A Community of Love, Unity and Service

St. Andrew Avellino

After a holy youth devoted to serious studies of philosophy and the humanities in Venice,Lancelot Avellino was ordained priest by the bishop of Naples. He was assigned to thechaplaincy of a community of nuns, sadly in need of reform; his intrepid courage andperseverance finally overcame many difficulties, and regular observance was restored in themonastery. Certain irritated libertines, however, decided to do away with him and, waiting forhim when he was about to leave a church, felled him with three sword thrusts. He lost muchblood, but his wounds healed perfectly without leaving any trace. The viceroy of Naples wasready to employ all his authority to punish the authors of this sacrilege; the holy priest, notdesiring the death of sinners but rather their conversion and their salvation, declined to pursuethem. One of them, however, died soon afterwards, assassinated by a man who wished toavenge a dishonor to his house.

He was still practicing law, which he had studied in Naples; one day a slight untruth escapedhim in the defense of a client, and he conceived such regret for his fault that he vowed topractice law no longer. In 1556, at the age of thirty-six, he entered the Theatine Order, takingthe name of Andrew out of love for the cross. After a pilgrimage to Rome to the tombs ofthe Apostles, he returned to Naples and was named master of novices in his Community, aduty he fulfilled for ten years. He was also chosen to be Superior of the house there, and thenwas sent out to found two houses elsewhere, at Milan and Piacenza. At the latter city heagain met the opposition of libertines; but the Duke of Parma, to whom letters accusing himwere directed, was completely charmed when he met him, and regarded him thereafter as aSaint.

He then became Superior of the Milan foundation, where his friendship with Saint CharlesBorromeo took root; the two Saints conversed together often. And Saint Andrew, with hisadmirable simplicity, confided to the Archbishop that he had seen Our Lord, and that since thattime the impression of His divine beauty, remaining with him constantly, had rendered insipidall other so-called beauties of the earth. Petitions were presented to Pope Gregory XIV tomake him a bishop, but he declined that honor with firmness, having always desired to remainobedient rather than to command. When his term as superior ended, he was successful inavoiding the government of another Theatine residence for only three years, then becamesuperior at Saint Paul of Naples.

Once when Saint Andrew was taking the Viaticum to a dying person and a storm extinguishedthe lamps, a heavenly light surrounded him, guided his steps, and sheltered him from the rain. But he was far from exempt from sufferings. His horse threw him one day on a rough road,and since his feet were caught in the stirrups, dragged him for a long time along this road. Heinvoked Saint Dominic and Saint Thomas Aquinas, who came to him, wiped his face coveredwith blood, cured his wounds, and even helped him back onto the horse. He attributed suchepisodes to his unworthiness, believing he was among the reprobate, but Saint Thomas onceagain came to him, accompanied by Saint Augustine, and restored his confidence in the loveand mercy of God.

On the last day of his life, November 10, 1608, Saint Andrew rose to say Mass. He was eighty-eight years old, and so weak he could scarcely reach the altar. He began the Judica me, Deus, the opening prayer, but fell forward, the victim of apoplexy. Laid on a straw mattress, his whole frame was convulsed in agony, while the ancient fiend, in visible form, advanced asthough to seize his soul. Then, while the onlookers prayed and wept, he invoked Our Lady,and his Guardian Angel seized the monster and dragged it out of the room. A calm and holysmile settled on the features of the dying Saint and, as he gazed with a grateful countenance onthe image of Mary, his holy soul winged its way to God.

St. Martin de Tours

Saint Martin, born in Pannonia (Hungary), followed his father, a military tribune in the service of Rome, to Italy. Although he was raised in paganism, he felt nothing but contempt for its cult, and as though he were Christian by nature, he took pleasure only in the assemblies of the faithful, which he attended despite his family’s opposition. When he was fifteen years old, he was forcibly enrolled in the Roman armies and went to serve in Gaul, the land he was predestined to evangelize one day. What would become of this young boy, when exposed to the libertinage of the camps? Would his faith not be obliterated? No, for God was watchingover His vessel of election.

The most famous episode of this period in his life is his meeting with a poor man almost nakedin the dead of winter, and trembling with cold. Martin did not have a penny to give him, buthe remembered the text of the Gospel: “I was naked, and you clothed Me.” “My friend,” hesaid, “I have nothing but my weapons and my garments.” And taking up his sword, he dividedhis cloak into two parts and gave one to the beggar. The following night he saw Jesus Christin a dream, clothed with this half-cloak and saying to His Angels: “It is Martin, still acatechumen, who covered Me.” Soon afterwards he received Baptism.

Disinterested charity, purity, and bravery distinguished the life of the young soldier. Heobtained his discharge at the age of about twenty. Martin succeeded in converting his mother,but was driven from his home by the Arians. He took refuge with Saint Hilary, Bishop ofPoitiers. After having given striking proofs of his attachment to the faith of Nicea, he foundednear Poitiers the celebrated monastery of Ligugé, the first in Gaul. The brilliance of hissanctity and his miracles raised him in 372 to the episcopal throne of Tours, despite his livelyresistance. His life thereafter was but a continual succession of prodigies and apostolic labors. His flock, though Christian in name, was still pagan at heart. Unarmed and attended only byhis monks, Martin destroyed the heathen temples and groves, and completed by his preachingand miracles the conversion of the people. His power over demons was extraordinary. Idolatry never recovered from the blows given it by Saint Martin.

After having visited and renewed his diocese, the servant of God felt pressed to extend his journeyings and labors beyond its confines. Clothed in a poor tunic and a rude cloak, and seated on an ass, accompanied only by a few religious, he left like a poor missionary toevangelize the countryside. He passed through virtually all the provinces of Gaul, and neithermountains, nor rivers, nor dangers of any description stopped him. Everywhere hisundertakings were victorious, and he more than earned his title of the Light and the Apostle ofGaul.

St. Martin I, Pope

Saint Martin, who occupied the Roman See from 649 to 655, was a native of Toscany, and became celebrated amid the clergy of Rome for his learning and his sanctity. When he was elected Pope, Rome echoed with cries of joy; the clergy, the Senate and the people gavewitness to their great satisfaction, and the emperor approved this happy choice. He did notdisappoint the hopes of the Church; piety towards God and charity to the poor were his tworules of life. He repaired churches falling into ruin and restored peace between divergentfactions, but his greatest concern was to maintain in the Church the precious heritage of thetrue faith.

For this purpose he assembled in the Lateran Church a Council of a hundred bishops, whichcondemned the principal heads of the eastern Monothelite heresy, again raising its head. SaintMartin himself sent out an encyclical letter to all prelates, showing that a spurious Credocirculating in the east was erroneous, and excommunicating all who followed it. He incurredthe enmity of the Byzantine court and even of two patriarchs, by his energetic opposition totheir errors, and the Exarch of Ravenna, representing the oriental Emperor Constant II in Italy,went so far as to endeavor to procure the assassination of the Pope while he stood at the altarin the Church of Saint Mary Major. The would-be murderer, a page of the Exarch, wasmiraculously struck blind, however, and his lord refused to have any further role in the matter. But the eastern Emperor’s successor had no such scruples. After having the holy Pontiffaccused of many fabricated misdeeds, he seized Saint Martin — who did not resist or permitresistance, for fear of bloodshed in Rome — then had him conveyed to Constantinople onboard a vessel bound for that port. None of his clergy were permitted to accompany him; hewas boarded at night in secret.

After a three month’s voyage the ship anchored at the island of Naxos in the Aegean Sea,where the Pope was kept in confinement for a year, then finally brought in chains to theimperial city in 654, where he was imprisoned for three months. When he appeared before hisjudge he was unable to stand without support; but the pitiless magistrate heard his accusersand sentenced him to be chained and dragged through the streets of the city. He bade farewellto his companions in captivity before he left, banished to the present-day Crimea (theChersonese in those days), saying to them when they wept: “Rejoice with me that I have beenfound worthy to suffer for the name of Jesus Christ.” There, where a famine prevailed, helingered on for four months, abandoned to sickness and starvation but maintaining perfectserenity, until God released him by death from his tribulations on the 12^th of November, 655. In a letter he sent from there, which has been conserved, the Pope wrote: “For this miserable body, the Lord will have care; He is near. What is there to alarm me? I hope in His mercy, it will not be long before it terminates my career.”

St. Didacus or Diego

Saint Didacus was born in Andalusia in Spain, towards the beginning of the fifteenth century. He was remarkable from childhood for his love of solitude, and for conversations concerningholy things. When still young he retired to live with a hermit not far from his village, where hespent several years in vigils, fasting, and manual work. Like the Fathers of the desert, he madebaskets and other objects with willow branches and gave them to those who brought alms tothe two hermits.

God inspired him to enter into the Order of the seraphic Saint Francis; he did so at the conventof Arrizafa, not far from Cordova. He did not aspire to ecclesiastical honors, but to theperfection and inviolable observance of his Rule — an admirable ideal, the practice of which,according to Saint Thomas Aquinas, is equivalent to martyrdom in merit. He made himself theservant of all his brethren. Any occupation was his choice. All his possessions were a tunic, acrucifix, a rosary, a prayer book and a book of meditations; and these he did not consider ashis own and wanted them to be the most worn of all that were in the house. He found waysto nourish the poor who came to the convent, depriving himself of bread and other food givenhim, and if unable to do so consoled them with such gentle words that they left with profitnonetheless.

At one time he was sent by his superiors to the Canary Islands, and went there joyfully, hopingto win the crown of martyrdom. Such, however, was not God’s Will. After making manyconversions by his example and holy words, he was recalled to Spain. He was assigned to thecare of the sick and when he went to Rome for the Jubilee year of 1450, with 3,800 otherreligious of his Order, most of whom fell ill there, he undertook to care for them, succeedingin procuring for them all they needed even in that time of scarcity.

Saint Didacus one day heard a poor woman lamenting, and learned that she had not knownthat her seven-year-old son had gone to sleep in her large oven; she had lighted a fire, and losther senses when she heard his cries. He sent her to the altar of the Blessed Virgin to pray andwent with a large group of persons to the oven; although all the wood was burnt, the childwas taken from it without so much as a trace of burns. The miracle was so evident that theneighbors took the child in triumph to the church where his mother was praying, and theCanons of the Church dressed him in white in honor of the Blessed Virgin. Since then, manyafflicted persons have invoked the Mother of Heaven there.

After a long and painful illness, Saint Didacus ended his days in 1463, embracing the crosswhich he had so dearly loved during his entire life. He died having on his lips the words ofthe hymn, Dulce lignum [Sweet wood - a chant of Good Friday]. His body remained incorruptfor several months, exposed to the devotion of the faithful, ever exhaling a marvelousfragrance. He was canonized in 1588; Philip II, king of Spain, had labored to obtain that graceafter his own son was miraculously cured in 1562 by the relics of the Saint, when he had fallenfrom a ladder and incurred a mortal wound on his head.

St. Stanislaus Kostka

Saint Stanislaus Kostka was born in Poland in 1550, of a noble Polish family. At the age offourteen he was sent with his older brother Paul to study at the Jesuit College in Vienna. Twice a day he would pray at length in the chapel, and he never failed to recite a crown of theRosary. He avoided the company of students too free in their speech and behavior, and oftenfasted and inflicted on himself a rude discipline. His love for God did not cease to augmentwith these practices, and he decided to make a vow to enter the Company of Jesus. He toldhis confessor of it only six months later, as he wanted it to remain unknown until he would bein a position to carry it out.

He fell ill, and the demon appeared in his room under the form of a black dog which lunged athis throat. The young Saint drove him away with the sign of the Cross; but his illness wasgrowing worse. He was lodged in the residence of a Protestant who would not permit theBlessed Sacrament to be brought to him. Saint Stanislaus remembered having read that thosewho invoked Saint Barbara never died without the Sacraments, and he begged that she wouldassist him in his danger and not permit that he die without the Viaticum. His prayer wasanswered; one night, when his life was despaired of, he saw this beautiful virgin-martyr,accompanied by two Angels, enter his room with the Blessed Sacrament. He was greatlyconsoled by this favor and another which immediately followed it; the Blessed Virgin alsoappeared and assured him that God wanted him to enter the Jesuit Society. Soon he felt betterand was restored to complete health.

He was still too young to enter the Order in Vienna without his parents’ permission; hetherefore determined to go to another province where it might be possible. Stanislaus hadalways been gentle and cheerful, and his sanctity was felt as a reproach by his brother Paul,who had been surveying him constantly and often spoke rudely to him, even going so far as tostrike him. Stanislaus nonetheless succeeded in evading him when he left for Augsbourg,dressed as a beggar, to go to Father Peter Canisius, Provincial of Upper Germany, with lettersof recommendation he had received from a Father of the Company. His brother, when herealized he had left, pursued him, but even though Stanislaus was on foot, passed him bywithout recognizing him. A little farther on, Paul’s horses refused to advance and he wasobliged to return to Vienna.

Saint Peter sent Stanislaus to Rome, a very long distance in those days, over a rugged anddangerous road, where rocks, mountains and rivers made the journey very difficult. SaintFrancis of Borgia received him in Rome as a treasure sent by God, and he was clothed in theJesuit habit in October 1567. His father was very irritated, but the son answered his letterswith modesty and firmness, and continued to apply himself to every practice that might leadhim closer to God and religious perfection. In ten months it is said that he advanced morethan many do over a period of fifty or sixty years. During those ten short months he alwayshad Our Lady in his mind, in his heart and on his lips. A custom was introduced for thenovices during his sojourn in Rome; they would turn toward Her church of Saint Mary Majorand ask, kneeling, for Her benediction; this practice has been conserved in the Roman novitiateever since that time.

The fervent novice ardently desired to be in heaven on the feast of Her Assumption; he fell illof a fever on the 9^th of August, and it was revealed to him that his desire would be fulfilled. In effect, his holy soul departed to rejoin His Heavenly Mother, when She came to claim himat a little after 3 o’clock on the morning of the 15^th of August, 1568. He was eighteen yearsold. We often see him with the Infant Jesus in his arms, because when Our Lady came to curehim in Vienna with Her Divine Treasure in Her arms, She had placed the Infant Saviour on hisbed. Many illnesses were cured at his tomb, and his body was found incorrupt three yearsafter his death. He was soon considered as a Saint in Italy and Poland; in 1604 he wasdeclared Blessed and was canonized in 1726. Paul Kostka wept for long years over hismistreatment of his younger brother, and was about to enter the Society of Jesus himself in1607, when he died suddenly on November 13^th, anniversary of the discovery of the incorrupt remains of Saint Stanislaus.

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