SAINTS OF THE DAY
MONDAY, 14 APRIL, 2025
1) SAINT LYDWINE OF SCHEIDAM
2) SAINT PETER GONSALEZ
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1) SAINT LYDWINE OF SCHEIDAM
STIGMATIST AND VICTIM SOUL
(18 March, 1380 - 14 April, 1433)
Saint Lydwine was born in present day Scheidam, Holland, near Rotterdam, in 1380. She was the only daughter of nine children in a poor working family. Little is known about the childhood of Lydwine, with the exception that she took a private vow of virginity at age 15. One year later, when Lydwine was 16, she was ice skating with a group of friends, when she suffered a fall and collision, causing her to break a small rib in her right side. A hard abscess grew around the broken rib which never healed. From that moment on, Lydwine lived in constant pain, such that no position of her body (sitting, standing, reclining) could relieve her suffering.
She became bedridden following her accident, and a host of bodily ailments followed. These sufferings included headaches, fever, thirst, bedsores, toothaches, spasms of the muscles, neuritis, pieces of her body falling off, coughing up blood, ulcers and tumours, could not eat or drink without vomiting and many others.
She also fractured her forehead, which extended to the middle of her nose and a cleft from her lower lip to her chin that would often bleed. She could not see from her right eye and had a weak left eye. For thirty-three years, until her death, St Lidwina's body deteriorated, and became a spectacle of pure suffering, defying the laws of nature. She is believed to be the first recorded patient suffering with Multiple Sclerosis.
Several years passed. Lidwina was deprived of a spiritual director, receiving communion Holy Communion only at Easter when she was carried to Church. She laid in darkness and spent many nights sobbing to herself. Like a forsaken home that was once a place of excitement and warmth, so too did Lidwina temporarily depart from her joyful and lively self, for suffering and abandonment moulded her into a vessel of despondency and despair. But St. Lidwina's world was set on fire when she finally understood the potent mystery of love: love that is willing to suffer is life-giving.
By meditating upon the Passion of Christ with the aid of her new-found spiritual director, Fr. John Walters of Lyden, a spark ignited within St Lidwina, allowing her to find happiness in her pain through fortitude, patience and trust in God's will. True peace came upon St. Lidwina after she received the gift of tears. She then comprehended God's unconditional love and care, which opened the floodgates to renewal and consolation.
One day after receiving the Eucharist, she cried uncontrollably for fourteen days. This experience inundated her her spirit with perfect consolation. Like a spring of cleansing water, Lidwina's discovery of the redemptive strength of love allowed her to recommit to prayer, fasting and penance. The more suffering she endured, the closer she was to the Cross of Christ. After eight years of suffering, she said: “It is not I who suffer; it is my Lord Jesus who suffers in me!”
Saint Lydwine came to realize that there was no earthly reason for her suffering, and that it must be a gift from the Lord. She eagerly consecrated herself to enduring the pain and suffering for the good of others, in atonement for their sins. Lydwine fasted in earnest, receiving only the Holy Eucharist as sustenance in the last 19 years of her life. Lydwine further gave away all her possessions to the poor, sleeping on a mound of hay.
Saint Lydwine became known as a holy woman, a healer of the sick who visited her, and a mystic. Her body, despite being covered by awful sores, emitted the sweet perfume of heaven. Her touch was known to heal those whom doctors had given up on. She was visited frequently with visions and ecstasies of Jesus, and herself exhibited the Stigmata on many occasions. In one such vision, she was greeted by the presence of Jesus, and saw a rosebush which was not in bloom. Above the bush, an inscription read, "When this shall be in bloom, your suffering will be at an end."
Lydwine spoke to Our Lord and Our Lady and the saints and angels on a daily basis. Her lifelong illness which was recognized to be of supernatural origin. Her body became covered with sores and abscesses and virtually came apart into three pieces-symbolically representing the condition of the Church.
One day the victim soul asked Our Lord for the conversion of a notoriously immoral young man in Schiedham. Jesus replied that His grace was sufficient and that this person habitually rejected grace. “He is sinning right now,” Jesus said, “as we speak.” Lydwine would not have “no” for an answer. She wanted a special grace. She wanted his soul. Jesus refused, “My justice will not allow it.” She then started to complain. “Look at what I suffer for souls,” she said, “I suffer your Passion, all for you. Is your mercy not loving enough to win this wretched one back to grace?” Jesus would not be moved. “My justice will not allow it, enough now.” “If that it is the case,” Lydwine protested, “I will have a word with your Mother.” Jesus disappeared and Mary came and answered her prayer. The young man came knocking at the door seconds later asking the blessed saint to send for a priest. She sent for a priest and this great sinner made a sincere confession in tears. The Mother will have her way. And that is the way the Son wants it.
Lydwine suffered for thirty-eight years, after which time she was greeted with another vision in which Jesus, Himself, administered her the Last Rites. She stated, “I see the rosebush in bloom,” and died later that evening, alone, as she preferred.
Multiple miracles and mystical gifts have been attributed to Lydwine, including bilocation. As Huysmans wrote in 1923, “She was given to be in two places at once, when Jesus asked her to be with him at Golgotha. In answer to His request, Lydwine replied: ‘O Savior, I am ready to accompany you to that mountain and to suffer and die there with you!' He took her with Him, and when she returned to her bed, which corporeally she had never left, they saw ulcers on her lips, wounds on her arms, the marks of thorns on her forehead and splinters on her limbs, which exhaled a very pronounced perfume of spices."
PATRON: of sickness; chronically ill, ice skaters, town of Schiedam.
PRAYER TO SAINT LYDWINE: O Glorious Saint Lydwine of Schiedam,you were chosen by Christ to suffer immense pain for poor sinners and to offer up all your sufferings to Him.Intercede on our behalf and help us through our small sufferings that cannot be compared to yours.Grant us the grace to trust completely in Jesus even during times of deep sorrow and confusions.Help us to always place our petitions in the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary who on our behalf will offer up our petitions to Jesus like how she did kindly for you.May we be given the grace to persevere in sufferings until the Lord calls us home to enjoy the Glory of Heaven. Amen.
St. Lydwine, whose life was filled with intense sufferings for poor sinners, pray for us!
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2) SAINT PETER GONZALEZ
DOMINICAN PRIEST
(1190 - 15 April, 1246)
Peter González, also referred to as Pedro González Telmo, Saint Telmo, or Saint Elmo, was born in 1190 in the city of Astorga, Spain, of an illustrious family. After studies in which he excelled, he was named canon of the Cathedral. His uncle, the Bishop of Astorga, obtained for him from Rome the position of dean of the chapter of canons.
He became a priest as a step to high office. One Christmas Day, it was planned for Peter to take possession of the dignity at Christmas. A vain youth filled with the spirit of the world, Peter desired that the ceremony should take place with great pomp before the whole city. Astride a magnificent horse in full harness, he rode through the streets of the city. When he reached a place crowded with onlookers, he spurred his horse to make it prance more elegantly and raise the applause of the people. But the horse tripped and threw the rider into a puddle of mud. The applause immediately changed into derision and laughter.
Embarrassed and knowing that his parishioners thought he was a fake, Peter withdrew from the world for a period of prayer and meditation. During this time, he had a conversion and spent the rest of his life making up for his lost youth. He joined the Dominicans and shunned those who tried to convince him to return to his old ways, saying: "If you love me, follow me! If you cannot follow me, forget me!"
He served as the confessor and court chaplain to King Saint Ferdinand III of Castile, and reformed court life. He also worked for the crusade against the Moors, went into the battlefields, and worked for humane treatment of Moorish prisoners.
Fearing that the honors and easy life offered by the king's court would lead him to return to his previous ways, he left the court and evangelized to shepherds and sailors. He became apostle and preacher to the poor, and especially to sailors. He received the gift of miracles. He preached without stop until his last days and foretold his own death, which took place on April 15, 1246. The sailors of Spain and Portugal still invoke him in every storm under the name of St. Elmo (Elm or Telm).
"Public humiliation led Peter Gonzalez to a true conversion experience and set him on the road to sainthood."
He died in 15 April, 1246 and was beatified in 1254 by Pope Innocent IV.
PATRON: Spanish, Mariners and Portuguese sailors.
PRAYER: Almighty God, you bestowed the singular help of Blessed Peter on those in peril from the sea. By the help of his prayers may the light of your grace shine forth in all the storms of this life and enable us to find the harbor of everlasting salvation. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. - General Calendar of the Order of Preachers. Amen.
St. Peter Gonsalez: Pray for us!