St. John of Sahagun - June 12th
St. John was born in Sahagun, Spain. He received his education from the Benedictine Monks of his town, and then became a parish priest. He could have lived a very comfortable life in the cathedral parish or in other wealthy parishes, but John wanted to imitate Our Lord’s poverty. He chose to keep charge only of a small chapel, where he offered Mass, preached, and taught catechism. He began to be very hard on himself and to practice real poverty.
St. John next went to the great University of Salamanca, because he realized that he that he needed to know theology better. After four years of study, he became famous as a preacher. Nine years later, after a serious but successful operation, he joined a community of Augustinian Friars. There he was outstanding for his obedience and humility. His beautiful sermons brought about a change in the people of Salamanca. They were always quarreling violently among themselves and often the young noblemen fought each other in revenge. St. John succeeded in ending a great many of these bitter fights and persuading people to forgive. He was not afraid to correct evils, even when the sinners were important people who might take revenge. Once he corrected a powerful Duke for the way he was making the poor people suffer. In anger, the Duke sent two men to kill St. John. But when these two saw the Saint, so calm and holy, they were struck with sorrow and asked his pardon. Then the Duke fell sick, and through the prayers of St. John, he repented his sins and even got better.
It was the graces he received from prayer and from the Holy Mass that gave St. John his special power as a preacher. He said Mass so devoutly that sometimes he had the great privilege of seeing Jesus at the moment of the Consecration.
This Saint was so calm and inspiring because he was holy. If we keep our conscience clean, we, too, will have peace and be very happy.
