Blessed Christ and His Mother. Remember that all the Saints cannot place you in God's favour as much as you can yourself. You must play your part if you want God to love and help you; love Him yourself and will yourself to please Him always; and never doubt that if even all the Saints and all the creatures of God abandon you, He will help you always in your needs. Keep in mind that we are on this earth only as pilgrims and travelers: Our Homeland is Heaven. Those who are proud lose their way and run towards death. While we are living down here we have to work to acquire Eternal Life, and by ourselves we cannot do it because we have lost it through our sinning, but Jesus Christ has recovered it for us. For this we have to thank Him every moment, love and obey Him and do everything in our capacity to remain always with Him. He has given Himself to us as food. Unhappy is the person who ignores so great a gift. It is given to us to possess Christ, Son of the Virgin Mary. Do we refuse Him? Woe to the person who does not care to receive Him. My daughter, the good I wish for myself, I ask ardently for you, but to accomplish this there is no other way except to pray frequently to the Virgin Mary so that She might come and visit you with Her Glorious Son. In fact, dare to ask Her to give you Her Son as the real food for the soul in the Holy Sacrament of the altar. She will give Him to you willingly and more willingly will He come to strengthen you and fill you with security in this dark forest full of hidden dangers and enemies. But if we entrust ourselves to the Virgin's help, we will not come to any harm." It was one of Gaetano’s greatest wishes to see Christian life being led by the Eucharist thus becoming a fountain of love, of giving and of works of charity. These thoughts led him to write these words to P. Giustiniani in 1523: "I will not be satisfied until I see Christians going to the priest to appease their hunger with the Eucharist, this being done with joy and without shyness". He had always wanted the Theatine priests to celebrate Mass daily, a custom very unusual with many priests of the time. He had the real conviction that the renewed Sacrifice of Christ on the Altar would give abundant spiritual fruit both to the celebrant and to those participating. Educated in this way, the Theatines celebrated daily with the proper preceding meditation and preparation. It was this energy that made him leave Naples for Rome to recommend to Cardinal Carafa, his friend and co founder of the order, not to slacken regarding the celebration of Holy Mass. One day Gaetano heard that Cardinal Carafa, caught up in the commitments of his office, did not prepare himself well for Mass, in fact he sometimes missed celebrating It completely. Don Gaetano became so sad that he decided to set off for Rome to correct this. There he reminded the Cardinal of his duties to celebrate Mass daily with the proper preparation. We must remember that it was a common priest admonishing a Cardinal and the only connection that Carafa had at this time with the order was one of love only. The Cardinal who even in his old age had kept his proud demeanour, bowed his head in front of Don Gaetano and promised he would correct these shortcomings of his at all cost. They embraced and parted with Don Gaetano happy at the thought of success with his friend and never worrying about the hard time traveling from Naples to Rome and back just for that. In one journey from Venice to Naples Don Gaetano boarded a ship, sailing out in excellent weather, but soon after, the sea started to swell until it became very rough eventually developing into a full blown tempest. After a while, with the brave crew on the verge of giving up, the unknown priest was besieged with requests for confession from the passengers. Don Gaetano, in his calm way, told them that it was the will of God that everyone would survive to serve God and support their families because the Immaculate Lamb would save them. At this instant he took out a wax medallion (commonly carried in those days), on which were imprinted the words Agnus Dei (Lamb of God), and holding it high up told everyone to throw away all their sins because "the Lamb of God takes away the sins of the world". Saying this he threw the medallion overboard with the sincere thoughts of repentance of all those on board. Unbelievably the huge waves calmed down in minutes and so did the strong gale force winds. Now Don Gaetano was in danger of being suffocated by the embraces of thankful passengers and crew... but he promptly spoke up that they should thank God not him a common sinner.

About reception of the Eucharist he admonished his congregations: “Do not receive Christ in the Blessed Sacrament so that you may use Him as you judge best, but give yourself to Him and let Him receive you in this Sacrament, so that He Himself, God your Saviour, may do to you and through you whatever He wills.”

Imitating Christ.

In the beginning of the short booklet about spiritual life that he wrote, he says that man's happiness is found in his desire to imitate Christ's life ever so closely. He was already contemplating about the needed reforms in the Church especially amongst the clergy when he wrote to Paolo Giustiniani on the 1st January 1523: "Pray for me" he wrote him, "so that I will deserve to lie at the Holy Feet of that Mystical Body that does not seem so, yet it is at one with God and without it and without this union with Him I am nothing". In the same letter he writes about Venice and reiterates: ".. that city with all its beauty, there is much reason to cry over it, there is no one looking for Christ crucified. I have not met one single noble person who has given up one's glory for the love of Christ .. one, only one! Oh my"! and he continues with a lament which in future he would repeat over and over again: "Christ waits and no one moves"! The words he wrote to Bartolomeo Sciani: "No one resembles Our Lord Christ especially myself, neither from inside nor outside", showed how hard he yearned to imitate Jesus and then try to recommend others to do the same. He always took care to teach others but primarily through silent example, first as a cleric then as a priest. He always looked for personal renewal without condemning other people's behaviour. In 1520 he wrote to Sister Laura: "The purification of one’s soul can be done through effective fervour not affective fervour". To the same nun he had written two years previously: ".. faithful administrator and humble worker, servant of a humble Lord...". And these words he said about himself clearly show us what exact position he wanted himself to be in amidst the turbulence of the reform around him. When the noble Francesco Capello asked the Theatines of Venice to receive amongst them the famous Marcantonio Flaminio and concede to him a relaxation of the rules because of his ill health, Gaetano answered in the name of his brethren: "If he wants to live with us he does not have to think about his room or about anything else except about giving up everything for His Will. Between us and him should be no difference except that we are nailed to the Holy Cross, while he is free to go whenever he wishes or we wish". This was written on the 17th February 1533 and he was echoing Paul's letter to the Galatians 2:19 where he says: "I was nailed to the cross with Christ". In time of civil or ecclesiastical unrest, Gaetano had one thought in mind; to follow Christ and to bring Christ to others to imitate and follow: "You have Christ, hear Him and follow Him", he wrote to Bartolomeo Sciani in March of 1529.

His Prayers and Thoughts

* Look down, O Lord, from Your sanctuary, from Your dwelling in heaven on high, and behold this sacred Victim which our great High Priest, Your Holy Son our Lord Jesus Christ, offers up to you for the sins of His brethren and be appeased despite the multitude of our sins. Behold, the voice of the Blood of Jesus, our Brother, cries to you from the cross. Listen, O Lord. Be appeased, O Lord. Hearken and do not delay for your own sake, O my God; for Your Name is invoked upon this city and upon your people and deal with us according to your mercy. Amen.

THAT you would defend, pacify, keep, preserve, and bless this city, we ask you, hear us.

* 'There is no one, O Most Holy Mary, who can know God except through thee; no one who can be saved or redeemed but through thee, O Mother of God; no one who can be delivered from dangers but through thee, O Virgin Mother; no one who obtains mercy but through thee, O Filled-With-All-Grace'!

* 'In this dark vale of tears, I wish solely to feed upon this secret manna, this delicious substance'.

* 'I am a sinner and do not think much of myself; I have recourse to the greatest servants of the Lord, that they may pray for you to the blessed Christ and his Mother. But do not forget that all the saints cannot endear you to Christ as much as you can yourself. It is entirely up to you. If you want Christ to love you and help you, you must love Him and always make an effort to please Him. Do not waver in your purpose, because even if all the saints and every single creature should abandon you, He will always be near you, whatever your needs'.

His Maxims (short sayings)

From the story of the Cleric Regular P.D.G.Silos.

1. Exercises of mercy are necessary means to maintain Religion to heart: but the substance of religion is the conformity of the will to that of our God.

2. All the satisfactions of this life deceive, because they do not quench but swell: God alone has the true consolations that fill our hearts.

3. Those who think of their lowliness before God, are spontaneously gentle and patient with others.

4. No one wants to be caught up in other people’s business: it is sufficient commitment to have to give an account to God of their particular obligations.

5. A Christian, who lives forgetting his homeland which is Heaven, is like a traveler, who, drank too much wine and cannot find the road necessary for his journey.

6. Those who value their lives too much and overly esteem themselves feel more the weight of human misery.

7. If we try to please God to the best of our capacity, we will always find him ready to help us in all our needs.

8. Thinking that day by day we are in the process of approaching the end of our mortal life we should rejoice, because we are actually approaching the beginning of the eternal.

9. Let us not trust ourselves around our spiritual benefit, because God alone holds the graces for our eternal salvation.

10. Content with not being in mortal sin, is for the 'soul the most formidable danger, because it is the most insidious: and then it is also a real insult to the infinite charity of God.

11. It does not happen, that deceiving deceiving ourselves with too much compassion for our body, we become more cruel against our soul.

12. Against the infernal enemy let us always consider ourselves as new soldiers, without weapons and clothed in worldly affections; and let us remember that he does not sleep.

Trust in Divine Providence

With Gaetano, the life of poverty reached its extreme limits, completely dependent on the Providence of God, and nothing else. This is the reason why San Gaetano is considered to be the Saint of Divine Providence. To this end, Gaetano took as the motto for his Theatines: Matt. 6.33 which is Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself saying: "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and its justice, and all these things shall be added unto you".

One story is told about Don Gaetano's trust in God's Providence: The church of San Nicola da Tolentino was, as already mentioned, given to the Theatines to care for. Don Gaetano had already done his utmost to trim from the convent budget so he could invest more in the temple's care and embellishment, but at one point, the debts were too much to balance the alms given them. So a debt deadline came up which could not be honoured and he had to humbly ask for an extension. The new date came and went with the same situation, still no money and Don Gaetano having to resort to asking for Divine intervention. A few moments before the creditor was scheduled to arrive, a young man of handsome appearance showed up and without a word dropped a packet in Don Gaetano's hands and with a salute, left. At the very moment the young man exited, the creditor came in with a sour face. Don Gaetano had the inspiration not to say a word but to open the parcel. In it was the exact amount of money owed. The beautiful story could end here, but the creditor who brushed past the handsome youth on his way in, saw the face of Gaetano shine and silently looked for an answer to the hardhearted question he had in mind. By and by all his profit making intentions melted away and he was moved to remorse, admiration and love. He replaced the money in the priest’s hands saying "In my hands, this is just money but in yours it is the fruit of God’s grace".

Another example can be found in the latter part of our Saint's life in Naples. The charity of the Neapolitan people towards the convent was constant but not bound to day or time. It could happen that some days they received more than enough with the surplus being given to the poor; on other days it was the Theatines themselves who went hungry. Here is what happened on one of these particularly lean days: The person in charge of the kitchen had nothing to prepare that day and was busy doing other chores whilst keeping an ear open for the bell which usually announced the arrival of alms. Sadly the morning passed without the sound of the bell and it was too late to explain the situation to the superior. The kitchen man was ordered to ring the refectory bell for dinner and the brothers gathered around the bare table. We do not know Don Gaetano’s exact words on this occasion but they must have been sincere and humble ones because right after the prayers were finished the door bell rang and the cook ran to open the door only to have a basket of bread dropped in his arms not knowing by whom.

When he took this to the refectory and the bread was distributed among the brothers, the white, soft, aromatic bread was said to taste like none before or after... bread of angels... but most of the brothers had the name of the angel on the tip of their tongues... Gaetano.

Gaetano consecrated his order to the Cross, which he adopted as its emblem, and the foundation took place on the feast of the Finding of the Holy Cross, 3 May 1524. It was approved on 24 June 1524, by Clement VII in the Brief “Exponi Nobis”. It was on 14 Sept. feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross that San Gaetano and his companions made solemn profession before the papal delegate. The chief object of the order was to recall the clergy to an edifying life and the laity to the practice of virtue.