Something special happened in small, Italian villages in the 13th and 14th centuries, when the Church saw a raising up of saints. These men and women, whose feast days we will soon celebrate, are worth recalling as the Church’s spring cleaners at a time when the Church, and Italy, needed a good cleaning.
Most of us have heard of St. Catherine of Siena, whose feast day was celebrated April 29, but maybe lesser known is St. Bernardino of Siena, who was born the same year that Catherine died (1380), and whose feast day is May 20. Just about two and half hours southeast from Siena, in the hilltop town of Cascia, another powerhouse, St. Rita, was born one year after St. Bernardino. We celebrate her feast day May 22.
All three of these holy Italians dealt with “spring cleaning” their communities in their day. Medieval culture in Italy was rather volatile, with feuding families, a blurring of politics and religion, and the disturbing behaviour of some members of the hierarchy who were too heavily influenced by their desires for wealth and power. Wars were common between various cities in Italy, and the Church was in need of some serious decluttering.
St. Catherine, a lay Dominican, was declared a Doctor of the Church for her devotion to Christ and the Church. She gave counsel to several popes and was instrumental in restoring the papacy to Rome after several popes had settled in Avignon, France. St. Catherine, a stigmatist and mystic, was also much sought after as a peace-broker between warring Italian factions.
Likely taking his cue from St. Francis of Assisi, who ushered in an era of spiritual reform in the Church in the 11th century when he founded the Franciscan Order, St. Bernardino was known for his preaching ability. He urged the crowds to sweep out the cobwebs of greed, self-indulgence, opulence, and ambition that were clogging their spiritual lives. An ordained Franciscan, he travelled throughout Italy, convincing his countrymen of the uselessness of feuding, identifying the root of the problem as gossip. He emphasized the need for reverence for the Holy Name of Jesus and often performed exorcisms during his sermons.
In his own words, St. Bernardino reminds us of the need for spiritual spring cleaning: “When a fire is lit to clear a field, it burns off all the dry and useless weeds and thorns. When the sun rises and darkness is dispelled, robbers, night-prowlers and burglars hide away.”
Inspired by this fervent Franciscan, we can ask ourselves, what is it that is preventing us from spiritual growth that we can clear out of our own lives? As his feast day approaches, consider asking St. Bernardino to help us identify the weeds and thorns in our lives.
St. Rita is often quoted as having said: “With God all things are possible.” She prayed for a rose in January and one bloomed on the tree outside her convent – a sure sign of spring.
Before she was a contemplative Augustinian nun, she endured 22 years of marriage with an abusive husband. When her husband was killed, she knew her twin sons would try to avenge his death so she prayed that they would be prevented from doing so. Shortly after her prayer, and before they could execute their plans for revenge, both sons became sick and died. This may seem like a bit of a harsh solution, but in the days when sword fights were a regular method of solving arguments, to Rita, the natural deaths of her son were preferred outcomes to perpetuating a cycle of vendettas. Perhaps a prayer to St. Rita can help us identify in our lives the attachments, or the seemingly “impossible” mounds of bad habits and distractions that keep us from enriching our relationship with Christ.
Do we have the courage that these saints had to examine our own lives and root out the sins and bad habits that are keeping us from growing as we should this spring? We can look around and see all of nature reminding us that this is a season of growth, rebirth and starting fresh. These feast days on the liturgical calendar should inspire us to emulate these men and women who have shown us how to dig deep, sweep out our spiritual rooms, let the sun (and the Son) shine in, and glory in the newness of spring – spiritual spring.
Lazzuri writes from her home in Nova Scotia, where she lives with her husband, six children and her mom. She can be reached at clarelazzuri@gmail.com.
