April 24 - Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen O.F.M. Cap. (1577 - 1622)
by VP
Posted on Monday April 24, 2023 at 12:00AM in Saints
Fidelis was born at Sigmaringen (Germany) in 1577, of noble parents, In his youth he frequently approached the sacraments, visited the sick and the poor, and spent moreover many hours before the altar. For a time he followed the legal profession, and was remarkable for his advocacy of the poor and his respectful language towards his opponents. Finding it difficult to become both a rich lawyer and a good Christian, Fidelis entered the Capuchin Order, and embraced a life of austerity and prayer. Hair shirts, iron-pointed girdles, and disciplines were penances too light for his fervor; and being filled with a desire of martyrdom, he rejoiced at being sent to Switzerland by the newly-founded Congregation of Propaganda, and braved every peril to rescue souls from the diabolical heresy of Calvin. When preaching at Sevis he was fired at by a Calvinist, but the fear of death could not deter him from proclaiming divine truth. After his sermon he was waylaid by a body of Protestants headed by a minister, who attacked him and tried to force him to embrace their so called reform. But he said, " I came to refute your errors, not to embrace them; I will never renounce the Catholic doctrine, which is the truth of all ages, and I fear not death." On this they fell upon him with their poignards, and the first martyr of Propaganda went to receive his palm.
Reflection: We delight in decoration the altars of God with flowers, lights, and jewels, and it is right to do so; but if we wish to offer to God gifts of higher value, let us, in imitation of St. Fidelis, save the souls who but for us would be lost; for so we shall offer Him, as it were, the jewels of paradise.
Source: Little Pictorial, lives of the Saints, 1925
"Before his profession St. Fidelis wrote this testament: "In order to conform myself by perfect resignation to the charity of Jesus Christ, who when He was sweating blood and water in the Garden of Olives, and afterwards dying upon the Cross, resigned Himself into the hands of His Father; so by this my last will I offer my body and soul as a living and eternal sacrifice to the perpetual service of the Divine Majesty, and of the most holy and immaculate Virgin, and of the Seraphic Father St. Francis. And as I was born poor and naked, so, being stripped of all earthly goods, I abandon myself poor and naked into the hands of Jesus Christ my Savior." His perfect fulfillment of this resolve was seen in every act of his missionary life.
Source: Miniatures Lives of the Saints, for Every Day in the Year, Volume 1; Volumes 28-146
