From: richarra@gmail.com   
      
   September 22nd - St. Thomas of Villanova   
      
   In the early 16th century, Germany and Spain presented a curious contrast:   
   The first was divided, scandalized, and perverted by an apostate Augustinian   
   monk: Luther. The latter was elevated and sanctified by another Augustinian   
   monk, St. Thomas of Villanova.   
      
   St. Thomas was born on September 18, 1488 at Fuentellana, Spain, the son of   
   a noble but impoverished family. His parents were extremely virtuous and   
   transmitted to him their love for the poor. His mother had received the gift   
   of miracles. The boy was the worthy fruit of such saintly parents.   
      
   After a virtuous childhood in Villanova, he graduated with high honors from   
   the University of Alcalá. At age 28 he joined St. Augustine friars at   
   Salamanca and took his vows on November 25, 1517, the same year of Luther's   
   apostasy. At Salamanca he taught Scholastic Theology, and soon began to   
   preach in pulpits throughout Spain. He dedicated his life to the   
   confessionary and to the pulpit.   
      
   His sermons were so persuasive that he was named the court preacher of   
   Emperor Charles V and one of his councilors of state. It is said that the   
   Charles V never denied anything to St. Thomas because - as the Emperor   
   affirmed - he had the gift to move hearts.   
      
   He was offered the See of Granada, but refused the position. Years later, in   
   1544, he was obliged under obedience to accept the Archbishopric of   
   Valencia. At that time, the Kingdom of Valencia was suffering from a severe   
   drought. When it was announced that St. Thomas had been chosen the new   
   Archbishop, rain poured abundantly, a sign of the days of grace and   
   redemption to come. In fact, this rain summarizes well the tenure of St.   
   Thomas of Villanova, who became known as "Almsgiver" and "Father of the   
   Poor" for his charity, and "model of Bishops" for his administration and   
   laws. He made a gradual and steady reform of the Clergy, and then extended   
   it to all the faithful.   
      
   He continued his mortified life, always seeing in the poor his most precious   
   treasure. He was munificent with all but very parsimonious with himself to   
   the point that he wore the same habit that he had received in the novitiate.   
   Once he was accused of avarice by a tailor who received an old coat for him   
   to mend. Notwithstanding, some time later St. Stephen gave 150 silver coins   
   as dowry for the tailor's daughters.   
      
   Several hundred poor came to St. Thomas' door each morning and were given   
   meals, wine and money. His charity was often accompanied by miracles of   
   healing the sick, the multiplication of food and extraordinary conversions.   
   His ecstasies were so common that at times he described them in his sermons   
   on the Transfiguration.   
      
   After 11 years of his episcopate, St. Thomas fell gravely ill and died   
   September 8, 1555, the day of the Nativity of Our Lady. In his death agony,   
   he gave the bed in which he was laying to a poor man. It was the last thing   
   he had.   
      
   St. Thomas of Villanova left a great number of sermons and theological   
   writings; his grandiose style is reminiscent of St. Bernard.   
      
      
   Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)   
      
   This is not a very easy selection to comment on since it primarily reports   
   facts about St. Thomas of Villanova that are characteristic of many saints.   
   They are admirable and praiseworthy, but a little too generic and repeat   
   what we hear about the others. I limit myself, therefore, to comment on some   
   more distinctive points here and there for our meditation.   
      
   First, it is remarkable the fact that Charles V chose St. Thomas of   
   Villanova as a preacher and councilor. He was a person who in many ways   
   directed the conscience of the Emperor. You see the finger of Divine   
   Providence directing this great statesman.   
      
   Charles V, Emperor of the Holy Roman German Empire, a man over whose domains   
   the sun never set, was an extraordinarily important man. He continued the   
   vocation of the Hapsburgs of the House of Austria. There is a text by Mary   
   de Agreda describing the designs of Providence for the House of Austria and   
   all the graces God gave the Hapsburgs to fulfill them. It is very beautiful   
   to see how Divine Providence assisted the realization of those designs by   
   sending St. Thomas of Villanova to be the court preacher and councilor to   
   Charles V.   
      
   Charles V, we must add with sadness, did not entirely correspond to those   
   plans of God. He had a saint as a councilor, but he was a man whose softness   
   and spirit of tolerance permitted Protestantism to expand in his lands. It   
   is true that he had many different enemies to fight. One of them was the   
   league formed by Muslim Turkey and Catholic France, which also became   
   indirectly responsible for the expansion of Protestantism.   
      
   But Charles V had long periods of peace when he could have opposed the   
   expansion of Protestantism. His famous temporizations have made him the   
   subject of strong, objective critiques by Church historians.   
      
   But he ended his life well. He left aside all his possessions and goods and   
   retired to a monastery as a penitent. He spent his last years there living a   
   life that edified all Christendom. Did the good counsels of St. Thomas of   
   Villanova finally move his heart? He used to say that St. Thomas had the   
   gift of moving hearts. Did St. Thomas also bend his own heart of iron? It is   
   a point to consider.   
      
   Someone could object: Why do you say that he had an iron heart? A man who   
   makes concessions is a soft man and cannot be consider a man with an iron   
   heart.   
      
   I would answer that long experience of life has shown me that nothing is   
   harder to change than the heart of a soft man and make him an energetic man.   
   It is harder to make a soft man energetic than to make an energetic man   
   become soft. I think that a saint who could have made Louis XVI lose his   
   softness would have performed a supernatural exploit greater than one who   
   would convince Louis XIV to refrain from using force. So, the change of   
   Charles V, who went to a monastery to make penance, may have been due to a   
   good counsel of St. Thomas of Villanova.   
      
   Second, it is interesting to see that St. Thomas had so many ecstasies that   
   he used to speak about them in his sermons. It is admirable to see how he   
   reported, sincerely and nobly, without vanity, the manifestations of grace   
   in his soul from the pulpit. Only a truly superior soul can do this because   
   he understands that grace does not rely on his personal merit but only on   
   the largesse of God.   
      
   This attitude is the opposite of a certain Calvinist way of understanding   
   humility that has infiltrated many Catholic milieus. According to it, an   
   individual is proud if he ever praises himself or lets someone else know of   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)