Feast of BLESSED BAPTISTA of Mantua

An optional memorial for Blessed Baptist Spagnoli of Mantua is kept on April 17th within the current Discalced Carmelite calendar.

PRAYER.

O GOD! 
who hast made the Blessed Baptista 
wonderful in contempt for the world, 
and in zeal for Thy glory; 
grant unto us, through his intercession, 
that, having renounced earthly vanities, 
we may follow, with an upright mind, 
the things that are Thine. 
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit
one God, forever and ever.  Amen.

LESSON IV.

Baptista was born in Mantua. His father was a Spaniard, and his mother was a native of Brescia; both were alike distinguished by their noble lineage. Baptista was gifted with remarkable quickness of intelligence, and he was pursuing the study of belles-lettres and of philosophy with marked success, when, at the age of fifteen, he determined to embrace the obscurity of the cloister, that he might serve God with the greater perfection. Accordingly he took the habit of the Order of Friars of the Blessed Mary of Mount Carmel in the monastery of his native town, and he made such progress in the path of perfection that he was soon held as a worthy model for the imitation of those who were the fathest advanced therein. When he had made his solemn profession, and had been raised to the priesthood, he gave himself up wholly to the duties of his sacred office, and to the science of divine things. He was commanded to take the chair of professor; and by his eloquence and example he succeeded no less wonderfully in moving his hearers to follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ, than in urging them to the pursuit of the sciences.

LESSON V.

Baptista was eminent in the gifts of prudence and of sagacity, and therefore he was raised, while still young, to the government of the Congregation of Carmelites in Mantua, which was very flourishing at that time. He fulfilled the duties of this charge with such solicitude that he was six times appointed to the same office with the unanimous consent of his companions. The man of God sought the welfare of others as well as that of his Brethren. Crowds of the suffering flocked to him to receive counsel or help, and to them he became all things for Christ’s sake. By public sermons, by private conversations, as well as by other aids to piety, he rendered the services of his wonderful charity. He was high in favor with the authorities, as well as with the Roman Pontiffs themselves, and more than once he conducted with striking success the weighty affairs with which they intrusted him. So faithful was he to the law of the cloister, and to the practice of poverty in particular, that he never turned aside from the path of the Rule to embrace a more austere way of life. The painful illnesses with which he was often visited, and other trials of whatsoever kind, he bore with a brave, nay, even with a joyful spirit.

LESSON VI.

He was transported by such fervor of devotion towards the Blessed Virgin, that he allowed no occasion to escape him of glorifying her in word or writing with the highest praise. During his absence, and against his will, he was proclaimed Prior General of the whole Order, and it was at the command of the Supreme Pontiff alone that he accepted the burthen. In this position he was like a light put upon a candlestick, and he shone therein with a brilliancy in proportion to the humility with which he had formerly hidden himself. Exhausted at length by his constant labors, and laden with merits, Baptista foresaw, by the divine permission, his last day approaching. He accordingly betook himself to Mantua, where he endured his last illness with the utmost patience. Distinguished by the reputation of his holiness, he fell sweetly asleep in the Lord on the thirteenth day of the Kalends of April, upon Holy Thursday, in the year one thousand five hundred and sixteen, and in the sixty-eighth year of his age. The whole city poured out to visit his tomb, and began to pay homage to the sacred body, which was exposed for public veneration; for several favors had been received from God through the intercession of the Saint. This honor having been paid to him unceasingly down to the present time, Leo the Thirteenth, on the recommendation of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, confirmed it by his apostolic authority.

Taken from the book “Saints of Carmel” (BOSTON: JOHN CASHMAN & CO., 1896).