Saint Pascal Baylon
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Saint Paschal Baylon O.F.M. |
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| Born | 16 May 1540 Torrehermosa, Aragonese Kingdom |
| Died | 17 May 1592 (aged 52) Villarreal, Aragonese Kingdom |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church |
| Beatified | 29 October 1618, Saint Peter's Basilica, Papal States by Pope Paul V |
| Canonized | 16 October 1690, Saint Peter's Basilica, Papal States by Pope Alexander VIII |
| Feast | 17 May |
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Saint Paschal Baylon (16 May 1540 – 17 May 1592) was a Spanish Roman Catholic friar and professed religious from the Order of Friars Minor. He served as a shepherd alongside his father in his childhood and adolescence but his desire to enter the religious life was far greater. He was refused once but later was admitted as a Franciscan friar and became noted for his strict austerities which he imposed upon himself as well as his love for and compassion towards the ill. He was sent to counter the arguments of the Calvinists in France but was chased out and was almost killed in a mob who detested him. But he was best known for his strong and deep devotion to the Eucharist which manifested in his childhood.
His piousness drew people from all over seeking his counsel and his death caused people to report miracles at his tomb when it was visited. The process for his canonization opened and in 1618 he was beatified while Pope Alexander VIII canonized him as a saint on 16 October 1690.
He was born in 1540 Torrehermosa in mid-1540 - on the Pentecost feast - to the poor peasant Martin and his wife Elizabeth Jubera. The fact that he was born on Pentecost led to his parents naming him as "Paschal". He had at least two older siblings. It was said that his first words were the names of Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin.
Each time his mother carried him to the Church he kept on looking at the Blessed Sacrament. His parents once feared he was kidnapped after he was lost but found him climbing the altar steps on his knees so that he could see the tabernacle. He spent his childhood as a shepherd from age seven until he was 24. But as he toiled in the fields he remained attentive to the ringing of the Church bell which rang during the Elevation during the Mass. His outreach to others was commendable for he once offered to provide compensation to the owners of crops damaged due to his animals being let loose. He would carried a book with him and often begged those who passed along the path to teach him the alphabet and to read; as he toiled in the fields he would read religious texts to deepen his faith. But his friends were not devout as he was but he served as a positive influence on them. His friends used bad language often but learnt to hold their tongue in his presence since his friends respected his pious nature and his virtue.
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Wikipedia