The Section: The Doctors And Secular Saints will be taken from author Joan Carroll Cruz on her book entitled Secular Saints and published by Tan Books and Publishers, Inc. Rockford, Illinois 61105. Their web site is listed in the doctoral resources and will be place on the side bar in the future.
Chapter 201
St. Solangia
d. 880
Born at Villemont, France, St. Solangia (Solange) was the child of pious parents who were vine-dressers. Although living in poor circumstances, she was blessed with some of Heaven’s most beguiling gifts. She was sweet-tempered, lovable, charitable, industrious and extremely beautiful.
Reports of her beauty reached Bernard de la Gothie, the son of the Count of Poitiers. Bernard journeyed to meet Solangia and found her in the pasture, where she was minding her father’s sheep. He immediately developed a great desire to have her for his wife and proposed marriage.
Solangia declined the offer, giving as her excuse the vow of virginity she had made at the age of seven. The nobleman expressed his disappointment and pleaded with her, describing the many benefits she was renouncing for herself and her poor family.
When Solangia continued to decline his proposal, Bernard decided to abduct her. Bernard caught her up and set her in the saddle before him, but Solangia resisted with such violence that she threw herself from his horse while it was crossing a stream. Although injured in the fall, she struggled to crawl to safety. The pride of the young nobleman was seriously wounded. Angry at seeing the girl attempting to escape him and furious at the rejection he decapitated her with a blow from his sword. The year was 880.
The veneration paid to St. Solangia has remained active at the Church of St. Martin at Fillemont, where the head of the Saint is reverently enshrined. Near her home, a field where she liked to pray received the name of Le Champ de Sainte Solangia.
In the past, during times of great calamity, the relics of the Saint have been taken in procession through the town of Bourges. Although the processions no longer take place, the Saint is still invoked in times of drought.
Chapter 84
Bl. Helen Dei Cavalcanti
1396 - 1458
Bl. Helen was a member of the Valentini family of Udine, Italy, and was given in marriage at the age of
15 to a knight name Antonio dei Cavalcanti. During 25 years of a happy wedded life, Bl. Helen appears to
have lead a normal existence as the mother of a large family of children.
The unexpected death of her husband came as a great shock to Bl. Helen. Realizing that the grief and
difficulties of windowhood lay ahead of her and that her future would be devoted to God alone, she cut off
her beautiful hair and laid it on her husband's bier, together with her jewelled headdress. "For love of
you alone have I worn these," she said. "Take them down into the earth with you."
As the result of conferences given by the learned theologian Angelo of St. Severino, Bl. Helen decided to become
a tertiary of his order, the Hermits of St. Augustine. From that moment on she devoted herself to works of
charity, to prayer and to mortification. Her costly dresses were made into vestmentss, while her jewels were
sold for the benefit of the poor for whom she labored. One of her many mortifications consisted in abstaining
from meat, eggs and milk and living almost entirely on roots, bread and water.
With the consent of her director, Bl. Helen took a vow of perpetual silence, which she observed all year 'round
except on Christmas night. It is clear, however, that this obligation did not extend to speaking to the members
of her household, which included servants and her sister Perfecta. It is from them that details of her holy
life are derived.
Bl. Helen was subject to many trials, especially in that she was terrified by loud noises and suffered temptations to commit
suicide. She was apparently tormented by the devil, since she was once discovered lying bruised upon the
ground and was twice found with a broken leg. Once as she was crossing a bridge on her way to church, Bl.
Helen was thrown into the river. She scrambled out and attended Holy Mass as usual, despite her dripping clothes.
Helen was one of many who was cured during a pilgrimage to the tomb of St. Peter Parenzo at Orvieto.
In later years she left the house only to attend the Church of St. Lucy. There she spent many hours in prayer.
Although she was tried by many temptations, she was also consoled by spiritual joys, and ecstasies. Bl.
Helen seems to have had the gift of healing, since many sick persons were cured through her prayers.
During the last three years of her life Bl. Helen was unable to rise from bed, but she insisted upon
maintaining her bed of stones and chaff.
Bl. Helen died on April 23, 1458 at the age of 62. Her cultus was confirmed in 1848.
Chapter 134
St. Lydwine of Schiedam
1380 – 1433
The only girl in a family of nine children, Lydwine was born in the Netherlands, at Schiedam, near The Hague, in the year 1380. Her father, Pierre, was the town watchman by trade; her mother, Petronille, came from Ketel, a village in the neighborhood of Schiedam. Both parents were exemplary Christians who were faithful to their religious duties.
Unaware that she was soon to deliver, Lydwine’s mother was attending High Mass one Palm Sunday when the pains of childbirth came upon her so quickly that she was forced to hurry home. It is said that her only daughter was born at the moment when the Passion of Our Saviour was being read in the church.
At her Baptism, the child was given the name Lydwine which has various spellings, all of which are derived from the Flemish word “lyden,” meaning to suffer. One of her biographers, the lay brother of the Observants, John Brugman, claims that the name signifies “great patience” in the German tongue. The Saint’s early biographers, Thomas a Kempis, John Gerlack and John Brugman, all of whom were her contemporaries, observe that both her name and the moments of the day on which she was born were prophetic, since her life was one of sufferings in union with the Passion of the Savoir.
At the age of seven, Lydwine assisted her mother with the housework –which was considerable in a household of eleven people. As Lydwine grew older she became a clever housekeeper, and at the age of 12 she was a serious girl who cared little for the games or amusements of her fiends and neighbors. At the age of 15 there seems to have been nothing to distinguish Lydwine from other lively, healthy and pretty girls of her age, except that she was unusually pious. Since she had taken a vow of chastity, she was obliged to reject several offers of marriage.
Toward the end of her fifteenth year, while recovering from an illness, Lydwine was persuaded by friends to join them in skating the canals that had been frozen hard in the bitter winter of 1395-1396. Although she offered the poor state of her health as an excuse, they insisted that the exercise and fresh air would be beneficial. When her father agreed with them and gave his consent, Lydwine relented.
On reaching the canal near her home, Lydwine and her companions were just beginning to skate when a friend, who was late, hurried to overtake them. She fell against Lydwine, causing the future Saint to fall against a pieced of ice with such force that one of the ribs on her right side was broken.
The accident became know throughout the town, bringing many who offered advice on how to heal the fracture and reduce the pain. In spite of the family’s poverty, renowned physicians of the Low Countries were called in. Their prescribed medicines may only have worsened the condition. A hard abscess soon developed, and as the physicians and others could not cure Lydwine’s infirmities, they gradually abandoned her.
Lydwine’s pain was so intolerable that she could find no relief lying, sitting or standing. One day when she could bear the pain no longer, she threw herself from her couch and fell upon the knees of her father, who had been weeping as he sat by her side. This fall broke the abscess; but instead of releasing the infection externally, the abscess opened internally, forcing the infected matter to pour from Lydwine’s mouth. These vomitings shook her whole body and so quickly filled the vessels used to catch the outpourings that those who attended Lydwine had little time to empty them before they were filled once more.
Finally, being unable to stand, yet feeling a constant urge to change her position, Lydwine undertook to drag herself around on her knees – a practice that she continued for three years. When Lydwine became unable to move even in this fashion, she was confined to bed for what would be the rest of her life.
The wound under the rib gradually swelled and developed a gangrenous condition. Horrible as it is to consider , the putrefaction bred worms that developed in three large ulcers. Various remedies were attempted, but these only caused the patient additional discomfort. A tumor then appeared on St. Lydwine’s shoulder; this too putrefied, causing almost unbearable neuritis. (This affliction is thought to have been the dreaded “plague” of the Middle Ages.) The disease also affected Lydwine’s right arm, consuming the flesh to the bone. From this time onward the arm was useless and prevented the Saint from turning on her side. Violent neuralgic pains then began, along with a pounding noise in her head.
The one-beautiful girl, who had attracted many potential suitors, was now becoming a pitiful sight. Her forehead became cleft from the hairline to the center of the nose. Her chin dropped under the lower lip and her mouth swelled. Her right eye became blind and the other became extremely sensitive to the light. She suffered violent toothaches, which raged sometimes for weeks. A severe inflammation of the throat nearly suffocated her and caused bleeding from the nose, mouth and ears. St. Lydwine’s nose was then invaded by sores, her lungs and liver decayed, and a cancer devoured her flesh. When the pestilence ravaged Holland, Lydwine was one of the first victims, becoming afflicted with two additional abscesses.
St. Lydwine’s sad condition would have been life-threatening in the extreme, had not God supported her whom He had chosen as a victim soul. At the beginning of her sufferings the Saint complained of her condition – until she came to realize, with the help of her confessor, John Pot, and others, that her sufferings were not only intended to expiate the sins of others, living and dead, but would also draw down great benefits for the Church. She then accepted her trials willingly and patiently, and even said that if a singe Hail Mary could gain her recovery, she would not utter it.
Added to these ailments was that of dropsy, with its swelling of the body – which gradually developed so alarmingly that Lydwine’s stomach ruptured and had to be held together with wrappings. A cushion placed atop her stomach was required in order to press back her organs. Each time the position of the Saint was changed, it was necessary to bind her firmly with napkins and clothes – otherwise her body would literally have fallen to pieces.
The supernatural origin of the Saint’s condition is proved by her extraordinary fast and her sleep patterns. During the last 19 years of her life, St. Lydwine underwent a complete fast. According to the sworn deposition of witnesses, this fast was only interrupted for the reception of the Holy Eucharist. During the 11 years preceding this complete fast, the Saint ate only as much as a healthy person consumed in three days. Those who attended St. Lydwine also testified that during the last seven years of her life she experienced a perpetual insomnia, and that in the entire 23 years previous to this seven-year period, the Saint had slept the equivalent of only three good nights.
Because of this lack of nourishment and sleep, the Saint became an object of curiosity and was visited and questioned by countless people – situation that only added to her trials.
St. Lydwine was spared one trial, however. She was never misunderstood or neglected by her family. Fortunately, in their simple piety, they recognized her sanctity. The poor body of the invalid, so invaded by disease, infection, sores and revolting openings, did not disgust them. In fact, they were aware, as were all others who came near Lydwine, that a sweet perfume came from these sickened areas.
Certain mystical phenomena became evident during her lifetime: she began to hear the sick, to see events at a distance, and she could describe places she had never visited. She began to prophesy, to bilocate and to read hearts. About the year 1407, St Lydwine began to be favored with ecstasies and visions of angels, the Blessed Mother, the Holy Child, various saints – including St. Paul and St. Francis of Assisi and the suffering Savior. Finally she received the stigmata, a phenomenon which she prayed would be hidden. “Marvelous to relate," says Michel d’Este, Bishop of Tournai, “a little skin immediately covered these wounds, but the pain and bruise remained.” In accordance with her prayer, the pain of these divine wounds lasts to the end of her life.
The Saint was subject to fits of epilepsy and apoplexy in her final years. Violent toothaches never left her, and a new ulcer developed in the breast. Finally she suffered nerve contractions that contorted her limbs.
From the time of her first injury on the ice until the day of her death, the sufferings endured by the victim soul lasted for 38 years.
The Saint died on Easter Tuesday in the year 1433, at about three in the afternoon. Soon after her death, the body of St. Lydwine was miraculously transformed. Her wounds were healed, the cleft in the forehead that had so long disfigured her disappeared, and she seemed as lovely as a girl of 17 who was smiling in her sleep. Around the body wafted a heavenly scent that was detected by many who came to pay their respects.
In the special office for her feast, St. Lydwine is described as “a prodigy of human misery and of heroic patience.” Benedict XIV also recognized the Saint’s extraordinary sufferings in his Decree of Beatification when he wrote, “It seemed as if a whole army of diseases had invaded her body.” He likened Lydwine to Lazarus, Job and Tobias, “the models of patience God has set before the sick and afflicted of all times.”
St Alphonsus Liguori, in one of his spiritual treatises, refers to the Saints in this way:
Let it, then, be your endeavor, during the remainder of your life, to love and have confidence in Him; and do not become sad when you find yourself in afflictions and tribulations; for this is a sign, not of His hatred, but of the love which God bears toward you. And therefore, in reference to this point, I will here cite for you the example of the virgin, St. Lydwine; and I know not whether there is to be met with among the annals of the Saints an instance of any other soul suffering so great affliction and desolation as did this holy virgin.
In Schiedam there are many places that remind one of the city’s Patron Saint. A street, a square and a school bear her name. There is St. Lydwine’s Chapel, and the parish church at the Singel bears her name. There is also at Schiedam the St. Lydwine Committee, which receives and answers correspondence from around the world from those who request more information about the Saint.
The feast day of St. Lydwine is observed in the Netherlands on June 14th.
Chapter 23
St. Benezet
d. 1184
Known as “Little Benedict the Bridge Builder” St Benedict spent his pious youth in Savoy tending sheep for his mother until one day, during an eclipse of the sun, heard a voice that addressed him three times out of the darkness. The voice instructed him to build a bridge over the river at Avignon.
During the Middle Ages the building of bridges at convenient locations was considered a work of mercy, since travelers had to journey out of their way, often enduring great hardships to reach places where they could cross rapid streams or rivers. Bridges were so necessary that rich men were often urged to make provision for them in their wills, and bishops often conferred indulgences on those who financially supported the building of a bridge or those who contributed their labor.
Disregarding his small stature, his complete ignorance of the mechanics of bridge-building and his total lack of funds, Benezet did as the voice had prompted him. He arrived at Avignon and presented himself to the Bishop. Through various means he gained the approval of the Bishop and began work on a stone bridge in the year 1177. For seven years he directed the operation, and when he died in 1184, the main difficulties of the enterprise had been overcome. He was buried upon the bridge itself, which was not completed until four years after his death.
The wonders that occurred from the moment the foundation was laid as well as the miracles that occurred at the tomb, inspired the city officials to build a chapel on the bridge. In this chapel the body of the Saint was enshrined for almost 500 years.
Weakened from age and the constant pressures of the current, part of the bridge fell into ruin in 1669 and completely destroyed the chapel. Fortunately, the Saint’s coffin was rescued – and when it was opened the following year, the body was found in a state of perfect preservation, although the iron bars about the coffin were badly damaged by rust due to excessive dampness. The body was again found in excellent condition in 1674 during its translation to the Church of the Celestines. During the French Revolution of 1789, a group of revolutionaries seized the incorrupt body and sacrilegiously destroyed it. Only a few bones survived, and these are kept in the parish Church of St Didier in Avignon.
St. Benezet is regarded as the founder of the Order of Bridge-Building Brothers, whose constitution was approved in 1189, four years after the Saint’s death. St. Benezet is also recognized as one of the patron saints of Avignon, and he is quite appropriately regarded as the patron of all bridge builders.
Chapter 140
Bl Margaret of Castello
(Bl Margaret of Metola)
d. 1320
Bl. Margaret of Castello was blind, hunchbacked, DWARFED AND LAME. Her right leg was much shorter than the left, which was malformed, and she is described quite candidly as “ugly”. We know of this and other details of her life from the biography written by her contemporary, the Franciscan. Hubert of Casale, and that of a canon regular of the Cathedral of Castello, who wrote in 1345, only 25 years after Margaret’s death.
The joyfully anticipated birth of their first child was turned into a veritable tragedy when the newborn was examined. Immediately, Margaret’s parents were overwhelmed with disappointment, anger and loathing. They seem to have felt shamefully disgraced that they, the two most important personages of the district, had been inflicted with a malformed infant. All efforts were then made to keep the infant and her deformities a secret. Since the parent wanted nothing to do with their misshapen baby, a trusted servant was given charge of the child, and it was this servant who saw to Margaret’s Baptism and the choice of a name.
Apparently Margaret was given at an early age to prayer and visits to the castle’s chapel. It was during one of these visits to the chapel that her identity was almost discovered. Fearing that they would become known as the parents of the deformed child, Parisio and his wife decided that because of the child’s devotion to prayer, they would make of her a recluse. Inspired by those holy solitaries who lived in cells adjoining churches, Parisio decided to imprison the child in a similar manner. In a little church in the forest, about a quarter of a mile away from the castle, was the Church of St. Mary of the Fortress of Metola. Against the wall of this church Parisio had a mason build a room with a window opening into the chapel, through which the child cold assist at Holy Mass. Another small window, opening to the outside, was so arranged that food could be passed without anyone seeing the occupant. The child was unceremoniously trust into the prison and the mason walled up the doorway. Margaret was six years old at the time. She was never to know parental love, to play with other children or to enjoy the company of people. She was condemned, however, to suffer loneliness, extreme cold in the winter and suffocating heat in the summer.
It was soon learned by the chaplain that the blind girl’s mind was “luminous.” Margaret grew in grace and knowledge of her faith under the priest’s instructions, so much so that years later she astonished the Dominican at Citta di Castello with the extent and depth of her theological knowledge.
As though the sufferings of her bodily deformities were not enough, Margaret, as the age of seven, bound herself to a strict monastic fast – a fast extending from the middle of September (the Feast of the Holy Cross) to the following Easter. For the rest of the year Margaret fasted four days a week. On all Fridays of the year her only nourishment consisted of a little bread and water.
During the thirteenth year of her imprisonment, when Parisio’s territory was threatened with invasion, Lady Emilia and her attendant left the castle and took Margaret with them to the safety of Mercatello. As soon as they arrived, Margaret was led to an underground vault, where she was once more imprisoned. In this place Margaret suffered more intensely than before. At Metola she had been sustained by the benefits of her religion: Holy Mass, the Sacraments of Penance and the Holy Eucharist and the visits of the chapel. At Mercatello she was deprived of all consolations.
In August of the year 1307, when Margaret was twenty years old, five pilgrims from Rome brought news of the wonderful cures taking place in the city of Castello at the tomb of a Franciscan tertiary, Fra Giacomo. When peace was restored in September, Parisio and Emilia, after hearing details of various cures, took Margaret to the tomb of Fra Giacomo. Because there were many crippled and sick pilgrims who were vying for positions about the tomb, Margaret was placed among them while the parents withdrew to make room.
Throughout Margaret prayed fervently for a cure . After several hours, when the parents saw with disappointment that Margaret was not cured, the nobleman and his wife did the unbelievable – they abandoned their blind daughter in the church and returned to Metola.
Left without funds in a strange city, the blind and lame girl was obliged to sleep in doorways and to stumble along the streets until she was befriended by two beggars, Roberto and Elena. Always hoping that her parents would return for her, Margaret finally realized, at the inn where Parisio and Emilia had stayed, that her parents had indeed purposely abandoned her. Margaret must have been deeply grieved on learning the truth, but it is known that never, throughout her lifetime, did she accuse them or speak unkindly of the rejection or the harsh treatment she had endured at their hands. Instead, she often made excuses for them and always professed her love for them.
In addition to Roberto and Elena, Margaret also was befriended by others. Whole families of the poorer class assisted Margaret by taking her into their homes. When one family felt an economic strain, another would house her. For several years Margaret passed form one house to another.
When news of her extraordinary piety reached the cloistered nuns of St Margaret’s Monastery, Margaret was invited to join them. Margaret accepted the invitation with great joy and anticipated a lifetime of prayer and work in the monastic environment. The sisters were happy to receive her and were amazed when Margaret quickly learned the different parts of the convent. They were even more astonished to discover that, despite her blindness and afflictions, she was able to clean rooms, help in the preparation of meals and perform other household chores.
In joining the community, Margaret bound herself to live according to the rule of the order. Unfortunately, with the passage of time and death of the foundress, the rule was not observed according to its high ideals. Instead, there were many relaxations – which were justified with various explanations. After a time, when Margaret, continued to observe the rule strictly, the consciences of the sisters became greatly troubled. To ease their discomfort, Margaret was asked to leave. Once again the little cripple suffered rejection by those she loved.
Not only was Margaret saddened when she was forced to leave the religious life, but she suffered as well from public ridicule and contempt. Word had spread that she had been expelled from the convent because she could not adjust herself to community life, that had peculiar ideas about the religious life, and that her conduct had become eccentric, so that she upset the whole community. Many decided that she was no saint, after all, and that the discipline of the convent had revealed her hidden faults. Even the children, who heard their parents gossip about the matter, began to persecute Margaret with cruel remarks. It is said that even in church she was the object of sneering words. Through it all, Margaret defended the sisters and spoke of their kindness and patience.
Little by little the true nature of the situation was revealed. The reputation of the convent diminished, while Margaret’s reputation rose to a great degree. During this time Margaret attended the Chiesa della Carita, the Church of Charity, which was conducted by the Dominican friars. This was also the headquarters of the Mantellate, a religious organization that eventually developed into the present Third Order of St Dominic. Women who wished to live a more religious life, but who for any reason were unable to enter a convent, could affiliate themselves with the Dominican Order by joining the Third Order. These secular women continued to live at home, but they bound themselves to a more religious schedule of life, and at all times, both at home and abroad, they wore the Dominican religious habit. This consisted of a white tunic, a black belt and a long white veil. They also wore a black cloak or mantilla, and it is for this reason that they became popularly known as the Mantellate.
Knowing of Margaret’s desire to join a religious order, members of the Mantellate invited her to join them. Since only widows and mature women were then accepted into the Mantellate, this is the first recorded instance of a young unmarried woman joining the order.
After her investiture, which was conducted by the prior himself, Margaret attended weekly discourses and soon had a complete
understanding of the Dominican system of spirituality, in which study, prayer and penance are foremost.
In addition to the prayers prescribed by the rule, Margaret daily recited the 150 Psalm of David, the Office of the Blessed Virgin and the Office of the Holy Cross. All these she said from memory, Her medieval biographer states –without giving details –that the blind Mantellate learned thee prayers in a miraculous fashion. It was soon learned that Margaret passed quickly from meditation to contemplation. Then, after hearing of the penances practiced by St. Dominic, Margaret applied herself to practicing similar fortifications. Additionally, she often spent whole nights in prayer and attended Holy Mass every morning. It is recorded that Margaret observed this remarkable program of mortification until her final illness.
Margaret also embarked on a life of charity to the sick and dying. It is said that “No sick person was too far away for her to limp to; no hour of the day or night was ever too inconvenient for her to hasten to those in agony.” She would do all in her power to provide needed food and medicine for the sickly poor who were unable to secure these necessities for themselves. They dying also benefited from her attentions, and many a hardened sinner converted because of her.
Although devotion to St. Joseph was then uncommon, Margaret’s medieval biographer remarks , with a bit of humor, that she would talk about St. Joseph as long as anyone remained to listen. It is suggest that Margaret was one of the pioneers of devotions to St. Joseph.
After living for several years in the homes of the poor, she was invited to live with a wealthy family named Offrenduccio. Also living in the same house were the lady Ysachina and an only daughter Francesca. Margaret’s prediction that Ysachina and Francesca would eventually join the Mantellate was realized.
We do not know how long Margaret lived with the Offrenduccio family, nor why she left, but it is known that the blind girl ultimately went to live with the Venturino family. Having been born into wealth and position, Margaret was now destined to pass the last years of her life in the palace of a wealthy nobleman. Declining the sumptuous room she was offered as her own, Margaret decided upon the garret, which was small and open to the elements.
Soon after Margaret moved into this home, she overheard a conversation in which the frightful conditions of the local prison were described. Upon learning that the prisoners were kept in underground cells without fresh air or light and that many slept on the damp stones – that they needed clothing and were sometimes starving dying without medical care –Margaret began her ministry among these unfortunates and invited some to the Mantellate to join her. Every day they were seen entering the prison, their arms laden with bundles of clothing, food and medicine.
Many were the prisoners Margaret brought back to the good graces of the Church, but one obstinately resisted her entreaties. One day, while one of the Mantellate was bathing his skin ulcers, Margaret bowed her head in prayer. When the prisoners next looked in Margaret’s direction, she was elevated twenty inches from the ground. With her hands joined in the attitude of prayer and her head now thrown back as if looking heavenward, Margaret remained in deep prayer before slowly descending to the ground. It is said that the prisoner, formerly known for his blasphemous language, now said in a choked voice, “Little Margaret, please pray for me.”
Many other phenomena are related by her contemporary biographers. It is recorded that Margaret, although completely blind, could nevertheless “see” Our Lord. She is known to have confided to her confessor that from the Consecration of the Mass until the Communion she did not see the priest, the crucifix, the missal or anything else, only her Saviour.
Once when her godchild, a niece of Lady Gregoria, was dying, Margaret did not join the family members at the bedside but remained in the hall, where she knelt in prayer for a lengthy period of time. When a nearby church bell rang, the sick girl awoke and announced that she had been cured through the prayers of her godmother, Margaret.
One wintry day a fire broke out on the ground floor of the Venturino home. With servants and volunteers frantically attempting to fight the fire, which quickly increased in intensity, the whole house was declared doomed. It was then realized that Margaret was upstairs in the garret. In answer to the shouts of the crowd, Margaret was seen to appear at the head of the stairs. Although choking from the smoke, and without the least sign of alarm, she removed her black mantle, rolled it into a bundle and threw it down the stairs. The medieval biographer tells us what happened next: “In the sight of the crowd of men who had rushed to Venturino’s house to fight the blaze, when the cloak of Margaret was thrown into the flames, the raging fire was instantly extinguished.”
The healing power of her prayers was used in favor of Sister Venturella, one of the Mantellate. Afflicted with a tumor of the eye which threatened to blind her, Sister Venturella was grieved that she did not have enough money to pay for her medical treatments. When Sister Venturella complained to poor Margaret, who had never experienced sight, that she did not want to be blind, Margaret told her to accept the prospect of blindness as a penance and as a means of growing more in virtue. But when Sister Venturella declared that God was asking too much of her, Margaret saw the futility of further arguments. She stretched out her right hand and asked Venturella to place it over her eye. We are told that, “ The instant Margaret’s hand touched the diseased eye, the tumor disappeared and Venturella’s sight became perfect.”
The medical biographer mentions that there were many other miracles for which Margaret became celebrated through out the land, but few are given concerning them. He also added that “many other things concerning her sanctity should be truthfully told.” He apparently felt that it was necessary to relate those extraordinary deeds, about which the people were well informed.
According to the Dominican custom of the time, the bodies of their members were buried without a coffin, in accordance with the holy poverty. For this reason Margaret’s body was exposed on a wooden frame. After the funeral services in the church, the friars prepared to carry the body outside to the church cemetery. It was then that a violent argument took place, instigated by those who claimed that the Saint should be placed in a coffin and buried in the church. Described as “a stupendous uproar,” the argument continued until a man and his wife brought their crippled daughter into the church. Suffering from an acute curvature of the spine, the child was unable to walk and was mute as well. Pushing their way through the crowd, they placed the child beside Margaret’s body. Touched with pity, the crowd began praying with the parents for the child’s cure. Suddenly, all stared in amazement as the left arm of the body began to rise. Reaching over, it touched the young crippled girl. A moment later the girl, who had never been able to walk, rose unaided and spoke for the fist time, declaring that she had been cured through Margaret’s prayers.
The cure settled the dispute as to Margaret’s burial place. The prior provided a coffin, and the city council decided that they would pay the expense of having the body embalmed. In the Middle Ages no preservative chemicals were used; a delay in decomposition was attempted by simply removing the viscera and the heart and placing spices in their place. Corruption was expected to take place within a week or two. Following this primitive procedure, Margaret’s body was entombed in one of the chapels of the Dominican Church.
New of Margaret’s final miracle, as well as the other wonders worked throughout her life, became well-known, so that many soon flocked to pray beside her tomb. Soon more than two hundred affidavits were received testifying to permanent cures received through her intercession.
Margaret was eventually beatified by Pope Paul V on October 19,1609, with April 13 being assigned as her feast day.
Dressed in the black and white habit of the Mantellate, the marvelously incorrupt body of Blessed Margaret is now seen in a glass sarcophagus in the chapel of the School for the Blind in Citta di Castello, Italy.
Chapter 91
St Hermengild
d.585
Leovigild, the Arian King of the Spanish Visigoths, fathered two sons, Recared and Hermengild, by his first wife, Princess Theodosia. She saw to it that bother sons were instructed in the Arian heresy, which their father also professed. Upon the death of Theodosia, Leovigild took as his second wife Goswintha, a fanatical Arian. This heresy denied the divinity of Christ and is considered to have been the most devastating of the early heresies. Eventually the heretics established their own hierarchies and churches.
In the year 576, Hermengild married the princess Indegundis, a zealous Christian. This marriage produced a clash in the family, with Goswintha resenting her daughter-in-law to the extent that physical violence was used in an attempt to make Indegundis abandon her Christian faith. The young princess, however, stood firm. Because of the patience his wife exercised with her mother-in-law and also due to her prayers – and the instructions from St. Leander, Archbishop of Seville – Hermengild waited until his father’s absence and then publicly renounced the heresy. He was welcomed into the Christian faith, receiving the imposition of hands and the anointing with chrism upon his forehead.
Leovigild, who had already been influenced against his son by Goswintha, was furious when he heard of his son’s open profession of the Christian Faith. He immediately deprived Hermengild of his title and called upon him to resign all his dignities and possessions. This Hermengild refused to do.
With the support of the Christians, Hermengild raised the standard of a holy war against the Arians. This endeavor was poorly planned, ill-equipped and lacking in manpower. The attempt proved to be a tragic mistake.
Because the Arians were powerful in Visigothic Spain, Hermengild sent St. Leander to Constantinople to obtain support and assistance. But the emperor to whom the appeal was made died soon afterward, and his successor was obliged to use all available troops in an effort to resist an invasion of the Persians.
Disappointed with the unavailability to the Roman generals who still ruled a strip of Spanish land along the Mediterranean Coast. They took his wife and infant son as hostages and made promises to Hermengild which they failed to keep. For over a year Hermengild was besieged in Seville by his father’s troops, and when he could hold out no longer he fled to the Roman camp, only to be warned that those he had thought were his friends had been bribed by Leovigild to betray him.
Hermengild next made his way to the fortified town of Osseto, which he defended with 300 men, until the royalist soldiers captured the town and burned it.
In desperation Hermengild entered a church and fell at the foot of the altar. Leovigild did not violate the sanctuary but her permitted his younger son Recared, who was still an Arian, to go to his brother with an offer of forgiveness, if he would submit and ask for pardon. Hermengild had no other recourse but to accept this father’s offer. A reconciliation took place, and for the moment Leovigild waxed sentimental and restored to his son some of his former dignities.
Hermengild’s stepmother, Goswintha, in a meantime had lost none of her former antagonism for Christians. As soon as the Arian father and his Christian son returned him, she was successful in estranging them once more. Hermengild was subsequently stripped of his royal of his royal robes, loaded with chains and imprisoned in the tower of Seville. (Another source claims he was imprisoned in Tarragone.) He was accused of treason and was offered his liberty if he would renounce his Christian faith. His reply was “I am ready to lose scepter and life rather than forsake the divine truth.” For this statement he was transferred to a filthy dungeon, where he was subjected to various forms of torture. Prayer fervently that God would sustain him in his sufferings, Hermengild added voluntary mortification to what he already suffered at the hands of his persecutors.
St Gregory the Great in The Dialogues (Book III, Chapter XXXI) tells what occurred next:
When the solemn feast of Easter was come, his wicked father sent unto him in the dead of the night an Arian bishop to give him the communion of a sacrilegious consecration, that he might thereby again recover his father’s grace and favor; but the man of God, as he ought, sharpely reprehended that Arian Bishop which came unto him, and giving him such entertainment as his deserts required, utterly rejected him; for albeit outwardly he lay there in bands, yet inwardly to himself he stood secured in the height of his own soul.
The father, at the return of the Arian prelate, understanding this news, fell into such a rage that forthwith he sent his officers of execution to put to death that most constant confessor in the very prison where he lay, which unnatural and bloody commandment was performed accordingly: for as soon as they came into the prison. They clave his brains with a hatchet, and so bereaved him of mortal life, having only power to take that from him which the holy martyr made small account of.
St Gregory the Great continues by telling that as soon as the death of Hermengild was made known, miracles from Heaven occurred. “For in the night time singing was heard at his body, some also reported that in the night burning lamps were seen in the place by reason whereof his body, as of him that was a martyr, was worthily worshipped by all Christian people”
St. Gregory also relates that the faith was grief-stricken for having murdered his own son, but he never actually renounced Arianism. Yet when he was on his deathbed, he recommended his son Recared to St. Leander, with the hope that the Saint would convert his remaining son to the Christian Faith. St Gregory relates that:
Recared the king, not following the steps of his wicked father, but his brother the martyr, utterly renounced Arianism, and labored so earnestly for the restoring of the Christian religion that he brought the whole nation of the Visigoths to the True Faith of Christ, and would not suffer any that was a heretic in his country to bear arms and serve in the wars. And it is to be admired that he became thus to be a preacher of the True Faith, being he was the bother of a martyr whose merits did help him to bring so many into the lap of God’s Church, wherein we have to consider that he could never have effected all this if Hermengild had not died for the testimony of true religion.
After her husband’s death, Indegundis fled with her son to Africa, where she died. He son was then given to the custody of his grandmother Brunhilde.
Hermengild was venerated as a martyr soon after his death. Sixtus V, acting on the suggestion of King Philip II, extended the celebration the martyr’s feast, April 13th, throughout the whole of Spain.
Chapter 96
Bl. Ida of Boulogne
d. 1113
Ida is called the Mother of Monarchs because two of her sons, Godfrey and Baldwin, became kings of Jerusalem and her granddaughter became Queen Consort of England. Not only is her progeny titled, but ancestors are as well, since both of her parents were descended from Charlemagne. Her father was Godfrey IV, duke of Lorraine, and her husband was Eustace II Count of Boulogne.
Married at the age of 17, Bl. Ida seems to have had a happy marriage; both husband and wife were equally dedicated to good works – especially to the restoration and building of churches. As a mother, Bl. Ida was careful in the education of her three sons, considering it her prime duty to train them in the ways of holiness and to teach them by her example all the good that can be achieved through generous almsgiving to the needy.
At the death of Count Eustace, his widow was left in control of valuable holdings. Ida had previously inherited from her father various estates in Lorraine and Germany. These holding she arranged to sell, and the greater paret of the money she derived from these sales was given to relieve the poor and in the construction of monasteries. Among the monasteries which Bl. Ida either built or restored are counted St. Villemar at Boulogne: St Vaast, which accepted the religious who were sent from Cluny; the monastery of the Samer; Our Lady of the Chapel, Calais; St. Bertin Abbey; and the abbeys of Bouillon and Afflighem.
Bl. Ida regarded it a blessing of the highest order that she had as her spiritual director one of the greatest men of the Age, St. Anselm, Abbot of Bec in Normandy, who was afterward the Archbishop of Canterbury. Some of his letters to Bl Ida have been preserved; these indicate the generosity which she lavished on his abbey and the monies she donated for the relief of pilgrims traveling to it. In one of these letters St. Anselm expressed his gratitude in this manner.
You have bestowed so many and so great kindnesses upon men, whatever their order, coming to our monastery or traveling from it, that it would be wearisome to you if we were to send you messages or letters of thanks for them all; nor have we anything with which to reward you as you deserve. So we comment you to God, we make Him our agent between you and us. All that you do is done for Him; so may He reward you for us. For Him, you do so much.
Many hours were spent by Bl. Ida in praying for the success of the Crusade, and it is recorded that while she was making fervent intercession for the safety of her Son Godfrey, it was revealed to her that he was at that very moment making his victorious entry unto Jerusalem. From him she received various relics from the Holy Land, which she distributed among several foundations.
As Ida grew older, she retired form the world, Although she had the highest regard for monastic life, she never showed an inclination t to enter a convent. She preferred to express her love for God by being a dutiful wife, a loving mother and a generous benefactress of the poor.
Bl. Ida died when she was over 70 years old, after a long and painful illness. She was the first buried in the church of the Monastery of St. Vaast. The first biography of Bl. Ida was written at this monastery by a monk, a contemporary, who compared Ida to Queen Esther the Old Testament. One chronicler suggest that Ida can also be compared to the valiant, prudent wife in Proverbs (31: 10-321).
After several translations, Bl. Ida’s relics finally came to rest at Bayeux.
Chapter 12
Bl. Angela of Foligno
c.1248- 1309
Angela was born in the City of Foligno, Italy, where she derived all the benefits of being reared as a member of a prominent family. She was married to a man of substantial means and became the mother of several children. In her early life she was careless and worldly, and according to her own account, her life was not only pleasure-seeking and self-indulgent, but was also sinful. One source tells that, “Forgetful of her dignity and duties as wife and mother, she fell into sin and led a disorderly life.”
Quite suddenly Angela experienced a complete transformation – a sudden, vivid conversion in which the life she had thought harmless, she now saw in its true perspective as having been sinful. As a result of this, she earnestly wanted to make reparation by doing penance and performing works of mercy. She took as her model St. Francis of Assisi, and became a tertiary in the Franciscan Third Order.
As a tertiary she continued her normal life in the world, but now spent more time in prayer and penance – more than that which was prescribed by the Rule. Then, her life became one of great sorrow when death claimed her husband and her mother. Finally, one by one, all her children died. Brother Arnold, a Friar Minor, who was her confessor, tells how, cruelly she suffered as blow after blow fell upon her. Her conversion had been so complete, however, that despite her great sorrow, she accepted her trial with complete resignation to the will of God.
Soon after these losses, Angela began to experience visions. In one of these she was reminded that if she meant to be perfect, she must sell all that she had and follow St. Francis in his absolute poverty. As a result of this vision, she sold a castle that was very dear to her. Although Angela experienced many visions and ecstasies, Brother Arnold wrote that she was ever humble, so that the greater the ecstasy, the deeper was her humility. The details of her mystical experiences were dictated to Brother Arnold, who recorded them in a book entitled (Book of) Visions and Instructions, which contains 70 chapters.
We are also told that Bl. Angela experienced the mystical marriage with Our Lord and bore on her body the wounds of the stigmata. Although Angela always remained a lay person, a number of her fellow tertiaries – both men and women – looked to her for guidance. These also received her dying prayers as they stood around her deathbed.
Bl. Angela died January 4, 1309. Her remains are found in the Church of St Francis at Foligno, where the many miracles worked at her tomb prompted Pope Innocent XII to sanction the veneration paid to her. Bl. Angela of Foligno is considered one of the Church’s great mystics.
Chapter 105
Bl. Jeanne Marie De Maille
1332 – 1414
At Roche Ste. Quentin in Touraine, France, on April 14th, 1332, a daughter was born to Baron Hardouin VI of Maille, France and his wife, Jeanne de Montbazon. The infant received the name Jeanne at her Baptism, and at her Confirmation that of Marie.
Jeanne Marie’s father died during her adolescence, and she became the sole heir of a considerable fortune. Her grandfather, who was her guardian, judged it prudent for her to marry a young man who had been her childhood companion. He was Robert, the heir of the Baron of Sille. Although Jeanne Marie had decided to vow her virginity to God, she obeyed her grandfather and married. Robert.
Previously to this, Jeanne and Robert decided that they would live in continence. It was well-known that during their childhood they were particularly fond of each other, and at the time of their marriage there was a deep love between them. Christian virtue, order and piety distinguished their home, which became famous as a place of relief for the poor and afflicted. While engaged in their works of charity, they came to know three orphans, whom they adopted and educated.
Their peaceful and holy situation was disturbed by war when Robert followed King John into battle in defense of his country against the English. In the disastrous Battle of Poitiers, he was seriously wounded and left for dead. When King John was captured and imprisoned, Touraine was left to the mercy of the enemy troops, who overran the land and pillaged the Chateau of Sille. Robert was imprisoned, and the sum demanded of his ransom was 3,000 florins. Since the generosity of the holy couple had drastically reduced their holdings, Jeanne Marie found it necessary to sell her jewels and horses and to borrow what was additionally needed to win her husband’s freedom.
The harshness that Robert experienced during his confinement made him sensitive to the needs of prisoners, so that, upon his release, he and Jeanne Marie made many donations for the ransom of captives. They continued this and other charities while living a holy life which was characterized by self-denial until Robert died in 1362, after 16 years of marriage.
The grief that Jeanne Marie experienced at her loss was intensified by the unkindness of Robert’s family, who criticized her bitterly for impoverishing the estate through her charities. They went so far as to deny Jeanne Marie her rightful share of the estate and actually forced her from her home. With nowhere to go, Jeanne Marie took refuge with an old servant, who received her grudgingly and treated her with contempt when she learned that Jeanne Marie was without funds and was in need of charity.
Eventually Jeanne Marie journeyed to Tours, where she lived in a small house next to the Church of St. Martin. There she devoted herself to prayer, to the devotions held in the church and to the care of the poor and sick, especially lepers. She was particularly untiring in her efforts win back to virtue women who were living an amoral life.
Having become a Franciscan tertiary, Jeanne Marie wore a distinctive dress which caused her to be insulted and mocked as she made her way on her errands of mercy. Once a madwoman threw a stone at Jeanne Marie, which struck her back so severely that she carried the mark of the blow until death. Not only that did she suffer throughout her life from the injury caused by this blow, but to this penance she added others, including the wearing of a hairshirt.
When her husband’s family restored the Chateau des Roches to her, Jeanne Marie resolved to continue a life of poverty and gave the chateau and everything else she had to the Carthusians of Leget. She also made a declaration wherein she renounced any property which might be given to her in the future. In so doing, she alienated her own relatives, who considered her a disgrace to the family.
When Jeanne Marie became completely destitute, no one would house her. She was obliged to beg from door to door and to sleep in hovels and dog kennels. For a time she worked among the servants of the hospital of St. Martin, performing the most menial chores. But there her holiness was not appreciated and she came to be humiliated, ridiculed and eventually expelled. Jeanne Marie accepted all these trials with meekness and was rewarded with visions and special graces which allowed her to understand some of the mysteries of our faith.
When she was 57 years old, Jeanne Marie began living in a tiny room near the Minorite church at Tours. Some of the people who lived nearby considered her a madwoman or a witch, but many others recognized her as a saint.
Jeanne Marie eventually came to the attention of Louis, Duke of Anjou and Mary of Brittany, who chose her to be the godmother of their infant son. She taught the little prince about God and heaven and likewise instructed the little children in her neighborhood. These would flock around her and chant the words she had taught them, “Blessed be God and Our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is said that she also taught the words to a magpie, which she had tamed.
In addition to her other mystical gifts, Jeanne Marie was also given the gift of prophecy. She felt compelled to share some of the prophecies with the King, and she was once detained at court for seven days by Queen Isabel of Bavaria.
Bl. Jeanne Marie converted and healed many. She redeemed numerous men from prison and was so highly regarded by the King that he once granted her request and liberated all the prisoners in Tours.
Bl. Jeanne Marie was denied her wish to suffer martyrdom, and instead died in her poor room on March 28th, 1414. She was buried in the Minorite church where she had spent so many hours in prayer.
Chapter 195
St. Seraphina
d. 1253
The memory of St. Seraphim (or Fina) is especially venerated in the old town of San Gimignano, Italy, where she was born. She is remembered there as a young girl who accepted great bodily suffering with perfect resignation to the will of God.
Seraphina was born of respectable parents who had fallen into poverty. The child was pretty and attractive, modest and concerned for the poor, going so far as to give half her food to those who were less fortunate than herself. Even in her youth she became proficient in the household skills of sewing and spinning and was considered an able assistant to her mother.
While Seraphina was still quite young, her father died. At about the same time the beautiful young girl was attacked by a series of illnesses that left her unattractive and an object of pity. Her head, eyes, feet and internal organs were affected. Within a short time paralysis claimed her body. No doubt inspired to behave like Our Lord on the Cross, she would not allow a soft bed to be made for her. Instead, she chose to lay on a hard plank. Finding movement impossible, Seraphina lay on this board for six years in one position. Since there was constant contact with the wood, the plank eventually rotted and adhered to her skin, producing agonizing pain.
With the death of her father, Seraphina and her mother were reduced to abject poverty, which forced the mother to periodically leave the patient while she went begging or looking for work. While the mother was gone, the helpless Seraphina was forced to endure the presence of rats, which at times gnawed at her flesh or licked up her blood. Although in terrible pain, Seraphina always maintained a peaceful spirit, and while gazing upon the crucifix she was known to repeat countless times, “It is not my wounds but Thine, O Christ, that pain me.”
As though poverty, sickness and paralysis were not enough of a burden, Seraphina had another to endure – the sudden death of her beloved and devoted mother. Seraphina was now completely destitute except for one devoted friend, Beldia and a few neighbors, who gave her a minimum of attention due to the repugnance of her wounds.
Seraphina had a great devotion to St. Gregory the Great, who, she was told, had suffered from various diseases. She prayed fervently to this Saint that she might have patience in her affliction. Eight days before her death, as she lay alone and unattended, the Saint appeared to her and said, “Dear child, on my festival, God will give you rest.” His prophetic words were realized. On the feast of St. Gregory in the year 1253, St Seraphina died.
When the Saint’s body was removed from the rotten board on which she had lain for so long, her neighbors declared that the wood was found to be covered with white violets which gave off a heavenly scent.
All the people of the city attended the funeral of the poor Saint, and many miracles were reported. One miracle in particular is said to have occurred as Seraphina lay dead. This miracle was in favor of her friend, Beldia, who had helped Seraphina after the death of her mother. While Beldia was standing in prayer beside the body of her friend, the corpse’s hand began to rise. It clasped Beldia’s injured arm, which was immediately cured.
White violets which bloom about the time of the Saint’s feast day are still given the name of Santa Fina by the people of San Gimignano.
Seraphina is also called the “Saint of the Wallflowers,” because these flowers reportedly sprang up on her coffin and on the towers of the town on the day of her death.
St. Seraphina is sometimes incorrectly identified as a Benedictine nun, but she belonged to no order and lived a life of seclusion in her own home.
Chapter 1
St Adalbald of Ostrevant
d. 650
As the son of a distinguished family, Adalbald spent much of his time in the court of Dagobert I and Clovis II and may have been the Duke of Douai. An ideal Christian noble, he was a general favorite among the courtiers.
While on an expedition in Gascony, Adalbald became friends with a noble lord named Ernold whose daughter, Rictrude, became Adalbald's bride. The wedding was performed with great pomp, but the union did not please certain members of the bride's family. Yet, in spite of a critical assessment of the groom by his in-laws and their dire predictions for the couple's future, the marriage proved to be a happy one. Early in their wedded life the young couple became interested in perfoming works of mercy and spent time visting the sick, relieving the poor, feeding the hungry and converting prisoners.
Four children were born to them: a son, Mauront, and three daughters, Eusebia, Clotsind and Adalsind. All four children imitated their parents in the ways of virtue and acts of charity.
In the year 650, 16 years after his marriage, Adalbald was recalled to Gascony, never to return. When he reached the vicinity of Periguerux, he was attacked and killed by a number of his wife's vindictive relatives.
When news of her husband's death reached Rictrude, she was overcome with grief. Even so, she managed to obtain possession of her husband's boby, which was buried with honor.
Following Adalbald's death and after her children were grown, Rictrude entered the double monastery for men and women at Marchiennes, which she had previously founded. This monastery was so arranged that the living accommodations and prayer area were entirely separated. Only the chapel was shared, but even this was divided into sections. Accompanying Rictrude into the monastery were her two younger daughters, Adalsind and Clotsind, as well as her only son, Mauront, who left the world and the Frankish court to receive the tonsure in his mother's presence.
Following Rictrude's death, Clotsind succeeded her mother as abbess of the monastery. The third daughter, Eusebia, entered the monastery of Halmage, which had been founded by her great-grandmother, St Gertrude of Halmage.
The remains of St. Alalbald rested in the Monastery of St. Amandles-Eaux in Elanone (Elnon), France, but afterward his head was taken to Douai. This we lean from an ancient manuscript of the Church of St. Ame, where there was, at one time, a magnificent chapel dedicated to Sts. Adalbald, Rictrude and their son, St. Mauront. Exhibted there for public vereration were statues of the holy trio. That of St. Adalbald was draped in a robe covered with lilies; St Rictrude's statue was clothed in a Benedictine habit and held a miniature replica of the Abbey of Marchiennes in her hand; and St Mauront was represented with a sceptre in his right hand and towers in his left.
The whole family - father, mother, three daughters and one son - are honored as saints of the Church. Also included in this holy gathering are Adalbald's grandmother, St. Gertrude of Halmage, and Rictrude's sister, St Bertha, who after being widowed becasme a nun and the foundress of the Monastery of Blangy in Artois.
Chapter 15
Bl. Anthony Manzi, The Pilgrim
c.1237 - 1267
Bl. Anthony was a native of Padua and belonged to a distinguished and wealthy family. As a child he was pious and practiced many Christian virtues. When Anthony was a young man his father died, leaving a considerable amount of money in the care of his only son. Anthony's zeal for the poor took precedence over his better judgments, and he promptly distributed the wealth among the needy, keeping nothing for himself or his two sisters.
Ridicule was heaped on Anthony's head as soon as his two sisters learned of his charity. Other members of his family, as well as his fellow citizens, reviled him in the streets and subjected him to all manner of indignities. Eventually Anthony assumed the clothing of a pilgrim, let his home town, and wandered about the countryside. During his travels he found a sick and saintly old priest, whom he tended and served for three years.
Upon the death of the priest Anthony resumed his wanderings and visted many shrines and holy places, among them Rome, Loreto, Compostela, Cologne and Jerusalem. When he retuned home he received the same ridicule and abuse he had known before his departure. Even his two sisters, who had become nuns, were still mindful of the disgrace and suffering they had endured from their sudden impoverishment many years before.
Throughout his life Anthony fasted, took severe disciplines and wore a rough hair shirt. He always slept on the bare ground with a stone for his pillow. The colonnade of a church outside the walls of Padua served Anthony as a shelter until his death.
Soon miracles were worked at his grave, and the Paduans who had scorned him during his lifetime petitioned the Pope for Anthony's canonization. This however, was denied when the Pope replied that it was enough for the City of Padua to have one St. Anthony, especially since the great St. Anthony, the Franciscan, had died a mere 36 years earlier. For this reason Anthony Manzi remains a beatus.
Chapter 199
St. Sigebert
630 - 656
The father of St. Sigebert was Dagobert I, King of France, who led such a sinful life that he was frequently rebuked by St Amandus, Bishop of Maestricht. For the zeal with which he endeavored to convert Dagobert from his dissolute life, St Amandus was banished from the realm.
If the holy Bishop was unable to succeed in this regard, it took a mere baby to win Dagobert from his evil ways. At the birth of his son, Sigebert, Dagobert was touched by an extraordinary grace and from that hour was completely converted to a life of virtue.
For the Baptism of the future Saint, Dagobert searched for the holiest prelate in the Kingdom to perform the ceremony. His choice fell to the banished St. Amandus, who was quickly recalled. When the bishoip arrived, Dagobert fell on his knees before him. He confessed his sins and promised amendemnt. The rite
of Baptism was then perfomed with ceremony at Orleans, with the godfather being Dagobert's brother, Charibert, King of Aquitinae.
Sigebert was a mere three years old when the doting father declared his son to be the King of Austrasia and gave him for his ministers the Archbishop of Cologne, St Cunibert and Duke Adalgisilus. The person chosen to administer the whole Kingdom for the child King was Bl. Pepin of Landen, the mayor of the palace, who was a married man and the father of three children. Bl. Pepin, who is mentioned elsewhere in this volume, was also intrusted with education of the young King. When Dagobert's second son, Clovis II, was born in 634, the father allotted to him for his inheritance all the western part of France. Sigeberts territory of Austrasia consisted of the eastern part of France and parts of what are now Switzerland, Germany and Hungary.
At the death of Dagobert in 638, when Sigebert was eight years old and Clovis only four, the two brothers assumed their responsibilities, and with the help of their ministers who guided the youthful monarchs, they ruled their lands in perfect harmony and peace; the only war in which Sigebert was involved was in uprising in Thuringia, in which his army suffered.
Bl. Pepin of Landen, who trained young Sigebert, can be credited with molding the character of a saint who is also known to have reigned with perfect intelligence. Sigebert was assiduous in prayer, generous to the poor and conscientious in the exercise of Christian virtue. Hhe endowed churches and hospitals and founded 12 monasteries. He was also a married man and the father of Dagobert II, who is also venerated as a saint.
It was a deep sorrow that the people of St. Sigebert's realm were informed of the untimely death of their virtuous king. Sigebert died in the year 656, during the eighteen year of his reign and the twenty-sixth year of his life.
Chapter 183
St Prosper of Aquitaine
d. 455
The scholarly training received by this saint seems typical of one who was preparing for the priesthood, but Prosper was never ordained. Rather, his vocation was to serve God in the married state. He received thorough literary, theological and philosophical training and was highly regarded by his friend, Hilary, who once described Prosper as a man distinguished “tum moribus, tum eloquio et studio” (for morals, eloquence and zeal). Prosper spent some time with the monks at Marseilles and later wrote to St. Augustine, describing the opposition of the monks to Augustine’s doctrine on grace. St. Augustine responded with two treatises.
With Hilary as his companion, St. Prosper journeyed to Rome in 431 to obtain a favorable judgment of St. Augustine’s doctrine from Pope Celestine I. After the year 440, Prosper was associated with Pope Leo I and aided the Pope with his correspondence and theological writings against the Nestorians.
St. Prosper was a strong opponent of Semi-Pelagianism, which caused a great disturbance at the time, and was an admirer and staunch defender of St. Augustine.
Prosper was a prolific writer whose works in both prose and poetry were devoted to philosophical and theological themes. Among his many writings was the 1,102 hexameter, “De Ingratis” (“On Those Without Grace”) and a poem written for his life which was entitled, “Poema Conjugis Ad Uxorem.”
Both the year of his birth and that of his death are uncertain. Nevertheless, it is estimated that St. Prosper of Aquitaine was about 65 years old at the time, of his death, sometime around the year 455.
The background music is Andrea Bocelli's "Ave Maria".
