At the end of 1488, unwell, he left the mountain to
go down to the Basilica of the Annunication in Florence and then spent
a few months as Prior in the Hermitage of Our Lady of Grace in Chianti.
Before returning to Milan, almost certainly after 1495,
it seems he temporarily lived at Cavacuta a small monastery in the province
of Lodi. In Milan he was appointed on the organisers of a reform programme.
He died there, on 23 rd October 1505, in the monastery
where he had been a novice.
His body, almost incorruptible, was preserved for public
veneration in the same place in which the ancient monastery of servants
had been established. It is now the Church of Saint Charles Borromeo.
Moreover, St Charles Borromeo, as a child had been cured through the
intercession of Giovannangelo Porro.
His Character
It seems that Giovannangelo had a delicate constitution
(to judge from his illnesses) but was above all, sensitive and refined,
as the minute Humanistic script which he used would suggest.
The principal characteristics of his religious image
are simplicity, poverty, austerity and his constant devotion to prayer;
in other words he embodied, above all, the best contemplative tradition
of the Holy Order.
His simplicity and poverty were great, and this is shown
also in the inventory of the clothing of the monastery of the Annunciation
in Florence in 1474 when the monk who looked after the clothing of the
other monks found nothing in his cell to record except a pair of torn
sheets. Moreover, according to Brother Philip of Bologna, who occasionally
shared a cell with him, he preferred to sleep on the floor.
The small amount of money that he received for clothing,
as did all those in the monastery; he gave as alms for charity.
He was a true brother, without any wish to appear, or
to become, someone of importance; and this revealed by his choice of
a monastery. He had a deeply contemplative mind and he lived for a long
time following in the footsteps of the original seven saints of the Order
of Servi.
The Spontaneous popular veneration of Giovannangelo
Porro, which developed immediately after his death, was approved by Pope
Clement X11 in 1737. His feast day is 25 th October.
Prayer
Brother Giovannangelo
Man of the happy and contemplative life
To think of you in veneration
In the heart of Milan
Comfort us and help us to be
Today as yesterday
Always turning towards Eternity
And to make of ourselves strong companions
Amid the busy life of the city
Of every hungry and thirsty seeker after Eternal Life.
Make of us faithful guardians
Of silence and of hearing
Within an inner quiet space:
The only creative space for dialogue and communion
Within the solitude of every great city
O lord support for us Blessed Giovannangelo, he who gave a shining example
of the withdrawn and contemplative life and of a zeal for teaching the
Holy Word, so that with our hearts fixed in you, we may persevere in
evangelical life and apostolic fervour.
Amen. |