Today March 12

Today is the feast of St. Louis Orione (1872 - 1940), secular priest extraordinaire. This thoroughly modern saint was all about achievement, the work of God. He established a boarding school for boys -- all before he was even ordained a priest! He founded four orders. He got things done fast. When he'd asked permission to found his boys' club, the bishop had granted permission but then rescinded it. After all, the man was just a seminarian, folks said. Louis went obediently, but not meekly. He pointedly expressed his sharp disappointment in the bishop's going back on his promise; besides, Louis had already received the entire amount he needed AND a suitable place AND his first registered pupil . . . all in the space of a few hours! The Bishop could see the writing on the wall and gave his fervent support. Not bad for a poor boy who'd washed out of the Franciscans and quit the Salesians!

Louis wasn't shy about "speaking truth to power" -- even power beyond that of the bishop. He remonstrated with a certain cardinal who he said had favored a talented musician/seminarian. He wrote it in a powerful but tactless letter. Only after he'd mailed it did it occur to him that maybe he was very condescending; he wished to God he could fish the letter back OUT of the mailbox! Years later, he came face to face with that very letter -- on the eve of his ordination, when the cardinal, now Pope Pius X (!) showed it to him in his brieviary. Pius smiled and said, "Even the pope, you know, needs frequently to be reminded of the need for humility!" He then gave him a gift of money, some new vestments, and approval of his new order, the Work of Divine Providence. All Louis' orders, that and the (contemplative) Hermits of Divine Providence, the Little Missionary Sisters of Charity, and the Blind Sacramentine Sisters (with all blind members!) all work according to the program of Dante's "Our love has no closed doors." The boys' (and later, girls') clubs, the boarding schools, the homes for the aged, the sick, the insane, the retarded, and the poor, were open to everyone, of any belief (or no belief), without cost. They relied almost totally on Divine Providence. Time and time again, thousands or even millions of lira would arrive at exactly the right time, and when one home was filled, another would be offered.

Louis kept eating, but he constantly lost weight. He joked with his doctor that he still had his sins and THEY at least were heavy! He'd always had diabetes and he suffered two debilitating strokes in '39 and '40. When chided by his nurse for writing 22 personal letters just before he died, he smilingly replied, "It's all right. We'll have a long rest in Paradise." This kind man with the piercing eyes closed them for the last time in 1940. His body is still incorrupt. He was beatified a mere 17 years after his death, astonishingly quick in that day. He was canonized in 1980. St. Louis Orione, pray for us.