Saint Benedict Joseph Labre – Saint Of The Day – 16 April
Saint Benedict Joseph Labre. A French pilgrim and a beggar. Lived in the midst of the world. Believed that God wanted him everywhere. A “Fool for Christ”. A patron saint of the homeless.
Benedict Joseph Labre (1748–1783) was born in the Northern France in a wealthy family and was the eldest of the family of 15 children.
As a child he was dreaming about becoming a monk. When he turned 19 he tried joining several monasteries but for all of the monasteries he went to he was too young and not healthy enough. The words of the superior of one of the monasteries became Benedict’s motto in life:
God wants you everywhere!
Benedict felt a desire to follow the example of Saint Roch – to “abandon his country, his parents, and whatever is flattering in the world to lead a new sort of life, a life most painful, most penitential, not in a wilderness nor in a cloister, but in the midst of the world, devoutly visiting as a pilgrim the famous places of Christian devotion.”
Benedict is reported to have talked rarely, prayed often, and accepted quietly the abuse he received. Among other saint of the Catholic Church he is the “Fool for Christ”, just like Saint Basil “The Blessed Fool for Christ” in the Eastern Orthodox tradition. There is evidence that Benedict refused communion and even thought that God had rejected him. Church historians believe that he had mental illnes and suffered from neurosis.
At his canonization, Pope Leo XIII called Saint Benedict Joseph Labre: “Holiness Itself!”
A tri-cornered hat and the alms are the symbols of Saint Benedict Joseph Labre in visual arts.
