Saint of the Day : November 07
In the village of Pofi in Lazio, Blessed Baldinucci Antonio, a priest of the Society of Jesus, devoted himself entirely to preaching missions to the people.
He never despaired, even when he has big wishes adverse and his heart and health are inversely proportional; that we have touched in fate. God can do great things with the little that we have. He, for example, is below the average stature, has frail health, falls ill more often than not. Just a little mental effort for him to tilt, and even greater commitment in teaching is enough to put him to bed for days and days. His father, the famous Academic Bran, does not seem to skimp in Christian of his five sons and even proves stingy with the Lord, when he asks these three: one enters the Dominicans, the other becomes a secular priest, while the smaller and sickly is Jesuit, dreaming of going missionary in China, Japan or India. This dream never came to fruition, since health is found and the many who persecute indisposition. Incredible to say, he was treated with tobacco, which was best medicine the time could provide, even when used more for its medicinal virtues, smoking was a pleasure.
Thus restored, but still unsuitable for the missions, he was called to do missionary at home and become anitinerant preacher, which is not a task of absolute rest, but that no longer needs the Jesuit frail, just a high penny of cheese, who has acquired a momentum unexpected and astonishing vitality, becoming even able to travel 70 kilometers a day. Begins to turn the countries of central Italy as a Saltimbanco, equipped with an arsenal of shells and disturbing: a skull under his arm to call everyone the ultimate destiny, happiness or eternal damnation; a wake, that is a poetic composition that he has composed music and a brother, to call his listeners to conversion; simple words that go straight to the heart and awaken the faith. Certainly, he is a child of his preaching time (we are in the early eighteenth century), which brought us public flagellation, exhausting penance and terrifying presentations of eternal damnation. Even nature seems to give strength to his preaching, as that summer day when, wanting to explain that the number of souls who fall in hell is equal to that of autumn leaves fall from trees, he invited his audience to observe l ‘Shade tree which is preaching. Just at that moment arrives folata a wind that strips the tree almost completely, so that the leaves remained attached to the branches can easily count. Some of his recommendations are still good for today: “Of all that happens, take the good and let go of the bad …. You live with a big heart and free from any tightness … .. I do not think at all possible evils, but only to those who need an immediate remedy …. ” “Heaven, or Heaven, or beautiful homeland” is the exhortation that never fails in his sermons, even in that of 7 November 1717, delivered a Pofi (Frosinone). These are the last words of Father Antonio Baldinucci, after which accascia: stroncato from a heart attack, but mainly consumed by hard work, just 52 years. Leo XIII has proclaimed blessed in 1893.
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