San Carlo da Sezze
Some celebrate today as the feast day of the humble lay brother, St. Charles of Sezze, others celebrate on the 7th of January - I believe the difference may be attributed to older Franciscan calendars in use by the three different groups, OFM, Capuchin, Conventual. It works for me that his feast is today.
Following after the example of the great lay-brother saints, St. Salvatore of Horta, and St. Pascal Baylon, St. Charles exclaims in his autobiography, “Our Lord put in my heart a determination to become a lay brother with great desire to be poor and to beg alms for His Love.”
He died in 1670 and is buried at Rome in the Church of St. Francis.
St. Charles of Sezze also was a writer. He wrote about the moment when the Spirit brought him into “another kind of prayer, more interior and heartfelt”:
“Our Lord started showing me His mercy in this manner when one day I was praying before a painting of the Madonna in the church of the Jesuit Fathers in Sezze… The image became so fixed in my heart and mind that I was completely inflamed with love… I was changed into another person, losing thought and intellect in the divine light. Like one dazed I rested in my enjoyment and my soul was very content.
The change that came over me through this kind of prayer was very great. By the divine grace in it I was interiorly taught to do everything for God, and I came to understand that without divine help our works are really nothing and have no value, even though performed with all possible exactness.”
(Note on the art: I obtained this restored image off an Italian site, hence the writing, “opera dopo il restauro”.)
It is said that St. Charles died of natural causes, but I have adopted him as the patron saint of prostate cancer and afflictions associated with prostate disease. I need him now.
