Contents
Acknowledgments Introduction PA RT O N E
Miracles
x xi of
Love
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Healing Touch—ST. MARTIN DE PORRES (1579–1639) Little Miracles of Affection—ST.THERESA MARGARET (1747–70) Royal Miracles—ST. ELIZABETH OF HUNGARY (1207–31) Miracles from Failures—VENERABLE SOLANUS CASEY (1870–1957) PA RT T WO
Miraculous Prayer
Dreams, Visions, Wonders
and
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31 39 44 50
Other
Visions—ST. PERPETUA (C. 181–203) Miracles of the Heart—ST. GERTRUDE THE GREAT (1256–1302) Wounded Healer—BLESSED PADRE PIO OF PIETRELCINA (1887–1968)
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Miracles That Made Peace—ST. CATHERINE OF SIENA (1347–80) The “Accidental” Mystic—ST. LUTGARDE OF AYWIÈRES (1182–1246) Miracles in the Desert—ST. ANTHONY OF EGYPT (C. 251–356) Miracles to the Rescue—ST. CLARE OF ASSISI (C. 1193–1253) PA RT t h r e e
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57 59 67 73
PA RT f o u r
Miracles
Conversion
of
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Miracles in Action—ST. DOMINIC (1170–1221) Miracles in Death—ST. SABAS AND ST. APPHIAN (FOURTH CENTURY) Miracles in His Mouth—ST. ANTHONY OF PADUA (1195–1231) The Miracle Is the Message—ST.VINCENT FERRER (C. 1350–1419) PA RT f i v e
Miracles
to
87 95 100 108
Awaken Us
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Miracles for the Poor—ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI (1181–1226) A Miracle in Her Soul—ST.TERESA OF ÁVILA (1515–82) Raising the Dead and Other Miracles—ST. FRANCIS OF PAOLA (1416–1507) An Astonishing Invasion of the Supernatural—ST. JOHN BOSCO (1815–88) PA RT s i x
Miracles That Changed Course of History
131 138
the
Miraculous Voices—ST. JOAN OF ARC (1412–31) Miracles over Magic—ST. PATRICK (C. 389–C. 461) Miracles of Discernment and Obedience—ST. IGNATIUS LOYOLA (1491–1556) A Miracle Within—ST. FRANCIS XAVIER (1506–52) Afterword Saints and Their Feast Days Bibliography Glossary
117 124
147 149 155 OF
161 170 175 179 181 185
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od gave us mystics to show us that ordinary people can live extraordinary lives. He never meant for us to put them on pedestals or view them as superhuman, far beyond anything we mortals could ever hope to be. Mystics are not preternaturally gifted aliens from another planet, but human beings just like us. We esteem them not because, like Superman, they have supernatural powers and can leap tall buildings in a single bound, but because they show us how to live good lives. When I look closely at mystics, I wonder if I grasp what it means to really imitate them. They did everything in extremes. No cost seemed too high. Me, I’m much more balanced. I count the cost all right, but I often find the price is steeper than I’m willing to pay. St. Theresa Margaret was ill herself but put aside her own suffering to care for the sick sisters in her convent. I’m not that way. If I get sick, I hop into bed and expect someone to wait on me. Solanus Casey humbly accepted decisions of his superiors that severely restricted his life and ministry. For half a century he labored without complaint. I’m not like him. Even little inconveniences chafe me. I fight back, big time —just ask the clerks in our local stores.
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Mystics and Miracles
What can I say about St. Elizabeth of Hungary, who though a queen spent herself and her fortunes serving Christ in the poor? Or St. Martin de Porres? For fifty years he lived every moment of each day for God and for others. When I stand myself beside these giants, I feel puny. Comedian Stephen Wright says he once went to a convenience store that bragged it was open twenty-four hours, only to find it closed. Later, the proprietor explained that his store was open twenty-four hours, just not twenty-four hours in a row! That’s how I am in my imitation of the saints. I’m inconsistent. I try to be like the saints. But only in some ways. And not all of the time. However, I keep looking at them. I try to stay close to them. I think that if I draw nearer to them, they might infect me with their virtue.
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Miracles of Love
Healing Touch St. Martin de Porres (1579–1639) Virtue is our Everest, and those who climb highest are most worth admiring. Phyllis McGinley
Martin de Porres was a forerunner of modern social activists. Consider the remarkable record of his achievements at Holy Rosary Monastery in Lima, Peru, most of which he completed in addition to his routine tasks. Just reviewing his generosity may make us hyperventilate with exhaustion. Martin single-handedly transformed his monastery into a service center, distributing food and clothing daily to hundreds of people. He also made it a prototype of a modern clinic by inviting the sick to come there to have their diseases cured. And they came in droves. Martin raised vast sums of money that he gave to the poor. Once, he provided dowries for twenty-seven impoverished girls, who would have been unable to marry otherwise. He loved the homeless children of Lima, and for these waifs he planned, funded, and built an orphanage and a school. He arranged for the best possible staff, sparing nothing to hire the most qualified caregivers and teachers. He accomplished all of this out of his own extreme poverty. He possessed only one shabby tunic, yet he supplied comfort and help for thousands over a period of nearly fifty years. That’s the real miracle in his life.
= Martin was born in Lima, Peru, on December 9, 1579. Less than fifty years before, Francisco Pizarro and his conquistadors had seized the vast Peruvian empire of the Incas. In their rapacious pursuit of gold and power, the Spaniards cruelly destroyed the lives of the native people. Martin himself was a child of the conquest: he was the natural son of John de Porres, a conquistador, and Anna VelĂĄzquez, a free
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Mystics and Miracles
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black woman. During Martin’s lifetime, Peru was just beginning to recover from the Spanish invasions. When Martin was twelve years old, his mother apprenticed him to a barber-surgeon, who trained him in the medical practices of the day. The youth became a medical expert, mastering the healing skills he would use to serve others for the rest of his life. At that time, Martin also apprenticed himself to Christ. The youthful disciple spent long periods in prayer every night. Often he was so rapt in contemplation that he seemed to lose contact with the world around him. Martin used herbal medicines, poultices, and other natural remedies to heal the sick, but eventually he discovered that he possessed supernatural gifts of knowledge and healing. Sometimes miracles happened directly through Martin’s prayer or touch. However, he worried that his supernatural gifts might draw undue attention to him and cause him to become proud, so he always tried to hide them by pretending to use some herb or other medicine. Once, Martin visited a woman whom doctors had diagnosed with a life-threatening hemorrhage. The poor lady was so upset with anxiety that Martin had to assure her repeatedly that she would not bleed to death. When he prayed for her, the Lord revealed to him that she would recover. Then, in a feeble effort to conceal his miraculous powers, he gave the sick woman an apple and told her to eat it. As he predicted, in a few days she had returned to perfect health. In 1594, at age fifteen, Martin became a lay helper of the Friars Preachers at the monastery of the Holy Rosary in Lima. Nine years later Martin entered the Dominican order by professing the vows of a religious brother.
= Martin possessed such astonishing healing gifts that I must resist the temptation to recount the story of his life in great detail. But two miracles in particular reveal something of his remarkable character and gifts.
Miracles of Love
Little did Francis Velasco suspect how difficult it would be to leave the monastery of the Holy Rosary once he had entered it as a novice. Barely a month had passed when his father arrived to woo him away with the promise of riches and power. The senior Velasco had risen to a high rank in the Spanish government. In fact, the Spanish king had authorized him to pass on his former post as secretary of the treasury to his son, Francis. The young man found this offer too alluring to resist. Afraid to face his superiors, Francis decided instead to steal away with his father at midnight. But just as he was about to slip away, a surprise visitor startled him. It seems that Martin de Porres had been praying when suddenly he sensed the need to find Francis and comfort him. Never one to mince words, Martin accosted the young man. “Are you going to abandon the house of God for the office of the secretary of the treasury? It is better to serve God than to live in your father’s house. Believe me, what you were unwilling to do out of love for God, you will do out of fear of God.” Martin’s strange knowledge must have frightened the youth, for he decided to remain in the monastery that night. A few hours later, Francis came down with a high fever. Once he had recovered, neither the midnight warning nor the illness was enough to convince him of his calling. He tried two more times to depart, each time becoming seriously ill. The third and final time, Francis’s illness was so severe that a physician by the name of Dr. Cisneto declared him a hopeless case. The doctor ordered him confined to his bed, where his fever soared and his pleural cavities swelled with fluid. There seemed little hope of his recovery. Then, one night, despite locked doors to both the building and the room, Martin de Porres stood beside the sick man’s bed. In his hands he held an old brass brazier filled with glowing coals, a branch of rosemary, and a clean tunic. Martin dropped the rosemary on the coals, and the room filled with a blue, aromatic smoke. Then he helped Francis to his feet and wrapped him in a blanket.
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