SAINT FRANCES OF ROME

SAINT FRANCES OF ROME
Widow
(1384-1440)

 

Frances was born in Rome in 1384. Her parents, of high rank, overruled her desire to become a nun, and when she reached the age of twelve, married her to Lorenzo Ponziano, a Roman noble. During the forty years of their married life they never had a disagreement. While spending her days in retirement and prayer, Saint Frances attended promptly to every household duty, saying, “A married woman must leave God at the altar to find Him in her domestic cares.” She once found the verse of a psalm, at which she had been four times thus interrupted, completed for her in letters of gold. Her ordinary food was dry bread, and secretly she would exchange with beggars good food for their hard crusts.

Two of her children died young. Her son was nine years old when he foretold his father’s death wound and his own coming departure for heaven; and then he returned a year later with an Angel whom she saw clearly. He said he had come for his little five year-old sister, that she might be placed among the Angels with him. He left the Angel with her in exchange, to remain always.

During the invasion of Rome in 1413, Lorenzo was banished, his estates confiscated, his house destroyed, and his eldest son taken as a hostage. Frances saw in these losses only the hand of God, and blessed His holy Name. When peace was restored Ponziano recovered his estates, and after her husband’s death, Saint Frances founded a Community of Benedictine Oblate nuns. At the age of forty-three, barefoot and with a cord about her neck she asked admission to the community, and was soon elected Superior.

She lived at all times in the presence of God, and among many visions was given constant sight of her Angel, who shed such a brightness around him that the Saint could read her midnight Office by this light alone. He shielded her in time of temptation, and directed her in every good act. But when she fell into some fault, he faded from her sight, and whenever any unsuitable words were spoken before her, he covered his face in shame. Saint Frances died on the day she foretold, March 9, 1440.

Reflection. God has appointed for each one of us, to protect us from all evils, a Guardian Angel whose warnings we are bound to heed. Let us listen to his voice here below, and we shall see him hereafter when he leads us before the throne of God.

SAINT JOHN of GOD

SAINT JOHN of GOD
Founder
(1495-1550)

Nothing in the early life of John Ciudad, born of a poor couple in a town of Portugal, foreshadowed his future sanctity. Following a traveler whose description of Madrid had captivated his imagination, this only son of his parents ran away from his home. Soon regret and misery overtook him, but he was ashamed to return to his abandoned parents. In effect his mother, struck with a fever, but advised by an Angel that John would have to undergo long trials which would strengthen his virtue, departed this life only a few days after his adventure began.

For several years the renegade was engaged in tending sheep and cattle in Spain; his employer eventually offered him his only daughter in marriage and thereby a rich heritage, but John was interiorly advised that such was not his vocation. He left in secret the next day, joined the army of Spain against the French, later against the Turks. When he was about forty years of age, feeling profound remorse for his life which lacked order and purpose, he returned to his home village, only to learn of the death of both his parents. “I am not worthy to see the light of day!” exclaimed the grief-stricken voyager. He visited the cemetery, suffocated by his sobs, and cried out, “Pardon, pardon! O mother! Eternal penance!”

He resolved to devote himself to the ransom of Christian slaves in Africa, and on his way served the sick in a hospital. Meeting an aged nobleman at Gibralter, unjustly exiled and on his way to Africa, John offered to go there as his servant, to remain with him and his family and support them by his labor. Count DaSilva fell ill in the new climate and soon died, thanking John for his unfailing aid, and predicting he would some day be one of Spain’s greatest apostles. His family received amnesty and returned to Spain.

John, too, returned there by the advice of his confessor, and sought to do good by selling holy pictures and books at low prices. Finally the hour of grace struck. At Granada a sermon by the celebrated John of Avila shook his soul to its depths, and his expressions of self-abhorrence were so extraordinary that he was taken to the asylum as one insane. For a time he acted this role purposely, in order to be whipped daily as a remedial measure. His confessor was John of Avila, who when he learned of this told him to cease his pretense and do something useful. Thereafter he employed himself in ministering to the sick.

He began to collect homeless poor, and to support them by his work and by begging. One night Saint John found in the streets a poor man who seemed near death, and, as was his wont, he carried him to the hospital, laid him on a bed, and went to fetch water to wash his feet. When he had washed them, he knelt to kiss them, but was awestruck: the feet were pierced, and the print of the nails shone with an unearthly radiance. He raised his eyes, and heard the words, “John, it is to Me that you do all that you do for the poor in My name. It is I who reach forth My hand for the alms you give; you clothe Me; Mine are the feet that you wash.” And then the gracious vision disappeared, leaving Saint John filled at once with confusion and consolation.

The bishop became the Saint’s patron and gave him the name of John of God. When his hospital was on fire, John was seen rushing about uninjured amid the flames until he had rescued all his poor. After ten years spent in the service of the suffering, the Saint’s life was fitly closed when he plunged into a river to save a drowning boy, and died in 1550 of an illness brought on by the attempt. He was fifty-five years old.

Reflection. God often rewards men for works that are pleasing in His sight, by giving them grace and opportunity to do other works higher still. Saint John of God often attributed his conversion, and the graces which enabled him to do his works of love, to his self-denying charity in Africa.

SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS

SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS
Doctor of the Church
(1225-1274)

The great Saint Thomas was born of noble parents at Aquino near Naples in Italy, in 1225; his century was replete with great names and Christian works, yet he dominates it by the power of his thought and the perfection of his works. In his childhood he was the provider for the poor of the neighborhood during a famine; his father, meeting him in a corridor with the food he had succeeded in taking from the kitchen, asked him what he had under his cloak; he opened it and fresh roses fell on the ground. The nobleman embraced his son and amid his tears, gave him permission to follow thereafter all inspirations of his charity.

The young student, like the holy man Job, made a pact with his eyes and forbade them to see anything which might favor in his heart any desires for a life of ease. At the University of Naples he led a retired life of study and prayer, and continued his charities, giving all he had which was superfluous. He was recognized already by his professors as a genius, but it was Saint Albert the Great who later said of his disciple whom some called “the mute ox”, that “some day the lowing of this ox will resound throughout the entire world.”

At the age of seventeen he received the Dominican habit at Naples. His family opposed this choice, and he was set upon by his brothers on his way to Paris. They attempted in vain to remove his holy habit, but he was taken in custody and obliged to suffer a two years’ captivity in their castle of Rocca Secca. Neither the caresses of his mother and sisters, nor the threats and stratagems of his brothers, could shake him in his vocation. His older sister was won over by him and renounced a brilliant marriage to embrace religious life; later she was Abbess of her convent in Capua.

While Saint Thomas was in confinement at Rocca Secca, his brothers endeavored to entrap him into sin, but the attempt only ended in the triumph of his purity. Snatching from the hearth a burning coal, the Saint drove from his chamber the courtesan whom they had concealed there. Then marking a cross upon the wall, he knelt down to pray. Immediately, while he was rapt in ecstasy, an Angel girded him with a cord, in token of the gift of perpetual chastity which God had given him. The pain caused by the girdle was so sharp that Saint Thomas uttered a piercing cry, which brought his guards into the room. But he never related this grace to anyone save Father Raynald, his confessor, a short time before his death. Thus originated the Confraternity of the Angelic Warfare, for the preservation of the virtue of chastity.

Having at length escaped, Saint Thomas went to Cologne to study under Blessed Albert the Great, and afterwards was sent with him to Paris, where for several years he taught philosophy and theology. The Church has ever venerated his numerous writings as a treasure of sacred doctrine; in naming him the Angelic Doctor she has indicated that his science is more divine than human. The rarest gifts of intellect were combined in him with the most tender piety. Prayer, he said, had taught him more than study. His singular devotion to the Blessed Sacrament shines forth in the Office and hymns which he composed for the feast of Corpus Christi. To the words miraculously uttered by a crucifix at Naples, “Well hast thou written concerning Me, Thomas. What shall I give thee as a reward?” he replied, “Naught save Thyself, O Lord.” Saint Thomas was loved for his unfailing gentleness and his readiness to lend his services or great lights to all who sought them. He died at Fossa Nuova in 1274, on his way to the General Council of Lyons, to which Pope Gregory X had summoned him.

Reflection. The knowledge of God is for all, but hidden treasures are reserved for those who have ever followed the Lamb.

SAINT COLETTE

SAINT COLETTE
Virgin, Reformer of the Poor Clares
(1380-1447)

After a holy childhood, Colette joined a society of devout women called the Beguines. Not finding their state sufficiently austere, she entered the Third Order of Saint Francis, and lived in a hut near her parish church of Corbie in Picardy. Here she had passed four years in extraordinary penance when Saint Francis, in a vision, bade her undertake the reform of her Order, then much relaxed. She doubted for a time and was struck with muteness for three days and blindness for another three. Finally, fortified by ecclesiastical authority, she established the reform throughout a large part of Europe, and, in spite of the most violent opposition, founded seventeen convents of the strict observance.

By the same wonderful prudence she helped to heal the great schism which then afflicted the Church. The Fathers in council at Constance were in doubt as to how to deal with the three claimants to the tiara — John XXIII, Benedict XIII, and Gregory XII. At this crisis Colette, together with Saint Vincent Ferrer, wrote to the Fathers to depose Benedict XIII, who alone refused his consent to a new election. This was done, and Martin V was elected, to the great good of the Church.

Colette also assisted the Council of Basle by her advice and prayers, and when God revealed to her the spirit of revolt which was rising there, she warned the bishops and legates to retire from the council.

Saint Colette never ceased to pray for the Church, while the devils, for their part, never ceased to assault her. They swarmed round her in the form of hideous insects, buzzing and stinging her tender skin. They brought into her cell the decaying corpses of public criminals, and assuming monstrous forms themselves, struck her savage blows. Or they would appear in the most seductive guise, and tempt her by many deceits to sin. Saint Colette once complained to Our Lord that the demons prevented her from praying. “Cease, then,” said the devil to her, “your prayers to the great Master of the Church, and we will cease to torment you; for you torment us more by your prayers than we do you.” Yet the virgin of Christ triumphed alike over their threats and their allurements, and said she would count the day during which she suffered nothing for her God, the unhappiest of her life. She died March 6, 1447, in a transport of intercession for sinners and the Church.

Reflection. One of the greatest tests of being a good Catholic is zeal for the Church and devotion to Christ’s Vicar.

SAINT JOHN JOSEPH and SAINTS ADRIAN and EUBULUS

SAINT JOHN JOSEPH of the CROSS
Confessor, priest, Franciscan Friar
(1654-1734)

Saint John Joseph of the Cross was born on the feast of the Assumption in 1654, on the island of Ischia in the kingdom of Naples. From his childhood he was a model of virtue, and in his sixteenth year he entered the Franciscan Order of the Strict Observance, or Reform of Saint Peter of Alcantara, at Naples. Such was the edification he gave in his Order, that within three years after his profession he was sent to found a monastery in Piedmont. He assisted in its construction himself and established there the most perfect silence and monastic fervor.

One day Saint John Joseph was found in the chapel in ecstasy, raised far above the floor. He won the hearts of all his religious, and became a priest out of obedience to his Superiors. He obtained what seemed to be an inspired knowledge of moral theology, in prayer and silence. He assisted at the death of his dear mother who rejoiced and seemed to live again in his presence, and after he had sung the Mass for the repose of her soul, saw her soul ascend to heaven, to pray thereafter their God face to face.

With his superiors’ permission he established another convent and drew up rules for the Community, which the Holy See confirmed. Afterward he became a master of novices vigilant and filled with gentleness, and of a constantly even disposition. Some time later he was made Provincial of the Province of Naples, erected in the beginning of the 18^th century by Clement XI. He labored hard to establish in Italy this branch of his Order, which the Sovereign Pontiff had separated from the same branch in Spain. His ministry brought him many sufferings, especially moral sufferings occasioned by numerous calumnies. Nonetheless, the Saint succeeded in his undertakings, striving to inculcate in his subjects the double spirit of contemplation and penance which Saint Peter of Alcantara had bequeathed to the Franciscans of the Strict Observance. He gave them the example of the most sublime virtues, especially of humility and religious discipline. God rewarded his zeal with numerous gifts in the supernatural order, such as those of prophecy and miracles.

Finally, consumed by labors for the glory of God, he was called to his reward. Stricken with apoplexy, he died an octogenarian in his convent at Naples, March 5, 1734. Countless posthumous miracles confirmed the sanctity and glory of the Saint, and he was canonized in 1839 by Pope Gregory XVI.

Reflection. Christ by His death has acquired for Christians the grace of the state of interior death, by which the heart in its depths cannot be moved by any attraction coming from the world. Its honors, its riches, its pleasures are as though offered to a dead person. This is a state which must be carefully conserved and cherished by each one of us. (Jean-Jacques Olier)

Source: Lives of the Saints for Every Day of the Year, edited by Rev. Hugo Hoever, S.O. Cist., Ph.D. (Catholic Book Publishing: New York, 1951-1955).

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SAINTS ADRIAN and EUBULUS
Martyrs
(†308)

In the seventh year of Diocletian’s persecution, continued by Galerius Maximianus, Firmilian, the cruel governor of Palestine, stained Caesarea with the blood of many illustrious martyrs. The Christians Adrian and Eubulus came from the region called Magantia to Caesarea, to visit the holy confessors there. At the gates of the city they were asked as were all strangers, where they were going and upon what errand. They spoke the truth, and were brought before the presiding officer. He ordered them to be tortured, their sides torn with iron hooks, then condemned them to be exposed to wild beasts. In the meantime they were imprisoned.

Two days later, for the pagan celebration of a festival of the local deity, Adrian was exposed to a lion. The animal did not kill him, but only mangled him, and finally his throat was pierced with a sword.

The judge offered Eubulus his liberty if he would sacrifice to idols. The Saint, however, preferred the glorious death of Christ’s true disciples, and two days later won the crown his companion had also conquered. Saint Eubulus was the last to suffer in this persecution at Caesarea, which had continued for twelve years under three successive governors. Divine vengeance was pursuing the third of those, the cruel Firmilian, who was beheaded for his crimes that same year, by the emperor’s order, as his predecessor had been two years before.

Reflection. It is in vain that we bear the name of Christians, or pretend to follow Christ, if we do not carry well our crosses after Him. It is in vain that we hope to share in His glory, and in His kingdom, if we accept not the condition. We cannot arrive at heaven by any other road but that followed by Christ, who bequeathed His cross to all His elect as their portion and inheritance in this world.

SAINT CASIMIR

SAINT CASIMIR
King of Poland
(1458-1483)

Casimir, the second son of Casimir III, King of Poland, was born in 1458. From the custody of a very virtuous mother, Elizabeth of Austria, he passed to the guardianship of a devoted master, the learned and pious John Dugloss. Thus animated from his earliest years by precept and example, his innocence and piety soon ripened into the practice of heroic virtue.

In an atmosphere of luxury and magnificence the young prince fasted, wore a hair shirt, slept upon the bare earth, prayed by night, and watched for the opening of the church doors at dawn. He became so tenderly devoted to the Passion of Our Lord that at Mass he seemed quite rapt out of himself; his charity to the poor and afflicted knew no bounds. His love for our Blessed Lady he expressed in a long and beautiful hymn, familiar to us in English as “Daily, Daily, Sing to Mary”. At the age of twenty-five, sick with a long illness, he foretold the hour of his death, and chose to die a virgin rather than accept the life and health which the physicians held out to him in the married state.

The miracles wrought by his body after death fill an entire volume. The blind saw, the lame walked, the sick were healed, a dead girl was raised to life. At one time the Saint in glory, seen in the air by his army, led his Catholic countrymen to battle and delivered them by a wondrous victory from the schismatic Russian hosts.

One hundred and twenty-two years after his death Saint Casimir’s tomb in the cathedral church of Vilna was opened, that the holy remains might be transferred to the rich marble chapel where it now lies. The place was damp, and the very vault crumbled away in the hands of the workmen; yet the Saint’s body, wrapped in robes of silk, still intact, was found whole and incorrupt, and emitting a sweet fragrance which filled the church and refreshed all who were present. Under his head was found his hymn to Our Lady, which he had had buried with him.

Reflection. May the meditation of Saint Casimir’s life make us increase in devotion to the most pure Mother of God — a sure means of preserving holy purity in our own soul.

SAINT CUNEGUNDES

SAINT CUNEGUNDES
Empress
(†1040)

Saint Cunegundes was the daughter of Sigefried, the first Count of Luxemburg, and Hadeswige, his pious wife. From her cradle her virtuous parents instilled into their daughter the most tender sentiments of piety. When she was of an age to marry, they chose for her spouse Saint Henry, Duke of Bavaria, who at the death of the Emperor Otto III was named King of the Romans and crowned on the 6^th of June, 1002. Queen Cunegundes was crowned at Paderborn on Saint Laurence’s day.

In the year 1014 she went with her husband to Rome and received the imperial crown with him from the hands of Pope Benedict VIII. With Saint Henry’s consent, before their marriage she had made a vow of perpetual virginity. Calumniators afterwards made vile accusations against her, and the holy Empress, to remove the scandal of such a slander, trusting in God to prove her innocence, walked over red-hot ploughshares without being hurt. The Emperor renounced and condemned his own too scrupulous fears and credulity, and from that time on they lived in the strictest union of heart, working together to promote piety and God’s honor in every sphere.

Going once to make a retreat in Hesse, Saint Cunegundes fell dangerously ill, and she made a vow to found a monastery at Kaffungen, in the diocese of Paderborn, if she recovered. This she executed in a stately manner, and gave it to nuns of the Order of Saint Benedict. Before it was finished, Saint Henry died in 1024. She earnestly recommended his soul to the prayers of the empire, and especially to her dear nuns, and expressed her longing desire to join the Sisters. She had already exhausted her treasures in founding bishoprics and monasteries and in relieving the poor, and she had therefore little left to give. But intending to embrace perfect evangelical poverty, to renounce all things in order to serve God without obstacle, she assembled a great number of prelates at the dedication of her church of Kaffungen, on the anniversary day of her husband’s death, 1025. After the Gospel was sung at Mass she offered on the altar a relic of the true cross, and then, putting off her imperial robes, clothed herself with a poor habit. Her hair was cut off, and the bishop gave her the veil and a ring as a pledge of her fidelity to her heavenly Spouse.

After she was consecrated to God in religion, she seemed to forget entirely that she had been an empress, and served as the last in the house, being persuaded that she was such, before God. She prayed and read a great deal, worked with her hands, and took singular pleasure in visiting and comforting the sick. In this way she passed the last fifteen years of her life.

When her last hour was drawing near, perceiving that they were preparing a cloth fringed with gold to cover her corpse after her death, she ordered it to be taken away; and she could not rest until the promise was given that she would be buried as a poor religious in her habit. She died on the 3^rd of March, 1040. Her body was carried to Bamberg and buried near that of her husband. She was solemnly canonized by Innocent III, in 1200.

Reflection. Detachment of the spirit at least, is necessary for those who cannot undertake to enter religion. “Every one of you,” says Jesus Christ, “who does not renounce all that he possesses, cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:33)