Father Caesar died in Avignon, France on April 15, 1607. As soon as the news spread, everyone repeated: “A saint has died!”. After the solemn funeral, Father Caesar was buried in the tomb of the Congregation but, as the pilgrimage of the faithful continued and the fame of the miracles that had occurred through his intercession spread, the Doctrinaries spoke with the Archbishop of Avignon, Msgr. Bordini, who agreed to give Father Caesar a burial in the church of St. John the Elder. The body was examined and found intact, even though it had been buried for over a year in a damp place. So Father Caesar was placed in the sacristy, in an elevated place so that it could be easily accessed and prayed. He remained in the sacristy for over 6 years, until he was placed underground, in a chapel of the church where he remained until 1817. In 1623 the new Archbishop of Avignon, Msgr. Sweet, he had the room where Father Caesar died erected into a chapel. On April 15 of the same year, the anniversary of his death, the city of Avignon offered a votive lamp. The informative process on the reputation of sanctity began in Avignon, ordinary authority, in 1615 and ended in 1620. After years of study and research, many requests reached Benedict XIV, Pope from 1740 to 1758, to urge the beatification of Father Caesar. The Bishop of Cavaillon wrote: “The fame of the sanctity of Father Caesar de Bus is still alive and grows day by day”. But, around 1740, news spread in Rome that several Doctrinaries of France had adhered to Jansenism. The process of beatification of the Founder was suspended. The Postulator, Father Valentin, who resided in Rome, immediately went to France and visited all the Houses. In 1744 the General Chapter was held in Beaucaire where serious measures were taken against adherents of Jansenism. Father Valentin, returning to Rome, brought the documents approved by the General Chapter to the Pope. Benedict XIV wrote a letter to the new Superior General, Father Francis Mazenc, in which he congratulated him on what had been established in the Chapter. The Cause of Beatification was resumed and, on March 28, 1747, the Plenary Congregation of Cardinals was held. Since Card. Accoramboni, Ponente of the Cause, had died a few days earlier, the Pope himself gave the report. The vote was unanimous. Here is how Father Valentin recounts it all in a letter to the Rector of Cavaillon: «… finally, after more than a hundred years of postulation, after a thousand unsuccessful attempts, after so many obstacles and useless expenses, we have had a Congregation (of Rites) perhaps the most honorable and favorable that has ever been had: the Pope, with a very special act of kindness, wanted to preside over this Congregation, indeed, he did much more, he deigned to personally act as Ponente; he spoke for over an hour and with such eloquence that all the votes of the twenty-one Cardinals converged in our favor. The cause was to be treated on the 24th, the eve of the Annunciation, but the death of three Cardinals, which occurred in less than 13 hours, meant that there was a Papal Chapel on the 22nd, 23rd, 24th, for the funeral. His Holiness, to whom I had already said that every day seemed longer than a month to me, with unprecedented kindness and condescension, decided to gather the Congregation on March 28, against the ordinary rule of never holding congregations of this kind either in this week or in Easter week; furthermore he wanted to congratulate me in front of all the Cardinals, assuring me that as soon as possible he would issue me a most desired and favorable decree».
On April 6, 1747, the Decree of the introduction of the Cause was signed. Father Valentin immediately left by sea for Avignon. His ship was chased by the Algerians, who were fortunately driven away by an English ship. During the voyage, Father Valentin was struck by fever and had to be admitted to a hospital in Marseille. On October 4, he was able to attend the recognition of Father César’s body, in the presence of the Archbishop of Avignon, the Vicar and other illustrious men. In 1748, the “super non cultu” and “super scriptis” Processes were carried out. In Avignon, 20 handwritten notebooks, the 5 printed volumes of the “Family Instructions” were found, and in Maçon, two bound manuscripts.
Once these Processes were over, towards the end of 1748, Father Valentin returned to Rome. This was followed by the Apostolic Processes on the reputation of sanctity “in general” (1749-1750) and on the reputation of sanctity “in species” (1751-1754), which received the Decree of legal validity in May 1756. The Process seemed to be coming to a favorable conclusion but, in 1789, the French Revolution broke out in Paris which caused the destruction of the Congregation of the Doctrinaries Fathers in France and the Cause of Beatification was suspended pending better times. In 1817, after the French Revolution and the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815, the reconstruction of the Congregation in Italy was undertaken by Fathers Filippo Blancardi, Carlo Luigi Vassia, Pietro Silvestro Glauda, Giulio Bevilacqua-Valletti. Father Vassia was appointed Postulator and the Cause of Father Caesarwas resumed with the Rota lawyer Monsignor Amici. On 8 December 1821 Pope Pius VII issued the Decree on virtues practiced to a heroic degree.
At the same time, in execution of the master plan of Avignon, the church and the house of Saint John the Elder were demolished. The body of Father Caesar was transported to the church of Saint Peter, also in Avignon. But the Doctrinaries of Italy asked that the body be transferred to Rome, to the church of Santa Maria in Monticelli. Monsignor Dupont, archbishop of Avignon and former student of the Doctrinaries, joyfully took steps to proceed with this transfer. Thus, in 1836, the Doctrinaries brought their Founder to Italy. For the occasion, the following epigraph (in Latin) was placed on the tomb: “Body of the V. Servant of God CESARE DE BUS Found. Congr. of Priests of the Christian Doctrine. Who lived 63 years, died in Avignon in France on 15 April 1607, transported to the City under the pontificate of Gregory XVI and laid here on 8 of the Ides of July 1837”. After the exhumation in 1924, a new Latin inscription could be read, which has remained to this day: “The sacred remains of the Venerable Caesar de Bus, founder of the secular priests of the Christian Doctrine, were placed here by apostolic authority on 15 November 1924”.

April 27, 1975: Saint Paul VI declares Father Caesarb lessed

The two miracles that occurred through the intercession of Father Caesar, recognized by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, with instantaneous, perfect and lasting healing were those of Pasquale Savino, affected by acute pulmonary syndrome, combined with cardio-respiratory failure, and of Maria Bianco affected by thyroid cancer that, having manifested itself suddenly, developed rapidly. The two miracles occurred respectively in Ascoli Satriano and San Damiano d’Asti.
In preparation for the beatification, from 10 to 15 July 1974, at the General House, a canonical recognition of the remains of Father Caesar was carried out by a doctor, in the presence of representatives of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the Superior General and some confreres. This was the fourth canonical recognition, after those of 1608 and 1836 in France, and of 1924 in Rome.
On April 27, 1975, Father Caesar was proclaimed blessed in St. Peter’s Basilica.

2021: Blessed Cesare de Bus is proclaimed a saint by Pope Francis

Among the many graces attributed to the intercession of Blessed Caesar de Bus, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints has examined the case of the healing of a young woman from Salerno affected by “severe meningitis from Acinetobacter Baumannii MDR in a patient affected by a previous intraparenchymal cerebral hemorrhage”, which occurred in 2016. While the young woman was in a serious clinical situation due to a large cerebral hemorrhage, which occurred on October 17, 2016, suddenly, on November 9, she was struck by bacterial meningitis, which further compromised her already severely tested clinical picture. Only after three days, her health improved enormously and, on November 30, the young woman was discharged from the hospital completely healed from meningitis. The initiative to entrust the young woman to the intercession of Blessed Caesar was started in the parish of Santa Maria dei Barbuti, entrusted to the Doctrinaries. Informed by friends, our brothers immediately sent the blessed’s image with the healing prayer and a relic of him to their family, relatives and other acquaintances. They began daily invocations to blessed Caesar so that he would intercede for the healing of the young woman. Prayer vigils were organized, which many parishioners joined. Relatives and friends prayed in the hospital, in the room in front of the Intensive Care Unit.
On May 26, 2020, Pope Francis authorized the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to promulgate the decree on the miracle.

With the example of Caesar, holiness every day

Over fifty thousand people in St. Peter’s Square, Sunday, May 15, under the clear sky of Rome, gathered around the Pope during the solemn mass for the canonization of ten new saints. Among them Caesar de Bus, founder of the Doctrinaries Fathers.
A great popular celebration, with official delegations from the native countries of the canonized, from the religious families and Churches of origin, of men and women who know and appreciate the lives of the new saints and of those who have inherited their charisma.
This was also the case for the Doctrinaries Fathers who, in the previous days, welcomed their brothers, lay members of the Doctrinarian Family Movement and the Fraternity of the Word, and delegations from parishes and houses, especially Italian ones, to Rome in the General House of Santa Maria Monticelli, in the parish of Sant’Andrea Apostolo and in the Cesare de Bus International Seminary.
In the house of Santa Maria in Monticelli it was possible to visit the permanent exhibition Hereditas de Bus, while the Seminary hosted the first meeting of the Cesar-Stock doctrinarian youth ministry and the Doctrinarian Family Movement met in Sant’Andrea Apostolo.
During the solemn mass for the canonization – also present was the President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella, with his daughter Mrs. Laura – in his homily Pope Francis, commenting on the Sunday Gospel (Jn 13:31-35), forcefully reaffirmed how God loves us before we love him and that this makes it simple to be Christian: it is enough to love. Thus the Pope brought holiness back to the daily and family dimension that we too often risk forgetting, connoting it on the contrary with an ideal too based on the ego, a Pelagian idea: “We have made holiness an impervious half, we have separated it from everyday life – said Francis – instead of seeking it and embracing it in everyday life, in the dust of the street, in the travails of concrete life and, as Teresa of Avila said to her sisters, among the pots in the kitchen”.
Repeating Jesus’ commandment during the Last Supper “you also love one another” the Pope reiterated that Christian life is like this, simple, it is we who make it complicated “we must ask ourselves every day, as the saints did, ‘what do I do for others?’. Holiness is not made up of a few heroic gestures, but of much daily love. Are you a consecrated man or woman? Be holy by living your donation with joy. Are you married? Be holy by loving and taking care of your husband or wife. Are you a worker, a working woman? Be holy by carrying out your work with honesty and competence in the service of your brothers, make sure that their remuneration is fair and that no one is left without work. Are you a parent or a grandmother or grandfather? Be holy by patiently teaching children to follow Jesus. Do you have authority? Be holy by fighting for the common good and renouncing your personal interests. There is a plan of God for each one of us, carry it forward with joy”. As Caesar de Bus did, when he fully understood it: perhaps with difficulty but without any second thoughts.