ST. IGNATIUS OF LACONI

The Saint of the Day for May 11 is ST. IGNATIUS OF LACONI

Capuchin Friar, Born 1701; died 1781; canonized 1951 by Pius XII.

The second of seven children in a poor farming family, Francis Ignatius Vincent Peis was so named because his safe delivery through a difficult pregnancy was achieved through the intercession of St. Francis of Assisi. His mother promised the saint that she would name her unborn baby Francis and that he would join the Capuchins as an adult.

Francis demonstrated a capacity for hard work in the fields and a strong piety since his early childhood. He would often be seen in prayer and was known to wait at the church doors every morning in prayer until they were opened.

He wanted to join the Capuchins as a teenager, but his father would not allow him because the family depended on his labour to survive. However, on surviving a riding accident through God’s intervention at the age of 20, he decided to enter the Capuchin monastery at once, and took his vows a year later, taking his second name, Ignatius, as his religious name.

Ignatius spent his first 15 years as a Capuchin doing various menial jobs around the monastery and for the last 40 years of his life he was appointed questor, or offical beggar, for the monastery. He would travel around the town collecting food and donations for the friars.

He was particularly well loved by the poor and by children and was often given alms by those who barely had anything to give. He refused them from the very poor, saying that it was better for them to keep it for themselves. He tended to the sick and to street children everyday on his rounds about town and many miracles of healing were said to have occurred through his intercession