| ST. NICHOLAS OF TOLENTINO, CONFESSOR—1245-1305 |
| Feast: September 10
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| This
Nicholas was born in answer to his mother's prayers. Childless and in middle
age, she had made a pilgrimage with her husband to the shrine of St. Nicholas of
Bari to ask for a son whom she promised to dedicate to God's service. When her
wish was granted, she named the boy Nicholas and he soon gave unusual signs of
saintliness. Already at seven he would hide away in a nearby cave and pray there
like the hermits whom he had observed in the mountains. As soon as he was old
enough he was received into the Order of Augustinian friars. On account of his
kind and gentle manner his superiors entrusted him with the daily feeding of the
poor at the monastery gates, but at times he was so free with the friary's
provisions that the procurator begged the superior to check his generosity. He
was ordained in 1271 and said his first Mass with exceptional fervor;
thereafter, whenever he celebrated the holy Mystery he seemed aglow with the
fire of his love. His preaching, instructions and work in the confessional
brought about numerous conversions, and his many miracles were responsible for
more, yet he was careful not to take any credit for these miracles. "Say
nothing of this," he would insist, "give thanks to God, not to me. I
am only a vessel of clay, a poor sinner." He spent the last thirty years of
his life in Tolentino, where the Guelfs and the Ghibellines were in constant
strife. Nicholas saw only one remedy to the violence: street preaching, and the
success of this apostolic work was astounding. "He spoke of the things of
heaven," says his biographer St. Antonine. "Sweetly he preached the
divine word, and the words that came from his lips fell like flames of fire.
Among his hearers could be seen the tears and heard the sighs of people
detesting their sins and repenting of their past lives." During the last
years of his life St. Nicholas was bedridden and suffered grievously. He died
surrounded by his community. In 1345 a lay Brother cut off the arms of his body
intending to take them to Germany as relics, and the friars then hid his body to
prevent further attempts of this kind. It has not been found to this day, but
the arms have been preserved. It is recorded that they have bled on several
occasions, usually, it is said, before some calamity that befell the Church or
the world.
Taken from "A Saint A Day" by Berchman's Bittle, O.F.M.Cap. published by The Bruce Publishing Company, Copyright 1958. |
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