John of Sahagún

Infobox Saint
name=Saint John of Sahagún
birth_date=1419
death_date=June 11, 1479
feast_day= June 12
venerated_in=Roman Catholic Church


imagesize=
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birth_place=Sahagún, Province of Leon, Kingdom of Castile, Spain
death_place=Salamanca, Province of Salamanca, Kingdom of Castile, Spain
titles=Confessor
beatified_date=1601
beatified_place=Rome
beatified_by=Pope Clement VIII
canonized_date=October 16, 1690
canonized_place=Rome
canonized_by=Pope Alexander VIII
attributes=holding a Chalice and the Holy Host surrounded by rays of light
patronage=
major_shrine=
suppressed_date=
issues=

Saint John of Sahagún also known as Saint John of San Facondo (1419 - June 11, 1479) was a celebrated Spanish preacher who belonged to Order of Hermits of St. Augustine. ["Lives of the Saints" by Omer Englebert, New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1994, p. 228, ISBN 1-56619-516-0 (casebound)]

Life

Saint John was born in the year 1419, at Sahagún (or San Facondo) in the Province of Leon, in the Kingdom of Castile. He was the oldest of seven children of John Gonzalez de Castrillo and Sancia Martinez, both pious and respected parents.

John received his early education from the Benedictines of his native city. After receiving ecclesiastical tonsure, according to the custom of the times, his father procured for him the benefice of the neighboring parish of Dornillos. He was later introduced to Monsignor Alfonso de Cartagena, Bishop of Burgos (1435-1456), who took a fancy to the bright, high-spirited boy. Bishop de Cartagena had him educated at his own residence, gave him several prebends, ordained him a priest in the year 1445, and made him a canon at the Cathedral of Burgos. All of this caused John many qualms of conscience.

Moved by Divine grace and out of respect for the laws of the Church, John resigned all and retained only the chaplaincy of St Agatha, where he said Mass, preached and catechized the ignorant. ["Lives of the Saints, For Every Day of the Year," edited by Rev. Hugo Hoever, S.O.Cist., Ph.D., New York: Catholic Book Publishing Co., 1955, p. 223] He now began to lead a life of strict poverty and mortification. ["Lives of the Saints, For Every Day of the Year," p. 223]

With his Bishop's consent, he obtained permission to enter the University of Salamanca, where for four years he applied himself to the study of theology. During this time he exercised the sacred ministry at the chapel of the College of St Bartholomew (in the parish of St Sebastian), and held that position for nine years. He devoted himself to the care of souls. Owing to illness, he was obliged to undergo an operation for the removal of stones. He vowed that if his life were spared, he would become a Religious.

Upon his recovery in the year 1463, he applied for admission to the Order of Hermits of St. Augustine, at the Church of St Peter, in Salamanca. In the following year, on August 28, 1464, John made his solemn profession. ["Lives of the Saints, For Every Day of the Year," p. 223]

By the command of his superiors, he gave himself wholeheartedly to the salvation of souls, and with the best results, to preaching the "Word of God." By his zeal he was able to effect the entire reformation of the city of Salamanca. ["Lives of the Saints, For Every Day of the Year," p.223]

John made such progress in religious perfection that he was soon appointed master of novices, and later in the year 1471, prior of the community. He conducted the Religious under his rule more by example than by his words.

Great was St John's devotion to the Blessed Sacrament, that at the celebration of Mass he frequently saw the Sacred Host resplendent in glory. He was gifted with a special power to penetrate the secrets of conscience, so that it was not easy to deceive him, and sinners were almost always forced to make good confessions. He was able to obtain wonderful results in doing away with enmities and feuds.

In many ways, St John was like a fellow Religious who lived nearly 500 years later, Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, who also had the uncanny ability to discern the secrets of conscience. In his sermons Saint John, like St. John the Baptist, fearlessly preached the Word of God and scourged the crimes and vices of the day, by which the rich and noble were offended. He soon made many enemies, who went so far as to hire assassins, but these, awed by the serenity and angelic sweetness of his countenance, lost courage. Some women of Salamanca, embittered by the saint's strong sermon against extravagance in dress, openly insulted him in the streets and pelted him with stones until stopped by a patrol of guards.

St John's scathing words on the "sins of impurity" produced salutary effects in a certain nobleman who had been living in open concubinage, but the woman swore vengeance. It was popularly believed that she had caused the saint's death by poison (this statement is found only in later biographies).

Saint John died on June 11, 1479, in Salamanca at the Convent of the Augustinian Hermits.

Veneration

Soon after St John's death, his "cult" spread throughout Spain.

The process of beatification began in the year 1525 under Pope Clement VII, and in 1601 he was declared "Blessed" by Pope Clement VIII. New miracles were wrought through his intercession, and on October 16, 1690, Pope Alexander VIII entered his name in the list of canonized saints. Pope Benedict XIII fixed his liturgical feast day for June 12. St John's relics are found in Spain, Belgium and Peru. St John's life written by John of Seville towards the end of the fifteenth century with additions in 1605 and 1619, is the one used by the Bollandists in "Acta SS.", June, III, 112.

In art, St John is represented holding a chalice and Holy host surrounded by rays of light.

References

*catholic

External links

* [http://www.midwestaugustinians.org/saints/s_johnsahagun.html Augustinians of the Midwest: "Life of St. John of Sahagun"]
* [http://www.catholic-forum.com/saints/saintj6v.htm "St. John of Sahagun"]
* [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08478a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: "St. John of Sahagun"]