St. Placid, Martyr

ST. PLACID was born in Rome, in the year 515, of a patrician family, and at seven years of age was taken by his father to the monastery of Subiaco. At thirteen years of age he followed St. Bernard to the new foundation at Monte Cassino, where he grew up in the practice of a wonderful austerity and innocence of life. He had scarcely completed his twenty-first year when he was selected to establish a monastery in Sicily upon some estates which had been given by his father to St. Benedict. He spent four years in building his monastery, and the fifth had not elapsed before an inroad of barbarians burned every thing to the ground, and put to a lingering death not only St. Placid and thirty monks who had joined him, but also his two brothers, Eutychius and Victorinus, and his holy sister Flavia, who had come to visit him. The monastery was rebuilt, and still stands under his invocation.

Reflection.—Adversity is the touchstone of the soul, because it discovers the character of the virtue which it possesses. One act of thanksgiving when matters go wrong with us is worth a thousand thanks when things are agreeable to our inclinations.

St. Francis of Assisi, Religious

St. Francis was born in Assisi, Umbria, Italy, in 1182, and was baptized John. His father was Pietro di Bernardone, a wealthy textile merchant, and after returning from a business trip to France, and to mark his esteem for that country, he began calling his son Francis. Francis’s youth was spent in comfort and fine clothes. During Assisi’s war with Perugia, Francis joined his city’s forces. But when Assisi was defeated, Francis was unfortunately taken prisoner and remained such for a year. After his release, he volunteered to fight with the papal army in southern Italy, but while passing through Spoleto, on his way south, he had a dream in which a voice told him “to follow the master and not the man.” Thus he returned to Assisi and began to change his way of life. Then in the fall of 1205, while praying in the Church of San Damiano, a short distance from Assisi, he heard a voice coming from the crucifix telling him: “Francis, go and repair my church, which as you see is in ruins.” To purchase the materials needed to repair that church’s fabric, he sold some of his father’s cloth. Because his father did not agree with his son’s action, Francis left home and spent the following two years praying, repairing churches, and visiting the poor and sick.

Sometime in 1208 or 1209, he heard a passage from Matthew’s Gospel (10:5–14) read in church, in which our Lord sent his apostles out to preach and they were to take nothing with them. In imitation of this, Francis lived a life of simplicity, poverty, and humility, and constantly went about preaching God’s love. His joy in following Christ was so evident and attractive that others soon joined him, and thus he wrote a rule for them, with the gospel as their way of life. He called his group Friars Minor, but they are better known as Franciscans. In 1212, he founded an order of nuns, known today as Poor Clares, after St. Clare of Assisi (see August 11). Others also wanted to follow his manner of life—prayer and penance—and for these he established what is known as the Third Order of St. Francis.

In 1219, Francis traveled to the Middle East with the Fifth Crusade, in a vain attempt to convert Sultan Malik al-Kamil of Egypt. Then, on September 14, 1224, he received the stigmata on Mount Alvernia; he is the first individual known to have received it. Throughout his life, Francis remained a deacon—he felt himself unworthy to be ordained a priest. He died at the Portiuncula (St. Mary of the Angels), the cradle of his order, in Assisi, on October 3, 1226, and was canonized two years later (1228) by Pope Gregory IX. Francis was the most extraordinary saint of the Middle Ages and is one of the most attractive of saints. Today’s opening prayer tells us that St. Francis reflected the image of Christ, through his life of poverty and humility, and asks that we too may imitate his joyful love.

St. Francis Borgia, Priest

St. Francis Borgia, the oldest son of the third Duke of Gandía, was born in the family’s palace in Gandía, Spain, on October 28, 1510. His great grandfather on his father’s side was Pope Alexander VI (1492–1503), and his great grandfather on his mother’s side was King Ferdinand the Catholic (reigned 1469–1516). Francis was educated as befitted a Spanish nobleman. While at the royal court of his cousin, Emperor Charles V (reigned 1519–58), he married (1529) Leonor de Castro of Portugal, and then in 1530 the emperor made him Marquis of Llombai and placed him in charge of the imperial household. When Empress Isabella unexpectedly died on May 1, 1539, Francis escorted the body to Granada, but when the coffin was opened for official recognition before burial, Francis no longer saw the face of a youthful queen but of one beyond recognition. He is said to have exclaimed: “Never again will I serve a master who can die on me,” and from that day onward he lived an austere life.

When Francis’s father died (January 8, 1543), Francis succeeded him as the fourth Duke of Gandía, and when his wife died in 1546, he decided to become a Jesuit. He was accepted into the Society of Jesus by St. Ignatius of Loyola (see July 31), but the fact was kept secret until he settled his temporal affairs and arranged marriages for his eight children. He resigned his title in favor of his eldest son, was ordained (1551) a priest, and worked as a Jesuit in Spain and in Portugal. In 1565, he was elected the third superior general of the Society of Jesus, and seven years later died in Rome on September 30, 1572. He was canonized by Pope Clement X in 1671. The opening prayer of today’s Mass gives a brief summary of St. Francis Borgia’s life, when it asks: Grant through his prayers that all who have died to sin and renounced the world may live for you alone.

Guardian Angels

It is the teaching of the Church and theologians, and in accordance with what we read in the Old and New Testaments, that the angels, who are divine messengers, exercise a particular care and protection over individuals on earth, and help them in attaining salvation. In Exodus (20:20), the Lord God told Moses, “I am sending an angel before you, to guard you on the way and bring you to the place I have prepared,” and after the angel had liberated St. Peter from prison, the latter remarked, “Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent his angel to rescue me from Herod’s clutches” (Acts 12:11). The common teaching of theologians is that every human being, not merely the baptized, has a special guardian angel from birth, and this they derive from Christ’s words: “Do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father, who is in Heaven” (Matt. 18:10.) Referring to the same text, St. Basil (see January 2) writes: “Every one of the faithful has an angel standing at his side as educator, and guide, directing his life” (Against Eunomius III, 1). Devotion to the angels began with St. Benedict (see July 11) and then steadily increased from the time of St. Gregory the Great (see September 3) to St. Bernard of Clairvaux (see August 20), who was perhaps the most eloquent exponent of devotion to the Guardian Angels. The final prayer in today’s Mass speaks of the angels keeping us free from danger in this life and bringing us to the joy of eternal life. A feast in honor of the Guardian Angels was celebrated in Valencia, Spain, as early as 1411; it then spread through Spain and into France. Pope Paul V introduced it into the Roman Calendar in 1608, and Pope Clement X later (1670) set its celebration for October 2.

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, Virgin and Doctor of the Church

St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, commonly known as “the Little Flower,” was born Marie Françoise Thérèse Martin in Alençon, France, on January 2, 1873. After her two older sisters, Pauline and Marie, had entered the cloistered Discalced Carmelite convent at Lisieux, where the family had moved in 1881, she also applied to enter, but because she was only fourteen years of age, her entrance had to be delayed. In the meantime, she visited Rome with her father and on that occasion she met Pope Leo XIII (1878–1903). When she told the pope of her desire to enter Carmel—hoping he would intervene in her behalf—all she received was a noncommittal “You shall enter if it be God’s will.” She was finally accepted in April 1888, when she was fifteen. She spent a total of nine and a half years in the convent; her life was one of humility, simplicity, and trust in God. In 1893, she was appointed mistress of novices and filled that office for four years. She contracted tuberculosis—its first signs began to appear in Holy Week 1896—about eighteen months before her death, which occurred on September 30, 1897. Shortly before her death, she wrote her autobiography, commonly known as Story of a Soul, written at the request of her superior. In it, she tells others of her “Little Way” of approaching God. Her Little Way has nothing extraordinary about it; it is merely fidelity in the observance of the rule and in the performance of one’s duties. Without going beyond the common order of things, Thérèse achieved sanctity. She was canonized by Pope Pius XI in 1925, and in 1997 Pope John Paul II declared her a doctor of the Church. The opening prayer of today’s Mass also refers to “the way” of St. Thérèse.