Today October 30

Today is the feast of St. Alphonsus Rodriguez (1533 - 1617), SJ. He was a lay brother, or "temporal coadjutor" (because everything Jesuit has to sound both erudite and military), which is not really identical with what we think of as a "layman" -- we think of it as living and working in the world -- since he lived a strict life as a porter in the Jesuit house on Majorca for a full 45 years! Up early every morning; taking care of those boys (it was a boarding school and college); greeting nobles, clergy and beggars alike; dispensing advice promptly when asked (since, as he told Father Santander, SJ, his spiritual director, when he entered the order: "I will never again follow my own will"); and, he spent every single spare minute in prayer. And this despite great spiritual dryness!

But he'd not always been that way. He'd been a businessman, a husband, father, and very much a man of the world. It's true his later life was a misery: his business failed, his wife and daughter died, he and his surviving son were left living with his two dour maiden sisters. But amidst this depression and stress, grace began to arrive. He learned the fundamentals of mental prayer (including meditation and the rosary), he had a mystical vision of heaven, he discerned a vocation to the Jesuits. Of course he was refused: he hadn't nearly the intellectual gifts nor education required for that illustrious bunch. But there he was, over forty, in so-so health, abandoning his pride and putting himself in school with little boys -- starting from scratch, as it were. In doing so, he was following in the footsteps of the great founder himself, St. Ignatius of Loyola, and Fr. Santander could see his great drive and piety. He fought to have him accepted (after he'd scored at least a general education) and although he never saw Alphonsus a priest (his fervent wish), he had no reason ever to be ashamed of today's great saint.

He died after a protracted battle with evil spirits in October of 1617 and was given the final grace of an unbroken ecstasy until the final agony. He relaxed, finally, and died peacefully with the name of Jesus on his lips. Great St. Alphonsus Rodriguez, pray for us.