FIDELIS was born at Sigmaringen 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 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 decorating 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.
WORD OF THE DAY
SANCTION. In general, the inviolability of the law, whether divine or human, ecclesiastical or civil. More properly, it is the means adopted to make the law inviolable. These may be natural means and comprehend all the benefits and penalties, personal or social, that naturally follow from keeping or breaking the law. Or they may be supernatural means, which are known to exist only because they have been divinely revealed. Positive sanctions are those set up by legitimate authority in Church or State and, to be valid, must conform to right reason and revelation. Every sanction is only as effective as it is known, whether it acts as a stimulus (in promised rewards) or as a deterrent (in threatened punishments) to motivate people to observe the law. Sanctions are either temporal or eternal, depending on their duration. They are either medicinal or vindicative, depending on their purpose: to act as a remedy for violations of the law or to restore moral order and champion justice against violators of the law. (Etym. Latin sanctio, the decreeing of something as sacred, decree, sanction.)
Modern Catholic Dictionary, Fr. John Hardon SJ (Get the real one at Eternal Life — don’t accept an abridged or edited version of this masterpiece!)
This article, APRIL 24 – ST. FIDELIS OF SIGMARINGEN. is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
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