Today is Easter Monday and also the feast of Blessed Ubald. He had been high and mighty in Florence, a leader in the Ghibelline war faction, and a real rake, apparently. He was struck to the heart by a good homily by St. Philip Benizi. He decided there and then to never again bear arms. . . and he didn't. He joined St. Philip's Servite Order and immediately undertook severe penances to atone for his former life and deliberately to break his proud and haughty spirit. He became so meek, the birds would sometimes alight on his head and shoulders when he was working in the garden. he performed miracles, they say, and when once he was sent to fetch water and his pitcher broke, he gathered up water in his cloak and it was enough for all.
He knew mystically when St. Philip was dying and he rushed to his side to hear his confession and give him comfort. When Philip wheezed out that he needed his "book," others rushed to get him his Bible or his brieviary, but Ubald knew to get him his crucifix, which was his only "book." He died gazing at it.
Ubald lived 30 more years there at the monastery of Mount Senario. He is invoked against rabies for some reason. He was beatified in 1821.
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