St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen

SAINT FIDELIS of SIGMARINGEN
Martyr
(1577-1622)
Saint Fidelis was born of noble parents at Sigmaringen in what is now Prussia, in 1577. In his youth he frequently approached the Sacraments, visited the sick and the poor, and spent many hours before the altar. For a time he followed the legal profession and was remarkable for his advocacy of the poor and his respectful language towards his opponents.

Finding it difficult to be both a rich lawyer and a good Christian, Fidelis entered the Capuchin Order and embraced a life of austerity and prayer. Hair shirts, iron-pointed girdles, and disciplines were penances too light for his fervor. At Weltkirchen, where he was Superior of the convent during an outbreak of the plague, he devoted himself indefatigably to the care of the sick soldiers and citizens. Animated by a desire for martyrdom, he rejoiced at being sent with several fellow Capuchins on a mission to Switzerland, which the newly-founded Congregation of the Propaganda named him to preside. There he braved every peril to rescue souls from the errors of Calvin.

When preaching one day at Sevis he was fired at by a Calvinist, but fear of death could not deter him from proclaiming divine truth. After his sermon, when leaving the city he was waylaid by a body of his enemies, who attacked him and tried to force him to embrace their so-called reform. But he said, "I came to refute your errors, not to embrace them; I will never renounce Catholic doctrine, which is the truth of all ages, and I fear not death." On this they fell upon him with their daggers; and the first martyr of the Propaganda, losing his life for Christ, went to find in heaven the veritable life his Master promised to all who are losers for His sake.


Our Risen Lord would have around Him a bright phalanx of martyrs.  Its privileged members belong to the different centuries of the Church's existence.  Its ranks open today to give welcome to a brave combatant, who won his palm, not in a contest with paganism, as those did whose feasts we have thus far kept, but in defending his mother, the Church, against her own rebellious children.  They were heretics that slew this day's martyr, and the century that was honored with his triumph was the seventeenth.

Fidelis was worthy of his beautiful name.  Neither difficulty nor menace could make him fail in his duty.  During his whole life, he had but the glory and service of his divine Lord in view:  and when the time came for him to face the fatal danger, he did so, calmly but fearlessly, as behooved a disciple of the Jesus who went forth to meet his enemies.  Honor, then, be today to the brave son of St. Francis, who confronted the Saracens, and was a martyr in desire!

Protestantism was established and rooted by he shedding of torrents of blood; and yet protestants count it as a great crime that, here and there, the children of the True Church made an armed resistance against them.  The heresy of the 16th was the cruel and untiring persecutor of men, whose only crime was their adhesion to the old Faith--the Faith that had civilized the world.  The so-called 'Reformation' proclaimed liberty in matters of religion, and massacred Catholics who exercised this liberty, and prayed and believed as their ancestors had done for long ages before Luther and Calvin were born.  A Catholic who gives heretics credit for sincerity when they talk about religious toleration, proves that he knows nothing of either the past or the present.  there is a fatal instinct in error, which leads it to hate the Truth; and the True Church, by its unchangeableness, is a perpetual reproach to them that refuse to be her children.  Heresy starts with an attempt to annihilate them that remain faithful; when it has grown tired of open persecution it vents its spleen in insults and calumnies; and when these do not produce the desired effect, hypocrisy comes in with its assurances of friendly forbearance.  The history of Protestant Europe, during the last three (five) centuries, confirms these statements; it also justifies us in honoring those courageous servants of God who, during that same period, have died for the ancient Faith.

Reflection. We delight in decorating the altars of God with flowers, lights, and jewels, and it is right to do so; but if we wish to offer to God gifts of higher value, let us, in imitation of Saint Fidelis, labor to save souls who would be lost; that is to offer Him the ornaments of paradise which He so ardently longs to acquire.

Prayer from the Liturgical Year, 1877

How truly couldst thou, O Fidelis! say with the Apostle: I have finished my course (II. Tim. iv. 7)! Yea, thy death was even more beautiful than thy life, holy as that was. How admirable the calmness wherewith thou receivedst death! how grand the joy wherewith thou didst welcome the blows of thine enemies,--thine, because they were those of the Church! Thy dying prayer, like Stephen's, was for them; for the Catholic, while he hates heresy, must love the heretics who put him to death. Pray, O holy Martyr, for the children of the Church. Obtain for them an appreciation of the value of Faith, and of the favour of God bestowed on them when he made them members of the true Church. May they be on their guard against the many false doctrines, which are now current through the world. May they not be shaken by the scandals which abound in this our age of effeminacy and pride. It is Faith that is to bring us to our Risen Jesus: and He urges us to it by the words he addressed to Thomas: Blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed (St. John, xx. 29)!

Of this number we wish to be; and therefore is it, that we cling to the Church, the sovereign mistress of Faith. We wish to believe her, and not Human Reason, which has neither the power to fathom the Word of God, nor the right to sit in judgment over it. Jesus has willed, that this holy Faith should come down to us bearing on itself the strengthening testimony of the Martyrs; and each age has had its Martyrs. Glory to thee, O Fidelis, who didst win thy palm by combating the errors of the pretended Reformation! Take a Martyr's revenge, and pray without ceasing, to our Jesus, that He would bring all heretics back to the Faith and to union with the Church. They are our Brethren by Baptism; pray for them, that they may return to the Fold, and that we may one day celebrate with them the true Paschal Banquet, wherein the Lamb of God gives Himself to be our food, not figuratively, as in the Old Law, but really and truly, as becometh the New Covenant. Amen