CAPG's Blog 

November 10: Saint Andrew Avellino

by VP


Posted on Thursday November 10, 2022 at 09:03AM in Saints


view Saint Andrew Avellino: he dies of apoplexy at the altar. Colour lithograph.

"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


"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.

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





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