Browsing Category Saint of the Day

The Rev’d Alban Butler (1710-1773) undertook to write a thoroughgoing account of saints for the Catholic Book Society (Derby, England: Thomas Richardson & Son). What resulted was a massive 12-volume (one per month) work: The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints: Compiled from Original Monuments and Other Authentic Records. The first edition was completed in 1759, and became a classic in hagiography, with later editions that included commentary, such as the 1842-1846 work, used here.
[Because subsequent research showed that certain individuals never existed or had actually been pagan deities cloaked in a Christian veneer, or because the miracles were simply too “out there” for a more modern audience, a severe gelding of Butler’s magisterial work took place in 1956. Alas.]
Out of each day’s multiple stories, I shall lift up those vignettes to riff on. Enjoy and (if it’s in your particular vernacular) be edified! – TK

January 29: St. Francis de Sales: He Knew When to Shut Up!

Tim Koch Saint of the Day 0 Comment

Sometimes, a quote is profound enough to show that someone really “gets it”–and today’s saint, Francis de Sales, got it. Much more modern than this month’s run of saints, Francis lived from 1567 to 1622, and believed that any truths not spoken in love and shorn of all meanness should not be spoken. The following quote suffices for today’s post…it is just that moving:

“[T]ruth must be always charitable; for bitter zeal does harm instead of good. Reprehensions are a food of hard digestion, and ought to be dressed on a fire of burning charity so well, that all harshness be taken off; otherwise, like unripe fruit, they will only produce gripings. Charity seeks not itself nor its own interests, but purely the honour and interest of God: pride, vanity, and passion cause bitterness and harshness: a remedy injudiciously applied may be a poison. A judicious silence is always better than a truth spoken without charity.”

To this I can add nothing.