PRO LABORE DEI (For the Labour of God)
'we shall serve'
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PRO LABORE DEI (For the Labour of God) 'we shall serve'
HOME ABOUT US MEMBERS PLD WORK PLD CHILDREN NEWS TESTIMONIES PRAYER SHARING SAINTS CONTACT US MOTHER MARY SPIRITUAL TEACHING |
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The meaning of the terms for "saint" in Hebrew,
Greek, and Latin is "holy one." Thus the most basic meaning of
"saint" is someone who is in some way holy, sanctified, or
consecrated. All Christians aspire to become saints, that is, persons in
heaven (officially canonized or not), who lived lives of great charity and
heroic virtues. Saints are not freaks or exceptions,
they are the standard operating model for human beings. “Life holds only one
tragedy, ultimately: not to have been a saint,” declares Charles Peguy. In this short article, Peter Kreeft
outlines those qualities which all saints have in common and in so doing helps
all of us understand what it would mean to bear the image of God as perfectly as
we are meant to. Saints are not the opposite of sinners. There are no
opposites of sinners in this world. There are only saved sinners and unsaved
sinners. Thus holy does not mean “sinless” but “set-apart:” called out
of the world to the destiny of eternal ecstasy with God. What is a saint? First of all, one who knows he is a sinner. A saint knows
all the news, both the bad news of sin and the good news of salvation. A saint
is a true scientist, a true philosopher: A saint knows the truth. A saint is a seer, one who sees
what’s there. A saint is a realist. A saint is also an idealist. A saint embraces heroic
suffering out of heroic love. A saint also embraces heroic joy. (This is one of
the criteria for canonization: Saints must have joy.) A saint is a servant of Christ. A saint is also a conqueror
greater than Alexander, who only conquered the world. A saint conquers himself.
What does it profit a man if he conquers the whole world but does not conquer
himself? A saint is so open that he can say, with Paul, “I have
learned, in whatever situation I find myself, to be self-sufficient. I know how
to live in humble circumstances; I know also how to live with abundance”
(Phil. 4:11-12). A saint marries God “for better or for worse, for richer or
for poorer, in sickness and in health, till death.” A saint is also so
determined, so stubborn, that he will die before compromising the truth, and
will write credo in the sand with his own blood as he dies. (One saint actually
did this.) A saint is a sworn enemy of the world, the flesh and the
devil. He is locked in mortal combat with principalities and powers. A saint is
also a friend and lover of the world. He kisses this sin-cancered world with the
tender lips of the God of John 3:16. A saint declares God’s war on this world,
sinking the cross into the enemy occupied earth like a sword, the hilt held by
heaven. At the same time he stretches his arms out on that very cross as if to
say, “See? This is how wide my love is for you!” A saint is Christ’s bride, totally attached, faithful,
dependent. A saint is also totally independent, detached from idols and from
other husbands. A saint works among these others money, power, pleasure — as a
married woman works with other men, but will not marry them or even flirt with
them. A saint is higher than anyone else in the world. A saint is
the real mountain climber. A saint is also lower than anyone else in the world.
As with water, he flows to the lowest places — like Calcutta. A saint’s heart is broken by every little sorrow and sin.
A saint’s heart is also so strong that not even death can break it. It is
indestructible because it’s so breakable. A saint takes his hands off the steering wheel of his life
and lets God steer. That’s scary, for God is invisible. A saint also has hands
that move the world. He has feet that move through the world with a sure step. A saint does not let others play God to him. A saint takes his orders from the General, not from the army. A saint also does not play God to others. A saint is a little Christ. Not only do we see Christ
through His saints, as we see a light through a stained glass window, but we
also understand the saints only through Christ, as we understand eggs only
through chickens. The saints are our family. We are one Body. They are our
legs and we are theirs. That’s why their feast is our feast. As Pascal says,
“Examples of noble deaths of Spartans and others hardly affect us... but the
example of the deaths of martyrs affects us, for they are our members... we do
not become rich through seeing a rich stranger, but through seeing a father or
husband rich.” We become saints not by thinking about it, and not
(certainly) by writing about it, but simply by doing it. There comes a time when
the “how?” question stops and we just do it. If the one we love were at our
door knocking to come in, would we wonder how the door lock works, and how we
could move our muscles to open it? Francis of Assisi once told his monks that if they were in
the midst of the Beatific Vision and a tramp knocked at their door asking for a
cup of cold water, turning away from the heavenly vision to help the tramp would
be the real heaven, and turning away from the tramp to keep the blissful vision
would be turning from God’s face. A saint is one who sees who the tramp is: Jesus.
ST.
PADRE PIO, THE SAINT OF MIRACLES, A SAINT FOR OUR TIME HIS SIGNIFICANCE IN
THIS DAY AND AGE Saint Padre was born in Pietrelcina
near Benevento on 25 May 1887. He entered as a
cleric into the Capuchin order On 6th January 1903 and was ordained
a priest on 10th Augusf 1910 in the Cathedral of Benevento. St. Padre Pio of Pietrelcina died on 23rd September 1968. From
1918 until his death, he carried the marks of Christ's passion on his body.
Thirty-four years after his death, he was proclaimed a Saint. The solemn procession
took place at St. Peter's on 16th June, and with this title,
the church has revealed to all his followers
that he is an example to be followed and a sure intercessor before God. Padre Pio was a typical saint of the middle Ages, an extraordinarily
Modern Saint, strongly clinging to the essence of the
Christian Faith and the fundamental truth of the faith and a genuine
teacher for modern civilization. This is why,
infact, John Paul II on several
occasions has named him "the saint for the Third Millennium." According
to some theologians, there are three fundamental
characteristics of Padre Pio's saintliness; suffering, meant as the price for redemption, concrete faith in an afterlife, and the
awareness of the presence of satan in the world. If these three elements
are removed from Padre Pio's biography, then it is impossible to understand his life. The physical suffering, borne
with love, to be similar to Jesus, has been the most evident and constant factor
in Padre Pio's life.
His physical pain was represented by numerous
and inexplicable diseases and, in particular,
by stigmata. Padre Pio was the 'friar with the stigmata,' - mysterious
wounds which appeared
on his body on 20th September
1918 and remained there
until his death, that is for fifty years
exactly. They were deep, bloody and very
painful wounds. Padre Pio's life was, for half a century,
a continual and unceasing martyrdom. Padre Pio used to say, "As a priest, my mission is propitiatory; appeasing God on behalf of humankind." A propitiator is someone who intercedes before God,
and in the Christian culture is a term mostly used for Jesus and the
Virgin Mary. Padre Pio chose to be as similar as he could to them, and God
accepted these wish by granting him the wounds of
Christ's passion imprinted on his body. And these wounds never became infected, instead they emitted the
delicate perfume of flowers. With the stigmata, which he bore most of his life and the other physical and moral torments, Padre Pio drew people's attention to
the Body of Christ as a means of salvation.
Christ died on the cross for all humanity, and all the theology of Redemption
rests upon this truth; one of the most important of Christianity. It is a truth,
which is so important, that when human beings have forgotten it over the course of history, or tried to distort
it, God has always
intervened with events, facts and miracles. The
history of the Church is full of these divine
interventions, drawing attention to the Body of Christ. These days,
the temptation to forget the reality of Christ's
Body is great. Many modern theologians, especially those
with a Hegelian mentality, have promoted incorrect and harmful theories and God has intervened
with many signs. One of these, without a doubt the most evident, was Padre Pio, who for half a century carried
Christ's stigmata on his body, signifying that suffering is not something which is
sterile or absurd, but the means to
redemption Padre Pio is also the saint of miracles, cures, bi-location, visions, dreams, intuition, perfumes,
premonitions, prophecies,
and infinite whirl of amazing things. Certainly, Padre Pio's saintliness derives
from the great suffering he bore for love, in his
heroic obedience, in his poverty, in the humiliations he suffered without ever complaining, in his unceasing prayer. But it is impossible to ignore the miraculous
aspect of Padre Pio's life, which was evident, since he was a babe-in-arms, and
was clear throughout his existence. He once
declared, "I am a mystery to myself. Padre Pio didn't write books, he didn't
preach, he didn't teach theology, he didn't go on missions, he didn't pursue
an ecclesiastical career nor did he hold conferences or write in newspapers. "I am a poor Franciscan friar who prays" he used
to say. And through prayer he was
an intermediary between heaven and earth: he obtained graces and conversions from God. People flocked to him because he was famous as a
miracle-worker. Padre Pio is thus the saint
of miracles. God, through Padre Pio's miracles, enters into dialogue with
humankind, offering precious and consoling evidence of
an afterlife, and bearing witness to its existence. As the personal
participation in the resurrection of Christ, heaven is the result of acceptance
of God's grace in one's
life; hell by contrast, is the utter loss of God through a definitive
repudiation of that same grace. The sentence in the creed says; "I believe
in the resurrection of the body and life ever lasting." But, usually, when people speak of the
afterlife, they usually think of something intangible, mysterious and
spiritual which is indefinable and almost
inexistent. In Padre Pio's life, however
the afterlife is a concrete reality, with which he had
real daily contact; visions and conversations with
the spirits of the deceased, angels, Jesus,
the Virgin Mary and the saints. It was as if the curtain separating our
world from the afterlife occasionally parted for him. Whoever was near Padre Pio, experienced that the invisible
was visible for him,. With his existence full
of miraculous facts, he was the apostle of the afterlife, the advocate
of the concrete existence
of that dimension, which is eternal life for
everyone. Padre Pio also believed in the terrible reality of the Devil. Satan
isn't the imaginary figure with horns, a tail and bat wings exhaling
sulphurous smoke, as he is often described. The devil is an extremely
intelligent spirit. His primitive
name was Lucifer, the angel of light who rebelled against God,
choosing evil. He wanted to destroy God, but failing to do so, he tried to ruin the children of God, the creatures that God loves to the point of having sacrificed his only son for their salvation. Padre Pio's entire life has been a body-to-body fight against satan.
- At times, a cruel battle out of which
he escaped with his bones literally broken. Many
people smile when they hear of such accounts. However, we must remember
that Padre Pio is now a saint and the church
exalts him as an extraordinary example for all Christians.
Thus, even these awkward aspects of his existence have
to be taken into fair consideration. Removing them from his story implies falsifying his life
and his message. Thanks to the miracles that people continue to receive through
his intercession, he continues to be a witness and an advocate of this reality. St. Padre Pio, Pray for us. By: Mari Emmanuel Okoye
Patron Of Hospitals And the Sick H e was a Portuguese by birth and of poor parentage. Though poor, they were very devout and charitable, providing little John with an ideal Christian background. Born in 1495, he grew up a pure and innocent boy shepherd until 1522 when he joined the army - He fought in wars against the French and later, in the war in Hungary against the Turks. He joined bad company, lost his fear of offending God, and gave up his devotional practices. After the war, upon his demobilization, he went to work for a woman as a shepherd until, when he was 40 years old, a sermon of St. John of Avila he heard brought him to repentance and a radical change of life, devoting the rest of his life to serving the poor. He resolved to atone for his sins, sold all he had and gave the money to the poor. His great compassion for the distressed and downtrodden led him to leave his job and sail in a bid to help the Christian slaves in Africa and, perhaps, suffer martyrdom. He met a Portuguese gentleman and his family in Gibraltar, going to Ceuta in Barbary on exile and, out of pity for them decided to follow them and help them. When the gentleman fell ill in Ceuta, he worked as a labourer to earn money to provide for them. However, on realizing that his desire for martyrdom might remain only a dream in Africa, he returned to Spain. Back in Gibraltar, he began to sell devotional books and articles with the aim of converting his customers and succeeded so well that he was able to open a shop in Granada for this purpose in 1538. This was only a stepping-stone to a deeper commitment to help the destitutes. He soon rented a house, which he used as a hospital for the sick poor who could not afford to go to the hospital. He served them so devotedly and skillfully, to the amazement of the city residents, that soon he had a band of helpers who formed the core of a Religious order later known as "Brothers Hospitallers of St. John of God", devoting themselves to the infirm in soul and body. He spent the days tending the patients in his hospital and the nights fishing for new patients. He also had to go around daily seeking financial and material support for his project. It became so famous, however, that people began to voluntarily bring their donations without waiting for him to come and appeal to them. They brought all that he needed and he was soon able to expand his little hospital. It became even more popular because John was always very generous giving money and himself in aid of the distressed. When there was a fire in his hospital, he personally carried out most of the sick, going in and out of the burning building several times, unharmed. One night John rescued a dying, poor man on the streets, carried him to his hospital, settled him and was bathing him when he discovered that his feet had wound marks similar to those of Jesus. He looked up in amazement only to see that it was Jesus Himself! He told him "John, everything you do for the poor in my name, you do for me" and disappeared. Speechless, dazed with joy, John knelt down by that bed for a whole hour of thanksgiving to God! John reached out to aid all destitutes and distressed persons he heard of or knew about, wherever they might be. He enquired, sending people to fish for the poor throughout the province and hurried to their aid in their homes or in whatever their area of need may be whether it is jobs or protection of defenceless young girls, food, shelter or conversion of hardened sinners. He worked tirelessly and was also a man of much prayer. His humility was remarkable. On one occasion when he was summoned before his archbishop on charges of harbouring tramps and women of bad character, he went on his knees sincerely declaring "I confess that I know of no bad person in my hospital except myself alone, who am indeed unworthy to eat the bread of the poor". The archbishop, full of respect for him, sent him away. The bishop of Tuy gave him the name "John of God". He fell ill and died on his knees before the altar on March 8, 1550 at 55 years of age. He was buried by the archbishop followed by the whole of Granada in mourning. After many miracles in his honour, he was canonized by Pope Alexander VIII in 1690 and declared to be the heavenly patron of hospitals and the sick, along with St. Camillus de Lellis by Pope Leo XII in 1986. Printers also honor him and booksellers because of his activity in book trade in his early 40s. Mrs. Fola Olumide Member
The
miracle of Saint Marcelino Panevino - the
child who was taken up to heaven by Christ. His
story briefly: His mom died when he was just born and no one wanted to take him in
so the people left him at the door of a monastery (in Spain)... The monks named
and baptize the child after the Saint of the day – Marcelino. Each monk was
his like his father and mother teaching him how to pray and other skills like
cooking, math etc. The town mayor who was evil wanted to show power that he can
have anything he wants, so he ordered the monks to give him Marcelino, but God
stopped the evil man by not getting his petition to be signed by other important
town officials. First he was afraid and was ready with a stick to defend himself
but later he overcome his fear and he tried to talk to the man on the cross but
got no answer (at first because it was wood). HE then thought that the man
looked hungry so he brought him first bread and then wine, which he stole from
the kitchen. First miracle was that the man ‘Christ on the cross’ came down,
took the bread from the boy and then put His arm around Marcelino and thanked
him. Marcelino was saddened by the situation of the man on the cross
whom he thought did not have his mother with him (just like he didn’t) because
the man told him once when asked that His mother like Marcelo’s was in heaven.
Christ comforted Him and called Him Marcelino "Pan e Vino" or ‘Pan y
Veno’ Bread and Wine because of the kind act which he served Christ. One cold night though cold himself Marcelino brought his own
blanket to give the man on the cross because he feared He would be cold, but
Christ the Compassionate gave it back to him. The monks having notice the missing bread and wine hide it so that
Marcelino could not get to it but Marcelino overcame this problem by giving his
own food to Christ. This was the test of faith and true love for God and others.
Then one day Christ asked him a tough question: If he would rather
go to heaven to see his own mother whom he never got to see and the Man’s
mother or become a monk like the other monks. Marcelino chose the first one.
Christ asked him to come into His arms, which he did and thus Christ disappeared
from the cross along with the boy. After
a while Christ returned to the cross with a lifeless Marcelino at the foot of
the cross – a position I believe he was buried. One of the monks witnessed the disappearance of the missing crucified Christ from the Cross at a point and that the crucified God later returned to His position on the cross....he and the other monks wept bitterly and from that day on in Spain there is a festival after him. DO YOU KNOW ST. ANTHONY OF PADUADo you know that he was baptized
Ferdinand but changed to Anthony when he entered the
Augustinian order?
St.
Anthony was born in Lisbon, Portugal, of noble and virtuous parentage in the year 1 195. He and his brothers and sisters
had a happy childhood. He also had a religious
upbringing, exposed at an early age to
living and education at the Cathedral of Lisbon from where he entered the Augustinian Order
in 1210. There, he devoted himself to a
life of prayer and study, becoming an outstanding biblical scholar. Eleven
years later, moved by missionary zeal
and a longing to die for Christ, he joined the Franciscans and was
posted to Morocco where the Moors had earlier
killed some Franciscans. Apparently,
that was not his destiny for ill health forced his return to Europe
and a fresh posting to San Paolo, near Forli. There, the humble,
self-effacing, prayerful Anthony devoted
himself to performing the menial tasks
in the service of his fellow friars. Little did they suspect his prodigious
intellectual and spiritual endowments
until an unexpected occasion arose when he was ordered to preach a sermon
to a gathering of many priests. To the astonishment
of all, Anthony's eloquence, persuasive
powers, deep knowledge of Scripture and
burning love of God magnetized them all
and inflamed them also love of God. That was the beginning
of his teachings career. He was assigned to
teach Theology to monks from city to city and to preach to the people, especially heretics. He brought all his qualities to bear in the
execution of this task so much so that wherever he went, crowds followed him -men
and women alike stopped in their tracks to listen. The crowds were so
large that Churches could not contain them
and he had to preach in open air. His
magnetic personality and transparent holiness
brought large numbers of hardened criminals
and heretics to conversion and confession. It also
brought about a new social order with sworn
enemies reconciling, imprisoned common
debtors regaining their freedom and governments
legislating just and beneficial laws to correct abuses. He was also reputed to
have miraculous powers. The
Baby Jesus was said to have visited him one night in Padua and flooded his room with such brilliant light that betrayed the fact and
led to the discovery. This smallish and plump
Doctor of the Universal Church died on 13th June 1 231 in Padua at thirty-six years
of age. The miracles obtained through his intercession have continued
unabated since 'Wonder Worker" and Patron of “lost” cases. Patricia Fola Olumide
(Mrs)
ST. MARTIN DE PORRES – Patron of Social Jusice He was born in Lima, Peru in 1579 of a Spanish knight and a Negro woman, a freed slave from Panama. Though their father acknowledged both he and his sister as his children, he left them to the care and support of their mother for many years. They were despised by their neighbours and lived in great poverty. Despite that handicap, Martin had a great love for the poor and the suffering and was known to have given all he had to help them. On one occasion, he even gave the money for the family dinner to a beggar though his mother, when she sent him to go and buy some food with it, had warned him not to give out the money because that was all they had. He gave it to the beggar because he was overwhelmed by sympathy for him and asked Jesus to take contol and not allow his mother to be with him. After some years, his father took Martin and his sister to Ecuador to be educated in their uncle's care. Martin was a bright student and, on completion of his studies, was sent back to Lima to learn the "Barber - Surgeon" trade. He was delighted at this opportunity and used his medical knowledge to help the poor. Every morning, after mass, he did a round, visiting the sick and the poor, treating and healing them free of charge. Sometimes, he spent the whole night with an ill patient, urging him to prayer. At fifteen years of age, he joined the Dominican monastery as a Lay Helper, not as a Brother, because he wanted to remain unimportant, doing the little things well for God. He worked indefatigably and diligently as a barber, surgeon, wardrobe - keeper and infirmarian, with outstanding holiness. He continued to look after the sick in Lima and helped to establish orphanages and many charity organizations. He was said to have miraculously increased the daily rations of food, which he was in charge of distributing to the poor at the Dominican Monastery. He went out of his way to care for and protect the unfortunate slaves, brought from Africa, with outstanding zeal. He longed to die for Christ in some foreign land but had to settle for a life of penance and asceticism at home instead, spending many nights in prayer, penance and spiritual reading. After nine years of outstanding service as a Lay Helper, he was persuaded to become a Lay Brother. He was a friend of all creatures - man, birds and beasts alike - and they listened to him and obeyed him. His miraculous powers could not remain hidden, despite his efforts to conceal them out of humility and a deep sense of unworthiness. He had the gifts of healing, multiplication of food, prophecy, bi-location and could read people's hearts and understand their unexpressed desires even from afar. He is the first recorded "half-caste" victim of discrimination to live Christian virtues to a heroic degree. He died in 1 639. He is the Patron of Social Justice. His feast day is 3rd of November. Patricia Fola Olumide (Mrs) SAINT RITA OF CASCIA St. Rita was born on 22nd May, 1381 at Rocca Porena, a little town about 2 miles from Cascia in the land of Umbria, Italy. She was the only child of Antonio and Amata Mancini who had prayed ceaselessly for many years for a child. When Amata was past childbearing age, an angel appeared and assured them that they would have a child - And so it was for this exemplary couple known as' "Peacemakers of Christ" in their community where, crucifix in hand, they successfully reconciled enemies and theological disputes. Rita's birth in the spring of 1381 brought joy and excitement to their little town as all, gaily dressed, trooped out to witness her baptism as Margarita, four (4) days later. Right from birth, it was obvious that she was not an ordinary child. As she lay in her cradle after her baptism, she was surrounded by a swarm of bees, of an unknown species in their country. They flew all around her and eyen went in and out of her mouth without harming her. She grew up to be a pious child and, from a very early age, she got her parents to give her a little prayer room where she spent all her spare time praying and meditating. It is no wonder then that by the time she was twelve (12) years old, she had decided to consecrate her life to God in the Religious life. She was remarkably obedient, patient in suffering, very helpful to her parents in their work and extra-ordinarily prayerful. Her parents, concerned perhaps about their work and her mother's health, tearfully prevailed on her to marry instead and soon married her to Fernando, a temperamental young man capable of trying the patience and virtue of even an angel. They were blessed with two sons who, unfortunately, were of the same unpleasant temperament as their father. Her tireless prayers for her cruel husband’s conversion were heard and he became a changed, God-fearing family man. However, their peace and happiness was short-lived when he was murdered by an old enemy. His two sons vowed and began to plot to avenge their father's death, thus increasing Rita's problems. She spent hours praying for the soul of her husband, the conversion of his murderers and a change of heart for her children. She begged God to take them, if they would not change, rather than allow them to commit this mortal sin. God heard her prayer and took them, leaving St. Rita completely alone in the whole world, at the age of 35 years. These tragic events changed the course of her life forever. After a little while, she applied to enter the Augustinian Monastery in Cascia but she was refused. Thrice she applied and thrice she was rejected. She re-doubled her prayers and, one night, Saints John the Baptist, Augustine "of Hippo and Nicholas of Tolentino took her into the locked convent. When the nuns saw her the next morning in their courtyard, in such mysterious circumstances, they recognized that God was at work and enrolled her. At least, she had found true happiness. She lived the virtues of prayer, obedience, penance, unfailing charity and service to a heroic degree for forty (40) years and the other Augustinian nuns soon recognized the presence of a Saint among them. She was devoted to the Blessed Sacrament and longed to share in the passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ. One night, in the Chapel, as she begged for a share, the Lord gave her one thorn from His crown of thorns, which penetrated her forehead and was so deeply embedded that she could not remove it. It became gangrenous and was so foul-smelling that she had to be isolated from the other nuns for the remaining fifteen (15) years of her life. When Pope Nicholas IV declared a Jubilee in Rome, she was granted permission to go, provided the wound was healed, to avoid embarrassment. She begged the Lord to heal it and He did, she joyfully went to Rome and as soon as she returned home, the wound (stigmata) re-appeared. In order to try her obedience, her Superior ordered her to water a withered vine and she obeyed without any hesitation. The Lord rewarded her by, reviving the vine, which still produces grapes till today. It is known as the "Vine of St. Rita", standing in the Monastery garden. During her last illness, she requested a relative to bring her a rose from her old home in Rocca Porena.Though it was in the middle of winter, the Lord caused a rose to bloom and her relation brought it to her. For this reason, roses are offered on her feast days and at devotions to her. When
she died, her humble cell glowed with heavenly light, the wound on her forehead shone like a brilliant diamond and the church bells began to ring on their own accord. A miracle occurred at that very moment when a relative with a paralyzed arm touched her sacred remains and was instantly cured. A carpenter with stiffened fingers, who knew her and offered to make her coffin, was instantly cured. Her
uncorrupted corpse, with beautiful and radiant face, lies in a glass coffin
in the Convent Chapel, now a basilica,
at Cascia. The hall is pervaded with
the fragrance of sweet-smelling roses.
Many miracles occurred through her intercession during her lifetime and even
more after her death at the ripe old age of 75 years. She is one of the strangest
saints on record - born of miraculous
conception, an exemplary wife, mother,
widow and nun!! This "mystical jewel of Umbria" was canonized on 24th May 1900. She is known as the Wonder Worker, Advocate of the Hopeless. FOLA OLUMIDE (MRS)
St.
Francis, born in 1181, was the favourite son of his rich merchant
father, Peter
Bernadone. He lived the gay life of the
rich and, at 20 years of age, became a soldier. He was wounded, taken prisoner-of-war
and imprisoned
for several months. When released almost at the point of
death, it took him almost a year to regain
his health. He did quite a lot of soul-searching during that period but,
as soon as he was well, he resumed the gay social life of Asisi. After a while, he re-enlisted in the
army
and in Spoleto, a village in South Italy, he heard the voice of Jesus and, wearied by their long discussion, asked in despair
"Lord, what will you
have me do?" Jesus told him
"Return home. Your vision will have its spiritual fulfillment through Me"
That was the turning point in his life. He
began to seek solitude,
communing with his Creator in barren places. Finally, he embraced a life of total
poverty in imitation of Christ, gave all his
possessions to the poor and began to minister to the sick. Thus, liberated by holy poverty, he
became close to the poor, identifying with
them to show them their dignity and value in God's eyes and teach them
how to praise God. His conversion
was complete when he embraced a leper in the advanced stage of the disease in
obedience to Christ who asked him to kiss the leper.
From then on, he sought other lepers, kissed’ them like long-lost friends
and started a hospital for them. He
stole some cloth from his father's
shop and sold it when he needed money to build
the Church of St. Damian. His angry
father handed him over to the law to get
him imprisoned and he had to quickly refund
the money and remaining unsold cloth to get out of it'. This caused a complete
break in their relationship and the
beginning of a totally new life for Francis. He
now lived a life of intense poverty, hunger, cold, struggle and tears, living in cold caves often with
only a piece of rock for pillow. He begged
for money to meet the needs of the sick and poor he was looking after
and went about bare-foot. He
loved the Holy Eucharist and received it daily. He also loved the Church
and revered the priesthood. He often wept because he found it difficult
to persevere in imitating Christ and over negligent priests and the self-indulgent
laity. One
day, as he sat before the crucifix
in the Church, Jesus crucified spoke to
him from the cross asking him to help repair his Church. From then on, whenever he saw a Church in
disrepair, he struggled to help, sometimes,
physically doing all the work himself -
cutting rocks and timber and dragging them to the Church under repair. He
was thus able to restore many Churches in Asisi. Soon,
he began to
attract followers and formed the
order of Mendicant brothers and Sisters. He
encouraged his followers to give up all they had for the joy of simplicity. They
were ridiculed by friends and relations. In the face of the harsh elements,
some betrayed him, abandoning
this tough life-style and returning to easier ways of life. He
preached to people, even birds and animals. By and by, he established
the Franciscan Order dedicated to charity and the simple life. He
assisted St. Clare to start the Women's unit of the Order, later known
as the Poor Clares.
He encouraged them to struggle along this uphill road of extreme suffering, purity,
love, poverty,
hunger, nakedness,
cold and tears. The
stigmata came to him after he had lived this life of perfection and was
dying of a fatal disease. He had imitated Christ so closely,
more than any saint before him or since, and longed to die like
Christ. He begged continuously for this favour and received
it in August, 1224 when he and a few friars retired to Mount Alvernia in Umbria, near
Asisi,
for intensive prayers. In
a vision, he saw Jesus embrace him and
pour into his body and soul the passion
and sufferings of Good Friday, leaving him
with the permanent imprint of his five
wounds. These were the red seals of approval on his feet, hands and
side. Many
legends grew around him in the 14th Century with even Protestants
and non-Christians honouring and admiring him. Stories abound of his love for
the poor, the lowly animals and nature in all its beauty. He
died on October 4, 1226 at 45 years of age. FOLA
OLUMIDE (MRS)
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