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One Good Friday, as he was riding into Florence accompanied by armed men, he encountered his enemy in a place where neither could avoid the other. John would have slain him; but his adversary, who was totally unprepared to fight, fell upon his knees with his arms stretched out in the form of a cross, and implored him, for the sake of Our Lord’s holy Passion, to spare his life. St. John said to his enemy, “I cannot refuse what you ask in Christ’s name. I grant you your life, and I give you my friendship. Pray that God may forgive me my sin.” Grace triumphed. A humble and changed man, he entered the Church of St. Miniato, which was near; and whilst he prayed, the figure of our crucified Lord, before which he was kneeling, bowed its head toward him as if to ratify his pardon. Abandoning the world, he gave himself up to prayer and penance in the Benedictine Order. Later he was led to found the congregation called of Vallombrosa, from the shady valley a few miles from Florence, where he established his first monastery. Once the enemies of the Saint came to his convent of St. Salvi, plundered it, and set fire to it, and having treated the monks with ignominy, beat them and wounded them. St. John rejoiced. “Now,” he said, “you are true monks. Would that I myself had had the honor of being with you when the soldiers came, that I might have had a share in the glory of your crowns! ” He fought manfully against simony, and in many ways promoted the interest of the Faith in Italy. After a life of great austerity, he died whilst the angels were singing round his bed, July 11, 1073.
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๐๐ฐ๐ณ๐ฅ, ๐ข๐ฎ๐ช๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ด ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ด ๐ธ๐ฐ๐ณ๐ญ๐ฅ, ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ต ๐ถ๐ด ๐ฃ๐ฆ ๐ธ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ญ๐ฆ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ณ๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ๐ญ๐บ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฎ๐ฎ๐ช๐ต๐ต๐ฆ๐ฅ ๐ต๐ฐ ๐ฉ๐ฆ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ญ๐บ ๐ต๐ฉ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐ช๐ฎ๐ช๐ต๐ข๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ต๐ฉ๐ฆ ๐ฆ๐น๐ข๐ฎ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ฆ ๐ฐ๐ง ๐ฆ๐ท๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฆ๐ญ๐ช๐ค๐ข๐ญ ๐ฑ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ง๐ฆ๐ค๐ต๐ช๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ ๐ฐ๐ถ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ท๐ฆ ๐จ๐ช๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ ๐ถ๐ด ๐ช๐ฏ ๐๐ต. ๐๐ฐ๐ฉ๐ฏ ๐๐ถ๐ข๐ญ๐ฃ๐ฆ๐ณ๐ต. ๐๐ฎ๐ฆ๐ฏ.
