Today April 10

Today is Easter Tuesday and the feast of a saint for our own times, Blessed Antony Neyrot, who died in 1460. He was a Dominican prior who was kidnapped off the Neapolitan coast of Italy from a ship bound for Sicily. He was sold into slavery in Tunisia. He procured his freedom but then began an open-minded study of the Qur'an, which proved dangerous. He converted to Islam and practiced his newfound faith for several months. Suddenly he had a mystical vision and repudiated his faith, but, alas, Islam is not big on religious freedom, at least among their own, at least not then. It was attempted to argue him back into the faith of Mohammed, then to cajole, then threaten and finally, to condemn him to death. He died praying with his hands and arms raised up as the charismatics do, proclaiming the religion of Jesus Christ as the one true faith. He was stoned and stabbed to death in the year 1460, beatified 1767.