St. Francis Solano - Patron of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, and Peru - July 13th
Francis was born in Spain. Even as a young boy, he was a wonderful peacemaker. Once he threw himself between two fighting boys and took blows from both of them without moving. In that way, he forced them to stop, because neither wanted to hit him.
When he was twenty, Francis became a Franciscan. His desire to be a missionary was satisfied when he was sent to Peru in South America. On the way, he preached the Faith to many Negro slaves. When their ship was wrecked in a storm, the captain ordered everyone, except the slaves, to save themselves in a lifeboat. But Francis refused to leave the slaves alone on the sinking ship. He stayed with them, prayed with them and baptized them. Right afterwards, half the ship went down. Francis and the rest of the slaves were rescued, and he got safely to Peru.
There the Saint learned the many Indian languages, traveled far and wide preaching, and baptized great numbers. He worked so many miracles that he was called the “Wonder-worker of the New World.” Yet he was so simple that in his great love for Our Lady, he loved to play his flute and sing in front of her altar.
The courage of St. Francis Solano was amazing. Once when some Indians planned to massacre a great number of Christians, he went out alone to try to talk them out of it. And he spoke so beautifully of how Jesus suffered and died for us that on that very day, many of those men accepted the Faith and were baptized!
The way to please God the most is to do something good for our neighbor every time we can, and to do it for the love of God. At the judgment, Jesus will tell us, “What you did to other, you did to Me.” And He will reward us.
