Feast of SAINT LOUIS MORBIOLUS

Although no longer commemorated on the Carmelite calendar, the feast of Blessed Louis Morbioli is included in the 2004 Roman Martyrology on the date of November 9th. He died in 1485.

PRAYER.

O GOD! 
who hast shown unto the Blessed Louis the riches of Thy mercy; 
mercifully grant that as he freed himself, by Thy aid, 
from the snares of his vices, 
so we, through his intercession, 
may be freed, by Thy grace, from the bonds of our sins. 
Through our Lord...

LESSON IV.

Louis, of the ancient family of the Morbioli, was born in Bologna, of honorable parents. Little by little he fell away from the pious training which he had received, and he was led by the example of corrupt young men to entangle himself in the world’s vices. When his affairs became embarrassed, he went to Venice, where he was most kindly received by the Rhenan Canons, at the monastery of the Most Holy Redeemer. Shortly afterwards he fell ill of a violent fever. Then, in danger of his life, he was moved by the thought that God’s judgment was at hand; and yielding to the promptings of divine grace, he turned with his whole heart to Him who is the Father of Mercies.

LESSON V.

He rose up from his illness a new man. In the first place, he made over all his possessions to his brother for the payment of his debts, and he then wished to be admitted amongst the Carmelite Tertiaries. Instead of the sumptuous apparel that he had hitherto worn, he put on a mean and threadbare garment, and girded himself with a cord which chance threw in his way. In this guise, and with feet bare, he showed himself to the people, and besought their pardon for his scandals. From that day forward he went barefooted, even in the freezing cold of winter. He then began to preach penance in the villages and public squares, and he was led by the ardor of his charity to visit several cities of Italy, bearing before him, as his banner, the likeness of Christ, which he fastened to a pole, and calling upon the inhabitants to return to the way of salvation. He reaped such a harvest of them that heard him and admired his virtues, that he was believed to have been divinely sent to reform the corrupt morals of the times.

LESSON VI.

He atoned by the most rigorous penance for the crimes which he had formerly committed, and severe bodily austerities expiated the pleasures of his early life. His food was bread and herbs which he seldom cooked, the ground was his bed, and a stone, or the trunk of a tree, his pillow. Home: he had none, save towards the end of his life, when Paul Lupar gave him a small bedroom in his house under the staircase. This has been since turned into an oratory, and may be seen to this day. There he foretold the day of his death, and received the Sacraments with heartfelt devotion. Although he was at the point of death, he refused the bed which was brought to him; and lying on the ground, he sank into the sleep of a holy death towards the end of the fifteenth century. The whole city poured out to look upon his body, and later to visit his tomb. Many sick persons experienced his powerful help. The result was that he began at once to be honored and invoked as a mirror of penance, and as a powerful intercessor with God, while his holiness has been extolled by grave writers of his own time and of the ages following. The honors paid to him for almost four hundred years down to the present day were lately approved by Pope Gregory the Sixteenth, who allowed an Office to be said in his honor.

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