Today is St Fidelis' feast day. I wanted to share a little about him. May he intercede for us as we live our faith in this time and place!
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Speaker 1:
Today, April 24th is the Feast Day of Saint Fais of Sig Magan priest and martyr. And I just wanted to share with you a little about him and in particular some of the words that he wrote. Fais is one of those martyrs of what's called the Counter Reformation. That time in history after the Protestant split Rebellion, whatever you would like to call it, where various Protestant denominations sprang up around Europe. He was not born with the name for DaLiss. He was baptized with the name Mark, born in Germany, in the town of Sigma England. And after study and a career as a lawyer, he entered the caption order. And there he was given the task of preaching the faith in those areas of the German-speaking lands, Germany, Austria, parts of Switzerland, where the Calvinists had become quite prominent. And if you know anything about the Calvinist faith following the teachings of John Calvin, at that time, it was very anti-Catholic and rejected, had everything to do with the Catholic faith, most particular the sacraments, the notion of baptismal regeneration, also devotion to our lady and the Saints. Saint FALs took on a very difficult task, but in doing the preaching of the faith, he also engaged in works of charity. He looked after the widows and orphans, those who are sick. He also at time spent uh, what we would call the role of chaplain to the military. And he particularly looked after some of the Austrian troops at a time when they were engaged in battle against some of the Germanic principalities, and they suffered from the plague. So he was not only a, a preacher, but a worker of charity. And he was highly regarded for that charitable work. But his preaching, of course, generated a lot of hostility. And so, uh, in, in the chapel in the town where he was based one day after a lot of touring and froing in words, he was stabbed to death by some of the Calvinists. And, uh, there was the year 1622. The words that, uh, he left to us are really powerful. And so I want to share it with you. He's speaking about our Catholic faith and he says, oh, Catholic faith, how solid, how strong you are, how deeply rooted, how firmly founded on a solid rock,
Speaker 2:
Heaven, and earth will pass away. But you can never pass away from the beginning of the whole. From the beginning, the whole world opposed you, but you mightily triumphed over everything. This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. It has subjected powerful kings to the rule of Christ. It is bound nations to his service. What made the holy Apostles and martyrs endure fierce agony and bitter torments except faith and especially faith in the resurrection. What is it that today makes true followers of Christ cast luxuries aside, leave pleasures behind and endure difficulties and pain? It is living faith that expresses itself through love. It is this that makes us put aside the goods of the present in the hope of future goods. It is because of faith that we exchange the present for the future. May Saint Fi, may Saint Fidel pray for us.