Today we celebrate the Feast of St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen.
St. Fidelis was born in 1577 in Sigmaringen, Germany, and right from his youth he gave evidence of being endowed with gifts of nature, he had a superior intelligence, and also gifts of grace.
He was solid in his faith and also very virtuous.
After studying philosophy and law,
he went on to practice law for a time until he noticed how many lawyers, corrupted by greed and the desire for constantly more riches, eventually caved in to injustices, and he did not want to go that path.
And so he had an older brother who was a Capuchin Franciscan, and eventually, at the age of 35,
Fidelis himself decided to go to law school.
He decided to go that same route.
So at his investiture, he was given the name Fidelis, which means the faithful one,
and his superior prophetically cited to him a quote from the book of Revelation, saying,
Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee the crown of life.
Fidelis went on to study theology and be ordained to the priesthood,
and exorcised.
He exercised his ministry in preaching the word of God with great success.
Then in 1622, Pope Gregory XV founded the Congregation of the Propagation of the Faith.
Today, this congregation is known as the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples,
and was interested in starting a mission in Switzerland.
In order to correct the errors of the Calvinists.
And the Calvinists, they were the disciples of John Calvin,
who, among other things, erred with regard to predestination, the supremacy of the Pope, and also purgatory.
And so, St. Fidelis was elected to go to Switzerland in order to correct these errors,
and bring...
our wayward brothers back to the truth.
And so he went and labored, and for several months, had great success.
And at the same time, as he was preaching and correcting error,
he experienced within himself a longing and a desire for martyrdom.
And his desire, which was inspired by the Holy Spirit,
was one that he had never had before.
And it was one day fulfilled when, after preaching a sermon,
the Calvinists had gathered around, and they dragged him from the pulpit,
and inflicted so many blows and cuts on him, that he died there on the spot.
And so, St. Fidelis' life and example is a reminder to all of us,
how we should be faithful unto death.
That we should adhere to the truth,
with all of our mind, with all of our strength,
even at the cost of our life.
We see in St. Fidelis that
neither his youthful years at the university,
nor the money offered to him in his lawyering,
nor the threat against his own life as a preacher,
could make him ever waver in his fidelity to God and to the truth.
You know, we should be very grateful as Catholics,
to have in our possession the fullness of the truth.
And we should ask ourselves,
are we prepared to suffer for our faith, like St. Fidelis?
Or are we all too ready to cave in?
And to follow the bad example of some Catholic politicians
and university presidents who cave in
for gaining some temporal worldly goods,
more money, more enrollment,
higher status, honor, etc.
So in order to stand strong and to remain faithful,
we should always remind ourselves that everything else
is as nothing when compared with God and eternity.
St. Fidelis, pray for us.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
Amen.
May God bless you and keep you from Friday sleep.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.