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April 24th - St. William Firmatus
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Apr 24, 2013, 1:34:07 PM4/24/13
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April 24th - St. William Firmatus
d. 1090
CANONRIES in the eleventh century were not always reserved for the clergy, and William Firmatus, a gifted young citizen of Tours, was appointed a canon of St. Venantius at a very early age, before he had decided upon his future career. He took up soldiering and then medicine, till a dream or vision in which he beheld the Devil, in the form of an ape, sitting upon his money chest, revealed to him an unconscious tendency to avarice. Immediately he threw up his profession and withdrew into retirement with his widowed mother. At her death he embraced a still more austere mode of life, residing as a hermit in a wood at Laval in Mayenne, where he suffered much from his neighbours, especially from the wiles and accusations of a wicked woman.
After a first pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he occupied solitary cells in various parts of Brittany and France--notably at Vitré, Savigny and Mantilly--earning a great reputation for sanctity. A second visit to the Holy Land was followed by a return to Mantilly. St. William’s power over animals led the peasants to appeal to him for the protection of their gardens and fields from the depredations of wild creatures. We read that with a gentle tap he would admonish the hares and goats that frisked about him and the birds as they nestled for warmth in the folds of his habit. In the case of a particularly destructive wild boar he adopted sterner measures. Leading it by the ear he shut it up in a cell, binding it fast all night, and, when he set it free in the morning, the beast was cured for ever of its marauding proclivities! St. William died at a date which appears to have been 1090 or a little earlier.
A life is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. iii, which is attributed to Stephen de Fougeres. See also H. A. Pigeon, Vies des Saints du diocese tie Coutances, vol. ii, p. 398.
Saint Quote:
"The Lord sends us tribulation and infirmities to give us the means of paying the immense debts we have contracted with Him. Therefore, those who have good sense receive them joyfully, for they think more of the good which they may derive from them than of the pain which they experience on account of them"
--St. Vincent Ferrer
This Saint unfolded this same sentiment more fully in a sermon which contained this pleasing parable: There was a king who had in prison two men who both owed him large sums of money. Seeing that they were unable to pay because they possessed nothing, he threw down a purse full of money upon each of them with so much force that they both felt the pain. One, angry at the blow, showed his impatience without making any account of the purse; but the other, not regarding the pain, recognized the favor done him, and taking the purse, gave thanks to the king and paid his debt with the money. "Now, precisely the same thing happens with us" added the Saint. "We all owe heavy debts to God for the many benefits we have received from Him, and for the many sins we have committed against Him, nor have we anything of our own to pay them. Therefore, moved by pity for us, He sends us the gold of patience in the purse of tribulations, that we may use it to pay our debts. Whoever will not do this only increases his debts and renders himself, at the same time, more displeasing to God."
The example of the two thieves crucified with Christ confirms this truth. By his patience, one paid his debts and gained Paradise; while the other, by his impatience, made himself more than ever a debtor, and obtained for himself eternal pains.
(Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". April - Patience)
Bible Quote:
And there are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. (1 John 4:7)
<><><><>
We pray to Christ as God
Our minds are slow to come down to the humble level of Jesus when we have just been contemplating him in his divinity. It is as though we were doing him an injustice in acknowledging in a man the words of one with whom we spoke when we prayed to God; we are usually at a loss and try to change the meaning. Yet our minds find nothing in scripture that does not go back to him, nothing that will allow us to stray from him. Our thoughts must then be awakened to keep their vigil of faith. We must realize that the one whom we were contemplating a short time before in his nature as God took to himself the nature of a servant; he was made in the likeness of men and found to be a man like others; as he hung on the cross he made the psalmist's words his own: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
We pray to him as God, he prays for us as a servant. In the first case he is the Creator, in the second a creature. Himself unchanged, he took to himself our created nature in order to change it, and made us one man with himself, head and body. We pray then to him, through him, and in him; we speak along with him and he speaks along with us.
--St. Augustine of Hippo
d. 1090
CANONRIES in the eleventh century were not always reserved for the clergy, and William Firmatus, a gifted young citizen of Tours, was appointed a canon of St. Venantius at a very early age, before he had decided upon his future career. He took up soldiering and then medicine, till a dream or vision in which he beheld the Devil, in the form of an ape, sitting upon his money chest, revealed to him an unconscious tendency to avarice. Immediately he threw up his profession and withdrew into retirement with his widowed mother. At her death he embraced a still more austere mode of life, residing as a hermit in a wood at Laval in Mayenne, where he suffered much from his neighbours, especially from the wiles and accusations of a wicked woman.
After a first pilgrimage to Jerusalem, he occupied solitary cells in various parts of Brittany and France--notably at Vitré, Savigny and Mantilly--earning a great reputation for sanctity. A second visit to the Holy Land was followed by a return to Mantilly. St. William’s power over animals led the peasants to appeal to him for the protection of their gardens and fields from the depredations of wild creatures. We read that with a gentle tap he would admonish the hares and goats that frisked about him and the birds as they nestled for warmth in the folds of his habit. In the case of a particularly destructive wild boar he adopted sterner measures. Leading it by the ear he shut it up in a cell, binding it fast all night, and, when he set it free in the morning, the beast was cured for ever of its marauding proclivities! St. William died at a date which appears to have been 1090 or a little earlier.
A life is printed in the Acta Sanctorum, April, vol. iii, which is attributed to Stephen de Fougeres. See also H. A. Pigeon, Vies des Saints du diocese tie Coutances, vol. ii, p. 398.
Saint Quote:
"The Lord sends us tribulation and infirmities to give us the means of paying the immense debts we have contracted with Him. Therefore, those who have good sense receive them joyfully, for they think more of the good which they may derive from them than of the pain which they experience on account of them"
--St. Vincent Ferrer
This Saint unfolded this same sentiment more fully in a sermon which contained this pleasing parable: There was a king who had in prison two men who both owed him large sums of money. Seeing that they were unable to pay because they possessed nothing, he threw down a purse full of money upon each of them with so much force that they both felt the pain. One, angry at the blow, showed his impatience without making any account of the purse; but the other, not regarding the pain, recognized the favor done him, and taking the purse, gave thanks to the king and paid his debt with the money. "Now, precisely the same thing happens with us" added the Saint. "We all owe heavy debts to God for the many benefits we have received from Him, and for the many sins we have committed against Him, nor have we anything of our own to pay them. Therefore, moved by pity for us, He sends us the gold of patience in the purse of tribulations, that we may use it to pay our debts. Whoever will not do this only increases his debts and renders himself, at the same time, more displeasing to God."
The example of the two thieves crucified with Christ confirms this truth. By his patience, one paid his debts and gained Paradise; while the other, by his impatience, made himself more than ever a debtor, and obtained for himself eternal pains.
(Taken from the book "A Year with the Saints". April - Patience)
Bible Quote:
And there are three who give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. (1 John 4:7)
<><><><>
We pray to Christ as God
Our minds are slow to come down to the humble level of Jesus when we have just been contemplating him in his divinity. It is as though we were doing him an injustice in acknowledging in a man the words of one with whom we spoke when we prayed to God; we are usually at a loss and try to change the meaning. Yet our minds find nothing in scripture that does not go back to him, nothing that will allow us to stray from him. Our thoughts must then be awakened to keep their vigil of faith. We must realize that the one whom we were contemplating a short time before in his nature as God took to himself the nature of a servant; he was made in the likeness of men and found to be a man like others; as he hung on the cross he made the psalmist's words his own: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
We pray to him as God, he prays for us as a servant. In the first case he is the Creator, in the second a creature. Himself unchanged, he took to himself our created nature in order to change it, and made us one man with himself, head and body. We pray then to him, through him, and in him; we speak along with him and he speaks along with us.
--St. Augustine of Hippo
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