[00:00] "Go among all nations, teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you," says the Lord. In the history of the Church and in general salvation history, God has always raised up those saints that were perfect for the time. In the middle of the 1500s,

[00:30] 1559 at the peak of the Protestant Reformation or revolution depending on what side of the aisle you're looking at it from, God raised up St. Lawrence of Brindisi whom we honor as a great doctor of the Church. In fact, when he was canonized he was given the name Apostolic Doctor because of his great missionary travels. He was born in Brindisi which at that time was

[01:06] in the kingdom of Naples and that was controlled by Philip of Spain, Philip II of Spain, and when his father passed away his mother sent him to live with relatives who gave him an excellent education. Now he was given this excellent education but he also had the dispositions and the gifts from God to absorb everything that he was taught. At six

[01:37] years old in the town that he was in they had a tradition of allowing boys to get up and preach and St. Lawrence of Brindisi at six years old went up and preached with so much fervor that people were actually converted and came back stronger to the faith. So St. Lawrence, it was indicated by God at an early age what his task would be. At 16 years old he entered the Capuchin order and his life was marked by great sanctity from the very beginning

[02:13] especially through the virtues of obedience and of humility. He was recognized as having many great gifts and he learned, he mastered Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Czech, many other languages, whatever language he wanted to learn or it was needed he would just learn it and master it. And then he became a doctor of philosophy and of theology. He immediately

[02:47] was sent by the Pope to Germany to counteract the Reformation that was going on and he would debate anyone anytime and people began to not show up because he was such a great preacher and a debater when it came to the faith and defending the faith. Then he was sent to Rome in order to preach to the Jews and because of his knowledge of Scripture they were amazed that

[03:21] someone that was not a Jew could know Hebrew so well and the fact that he knew Hebrew so well allowed him to read the Bible in all of its original documents. So St. Lawrence also had the gift of a great memory. He had memorized all of Scripture so he could recount Scripture and just keep on reciting it if he wanted to. He was also a great preacher in the sense that

[03:57] his preaching would go on for like two, three, four hours sometimes and he would have crowds of like 30,000 people. Like it's almost unbelievable to think of but back then you know that was in a way their entertainment as well because it would be the main thing they'd be expecting a great preacher to come to their town and preach and everyone would gather around in the piazzas and the squares and even on hillsides where his voice could be projected. So St. Lawrence,

[04:30] he was sent on many different missions. In fact he became known as a peacemaker as well. So kings would send him to other kings to, you know, bargain with them and to bring about peace between kingdoms. Then he was sent to Turkey where the Muslims were combating against the Christians in a crusade or then they had started a crusade

[05:01] and he was called upon to preach in this crusade and he went before the army with just a crucifix and he had preached to the soldiers and they actually won that battle and they say that arrows were flying at him, spears were thrown at him and not a single thing touched him. And then finally he was also made minister general of the Capuchin order and he

[05:34] instilled in the friars proper formation and he also made sure that the priests were given proper formation in order that they may be effective ministers of the Gospel. So he fulfilled his task given to him by God for he went preaching everywhere and was obedient to the Holy Father being sent all different places. At one time he went to go to a king whom the Pope wanted him to

[06:10] see and talk to about, you know, some diplomatic thing and when he went to see him he realized oh, he's not in Spain he's in Portugal. So he went to Portugal and then when he got there he wasn't there so he had to follow him to another place. So he was in that, or I almost speak in French here but he was tireless in journeying on his mission. So St. Lawrence of Brindisi, one of the qualities

[06:44] that made him such a great preacher, he had the innate ability given to him by God. So the talents given to him by God but he also had the great dispositions that he worked on: humility and love of charity and he also had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary upon whom he basically relied for all of his wisdom. In fact he mentioned that to his fellow brothers in religious life

[07:22] that everything that he had been given was given to him by Our Lady Seat of Wisdom. He had many quotes but one of the quotes that he often said was that he never knew where prayer began and study left off and he never knew where study began and prayer left off. For him it was all one thing. His superiors at one point gave him obedience not to celebrate public Mass and the

[07:56] reason why was because he would go into ecstasy. He would levitate off the ground and he would sometimes be 12 hours at the altar in ecstasy and when he would come to he would spend another hour crying so that they used to use the altar cloths and touch the sick and the sick would be healed in the town. So he ended up celebrating private Masses and it was known that

[08:27] the servers would be serving helping him with Mass and then he would go into ecstasy and they would just get unvested and go do their things and then just come back once in a while to check to see if he had come to or not from these ecstasies that he would go into in contemplation of God. So St. Lawrence was one who not only was given great natural ability

[08:58] in order to fulfill a role that God asked of him at that time and he was very effective. He converted many elders of the Jews and the Hebrews in Rome and also many Protestants in Germany. In fact that was one of the titles that he was given: Apostolic Preacher of Germany and Hammer of Heretics much like St. Anthony of Padua. So many of these graces that were given

[09:30] to him were not really merit-based in that sense but he cultivated and grew those gifts by a deep devotion to our Lord and to the Blessed Virgin Mary and cultivated it by hours of prayer. Despite all the different things and the tasks that he was given he always remained faithful to prayer and the spirituality of the Franciscan order of humility, poverty, obedience and especially

[10:04] charity towards his neighbor. In fact everyone who knew him from the time he entered the religious life until the time he died when he was 60 years old in 1619 they said that he was unmatched in charity and humility towards others and that within the religious life he always put charity before all things. So he is an example for us of the willingness to do whatever it is that God

[10:38] has called us to do with whatever talents He has given us. We will not all be able to imitate him in, you know, 10-15 languages that he learns and be able to memorize Scripture by heart and to be sent as a diplomat to kings and queens and people of importance in the world or to popes and as preaching crusades and things like that but we can all carry within us humility,

[11:12] poverty, obedience to God and to authority and we can all have a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and we can see marvels in our lives because our Lord will never be outdone in generosity and He will give us whatever it is that we need to fulfill the task that He gives us as long as we are willing and we have that disposition. So let us take the example of St. Lawrence, let us admire his life but also take his example in how hard he worked not just at growing the talents

[11:49] but also as those fundamental virtues which we all must try to excel in which is humility, poverty, obedience. When I say poverty I mean poverty of spirit, that focus on seeking first the kingdom of God above all things and allowing Him to give us everything that we need. So this especially prayer to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Seat of Wisdom, who gives to each of her children

[12:20] the graces they need and leads them to faithful service to our Lord and to the Church.