Saint Andrew Avellino, CONFESSOR, A.D. 1608.
by VP
Posted on Sunday November 10, 2024 at 12:00AM in Saints
"On the last day of his life, November 10, 1608, Saint Andrew rose to say Mass. He was eighty-eight years old, and so weak he could scarcely reach the altar. He began the Judica me, Deus, the opening prayer, but fell forward, the victim of apoplexy. Laid on a straw mattress, his whole frame was convulsed in agony, while the ancient fiend, in visible form, advanced as though to seize his soul. Then, while the onlookers prayed and wept, he invoked Our Lady, and his Guardian Angel seized the monster and dragged it out of the room. A calm and holy smile settled on the features of the dying Saint and, as he gazed with a grateful countenance on the image of Mary, his holy soul winged its way to God.
Reflection: Saint
Andrew, who suffered so terrible an agony, is invoked as special
protector from an unprovided and sudden death. Ask this holy priest to
be with you in your last hour, and bring Jesus and Mary to your aid." Sanctoral
"He was born in the kingdom of Naples; and gave early tokens of a disposition to virtue. He escaped many snares and dangers by assiduous prayer, mortification, watchfulness over himself, and care in shunning all dangerous company. He was sent to Naples to study the civil and canon law, and was made priest. Once while he was pleading a cause an untruth escaped him in a matter of small consequence; but he was struck with so great remorse of conscience for this fault, that he resolved immediately to renounce his profession in the ecclesiastical court, and give himself up entirely to a penitential life, and the care of souls. The direction of a convent in the city was committed to him by the archbishop. He embraced the rule of the Regular Clerks, called Theatins. Wonderful were his abstinence and mortifications; but much more his love of abjection and hatred of himself, and of his own will. All the hours that were free from exterior employments of duty or charity, were by him devoted to prayer and contemplation. Thus he acquired that eminent spirit of piety and charity, by which his labours in the conversion and direction of souls were wonderfully successful. He founded new convents of his Order in several places; and was honoured with the gifts of prophecy and miracles. After having given the world an example of the most heroic virtues, being broken with labours and old age, he was seized with apoplexy at the altar as he was beginning mass. He was prepared for his passage by the holy sacraments, and calmly resigned his soul on the 10th of November, 1608. If this saint conceived so great a horror for having but once told a small untruth, learn the practice of suffering both reproof and anger for truth, rather than to defend yourself by taking shelter in alie. There can be no zeal for truth, where there is an unwillingness to suffering something for it. Embrace every humiliation, rather than offend against truth.
"This saint was a fit instrument of the Holy Ghost, in directing others in the paths of perfect virtue, because dead to himself, and a man of prayer. He never spoke of himself, never thought of his own actions except of his weaknesses, which he had always before his eyes in the most profound sense of his own nothingness, baseness, total insufficiency, and weakness. Those who talk often of themselves, discover that they are deeply infected with the disease of the devil, which is pride, or with the poison of vanity, its eldest daughter.They have no other reward to expect, but what they now receive, the empty breath of sinners. Even this incense is only affected hypocrisy. For men, by that base passion which they betray, become justly contemptible and odious to those very persons whose vain applause they seem to court." The Catholic Year by Fr. John Gother
St. Teresa advises all persons to shun such directors, as pernicious to souls both by the contagion of self-conceit and vain-glory which they spread, and by banishing the Holy Ghost with his light and blessing; for nothing is more contrary to him than a spirit of vanity and pride. The most perfect disinterestedness, contempt of the world, self-denial, obedience, and charity, are no less essential ingredients of a Christian, and especially an ecclesiastical spirit, than meekness and humility."
Rev. Fr. Alban Butler The lives of the fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints Vol 11 1821
Prayer
O most glorious saint, whom God has made our protector against apoplexy; Seeing that thou thyself didst die of that disease, we earnestly pray thee to preserve us from an evil so dangerous and so common.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory be to the Father.
The Raccolta The lives of the fathers, martyrs, and other principal saints 1878
