Today April 24

Today is the feast of St. Fidelis of Sigmarengen, (1577 - 1622); his birthname was Mark Rey. He was a philosophy major and eventually got his doctorate and taught philosophy at the University of Freiburg in Switzerland. He took a 6-year sabbatical and did the "Grand Tour" with six young men he took under his wing. He maintained sobriety, frequent Communion (a rarity in those days) and extravagant charity. You've heard the expression, "He'll give you the clothes off his back"? Well, Fidelis actually DID that a time or two.

After this time, he decided to practice law, which he did with a remarkable amount of integrity, avoiding personal attacks and invective, and often defending the poor and oppressed for free, so much so that he was nicknamed "The Poor Man's Lawyer." But the shadiness and cynicism if not downright corruption in the trade made him quit in disgust. He entered the Capuchins and served as a terrific parish priest, devoting himself to the twin missions of preaching and hearing confession, which he did in a succession of German-speaking parishes. In all this he did not neglect the sick, many of whom he cured and still more he visited. Nor did he neglect the Protestants, many of whom he converted (or re-verted) to Catholicism, despite great personal risk.

And it was at great personal risk he preached at Grusch in the heart of Protestant territory. He gave an unusually fiery -- and effective -- sermon, and then left, first with the help of the Austrian army and then with that of some Protestants. But the overwhelming numbers of the angry mob proved too much both for the troops AND the sympathetic Protestants and Fidelis was set upon. He was cruelly killed (beaten with swords before being repeatedly stabbed), but prayed that God would forgive them, in true St. Stephen style. A Zwinglian minister who was present later converted, the first in a long series of conversions due to our saint. St. Fidelis, pray for us.