Odoric of Pordenone passed his early life unremarkably as a Franciscan friar, a vocation he had embraced at the age of fifteen. In 1317, however, some impulse inspired him to embark on a fantastic journey that took him to the ends of the known world and back again.
Starting in Venice he sailed east, traveling overland from Constantinople to Baghdad and the Persian Gulf. From there he sailed to Malabar and southern India where he spent time with the ancient Christian community there. Still, he pushed on, to Ceylon, Sumatra, and Java then north to Canton and the great ports of China. He spent several years in Beijing before turning homeward through Tibet and the capital of Lhasa, on to Persia, and eventually back to Italy.
The reasons for this travel are mysterious. As for his decision to spend his final years in seclusion, he is said to have complied with a vision from St. Francis, who ordered him to stay put. He did dictate an account of his journeys, which circulated widely. While providing little information about his activities or the motive for his grand tour, his travelogue offered an eyewitness account of the extraordinary things he had witnessed, including the curious customs, the prodigious sights, and the religious practices of the people he encountered.
Odoric died on January 14, 1331. He was beatified in 1755.
Filippo Latino, the son of a shoemaker in the town of Corleone, trained as a soldier and earned a reputation as the greatest swordman in Sicily. Equipped with a hot temper, he was evidently quick to draw his blade. This was the cause of his conversion.
One day, in a public altercation, he seriously wounded a policeman and fled to a nearby Capuchin friary to seek sanctuary. His refuge extended for a number of days, during which time he seriously examined his life. Eventually he resolved to enter the Capuchins as a lay brother and became known as Brother Bernard.
His zeal for prayer and for self-sacrifice were widely recognized, and he acquired a reputation for miracles – particularly his ability to heal animals. This generally followed his saying the Lord’s Prayer over the suffering creature, after which he would lead it three times around a cross in front of the friary. “How could I do otherwise?” he explained. The animals could not speak for themselves and had no doctors to attend to them.
Brother Bernard died on January 12, 1667. He was canonized in 2001.
St. Angela came from a wealthy family in Foligno, Italy, where her early life was given over to frivolity and pleasure seeking. She married a rich man and bore three sons. But her existence lacked a higher purpose. By the time she was thirty-seven, she found her life such a burden that she desperately prayed to St. Francis for some relief. The next day, while sitting in a church, she vowed to transform her life.
The opportunity for radical change came through tragic circumstances: the death of her entire family during an outbreak of plague. Yet, in her loss, Angela discerned the hand of God leading her to a life of penance and prayer. While standing before a crucifix she was moved, in a gesture reminiscent of Francis, to strip off all her fine clothing and to offer her life to Christ’s service. During a subsequent pilgrimage to Assisi she was overwhelmed by the love of God. After giving away all her property, she joined the Third Order of St. Francis and resolved the live on alms.
In time, Angela gathered around herself a family of Franciscan tertiaries, both men and women, for whom she served as spiritual mother. In her extensive writings, she described her intimacy with God and her vivid contemplation of Christ’s passion.
Her intense mystical experiences, however, did not distract her from concern for others. With her companions she nursed the sick and waited on the poor. “The world,” she said, “is great with God.”
One Holy Thursday she exhorted her companions, “Let us go and look for Christ our Lord. We will go to the hospital and perhaps among the sick and suffering we shall find Him.” She lead them beg for food, which they brought to the hospital: “And so we offered food to these poor sick people and then we washed the feet of the women and the men’s hands, as they lay lonely and forsaken on their wretched pallets…” Thus, she concluded, they had successfully fulfilled their quest to find Christ on that Holy Thursday.
Angela died on January 4, 1309. She was canonized by Pope Francis in 2013.
