A Community of Love, Unity and Service

St. Hermenegild

Leovigild, Arian King of the Visigoths, had two sons, Hermenegild and Recared, who werereigning conjointly with him. All were Arians, but Hermenegild married a zealous Catholic, thedaughter of Sigebert, King of France, and by her holy example was converted to the faith. Hisfather, on hearing the news, denounced him as a traitor, and marched to seize his person. Hermenegild tried to rally the Catholics of Spain in his defense, but they were too weak to makeany stand; and after a two years’ fruitless struggle, Hermenegild surrendered on the assurance of afree pardon. Once he was safely in the royal camp, the king had him loaded with fetters and castinto a foul dungeon at Seville.

Tortures and bribes were in turn employed to shake his faith, but Hermenegild wrote to his fatherthat he regarded the crown as nothing, and preferred to lose scepter and life rather than betray thetruth of God. At length, on Easter night, an Arian bishop entered his cell, and promised him hisfather’s pardon if he would receive Communion from his hands. Hermenegild indignantly rejectedthe offer, and knelt with joy for his death-stroke, praying for his persecutors. The same night alight streaming from his cell told the Christians keeping vigil nearby that the martyr had won hiscrown and was celebrating the Resurrection of the Lord with the Saints in glory.

King Leovigild, on his death-bed, was changed interiorly. He had been witness to the miraclesthat had occurred after his son’s cruel death, and he told his son and successor Recared to seekout Saint Leander, whom he himself had persecuted. Recared should follow Hermenegild’sexample, said the king, and be received by the bishop into the Church. Recared did so; andalthough his father himself had not had the courage to renounce the false faith publicly, after hisfather’s death the new king labored so earnestly for the extirpation of Arianism that he broughtover the whole nation of the Visigoths to the Church. “Nor is it to be wondered,” says SaintGregory, “that he came thus to be a preacher of the true faith, since he was the brother of amartyr, whose merits helped him to bring so many into the haven of God’s Church.”

St. Benezet

Saint Benezet kept his mother’s sheep in the country, and while still a young child was devoted topractices of piety. In his day many persons were being drowned when crossing the Rhone, andBenezet was instructed by God to build a bridge over that rapid river at Avignon. He obtainedthe approbation of the bishop, proving his mission by miracles, and in 1177 began the work,which he directed during seven years. He died when the major difficulties of the undertakingwere over, in 1184.

This remarkable feat of a young boy is attested by public monuments drawn up at that time andstill preserved at Avignon, where the story is still known to all. His body was buried upon thebridge itself, which was not finished until four years after his decease. Its construction wasattended with miracles from the first laying of the foundations until it was completed in 1188. Other miracles wrought afterwards at his tomb induced the city to build, on the bridge itself, achapel, and there his body lay for nearly five hundred years. But in 1669, after the greater part ofthe bridge had fallen through the impetuosity of the waters, the coffin was taken up and opened in1670, in the presence of the Church’s authorities. The body was found entire, without the leastsign of corruption; all was perfectly sound, and the color of the eyes still bright, even though,through the dampness of the surroundings, the iron bars around the coffin were much damagedwith rust.

Saint Benezet’s body was found in the same condition again in 1674, by the Archbishop ofAvignon at the time when, accompanied by the Bishop of Orange and a great concourse ofnobility, he carried out its translation with great pomp into the Church of the Celestines. ThatOrder had obtained from Louis XIV the honor of being entrusted with the custody of his relics,until such time as the bridge and chapel should be rebuilt.

St. Lydwina of Schiedam

Saint Lydwina was born in Holland of virtuous but poor parents, the only daughter among ninechildren. Her name means suffer in plenitude, and indeed her entire life was nothing but acontinuous suffering. Even in the cradle a grievous illness afflicted her.

At twelve years of age her beauty was admired by all; her father wanted her to marry, but she toldhim she had already given herself to the divine Spouse of virgins. When at the age of fifteen shefell on the ice, she suffered a broken rib; and this injury, spreading, it would seem, to other partsof her body, reduced her to the state of an invalid for the last thirty-eight years of her life. Forseventeen years, she could move no part of her body except, very slightly, her head and left arm. For a long time she could scarcely take any nourishment, and finally could no longer support anyfood at all. In this state she remained for nineteen years.

After her mother’s death, she sold the furnishings she had inherited to give the price to the poor;and all the alms she received were also given to them. A purse containing money which she hadplaced there to pay the debts of one of her brothers who had died with many orphaned childrenand many unpaid obligations, was never afterwards found without at least forty francs, regardlessof the amount distributed.

All the most dreaded illnesses seemed to have joined together to persecute Saint Lydwina, thatshe might endure in every one of the conjoined parts of her body, all that it could possibly bear. Despite her wounds, she was surrounded by an agreeable fragrance. Our Lord kept Lydwinacompany in her sufferings, and at times transported her in spirit elsewhere; she saw the pains ofthe damned and those of the souls in purgatory. For the latter she prayed much and deliveredmany, having suffered their torments for them. Our Saviour granted her His stigmata, but sheprayed that they might remain invisible, in order not to derive any attention from them.

He taught us all a lesson through His Saint, when she became too afflicted by the death of a dearbrother. He sent to her a holy hermit to tell her that the servants of Christ must be purified fromthe too tender affections of human nature, even though these are not unreasonable and are notcondemned by Holy Scripture.

She was permitted to receive Holy Communion every two weeks, as it was observed that thisgave her strength; and when she was nearing her end, four or five times a week that consolationwas granted her. After the death of this servant of God on April 14, 1433 her body which hadbeen covered with ulcers and deformed became straight and very beautiful. She was buried in theparish church of Saint John the Baptist in Schiedam. Her relics were later taken to Brussels andplaced in the collegial church of Saint Gudule. Her life was written by three persons who knewher personally, and an abridged life was prepared by Thomas a Kempis.

St. Peter Gonzales

Saint Peter Gonzales was born in Spain in 1190, of parents both rich and noble. He was broughtup by his maternal uncle, a bishop in the region of Astorga, and while still young was named acanon of his cathedral. Soon he was chosen to be head of the cathedral chapter; but when hecame to take possession of that office, mounted on a finely arrayed horse, the animal by a falsestep threw him into the mud. And then he was surrounded not by honors, but by laughter andmocking words. This for the young man was a special grace which enlightened him on the valueof the world’s dignities, and he decided to enter the Dominican Order at Palencia.

Saint Peter worked toward his perfection with fervor, and while still a novice manifested greatgenerosity, ready to offer his services whenever an occasion presented itself. He later studiedtheology to serve his neighbor in the spirit of his Order, and became so competent that he wassent to preach and hear confessions. In so doing he won many souls for Christ. Everywhere heexhorted to penance, exalting the state of grace and painting in fearful terms that of mortal sin,with such efficacy that he overcame the most hardened hearts.

King Ferdinand III, desiring to put the Moors out of his kingdom, called the famous preacher tohis court to benefit from his counsels and prayers. Saint Peter, fortified by the confidence of theprince, was able to revitalize the faith of the court and the army. But jealous ones set a trap forhim; a courtesan was sent to him, apparently to make her confession, but in reality to try toseduce him. When he recognized her design, he went to an adjoining room and wrapping himselfin his cloak, stood unharmed amid a great fire which he had lit there; then he called her to come. She and his false friends were converted at the sight of this prodigy, and thereafter all showedthemselves filled with veneration for the priest.

When the King won many military victories and took Cordova from the Moors in 1236, SaintPeter moderated the ill-directed energies of the conquerors and saw to the transformation of itsgreat mosque into a cathedral. He left the court when it seemed his presence was less necessary,and continued his preaching elsewhere. God honored him with the gift of healing and miracles,and above all gave him the grace to make the truths of salvation understood by the poor andsimple folk. He fell ill during Holy Week and died on the day of our Lord’s Resurrection in 1248.

Saint Peter saw to the building of a bridge over a river, at a place where many had perished. He isoften depicted walking on the waters with a torch in hand. He has appeared to mariners indanger, and is invoked in particular by those in peril on the seas, always with happy results.

St. Paternus

Saint Paternus was born at Poitiers, of illustrious Christian parents, about the year 482. Hisfather, Patranus, with the consent of his wife went to Ireland to end his days as a hermit in holysolitude. Paternus, fired by his father’s example, embraced monastic life in the Abbey of Marnes,France. After some time, desiring to attain the perfection of Christian virtue by a life of penancein solitude, he retired with a companion monk of the Abbey, Saint Scubilion, and in the forests ofthe diocese of Coutances near the sea, embraced an austere anchorite’s life resembling that ofAngels more than of men. An abbot of that region who knew of him recommended Paternus tothe bishop of Coutances, who ordained him a deacon and then a priest in 512. He and SaintScubilion then evangelized the western coasts and established several monasteries, of which hewas the abbot general. Many miracles honored his apostolate among the pagan populations.

In his old age he was consecrated bishop of Avranches while his former companion, SaintScubilion, had become abbot of a monastery founded by the two missionaries. When SaintPaternus fell ill he felt his end was near, and he sent to his dear friend to come and assist him in hislast illness. But the same fate had befallen Scubilion, who for his part had sent a messenger toPaternus. The two hermit-missionaries, each of whom had become the spiritual father of many,departed this life on the same day, April 16, 565, the thirteenth year of the pontificate of SaintPaternus. They were afterwards buried on the same day in the church of the monastery of Scicy,a region they had evangelized together.

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