Saint of the day July 2: Saint Bernardino and other Jesuit saints. Catholic Saints

On July 2 of each year, the Church celebrates four members of the Society of Jesus who, despite having lived in different places and times, have in common having been sanctified in the popular missions that were carried out in different rural areas of Europe. . They are San Bernardino Realino, San Francisco de Gerónimo, Blessed Julián Maunoir and Blessed Antonio Baldinucci, who lived between the 16th and 18th centuries.

Lawyer by profession

Saint Bernardino Realino was born in Carpi (Italy), in 1530, into a noble family. From his mother he learned the tender devotion to the Virgin Mary that would mark him for his entire life. Bernardino began studying medicine, but then changed it to law and jurisprudence, obtaining a doctorate in Canon and Civil Law.

His profession and status allowed him to hold important public positions in various places in Spain. In all of them he worked efficiently, showing great ability for public administration. During this stage of his life, Bernardino was governed by a high sense of justice: he became a defender of the innocent and those who could not afford a lawyer. In the periods in which he had to hold a position, he did so with a spirit of service, always seeking peace.

The Society of Jesus

It was, precisely, through the exercise of his profession that Bernardino met a group of Jesuits who had recently arrived in Naples, Italy, the city where he lived, a group that would leave him impressed by their contagious joy, discipline and peace. Bernardino knew how to recognize, through the example of those men, God who invited him to serve him holyly. After a time of discernment and maturation in faith – marked by prayer, recourse to spiritual direction and study – Bernardino requested his entry into the Order. As a Jesuit, he would later be ordained a priest and then named master of novices.

In the peripheries

The superiors of the Company sent San Bernardino to Lecce, to a region rich in vineyards and olive groves, whose inhabitants wanted the Jesuits to open a school. The educational institution was later inaugurated and Father Bernardino Realino dedicated himself to teaching there, distributing his time between his priestly ministry and the classrooms.

Bernardino loved his priesthood and his greatest aspiration was to live intensely that call of every priest to be “another Christ” for the people. He discovered firsthand that the privileged means to achieve this was to administer the sacraments. Thus, for example, the Jesuit earned the reputation of a good confessor: it made him very happy to be available most of the time in the confessional to attend to those who wanted to avail themselves of divine forgiveness.

Love to Mary

One day, Father Realino had been confessing in the middle of intense cold. His superior, seeing him shivering, sent him to his room to rest. The saint obeyed and, having been left alone in his room, he began to meditate on Christmas. Suddenly, he saw how a glowing light completely filled his room. It was the Virgin Mary who tenderly extended her arms to him to give him the Child Jesus. Saint Bernardino Realino was able to have, for a moment, God himself in his arms. For this reason, the saint is usually represented carrying the Child Jesus.

Around 1616, Father Realino’s health was declining. On his deathbed, the mayor and the magistrates of the city appeared to ask him to be the defender and protector of Lecce from heaven, to which the saint paternally agreed, if God granted him eternal life.

Saint Bernardino Realino left for the Father’s House on July 2, 1616 while invoking the name of the Most Holy Mary. He was canonized in 1947 by Pope Pius XII.

Today, the Church also celebrates the following Jesuit priests:

• San Francisco de Gerónimo. He was born in 1642 in Italy and died on May 11, 1716. He was canonized by Gregory XVI in 1839.

• Blessed Julian Maunoir. He was born in 1606 in France and died on January 28, 1683. He was beatified by Pius XII in 1951.

• Blessed Antonio Baldinucci. He was born in 1665 in Italy and died on November 7, 1717. He was beatified by Leo XIII in 1893.