⛪ Saint of the Day : February 14
⛪ Other Names :
John the Baptist of the Conception
Giovanni Garcia Xixon
John Baptist de la ConcepciΓ³n Garcia
Juan Bautista Rico
Juan Bautista de la ConcepciΓ³n
Juan GarcΓa GijΓ³n
Juan GarcΓa XixΓ³n
Juan Rico
⛪ Memorial :
14 February
15 February (diocese of Ciudad Real, Spain and
diocese of CΓ³rdoba, Spain)
⛪ Born :
10 July 1561 in AlmodΓ³var del Campo, Ciudad Real, Spain
⛪ Died :
14 February 1613 in CΓ³rdoba, Spain of nephritis
⛪ Canonized :
25 May 1975 by Pope Paul VI
Marco Garcia Xixon was born, fifth of eight children, from a family of wealthy farmers of the old Castile in 1561, in Almodovar. It is the Spain of Philip II, of the Counter-Reformation, and if one wants the Catholic rescue after the storm of the Protestant reform. As is the case in Spain at the time of a very high number of children of middle and high-level families, it is launched towards religious life. His family is related to Saint John of Avila, and the same Saint Teresa, it seems, a guest in the house of his parents would have predicted a future of holiness for him.
At nineteen years, after studies among the Carmelites, he decided to enter a Trinitarian Convent, continuing his studies during the novitiate. He then becomes a preacher and gains a good reputation. His sermons that invite to conversion make the confessionals crowd with a certain confusion on the part of his less followed brothers, and with his satisfaction.
Now the Trinitarians are an order founded in France in the twelfth century that has its objectives declared in the cult of the Holy Trinity and in the redemption of slaves, starting from Christians enslaved by the Muslims: a singular evangelical choice in the ecclesial spring of the twelfth century. But it happens in some way what happens in different religious orders: with the passing of the centuries, the rule is loosened, that choice of life becomes a career choice, and with the help of generous interpretations it often ends up becoming a comfortable lifestyle choice. .
In the fervor of the Catholic reform the Trinitarians also rediscover the need to return to the original Rule, which provides, in addition to abstention from different foods then considered indispensable, and first of all meat, many other personal limitations and an intense and obligatory prayer life. Our Marco Garcia, it seems, at first, anything but attracted by the prospect of embracing the reform of the order on many sides invoked. But one day it happens to him, perhaps for a vote pronounced in a moment of danger, to embrace the cause instead.
Join the Trinitarian communities "recollects" that have a more rigid rule. "Give up the 'very sweet and very sensitive God' in which he had believed until then, to embrace the naked God in the agony of the cross. He immediately realizes that even among the "recollects" there is no authenticity: poor and austere in name but not in fact, they are limited to a formal observance, without reaching the radicality that the Gospel and the Rule require "(www.santiebeati) .com).
He instead takes it seriously: appointed as a convent minister, imposes the rule causing the abandonment of many, apparently afraid of austerity. "This religion is not mine but of God. If many go away, God will call others" would have been his comment. This does not attract the sympathies of the superiors of the order who in various ways exert pressure and place obstacles on his path, to the point that eventually he goes to Rome to be approved directly by Pope Clement VIII the reform of the order, which gets . Approved and founded in 1599 the "Congregation of the Reformed and Discalced Brothers of the Order of the Holy Trinity", takes the name of Brother John the Baptist of the Conception, and immediately finds many new followers.
He died at the age of 52 in 1613. He was proclaimed saint by Paul VI in 1975.
A classic but instructive story not just for the current times of the Church, for our times. First of all, St. John the Baptist of the Conception is not afraid: the convent that empties does not lead him to milder advice.
Secondly, it is an opportunity to remind ourselves and the world that the Church's reforming needs have always been there, that the Church "holy and composed of sinners" according to the happy expression of Benedict XVI, has always been a people on the way.
Finally, and perhaps this is the most important of the lessons to be learned, even at that time, as in every other, one had and is much more in need of witnesses than of preachers. The almost crude words of Jesus in this regard ( Mt 7, 21) seem almost written for these times of "social" communication, of frenetic and compulsive publication, of continuous and often as silly and implacable as the widespread observation of specks in the eyes of others: , it would appear in the eyes of other believers, considered to be of the wrong 'tendency'. In total forgetfulness of the beams that come out of their own.
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