Inspiration from the Saints: Stories From the Lives of Catholic Holy Men and Women by Maolsheachlann O'Ceallaigh

Author:Maolsheachlann O'Ceallaigh [O'Ceallaigh, Maolsheachlann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781621383352
Google: MIIKtAEACAAJ
Amazon: 1621383350
Barnesnoble: 1621383350
Goodreads: 39210227
Publisher: Angelico Press
Published: 2019-06-21T04:00:00+00:00

St. Charles of Mount Argus

St. Charles of Mount Argus (1821–1893) is an example of a holy man who seems to have had no worldly talents at all—other than singing, which he loved to do. This Dutch Passionist priest, who won a reputation as a healer and a wonder-worker in Ireland, was another slow learner in youth, a poor soldier when he was enlisted to military service (there is a story that he nearly shot one of his own officers by accident), a notoriously poor preacher (despite being a member of the Passionists, an Order which emphasizes preaching), and a poor speaker of English. It was, however, his great holiness, his insight in the confessional, and his supernatural healing powers which made him enormously popular with the people of Dublin. Up to three hundred people a day would seek him out. When he died, an Irish newspaper reported: “Never before has the memory of any man sparked an explosion of religious sentiment and profound veneration as that which we observed in the presence of the mortal remains of Father Charles.”

What is remarkable is that Fr. Charles did not enjoy any such celebrity in his five years of ministry in England. It was only when he had been in Ireland some three years that he began to be followed by crowds. One account dates the beginning of this phenomenon to a visit he made to a friend in the scenic locality of Glendalough. To the saint’s great surprise, the entire countryside seemed to have turned out to greet him. After that, this following never left him. This, surely, shows that his charisma was a pure gift from God.

Blessed Mariano da Roccacasale (1778–1866) was another holy man who did nothing extraordinary in his life, in purely human terms. He was born of a peasant family, and he was nicknamed “snack-sized” on account of his shortness. He worked as a shepherd before entering the Franciscan order as a lay-brother (rather than a priest). Within the Franciscans, he worked as a gardener, a cook, a carpenter, and—for more than fifty years—as a porter. And yet he was beatified in 1999, and described by St. John Paul II thus: “His poor and humble life, led in the footsteps of Francis and Clare of Assisi, was constantly directed to his neighbor, in the desire to hear and share the sufferings of each individual, in order to present them later to the Lord during the long hours he spent in adoration of the Eucharist.”3

Another saint who achieved nothing in any worldly sense, and who exhibited no conventional talents, is Benedict Joseph Labre (1748–1783). This French saint, a farmer’s son, initially went to live with his uncle, a priest, with a view to becoming a parish priest himself. However, the young boy was drawn to a more austere path; he developed a desire to become a Trappist monk, as the Trappists were the strictest of all the orders, living lives of constant prayer, silence and fasting. The aspiration horrified his parents.

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