Story of the Blessed Andrea Xueres op, from Syracuse

Second drawing of the Blessed Andrea Xueres

Fourth part

It’s almost unbelievable how much trust our Blessed has enjoyed for his reputation for sanctity and how this, following this miracle, has increased among the people of every class and condition: they prayed him in danger and after having obtained some grace they communicated it to the families and visited the remains, now placed in a noble marble ark. 

For this reason, many of the people, suffering from various illnesses, came down into his early tomb, from that moment no longer used for burial, and went up completely healed. 

This devoted affection of the Syracusans for the Blessed Andrea surpassed the fifteenth, sixteenth, seventeenth centuries. On 1 December 1614 the Prior Giovan Battista Cappello O.P. wanted to carry out a solemn recognition of the relics of the Blessed at the presence of the Bishop, the Senate and the Syracusan People toreassemble them in a new and more noble wooden urn lined with red velvet placed in a more noble monument in the new Sacristy. 

The earthquake of 1693, in addition to having destroyed the church of Saint Dominic and decimated the population, also gave a serious blow to the devotion to the Blessed Andrea. The box of relics, in the late nineteenth century, as reported by P. Capodieci, was almost forgotten in a chest of drawers in the sacristy of Saint Dominic. Just because of  P. Capodieci, it was brought to light and placed on the altar of Our Lady of the Rosary in 1809. In 1866 the subversive laws, implemented after the annexation of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies to the Kingdom of Savoy, had as the effect of seeing the Dominican Fathers driven out of their Convent in order to use the Church and the Convent in Carabinieri barrrack.

The relics of the Blessed Andrea were  moved to the adjacent Church of “Nunziatella” where they were kept by the homonymous Congregation until the first half of the 20th century when they were then transferred to the Church of Saint Thomas Apostle’s, the new headquarters of the aforementioned Congregation. 

In the late 1900s, as the Congregation died out, the relics of the Blessed Andrea were placed in the treasury of the Cathedral until 2010 when, once the church of San Filippo Apostolo was reopened, the relics of Blessed Andrea returned to his neighborhood, venerated in the high altar daily visited by numerous faithful.

Story of the Blessed Andrea Xueres op, from Syracuse

Our Lady of the Rosary on the altar where are placed Blessed Andrea Xueres' bones

Third part

The same Syracusan civil authorities often resorted to him to seek advice and suggestions of all kinds. He left Syracuse only in the two-year period 1430-1432 when he was Prior of the Convent of Saint Dominic in Bologna. Because of the worsening of his health he returned to Syracuse.

Ottavio Gaetani tells us that in 1434 << he returne his beautiful soul to the Creator on the same day, December 25th, when Jesus on earth and he was born in Heaven >>. His death left the City breathless. At his solemn funeral in Saint Dominic, all the citizenship came and for that day the Town Magistrate proclaimed the mourning and the closure of all public offices.

The Preachers Fathers initially wanted to put his body in the common burial. In 1478, on Holy Thursday, a woman with a little daughter who had dumb since the age of ten arrived in Saint Dominic. The little girl wanted to go to the sacristy to drink. It was then that she saw a Dominican friar come out from the tomb and mark her mouth with the sign of the Cross. The girl returned to her mother laughing and shouting with joy. The mother, upset, didn’t even doubt for a moment that this miracle was operated by the intercession of Andrea Xueres. Since that, many people went to the tomb where the body of the blessed Andrea was buried, which in the meantime had been placed in another more suitable burial.

Story of the Blessed Andrea Xueres op, from Syracuse

The tomb of the Blessed Andrea Xueres in Saint Philip Apostle's Church

Second part

Anyone who turned to him didn’t go away without having received at least one word of comfort and good advices based always on that gospel logic given to us by Our Lord Jesus Christ. The daily crowding of people who gone to him (who left them with a heart full of hope not only didn’t exalted him but he didn’t even neglect his spiritual duties such as personal prayer and the Breviary that represented for him an inevitable appointment and a sweet source from which to draw for the refreshment of his soul.

He used to consider himself as a useless servant, and he didn’t stop to implore the Divine help for himself and for the reform of the customs of Syracuse and also for this reason his meditations were continuous, his prolonged vigils, his harsh penances, and God rewarded him with the gift of miracles that, according to the people, were the clear proof of his holiness.

Nothing or little is known about his social activity, we know only that, due to the prestige he had also among the authorities and for his personal undoubted abilities, he was entrusted with various important assignments including an embassy on behalf of the Senate of Syracuse at the Queen Maria in Spain, who ruled the Syracuse Regal Chamber, in favor of her own City. He went away from her obtaining all that was the purpose of his mission; indeed it was used to restore a dormitory of the Convent of San Domenico in Syracuse.

Story of the Blessed Andrea Xueres op, from Syracuse

First drawing of the Blessed Andrea Xueres

First Part

Andrea Xueres was probably born in Syracuse from pious and devoted parents. They educated their children according to the strong Christian principles. Growing up Andrea was able to develop a healthy spirituality based on the Word, daily prayer and those devout practices still present in  Christian people such as vigils, fasts and penances, always according to his spiritual father, which maintained after ordination to the priesthood.

He go often to the Church of Saint Dominic not only for the Holy Mass and other sacred functions but also because he loved to converse with the Dominican Fathers. He remained so fascinated by their charisma that, as the times matured, he asked and obtained to be admitted as a novice in their Order. During his stay at the Convent he was lovable and dear to all. He excelled in studies, discipline and spiritual life. Having made his solemn profession and ordained as priest, his fame soon spread among all the Syracusans. Venerated already in life as a saint, numerous people went to confess to him. Sweet and kindly with everyone, with a gentle, humble and patient heart, he didn’t neglect anything or anyone convinced as he was that the main purpose of every priest was to obtain the salvation of the souls.