SAINTS OF THE DAY
WEDNESDAY, 14 APRIL, 2021
SAINT LYDWINE OF SCHEIDAM*
BLESSED PETER GONSALEZ**
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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, such that one of her ribs was broken. 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, vomiting, fever, thirst, bedsores, toothaches, spasms of the muscles, blindness, neuritis, pieces of her body falling off, coughing up blood, and many others. She is believed to be the first recorded patient suffering with Multiple Sclerosis.
Through the counsel of her parish priest, 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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BLESSED PETER GONSALEZ**
DOMINICAN PRIEST
(1190 - 1246)
Peter González, also referred to as Pedro González Telmo, Saint Telmo, or Saint Elmo, was born in 1190 in Frómista, Palencia, Kingdom of Castile and Leon. He became a priest as a step to high office. One Christmas Day, during a grand entrance into the city before all the townspeople, the young priest was thrown off of his horse and onto a dung-heap.
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.
"Public humiliation led Peter Gonzalez to a true conversion experience and set him on the road to sainthood."
He died in 1246 and was beatified in 1254 by Pope Innocent IV.
PATRON: Spanish and Portuguese sailors.
Blessed Peter Gonsalez: Pray for us!