TODAY'S SAINT: ST. LUIGI ORIONE, PRIEST

Too often today Catholics are led to believe that Pope Francis is the first pope to ever care about the poor or that the church was somehow aloof and deaf to the cries of the poor before Vatican II. That's absolutely ridiculous but it's nice to be able to show just how ridiculous that idea is in the concrete reality of today's saint. Among his many good works, St. Luigi Orione set up special homes for the care of the suffering and abandoned. His example is a real lesson to our post-Vatican II modern American church which seems to look more to legislation instead of love to deal with these realities.

12 March Saint Luigi Orione  Priest (1872-1940)         

Luigi Orione was born in Pontecurone, diocese of Tortona, on 23 June 1872. At thirteen years of age he entered the Franciscan Friary of Voghera (Pavia), but he left after one year owing to poor health. From 1886 to 1889 he was a pupil of Saint John Bosco at the Valdocco Oratory (Youth Centre) in Turin.         

On 16 October 1889, he joined the diocesan seminary of Tortona. As a young seminarian he devoted himself to the care of others by becoming a member of both the San Marziano Society for Mutual Help and the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul. On 3 July 1892 he opened the first Oratory in Tortona to provide for the Christian training of boys. The following year, on 15 October 1893, Luigi Orione, then a seminarian of twenty-one, started a boarding school for poor boys, in the Saint Bernardine estate.         

On 13 April 1895, Luigi Orione was ordained priest and, on that occasion, the Bishop gave the clerical habit to six pupils of the boarding school. Within a brief span of time, Don Orione opened new houses at Mornico Losana (Pavia), Noto - in Sicily, Sanremo and Rome.          

Around the young Founder there grew up seminarians and priests who made up the first core group of the Little Work of Divine Providence. In 1899, he founded the branch of the Hermits of Divine Providence. The Bishop of Tortona, Mgr Igino Bandi, by a Decree of 21 March 1903, issued the canonical approval of the Sons of Divine Providence (priests, lay brothers and hermits) - the male congregation of the Little Work of Divine Providence. It aims to "co-operate to bring the little ones, the poor and the people to the Church and to the Pope, by means of the works of charity", and professes a fourth vow of special "faithfulness to the Pope". In the first Constitutions of 1904, among the aims of the new Congregation, there appears that of working to "achieve the union of the separated Churches".         

Inspired by a profound love for the Church and for the salvation of Souls, he was actively interested in the new problems of his time, such as the freedom and unity of the Church, the Roman question, modernism, socialism and the Christian evangelisation of industrial workers.         

He rushed to assist the victims of the earthquakes of Reggio and Messina (1908) and the Marsica region (1915). By appointment of Saint Pius X, he was made Vicar General of the diocese of Messina for three years.         

On 29 June 1915, twenty years after the foundation of the Sons of Divine Providence, he added to the "single tree of many branches" the Congregation of the Little Missionary Sisters of Charity who are inspired by the same founding charism. Alongside them, he placed the Blind Sisters, Adorers of the Blessed Sacrament. Later, the Contemplative Sisters of Jesus Crucified were also founded.         

For lay people he set up the associations of the "Ladies of Divine Providence", the "Former Pupils", and the "Friends". More recently, the Don Orione Secular Institute and the Don Orione Lay People's Movement have come into being.         

Following the First World War (1914-1918), the number of schools, boarding houses, agricultural schools, charitable and welfare works increased. Among his most enterprising and original works, he set up the "Little Cottolengos", for the care of the suffering and abandoned, which were usually built in the outskirts of large cities to act as "new pulpits" from which to speak of Christ and of the Church - "true beacons of faith and of civilisation". 

Don Orione's missionary zeal, which had already manifested itself in 1913 when he sent his first religious to Brazil, expanded subsequently to Argentina and Uruguay (1921), Palestine (1921), Poland (1923), Rhodes (1925), the USA (1934), England (1935), Albania (1936). From 1921-1922 and from 1934-1937, he himself made two missionary journeys to Latin America: to Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, going as far as Chile.         

He enjoyed the personal respect of the Popes and the Holy See's Authorities, who entrusted him with confidential tasks of sorting out problems and healing wounds both inside the Church as well as in the relations with society. He was a preacher, a confessor and a tireless organiser of pilgrimages, missions, processions, live cribs and other popular manifestations and celebrations of the faith. He loved Our Lady deeply and fostered devotion to her by every means possible and, through the manual labour of his seminarians, built the shrines of Our Lady of Safe Keeping in Tortona and Our Lady of Caravaggio at Fumo. 

In the winter of 1940, with the intention of easing the heart and lung complaints that were troubling him, he went to the Sanremo house, even though, as he said, "it is not among the palm trees that I would like to die, but among the poor who are Jesus Christ". Only three days later, on 12 March 1940, surrounded by the love of his confreres, Don Orione died, while sighing "Jesus, Jesus! I am going".         

His body was found to be intact at its first exhumation in 1965. It has been exposed to the veneration of the faithful in the shrine of Our Lady of Safe Keeping in Tortona ever since 26 October 1980 - the day in which Pope John Paul II inscribed Don Luigi Orione in the Book of the Blessed. He was canonized on 16 May 2004. 

- Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana

JUNE 1: FEAST OF ST. PAMPHILUS, MARTYR

From Butler's "Lives of the Saints"

ST. PAMPHILUS was of a rich and honorable family, and a native of Berytus (Beirut), in which city, at that time famous for its schools, he in his youth ran through the whole circle of the sciences, and was afterward honored with the first employments of the magistracy. 

After he began to know Christ, he could relish no other study but that of salvation, and renounced everything else that he might apply himself wholly to the exercise of virtue and the studies of the Holy Scriptures. 

This accomplished master in profane sciences, and this renowned magistrate, was not ashamed to become the humble scholar of Pierius, the successor of Origen, in the great catechetical school of Alexandria. He afterward made Caesarea, in Palestine, his residence, where, at his private expense, he collected a great library, which he bestowed on the church of that city. 

The Saint established there also a public school of sacred literature, and to his labors the Church was indebted for a most correct edition of the Holy Bible, which, with infinite care, he transcribed himself. 

But nothing was more remarkable in this Saint than his extraordinary humility. His paternal estate heat length distributed among the poor: towards his slaves and domestics his behavior was always that of a brother or a tender father. He led a most austere life, sequestered from the world and its company, and was indefatigable in labor. Such a  virtue was his apprenticeship to the race of martyrdom. 

In the year 307, Urbanus, the cruel governor of Palestine, caused him to be apprehended, and commanded him to be most inhumanely tormented. But the iron hooks which tore the martyr's sides served only to cover the judge with confusion. After this, the Saint remained almost two years in prison. 

Urbanus, the governor, was himself beheaded by an order of the Emperor Maximinus, but was succeeded by Firmilian, a man no less barbarous, bigoted and superstitious. 

After several butcheries, he caused St. Pamphilus to be brought before him, and passed sentence of death upon him. His flesh was torn off to the very bones, and his bowels exposed to view, and the torments were continued a long time without intermission, but he never once opened his mouth so much as to groan. He finished his martyrdom by a slow fire, and died invoking Jesus, the Son of God. 

Reflection. - A cloud of witnesses, a noble army of martyrs, teach us by their constancy to suffer wrong with patience, and strenuously to resist evil. The daily trials we meet with from others or from ourselves are always sent us by God. Who sometimes throws difficulties in our way on purpose to reward our conquest. And sometimes, like a wise physician, restores us to our health by bitter potions.

MAY 29 - FEAST OF ST. CYRIL MARTYR

From BUTLER’S LIVES OF THE SAINTS

ST. CYRIL suffered while still a boy at Caesarea in Cappadocia, during the persecutions of the third century.  He used to repeat the name of Christ at all times, and confessed that the mere utterance of this name moved him strangely.

He was beaten and reviled by his heathen father. But he bore all this with joy, increasing in the strength of Christ, Who dwelt within him, and drawing many of his own age to the imitation of his heavenly life.  When his father in his fury turned him out of doors, he said he had lost little, and wold receive a great recompense instead.

Soon after, he was brought before the magistrate on account of his faith. No threats could make him show a sign of fear, and the judge, pitying perhaps his tender years, offered him his freedom, assured him of his father’s forgiveness, and besought him to return to his home and inheritance. 

But the blessed youth replied, “I left my home gladly, for I have a greater and a better which is waiting for me.” He was filled with the same heavenly desires to the end. 

He was taken to the fires as if for execution, and was then brought back and re-examined, but he only protested against the cruel delay. Led out to die, he hurried on the executioners, gazed unmoved at the flames which were kindled for him, and expired, hastening, as he said, to his home.

REFLECTION. - Ask Our Lord to make all earthly joy insipid, and to fill you with the constant desire of heaven. This desire will make labor easy and suffering light. It will make you fervent and detached, and bring you even here a foretasted of that eternal joy and peace to which you are hastening.

MAY 22 - ST. YVO, CONFESSOR

From Butler's "Lives of the Saints"

ST. YVO HELORI, descended from a noble and virtuous family near Treguier, in Brittany, was born in 1253. At fourteen years of age he went to Paris, and afterwards to Orleans, to pursue his studies. His mother was won frequently to say to him that he ought so to live as became a Saint, to which he is answer always was, that he hoped to be one.

This resolution took deep root in his soul, and was continual spur to virtue, and a check against the least shadow of any dangerous course. His time was chiefly divided between study and prayer; for his recreation he visited the hospitals, where he attended the sick with great charity, and comforted them under the severe trials of their suffering condition.

He made a private vow of perpetual chastity; but this not being known, many honorable matches were proposed to him which he modestly rejected as incompatible with his studious life. He long deliberated whether to embrace a religious or a clerical state; but the desire of serving his neighbor determined him at length in favor of the latter.

He wished, out of humility, to remain in the lesser orders; but his bishop compelled him to receive the priesthood, - a step which cost him many tears, though he had qualified himself for that sacred dignity by the most perfect purity of mind and body, and by a long and fervent preparation.

He was appointed ecclesiastical judge for the diocese of Rennes. St. Yvo protected the orphans and widows, defended the poor, and administered justice to all with an impartiality, application, and tenderness which gained him the good-will even of those who lost their causes. He was surnamed the advocate and lawyer of the poor.

He built a house near his own for a hospital of the poor and sick; he washed their feet, cleansed their ulcers, served them at table, and ate himself only the scraps which they had left. He distributed his corn, or the price for which he sold it, among the poor immediately after the harvest. When a certain person endeavored to persuade him to keep it some months, that he might sell it at a better price, he answered, "I know not whether I shall be then alive to give it."

Another time the same person said to him, "I have gained a fifth by keeping my corn." "But I," replied the Saint, "a hundredfold by giving it immediately away."

During the Lent of 1303 he felt his strength failing him; yet, far from abating anything in his austerities, he thought himself obliged to redouble his fervor in proportion as he advanced nearer to eternity.

On the eve of the Ascension he preached to his people, said Mass, being upheld by two persons, and gave advice to all who address themselves to him. After this he lay down on his bed, which was a hurdle of twigs plaited together, and received the last sacraments. From that moment he entertained himself with God alone, till his soul went ot possess Him in His glory. His death happened on the 19th of May, 1303, in the fiftieth year of his age.

REFLECTION -  St. Yvo was a Saint amidst the dangers of the world; but he preserved his virtue untainted only by arming himself carefully against them, by conversing assiduously with God in prayer and holy meditation, and by most watchfully shunning the snares of bad company. Without this precaution all the instructions of parents and all other means of virtue are ineffectual; and the soul is sure to split against this rock which does not steer wide of it.

MAY 16 - ST. JOHN NEPOMUCEN (Saint of the confessional seal)

(From Butler's LIVES OF THE SAINTS)

Martyrdom of St. John Nepomuk bySzymon Czechowicz, c. 1750.

ST. JOHN was born, in answer to prayer, 1330, of poor parents, at Nepomuc in Bohemia. In gratitude they consecrated him to God; and his holy life as a priest led to his appointment as chaplain to the court of the Emperor Wenceslas, where he converted numbers by his preaching and example.

Amongst those who sought his advice was the empress, who suffered much from her husband's unfounded jealousy. St. John taught her to bear her cross with joy; but her piety only incensed the emperor, and he tried to extort her confessions from the Saint.

He threw St. John into a dungeon, but gained nothing; then, inviting him to his palace, he promised him riches if he would yield, and threatened death if he refused. The Saint was silent. He was racked and burnt with torches; but no words, save Jesus and Mary, fell from his lips. At last set free, he spent his time in preaching, and preparing for the death he knew to be at hand.

On Ascension Eve, May 16, Wenceslas, after a final and fruitless attempt to move his constancy, ordered him to be cast into the river, and that night the martyr's hands and feet were bound, and he was thrown from the bridge of Prague. As he died, a heavenly light shining on the water discovered the body, which was buried with the honors due to a Saint. A few years later, Wenceslas was deposed by his own subjects, and died an impenitent and miserable death.

In 1618, the Calvinist and Hussite soldiers of the Protestant Elector Frederick tried repeatedly to demolish the shrine of St. John at Prague. Each attempt was miraculously frustrated; and once the persons engaged in the sacrilege, among whom was an Englishman, were killed on the spot.

In 1620, the imperial troops recovered the town by a victory which was ascribed to the Saint's intercession, as he was seen on the eve of the battle, radiant with glory, guarding the cathedral. When his shrine was opened, three hundred and thirty years after his decease, the flesh had disappeared, and one member alone remained incorrupt, the tongue; thus still, in silence giving glory to God.

Reflection - St. John, who by his invincible sacramental silence won his crown, teaches us to prefer torture and death to offending the Creator with our tongue. How many times each day do we forfeit grace and strength by sins of speech!

(More at Wikipedia)

APRIL 2 - THE FEAST OF ST. FRANCIS OF PAULA

Because of the new Pope's choice of a name, we are hearing much about one of the most well-known saints. But there's another St. Francis, not so well-know, little known in fact, St. Francis of Paula, whose feast day is today (April 2 - Traditional Calendar), and whose life and works are every bit as amazing as Francis of Assisi (not that there is any competition). Here is his entry from Butler's Lives of the Saints.

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At the age of fifteen, Francis left his poor home at Paula in Calabria, to live as a hermit in a cave by the sea-coast. In time, disciples gathered round him, and with them, in 1436, he founded the "Minims", so called to show that they were the least of monastic Orders.

They observed a perpetual Lent, and never touched meat, fish, eggs, or milk. Francis himself made a rock his bed; his best garment was a hair-shirt, and boiled herbs his only fare. As his body withered, his faith grew powerful, and he "did all things in Him Who strengthened him." He cured the sick, raised the dead, averted plagues, expelled evil spirits, and brought sinners to penance.

A famous preacher, instigated by a few misguided monks, set to work to preach against St. Francis and his miracles. The Saint toook no notice of it, and the preacher, finding that he made no way with his hearers, determined to see this poor hermit and confound him in person.

The Saint received him kindly, gave him a seat by the fire, and listened to a long exposition of his own frauds. He then quietly took some glowing embers from the fire, and closing his hands upon them unhurt, said, "Come, Father Anthony, warm yourself, for you are shivering for want of a little charity."

Father Anthony, falling at the Saint's feet, asked for pardon, and then, having received his embrace, quitted him to become his panegyrist and attain himself to great perfection.

When the avaricious King Ferdinand of Naples offered him money for his convent, Francis told him to give it back to his oppressed subjects, and softened his heart by causing blood to flow from the ill-gotten coin.

Louis XI of France, trembling at the approach of death, sent for the poor hermit to ward off the foe whose advance neither his fortresses nor his guards could check. Francis went by the Pope's command, and prepared the king of r a holy death. The successors of Louis showered favors on the Saint and his Order spread throughout Europe and his name was reverenced through the Christian world.

He died at the age of ninety=one, on Good Friday, 1507, with the crucifix in his hand, and the last words of Jesus on his lips, "Into Thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit."

REFLECTION - Rely in all difficulties upon God. That which enabled St. Francis to wrk miracles will in proportion do wonders for yourself by giving you strength and consolation.