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April 11, 2009
Fools for Christ
Yesterday I was making my usual round of church stops. The added benefit was getting to see a lot of Altars of Repose. I didn't photograph any of those (you know, I really should get over being so nice!), but when I got close to home around noon I went by Sta. Maria ai Monti, where I had been to mass on Sunday.
The great reason to visit there is the tomb of St. Benedict Joseph Labre, an odd sort of saint. He failed to enter two or three monastic orders - all of whom seem to have detected some incipient craziness. He wandered as a pilgrim from place to place, eventually more or less settling in Rome. He lived off and on in the ruins of the Colosseum (much more ruinous then!), and eventually died in the house of some charitable person in the parish who took him in.
Miraculous healings followed at once - and he may have done a few in his lifetime. He's the kind of saint who makes the hierarchical church very nervous - but he was canonized anyway, and here he is.
Posted by CrankyProfessor at April 11, 2009 10:17 AM