Saints for 28th April
Saints for 28th April
- St. Paul of the Cross
- SS. Vitalis and Valeria, Martyrs
- St. Pollio, Martyr
- St. Cronan of Roscrea, Abbot
- St Pamphilus of Sulmona, Bishop
- St. Cyril of Turov, Bishop
- St. Louis Mary Montfort
- St. Peter Mary Chanel, Martyr
- Bd. Luchesio
St. Paul of the Cross, Founder of the Barefooted Clerks of the Holy Cross and Passion (A.D. 1775)
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| St. Paul of the Cross |
The founder of the Passionists, St Paul-of-the-Cross, was born at Ovada in the republic of Genoa in I694—the year which saw also the birth of Voltaire. Paul Francis, as he was called, was the eldest son of Luke Danei, a businessman of a good family, and his wife, both exemplary Christians. Whenever little Paul shed tears of pain or annoyance, his mother used to show him the crucifix with a few simple words about the sufferings of our Lord, and thus she instilled into his infant mind the germs of that devotion to the Sacred Passion which was to rule his life. The father would read aloud the lives of the saints to his large family of children, whom he often cautioned against gambling and fighting.
Although Paul seems to have been one of those chosen souls who have given themselves to God almost from babyhood, yet at the age of fifteen he was led by a sermon to conclude that he was not corresponding to grace. Accordingly, after making a general confession, he embarked on a life of austerity, sleeping on the bare ground, rising at midnight, spending hours in prayer, and scourging himself. In all these practices he was imitated by his brother John Baptist, his junior by two years. He also formed a society for mutual sanctification among the youths of the neighborhood, several of whom afterward joined religious communities.
In 1714 Paul went to Venice in response to the appeal of Pope Clement XI for volunteers to fight in the Venetian army against the Turks, but a year later he obtained his discharge, having discovered that the army was not his vocation. Convinced that he was not meant to lead the ordinary life in the world he refused a good inheritance and a promising marriage; but before he or his directors could perceive his true vocation he was to spend (at Castellazzo in Lombardy, then his home) several years in almost unbroken prayer which sometimes attained to the highest degree of contemplation.
During the summer of 1720, in three extraordinarily vivid visions, Paul beheld a black habit with the name of Jesus in white characters, surmounted by a white cross, emblazoned upon the breast. On the third occasion our Lady, attired in the tunic, told him that he was to found a congregation, the members of which would ’wear that habit and would mourn continually for the passion and death of her Son. A written description of these visions was submitted to the bishop of Alessandria, who consulted several spiritual guides, including Paul’s former director, the Capuchin Father Columban of Genoa. In view of the heroic life of virtue and prayer led by the young man since his childhood, all agreed that the call must have come from God. The bishop, therefore authorized him to follow his vocation and invested him with the black habit, stipulating, however, that the badge was not to be worn until papal approval had been obtained.
Paul’s next step was to compose a rule for the future congregation. He retired for a forty days retreat into a dark, damp, triangular cell adjoining the sacristy of St Charles’s church at Castellazzo, where he lived on bread and water and slept on straw. The rules which he drew up at that time, without a book or earthly guide, are substantially the regulations followed by the Passionists today. It was during this retreat that the saint first felt impelled to pray for the conversion of England: “ That country is always before my eyes ”, he said in later years. “ If England again becomes Catholic, immeasurable will be the benefits to Holy Church.”
For a short time after the retreat, he remained with John Baptist and another disciple in the neighborhood of Castellazzo, rendering assistance to the local clergy by catechizing the children and giving missions, which were very successful. Nevertheless, he soon realized that if he wished to carry out his vocation he must seek the highest sanction. Bareheaded, barefoot, and penniless, he set out for Rome, refusing the escort of John Baptist beyond Genoa. Upon his arrival he presented himself at the Vatican, but as he had not thought of providing himself with an introduction or credentials he was turned away. He accepted the rebuff as a sign that his hour was not yet come, and started on his homeward journey, visiting on the way the solitary slopes of Monte Argentaro, which the sea almost severs from the mainland. So great was the attraction he felt to this spot that he soon returned to it, accompanied by John Baptist, to lead in one of its derelict hermitages a life almost as austere as that of the fathers in the desert.
They left for a time to stay in Rome, where they were ordained to the sacred ministry, but in 1727, they made their way back to Monte Argentaro, prepared to start their first house of retreat on the strength of the papal permission Paul had received to accept novices. Numerous were difficulties with which they had to contend. Their first recruits found the life too hard and all withdrew; war was threatening; benefactors who had offered assistance declared themselves unable to fulfill their undertakings; a serious epidemic broke out in the nearest villages. Paul and John Baptist, who had received faculties for missionary work soon after they had left Rome, went about fearlessly ministering to the dying, nursing the sick, and reconciling sinners to God. The missions they thus inaugurated proved so fruitful that more distant towns applied for the services of the missioners. Fresh novices came —not all of whom remained—and in 1737, the first Passionist Retreat (as their monasteries are called) was completed. The little band could now move from its inadequate quarters in the old hermitage. From this time onwards there was steady progress, although many trials and disappointments had still to be faced.
In I741, Pope Benedict XIV granted a general approbation to the rules after their severity had been somewhat mitigated, and immediately a number of promising candidates offered themselves. Six years later, when the congregation had three houses, the first general chapter was held. By this time the fame of the Passionists, their missions, and their austerity, were spreading throughout Italy. St Paul himself evangelized in person in nearly every town in the Papal States as well as a great part of Tuscany, taking always as his theme the Sacred Passion. When, cross in hand, with arms outstretched, he preached about the sufferings of Christ, his words seemed to pierce the stoniest hearts: and when he scourged himself pitilessly in public for the offenses of the people, hardened soldiers and even bandits wept, confessing their sins. “ Father, I have been in great battles without ever flinching at the cannon’s roar ”, exclaimed an officer who was attending one of the missions. But when I listen to you I tremble from head to foot.” Afterward in the confessional, the apostle would deal tenderly with his penitents, confirming them in their good resolutions, leading them on to amendment of life, and suggesting practical aids to perseverance.
St Paul-of-the-Cross was endowed with extraordinary gifts. He prophesied future events, healed the sick, and even during his lifetime appeared on various occasions in vision to persons far away. In the cities which he visited crowds followed him, desiring to touch him or to carry off some fragment of his habit as a relic, but he deprecated all tokens of esteem. In 1765, he had the grief of losing John Baptist, from whom he had scarcely ever been separated and to whom he was united by a bond of love as rare as it was beautiful. Unlike in disposition, the one brother seemed the complement of the other as they strove side by side to attain perfection. Since their ordination they had been each other’s confessors, inflicting penances and reproofs in turn. Once only had a shadow of disagreement ever arisen between them, and that was upon the only occasion John Baptist ever ventured to praise his brother to his face. St Paul’s humility was so deeply wounded that he put them both to penance, forbidding his brother to approach him. Not until the third day, when John Baptist crept on his knee to implore pardon, did the cloud lift—never to descend again. It was in memory of the close association between the two men that Pope Clement XIV long afterward bestowed upon St Paul-of-the-Cross the Roman basilica dedicated in the names of Saints John and Paul.
The new institute in 1769 received from Clement XIV the final authorization which placed it on the same footing as other approved religious institutes. Now St Paul would fain have retired into solitude, for his health was failing and he thought that his work was done. His sons, however, would have no other superior, whilst the pope, who was greatly attached to him, insisted upon his spending part of the year in Rome. During the latter part of his life, he was much preoccupied with arrangements for the establishment of Passionist nuns. After many disappointments, the first house was opened at Corneto in 1771, but the founder was not well enough to be present, nor did he ever see his spiritual daughters in their habit. So ill was he indeed during this year, that he sent to ask for the papal blessing, only to be told by Pope Clement that he must live a little longer because he could not yet be spared. The saint actually rallied and survived for three years, dying in Rome on October 18, 1775, at the age of eighty. His canonization took place in 1867.
SS. Vitalis and Valeria, Martyrs
| SS. Vitalis and Valeria |
Since this St. Vitalis is named in the canon of the Mass according to the Milanese rite, is commemorated in the Roman rite today, and is the titular saint of the famous basilica of San Vitale at Ravenna, he should be mentioned here, though nothing certain is known about him beyond the fact that he and St Valeria were early martyrs, probably at or near Milan.
The spurious letter of St Ambrose purports to narrate the history of the twin martyrs SS. According to the legend, Vitalis was a soldier who, when the physician St Ursicinus of Ravenna wavered when faced with death for Christ, encouraged him to stand firm. The governor accordingly ordered Vitalis to be racked and then buried alive, which was done. His wife, St Valeria, was set upon by pagans near Milan and died from their brutal treatment. These things are said to have happened during the persecution under Nero, but the second century, under Marcus Aurelius, is a more likely date for their martyrdom.
St. Pollio, Martyr
The scene of the martyrdom of St Pollio was the ancient town of Cybalae or Cibalis in Lower Pannonia (now Mikanovici in Yugoslavia), the birthplace of the Emperors Gratian, Valentinian, and Valens. He was a lector in the church, and, after the martyrdom of his bishop Eusebius, he became the leader of those Christians in the diocese who disregarded the edicts of Diocletian. He was accordingly brought before Probus the president, before whom he made a bold confession. Because he refused to offer sacrifice to the gods and to render divine honors to the emperors he was condemned to death and was burnt at the stake a few years after the martyrdom of Eusebius.
St. Cronan of Roscrea, Abbot
St Pamphilus of Sulmona, Bishop
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| St. Pamphilus of Sulmona |
St. Cyril of Turov, Bishop
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| St. Cyril of Turov |
Cyril of Turov is one of the three outstanding figures in Russian Christian culture before the Mongol invasions (the other two are Clement Smoliatich and Hilarion, both metropolitans of Kiev). He lived during the middle of the twelfth century and was first a monk, then a recluse, and left his cell to be bishop of Turov, a town not far from Kiev. Professor Fedotov says of him that “ From his writings, one receives the impression of a man who stands very remote from life, even from the moral needs of life, and who is entirely elevated to the sphere of religious worship and thought, with its dogmatic or would-be dogmatic mysteries: he is a unique example of theological devotion in ancient Russia ”.
It was as a preacher that St Cyril of Turov was most famous, and he faithfully followed his Greek models in their rhetoric and flowing oratory; but he never “ unbends ” as, for example, St John Chrysostom so often does, and he so ignores the practical application of his theology to human life that some have dismissed his sermons as pure oratory—overlooking that St Cyril was carried away by the contemplation of divine mysteries. The balance, both in manner and matter, is somewhat restored by certain prayers that he wrote; their language is more straightforward and they are predominantly concerned with the writer’s sinfulness and need for forgiveness. It was to bring forgiveness and salvation that God became man and died on the cross, and it was this divine salvation that provides the theme for come of the finest passages in Cyril’s sermons.
What part St Cyril of Turov took in the ecclesiastical affairs of his time is not known; it is recorded that he wrote certain letters about them, but they have been lost. He died in the year 1182.
St. Louis Mary of Montfort, Founder of the Company of Mary and of the Daughters of Wisdom (A.D 1716)
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| St. Louis Mary of Montfort |
St. Louis MARY was the eldest of the eight children of John Baptist Grignion and was born in modest circumstances at Montfort, then in the diocese of Saint-Malo, in 1673. After being educated at the Jesuit college in Rennes, he went at the age of twenty to Paris to prepare for the priesthood; but being unable through poverty to gain admittance to the seminary of Saint-Sulpice, he entered a small institution conducted by the Abbé de la Barmondiere. At the abbé’s death, he moved to a still more Spartan establishment: real penury reigned, and the wretched food was cooked by the students, who all in turn “ had the pleasure of poisoning themselves ”, as one of them afterward ironically observed.
Louis himself fell so dangerously ill that he had to be removed to the hospital. When at last he recovered, it was made possible for him to enter Saint-Sulpice to complete his religious course. We find him selected as one of the two exemplary students who were annually sent on a pilgrimage to one of our Lady’s shrines, on this occasion Chartres. His success while still a seminarist in giving catechetical instruction to the roughest and most undisciplined children in Paris, confirmed Louis Grignion in the desire to undertake apostolic work.
Therefore, after his ordination in 1700, he spent a short time at Nantes with a priest, who trained men for home missions, before proceeding to Poitiers, where he was appointed chaplain to the hospital. In this institution for nursing the sick poor, he soon produced a much-needed reformation, and organized from amongst the female staff and residents the nucleus of the congregation of Daughters of the Divine Wisdom, for whom he compiled a rule. Nevertheless, the very improvements he introduced aroused resentment, and he was obliged to resign his post.
At once he began to give missions to the poor, who flocked to hear him, but the bishop of Poitiers, at the instigation of the critics of Father Grignion, forbade him to preach in his diocese. Undismayed, he set off on foot for Rome to seek authority from Pope Clement XI, who received him encouragingly and sent him back to France with the title of missionary apostolic. As Poitiers remained close to him, he returned to his native Brittany, where he embarked on a course of missions which he continued almost uninterruptedly until his death.
Although the majority of parishes received St Louis Mary with open arms, adverse criticism continued to dog his steps, and he found himself excluded from certain churches and even dioceses by ecclesiastics of Jansenist proclivities. Moreover, his methods sometimes startled the conventional. He would invite his audience to bring their irreligious books to be burnt on a great pyre surmounted by an effigy of the Devil represented as a society woman; or he would himself realistically act the part of a dying sinner whose soul was being contended for by the Devil and his guardian angel, personated by two other priests standing beside his prostrate form. But, if he seemed to appeal to the emotions, the response he elicited was frequently practical and lasting. It often expressed itself in the restoration of some dilapidated church, in the setting up of huge memorial crosses, in liberal alms to the poor and in a real spiritual revival.
Nearly sixty years after the holy man’s death, the curé of Saint-Lo declared that many of his parishioners still practiced the devotions Louis had inculcated in one of his missions. The first and foremost of these was the rosary, for the recitation of which he established numerous confraternities. Then there were hymns or metrical prayers of his composition, many of which are sung to this day in parts of France. It seems to have been his great love for the rosary which led him to become a tertiary of the order of St Dominic.
But St Louis did not confine his evangelistic efforts to his missions - he believed in preaching the word of God in season and out of season. On one occasion, when traveling on a market boat between Rouen and Dinant, he asked his fellow passengers, who were singing obscene songs, to join him in the rosary. Twice they answered his invitation with jeers, but eventually, they not only recited it reverently on their knees but also listened attentively to the homily with which he followed it. Another day it was a rough alfresco dance which he brought to an end in the same way. Perhaps his greatest triumphs were won in the Calvinistic stronghold of La Rochelle, where he held several crowded missions in rapid succession, and reconciled several Protestants to the Church.
St Louis had long desired to form an association of missionary priests, but it was only a few years before his death that he succeeded in attaching to himself a few ordained men who became the first Missionaries of the Company of Mary. He was in the midst of a mission at Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre when he was attacked by a sudden illness that proved fatal. He was only forty-three years of age when he died in 1716.
Apart from his verses and hymns, St Louis Mary Grignion’s chief literary work was the well-known treatise on “ True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin", in which a renewal of interest was caused by his canonization in 1947.
Watch the enduring influence of Saint Louis Mary de Montfort: Lesson for Today's world.
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| St. Peter Mary Chanel |
Peter Louis Mary Chanel, was born in 1803 in the diocese of Belley. Set to mind his father’s sheep from the age of seven, he was one day noticed by the Abbé Trompier, parish priest of Cras, who was struck by his intelligence and piety, and obtained leave from the boy’s parents to educate him in the little Latin school which he had started. “ He was the flower of my flock ”, the curé was wont afterward to declare, and indeed both as a student at Cras and in the seminary Peter won the affectionate esteem of masters and pupils alike. A bishop who was very well acquainted with him said, “ He had a heart of gold with the simple faith of a child, and he led the life of an angel ”. A year after his ordination he was appointed to the parish of Crozet—a district which bore a bad reputation. In the three years he remained there he brought about a great revival of religion, his devotion to the sick opening to him many doors which would otherwise have remained closed. But his heart had long been set on missionary work, and in 1831 he joined the Marists, who had recently formed themselves into a society for evangelistic work at home and abroad. His aspirations were not at once realized, for he was given professorial work for five years in the seminary of Belley.
However, in 1836, Pope Gregory XVI gave canonical approval to the new congregation, and St Peter was one of a small band of missionaries commissioned to carry the faith to the islands of the Pacific. Peter with one companion went to the island of Futuna in the New Hebrides. They were well received by the people, whose confidence they gained by healing the sick. But after the missionaries had acquired the language and had begun to teach, the chieftain’s jealousy was aroused. Suspicion turned to hatred when his own son expressed a desire for baptism, and on April 28, 1841, he sent a band of warriors, one of whom felled St Peter with his club and the rest cut up the martyr’s body with their hatchets. The missionary’s death swiftly completed the work he had begun, and within a few months, the whole island was Christian. Peter was canonized in 1954, and his feast is kept in Australia and New Zealand as well as by the Marists.
Watch the untold story of Saint Peter Mary Chanel: A hero among Us.
Bd. Luchesio
The Val d’Elsa, then Florentine territory, was the birthplace of Luchesio, or Lucius, the first Franciscan tertiary. As a young man, he was wholly engrossed in worldly interests, especially politics, and money-making. So unpopular did he make himself by his violent partisanship of the Guelf cause that he found it advisable to leave Gaggiano, his native place, and to settle in Poggibonsi, where he carried on business as a provision merchant and money-lender. Then, when he was between thirty and forty a change came over him, partly perhaps as the result of the death of his children. His heart was touched by divine grace and he began to take interest in works of mercy, such as nursing the sick and visiting the prisons. He even gave away to the poor all his possessions, except a piece of land which he determined to cultivate himself. Soon afterward St Francis of Assisi came to Poggibonsi. He had for some time contemplated the necessity of forming an association for persons desiring to live the religious life in the world, but Luchesio and his wife Bonadonna were actually, it is said, the first man and woman to receive from the Seraphic Father the habit and cord of the third order. From that moment they gave themselves up to a penitential and charitable life. Sometimes Luchesio would give away every scrap of food that was in the house, and at first Bonadonna would demur, for she did not at once rise to such perfect trust in divine Providence: but experience taught her that God supplies His faithful children with their daily bread. Her husband attained great sanctity and was rewarded with ecstasies and the gift of healing. When it became evident that he had not long to live, his wife begged him to wait a little for her, so that she who had shared his sufferings here might participate in his happiness above. Her wish was granted, and she died shortly before her husband passed to his reward. Bd Luchesio’s cultus was confirmed in 1694.
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