Paschal Baylon, Saint

PASCHAL BAYLON, Saint. - Patron of the Eucharistic Works, b. 17 May 1540 at Torre Hermosa (Aragon), d. at Villareal on 17 May 1592. Son of Martino B. and Isabella Jubera, he spent his childhood and adolescence practicing sheep-herding, devoting himself to an intense life of piety; he was favored from that time with supernatural gifts. In 1560 he left his native village for Valencia with the intention of becoming a religious, an inspiration he carried out in 1564, entering the Franciscan Order. While his superiors thought of directing him toward the priestly state, out of humility he preferred to remain a simple lay brother, performing throughout his life the humble offices of the convent, especially that of porter.

In 1576, on the occasion of a journey undertaken to carry a commission from the province of Valencia to the general of the Order in Paris, he suffered greatly at the hands of the Calvinists (from whom he hoped to obtain martyrdom). Already endowed in life with the gift of miracles, he distinguished himself above all by an intense Eucharistic piety (already as a youth he had had visions relating to the Eucharist). Almost illiterate, he was enlightened by a high gift of wisdom in spiritual matters, and was consulted by learned men of the time. He wrote several devotional pamphlets. His tomb, during the civil war in Spain, was desecrated and the relics were sacrilegiously burned.

He was beatified by Paul V in 1618, and in 1680 Alexander VIII solemnly canonized him. Leo XIII, paying homage to the "Seraph of the Eucharist," as he was called, chose him as patron of Eucharistic congresses and confraternities. Feast on 17 May.

Alberto Ghinato