March 8--St. John of God, Religious

 

St. John of God saving the Sick from a Fire at the Royal Hospital in 1549 by Manuel Gómez-Moreno González licensed under Public Domain.

Hospitals are a true legacy of the Catholic Church. The Council of Nicea in AD 325 decreed that every cathedral city should have a hospital to care for sick travelers. The importance of caring for the sick goes back to Jesus and the corporal works of mercy, when he said of those he identified with: “I was … ill and you cared for me” (Mt. 25:36). So it is not unusual for us to find saints who either founded hospitals or religious orders to care for the sick. That is the case with today’s saint, St. John of God.

Born in Portugal in 1495, João Duarte Cidade, John of God, lived the life of a soldier. After 40 years, he sought meaning and, after hearing a sermon by St. John of Avila, realized his sinfulness and publicly beat himself begging for mercy and repentance. He was committed to a mental hospital where St. John visited him and advised him to serve others rather than inflict punishment on himself. This persuaded John of God and he started attending to the sick poor, begging for funds for medical supplies and attending to patients in the hospital. He gathered others around him and founded the Order of Hospitallers. He died in 1550 from pneumonia after saving a man from drowning in Granada, Spain. He was declared patron of the dying and of hospitals by Pope Leo XIII. The Order of Hospitallers of St. John of God administers over 300 hospitals, services, and centers in 53 countries.

Catholic hospitals serve God by healing as Jesus did. Today, the Catholic Church is the largest non-governmental provider of health care in the world, with over 600 hospitals and 1,400 long-term care facilities in the United States alone! St. John of God, pray for us.

August 7—St. Cajetan, Priest

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What does it mean to be “most earnest in prayer”? St. Cajetan is described as such a man. He is also described “in love of neighbor”. That is impressive! It meets the requirements Jesus set forth, when he was asked in Matthew’s Gospel (22:36-40), “‘Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?’ He said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and the first commandment. The second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.’” 

 Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene was born in 1480 near Venice to an Italian nobleman. He received degrees in both civil and canon law and worked as a diplomat for Pope Julius II. He was ordained a priest in 1516 after Pope Julius died and went back to his hometown of Vicenza, establishing a hospital in 1522. He established another hospital in Venice in 1523, but moved back to Rome to form a congregation dedicated to the spirit of monasticism and active ministry, where he and three others began Theatine order. In Naples he founded a bank to help the poor against those who charged extremely high interest rates. He died in 1547 in Naples. He is the patron saint of the unemployed and gamblers. 

 So, how was St. Cajetan most “most earnest in prayer” as well as “in love of neighbor”? For someone to be able to do the charitable acts he did, one needs to be grounded in Jesus. A strong prayer life is essential to developing that relationship of love. St. Cajetan’s life of prayer and charity was based on his love of Jesus and thus his service to others.

*https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Francesco_Solimena_-_Estasi_di_San_Gaetano_da_Thiene.jpg

Francesco Solimena, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

July 18--St. Camillus de Lellis, Priest

The man was a scoundrel, a mercenary, a gambler, an insubordinate, a vagabond, a quarreler, and a laggard. And yet the desire for something greater, which was distorted and exemplified through these failings, allowed God to transform the man to become St. Camillus de Lellis. St. Camillus was all these in his childhood and youth. From the age of 17 till 24 he fought, gambled, tried to repent, fought, and gambled again. In 1574, at age 24, he tried to repent yet a third time, seeking admission to a Franciscan monastery. He learned to work, discipline himself, and stop gambling. However, he had an open sore on his leg that plagued him for years and prevented his acceptance. So, he went to a hospital for the poor in Rome and volunteered there yet a second time after failing before. He worked there for five years, eventually becoming superintendent of the nurses.

The desire for greatness that skewed his youth through self-centeredness spurred his efforts to other-centeredness to the point of sainthood. He saw the wretchedness of the poor of Rome, their sicknesses, their addictions, and their helplessness. He sought them out and nursed them. He founded a group of men who would devote themselves to nursing the poor. But he saw they needed more. He knew that he could help their spiritual lives by becoming a priest and gathering his followers into a religious order. They served those with the plague, the dying, and the destitute. St. Camillus saw Jesus in those he served and loved.

St. Camillus de Lellis was not a particularly good person as a youth, but he persevered, through the grace of God. We pray for those who have made bad choices in their lives. We pray for their conversion. St. Camillus de Lellis, pray for them.

March 24--St. Catherine of Genoa, Holy Woman

Confession is good for the soul!  This is absolutely true and today's saint demonstrates even more the benefits and power of the confessional.  St. Catherine of Genoa married at the age of 16 and spent ten years in a difficult marriage.  One day she went to confession and experience God's love for her.  This led her to receiving communion daily, which was extremely rare in those days, and service in a hospital.  Her husband, being changed from his ways, joined her in serving in the hospital.  Because his spending had left them without money, they lived and served together in the hospital for another 24 years until he died.  He had become a third order Franciscan.  She continued to serve there until her death in 1510.

It was confession that turned St. Catherine's life around.  During Lent it is good for us to remember that Jesus is calling us to repentance.  We may not need to turn 180 degrees to come back to Jesus, but we are always in need of metanoia, which means to change one's life.  Priests love to help penitents to amend their lives so that they may experience God's mercy.  Sometimes people are afraid of confession because it has been a long time.  Sometimes they are afraid because of what the "priest might think."  Confessors want us to be reconciled to God, others, and even ourselves.  We hear in the song "Hosea" that God is calling to us:  "Come back to me, with all your heart.  Don't let fear keep us apart.  Long have I waited for your coming home to me and living deeply our new life."  Have a soul-changing experience as St. Catherine did.