SAINT THOMAS OF VILLANOVA
Bishop
(1488-1555)
Saint Thomas, the glory of the Spanish Church in the sixteenth century, was born in 1488. A thirst for the science of the Saints led him to enter the house of the Austin Friars at Salamanca. Charles V. listened to him an oracle, and appointed him Archbishop of Valencia. On being led to his throne in church, he pushed the silken cushions aside, and with tears kissed the ground.
His first visit was to the prison; the sum with which the chapter presented him for his palace was devoted to the public hospital. As a child he had given his meal to the poor, and two thirds of his episcopal revenues were now annually spent in alms. He daily fed five hundred needy persons, brought up himself the orphans of the city, and sheltered the neglected foundlings with a mother's care.
During his eleven years' episcopate not one poor maiden was married without an alms from the Saint. Spurred by his example, the rich and the selfish became liberal and generous; and when, on the Nativity of Our Lady, 1555, St. Thomas came to die, he was well-nigh the only poor man in his see.
SAINT JOSEPH OF CUPERTINO
Priest
(1603-1663)
Joseph of Cupertino, born of pious parents, as a youth was noted for his chastity. He was admitted among the Friars Minor Conventual at the convent of Grotella, first as a lay brother because of his lack of formal education, then, by divine intervention, as a cleric.
After being ordained a priest, he afflicted his body with hairshirts, disciplines and all kinds of austerities. His spirit in truth he fed constantly with the nourishment of holy prayer, whence it came about that he was called by God to the highest level of contemplation.
Notable for his obedience and for his practice of poverty, he cultivated chastity especially, which he preserved intact despite violent temptations.
He honored the Virgin Mary with a wonderful love and shone with great charity toward the poor.
So great was his humility that, considering himself a great sinner, he earnestly besought God to remove from him his wonderful gifts.
By order of his superiors and of the sacred Inquisition, he traversed many regions.
Finally, at Osimo in Picenum, in the sixty-first year of his age, he went to heaven.