August 6: - Venerable Anthony Margil de Jesus, the "Wing-Footed Friar"

[Weedy]

August 6: - Venerable Anthony Margil de Jesus, the "Wing-Footed Friar"

(1657-1726)
Today we celebrate the feast day of Venerable Antonio (Anthony) Margil
de Jesus. Known as the “wing-footed friar,” the “Apostle of New
Spain”, and the “Apostle of Texas,” Venerable Anthony labored
tirelessly as missionary, miracle-worker, servant of the Lord
throughout the Americas. While others gave him such laudable
nicknames, ever humble Anthony referred to himself as “La Misma Nada,”
translated as “Nothingness Itself.” At his eulogy, it was said of him:
“All America was the witness and the scene of his virtues and
miracles. To trace his journeys among the pagans, turn your eyes to
east and west, to north and south, and you will find him in all these
places, leading a very austere life, crossing mountains, combating the
evil spirits until he had triumphantly planted his foundations. The
widely scattered provinces of Nicaragua and Costa Rica, of Honduras
and Chol and Panama, of Coahuila and Tejas – all of them heard his
apostolic voice.”

Anthony was born in Valencia, Spain, and at the young age of 15 joined
the Franciscan Order at La Corona de Cristo. Ordained at 25, Anthony
was assigned to “New Spain” and made the voyage to Mexico where he was
initially stationed at the newly established Mission college of
Queretaro. Like other new world missionaries (for example, Junipero
Serra in California, twenty-five years later), Anthony encountered
difficult living and harsh conditions. Never one to complain, he
embraced his challenges as mortifications, offering his sufferings to
the Lord for the sake of those he preached to.

Over the course of his life, Anthony would travel throughout Mexico
and Central America. His first two missions were to Guatemala and
Nicaragua, where he founded colleges. He became known for his fierce
preaching, life of penance and prayers, miracle-working, and ability
to read souls. He survived multiple attacks, including being burned in
a pile of flaming wood by the Talamanca Indians. Rather than be
injured, he walked unharmed from the pyre as the flames died.
Similarly, reports were told of Anthony walking across swollen streams
or rivers without getting wet, and multiplied small quantities of food
so that entire villages could eat for months on end.

While on his mission, Anthony received notice that he had been elected
Father Guardian (Superior) of the Holy Cross Monastery in Queretero.
Requested to return, he left immediately, covering the 700 mile
distance barefoot (without a mule) in only 14 days. Once at the
monastery, Father Anthony governed fairly and through his own example
of exact observance of the Rule of the Order, penance, mortification,
fasting, and prayer. His favorite devotion was to that of the stations
of the Cross, which he prayed through the streets each Friday,
barefoot, carrying a large cross, with a rope around his neck and a
crown of thorns atop his head. In Guatemala alone, he established more
than 2,500 Ways of the Cross to encourage this devotion.

Similarly, in a miraculous occurrence, a tree sprouted and grew in the
courtyard garden of the monastery where Anthony stuck his walking
stick into the ground one afternoon. After a few days, it became clear
that the walking stick had sprouted and began growing into a tree. The
miraculous tree produces a series of small thorns, each it the form of
a cross along its trunk and branches. Each cross, in turn, presents
three smaller thorns recognizing the spikes of the crucifixion. The
tree, which is unlike any other in the world, continues to grow in the
monastery courtyard today.

At approximately the age of 60, Anthony was appointed vice-commissary
of Missions of New Spain, and was granted the right to establish
missions wherever he thought the most work for the Lord could be
accomplished. Having heard of the Indians of Texas, who lived in
horrible conditions, he became intent on journeying to Texas to
establish missions on their behalf. The journey was difficult due to
weather, hostile animals and Indian tribes, insects, reptiles, hunger,
and lack of water. He was repeatedly captured and tortured, beaten,
and left for dead, but never gave up. Walking barefoot through the
harsh terrain, he established multiple missions throughout the region.
Bringing nothing with him, he relied each day on the provisions of the
Lord, which were never withheld from him.

Throughout his journeys, Anthony worked further miracles, kept peace
between natives and settlers, and founded multiple missions—some of
which needed to be abandoned during the war between France and Spain
in 1719. One of his most famous miracles occurred during a journey
from Nacogdoches when his band of travelers found themselves without
water, and with no hope of finding any. Faint with thirst, Anthony
said: “Fear not, do not be dismayed. Trust in God, for in a short time
you shall have water.” Then striking a rock in the dry creek bed twice
with his staff, fresh and clear water gushed forth and continues to
flow to this day. The area is named in his honor.

Given Anthony’s great success at missionary work, and the unmatched
peace-keeping and influence he had on all he encountered due to his
humility, he was sent on various missions in his elder years including
travel to Zacatecas, Guadalajara, and others. These rigorous trips
took their toll on his declining health, and it soon became clear that
he would not live much longer. When the people noted this, they began
to surround him, cutting pieces from his travel cloak as holy relics.
He was sent to Mexico City for medical attention, and upon arrival
declared to his superior: “Reverend Father Superior, the donkey has
come here to deposit its burden.”

Anthony insisted on making a last confession, which due to the nature
of his life, was quite short (given that he had few faults to
confess). His confessor, having difficulty finding sufficient sin to
absolve him of, paused with a look of wonder and confusion. Seeing
this, Anthony said, “If Your Reverence should see a ball of gold
suspended by a hair, though gold is very heavy, would you think that
it was supported by itself? Now, I have been a poor creature, liable
to fall at any moment, and if God had not kept his omnipotent hand
over me, I do not know what I might have done.”

Anthony lay ill for five days, never one complaining of his suffering.
On August 5, a picture of Our Lady of Remedies was brought to him, and
he greeted her lovingly saying, “Until tomorrow, my dearly beloved
Lady.” The following day, on the feast of the Transfiguration, he died
peacefully. Just short of his 69th birthday, Anthony had served the
Lord with profound humility for nearly 53 years, 43 of which as a
missionary in North and Central America.

by Jacob


Saint Quote:
But I know it will be said that a priest ordained by authority derived
from the See of Rome is, by the Law of the Nation, to die as a
Traitor, but if that be so what must become of all the Clergymen of
the Church of England, for the first Protestant Bishops had their
Ordination from those of the Church of Rome, or not at all, as appears
by their own writers so that Ordination comes derivatively from those
now living.
-- Saint John Plessington, from the gallows as he was about to be martyred

Bible Quote
Then Jesus saith to him: Begone, Satan: for it is written, The Lord
thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve. (Matthew
4:10)


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Act of Love before Holy Mass

O my God,
I love You with all my heart,
with all my soul, with all my strength
and with no other desire
than to be inseparably united to You.
It is through Your Divine Son
that this union is about to be realised within me.
In the eternal food I will receive,
I long to identify myself with Him,
that it will no longer be myself but He,
who lives in me
and when I have received Jesus within myself,
then I shall love and be loved by You,
in that same measure,
in which I am united to Him.
Hasten then, to give me Your Divine Son,
at the hands of Your priest,
that through Jesus,
I may unite myself forever to You,
O God the Father,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit.
Amen