St. Zita is the patron of servants and domestic workers. Such was her own station for forty-seven years of service from the age of twelve until her death – to a wealthy family in Lucca, Italy. Early on, Zita, a member of the Third Order of St. Francis, was recognized for her unusual piety – a cause for derision among many of the household staff. She rose in the night for prayer and always attended the first Mass in the morning. But apart from such devotions, Zita considered her work itself to be an expression of her spiritual life: ” A servant is not good if she is not industrious; work-shy piety in people of our position in sham piety.” Gradually her qualities won respect and admiration. Her employer even overlooked her generosity to the poor. In her later years, she devoted increasing time to visiting the sick and those in prison. She had a special devotion to those under sentence of death; for these, she prayed without ceasing.
Zita died on April 27, 1278, at the age of sixty. She was canonized in 1696. Among other things, she is often invoked for help in finding lost keys.
St. Pedro de San Hose Betancur is sometimes called the “Saint Francis of the Americas.” Born in the Canary Islands, he spent his youth as a shepherd. At thirty-one, he travelled to Guatemala but arrived so impoverished that he relied on a Franciscan breadline for subsistence. Hoping to become a priest, he enrolled in a Jesuit college, though academic studies did not suit him. He soon withdrew and instead became a Franciscan tertiary.
Pedro devoted himself to the works of mercy, establishing a hospital – Our Lady of Bethlehem – as well as a hostel, a school, chapels, and other charitable institutes, which he supported by begging in the streets. When young men sought to join him he founded a new order, the Hospitaler Bethlemites.
Devotion to the Holy Family prayed a central role in his spirituality. He is credited with having originated the Posada celebrations that remain popular to this day in Mexico and Central America. On Christmas Eve, a man and woman, representing Mary and Joseph, lead a procession in search of shelter in Bethlehem. Wherever this custom is observed, it offers a reminder that the best way to honor the Holy Family and the birth of Christ is to extend charity and hospitality toward those in need.
Pedro died on April 25, 1667. Canonized in 2002, he became the first saint of Guatemala.
For years, Mark Roy sought success as a lawyer, before disillusionment over the dishonesty rampant in his profession inspired him to pursue religious life. Upon entering the Capuchin Franciscans of Freiburg, he received the name “Fidelis” – faithful. Following his ordination, he proved zealous in his commitment to prayer and poverty, and threw himself ardently into pastoral work. As he wrote, “Woe betide me if I should prove to be a half-hearted soldier in the service of my thorn-crowned captain.”
In 1622, he was assigned to lead a missionary team under the newly formed Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith to preach in Calvinist territories in Switzerland. It was an exceptionally dangerous mission. He set out armed only with a Crucifix, a Bible, a breviary, and a copy of the Capuchin rule.
He preached widely, but his presence provoked outrage among many Calvinist. Apart from religious differences, they saw in the Capuchins an advance guard of Austrian intervention. In truth, Fidelis sometimes traveled under the protection of Austrian soldiers. Still, he faced beatings, rock-throwing, and in one case, a musket fired in his direction as he was saying Mass. Anticipating his fate, he signed his letters, “Father Fidelis, soon to become food for worms.”
On April 24, after preaching in the church of Seewis, he was confronted by a Calvinist mob, demanding that he renounced his faith. “The Catholic religion is the faith of all ages,” he replied. “I fear not death.” He was felled by a single blow to his head and died instantly.
St. Francis liked to refer to Brother Giles, one of his original followers, as “the Knight of Our Round Table.” He especially commanded Giles for his simplicity and his spirit of poverty. For some years Giles accompanied Francis on his preaching tours. When the saint had finished preaching, Giles would turn to the people and say, “What he says is true! Listen to him!” Believing that Lady Humility was the best preacher, he advised a brother who wished to preach in the piazza of Perugia to proclaim in his sermon: “Boo, boo; too much I talk, but little I do.”
Eventually, after Francis encouraged him to go forth and spread the Gospel, he went on pilgrimages to Compostela in Spain, to Rome, and to the Holy Land. Wherever he went, he insisted on working in exchange for alms. A mission to Tunis to preach to the Muslims there ended in failure when local Christians, afraid of stirring up trouble, implored him to return to his ship.
Brother Giles spent much time contemplating the joys of heaven. Just the mention of word like paradise would incite him to ecstasy – a fact mischievously exploited by street urchins whenever they saw him approaching.
In The Life of Brother Giles by Brother Leo, it is noted that Giles possessed “seven very praiseworthy and wholesome and perfect qualities.” These included his faith, reverence, devotion, compassion, consideration, and obedience. “The seventh, that he was beloved by God and men because of the graces which were showered on him.”
Giles outlived most of the original friars. Yet the sad year of Francis’s death in 1226 was capped for Giles by an appearance from the Lord – the greatest event of his life, he said, after his birth, his baptism, and the day he took the habit. He retired to a hermitage in Perugia where he spent most of his time in silence. He died on April 23, 1262. He was beatified in 1777.
Benedict Joseph Labre was born to a large family in a village in northern France. When he was twelve, his family sent him to live with an uncle, a parish priest. There he received some rudimentary education. When his uncle died, Benedict decided to devote his life to God. He was turned away from the Trappists and a series of other religious communities. Discouraged, he divined that his true vocation was to seek a cloister within the world. After becoming a Third Order Franciscan, he set off on a pilgrimage that lasted several years, wandering thousands of miles across Europe, all the while praying and visiting shrines.
Benedict dressed in rags and never bathed, a habit that discouraged human contact. He declined to beg but accepted alms. When no food was offered, he lived off what was discarded on the road. His appearance evoked as much contempt as pity. But those who were able to see beneath his appearance – including, eventually, his confessor – recognized the saint in their midst.
In time, Benedict settled in Rome, where he spent his nights in the ruins of the Colosseum and his days praying in the churches of the city. At the age of thirty-five, he collapsed and died on April 16, 1783. Almost immediately, children of the neighbourhood began calling through the streets, “The saint is dead, the saint is dead!” His reputation quickly spread. Biographies were published. One of these made its way to his village, where his astonished parents learned what had become of their long-lost son. He was canonized in 1883.
Lurana White was raised in New York in a wealthy family of high church Episcopalians. While attending a boarding school run by an order of Episcopal sisters, she felt a strong attraction to religious life. With her family’s permission, she entered the order as a postulant. She was pained, however, that her Episcopal order did not take a corporate vow of poverty. At this time, she heard about an Episcopal priest, Paul Watson, who was promoting reunion between the Anglican communion and Rome. Eventually they met and vowed to found a new Episcopal order in the spirit of St. Francis: the Society of the Atonement. Watson understood atonement both in the sense of redemption as well as at-one-ment – the cause of Christian unity. As founder of the Franciscan Sisters of the Atonement, White became Mother Lurana. She and Watson established a new home on a site named Graymoor in Garrison, New York.
Fr. Watson’s enthusiasm for Rome faced increasing opposition within the Episcopal Church. Eventually, in 1909, he and Mother Lurana successfully petitioned the Vatican to accept their community into the Catholic Church.
The community grew rapidly. Graymoor became a center not only for retreats but also for hospitality to indigent people and the down-and-out. On one occasion, a priest came seeking the superiors of the sisters. Dubious when Mother Lurana introduced herself, he protested that surely she was too young. She replied, “That is one fault of mine which will be remedied in time.” She died on April 15, 1935.
