Roland (+1386)

Biography

He was a hermit named Rolande de Medici, who had arrived in the country dressed in mourning, twenty-six years earlier. Since his clothes had been torn and fallen to pieces, he had replaced them with a goatskin. In summer he ate herbs and fruits, in winter he begged for something so as not to die of hunger. No one had heard her say anything, but she had repeatedly been seen motionless on one foot, with her arms outstretched and her eyes fixed on the sky. The marchioness offered to transport the dying man to her castle in Borgo, but the hermit refused with signs. However, Antonia convinced him that he should not die without confession, adding that she offered to provide him with the services of his confessor, Father Domenico. Then Roland made a sign of acceptance. He was transported to the neighboring church, where the priest administered the sacrament to him and questioned him at length. Lying on the straw in the sun, the hermit declared that he had kept silence and fled from the company of men to avoid sin, and that his ecstasies and the apparent oddities of his conduct were to be attributed to the many consolations with which God had showered him. He received the last sacraments, drank the chicken soup that the Marchioness had prepared for him, and lived four more weeks. At the moment of his death, he saw Saint Michael carried with a multitude of angels to lead him to paradise.