A Saint for Our Times

Every so often I will encounter someone who believes that the Gospels, and indeed the entire Bible, are really no longer relevant because, "...after all, they were written thousands of years ago. How can they possible apply to our lives in today's world?" These are the same people who actually believe that human nature has changed, or in their parlance "evolved", since those barbarous times that preceded our more enlightened age.

These folks are perhaps best typified by a high school English teacher I sat next to on a plane a few years ago. In the course of our conversation, when she mentioned that she was currently teaching a course in English literature to seniors, I asked what authors she focused on. "Stephen King," she replied, "and Philip Roth, and Virginia Woolf, and Norman Mailer, and J. D. Salinger, and Toni Morrison, and Jack Kerouac, and Elizabeth Bishop, and James Joyce..." As the litany continued I interrupted her and asked, "Oh, so this is a course in modern English lit?" "Oh, no, she replied, but I find that most of those old, dead guys like Shakespeare really have little to tell us today." I won't bore you with the rest of our conversation; but, as you might imagine, it was rather animated.

All of this leads me to several observations. First, a work of truly good literature, what we would traditionally call a "classic", is a classic because it is not a captive of its times. This is why these works continue to be read even after hundreds, and in some instances thousands, of years. They are timeless because they are able to grasp and unravel and depict those "permanent things" in ways that continue to enlighten us regardless of the times in which we live. This is why I am never bored, why I can always find enjoyment by just sitting down and reading one of Shakespeare's plays, or a Jane Austen novel, or an essay by T. S. Eliot.

My second observation relates to the continued relevance of Sacred Scripture. If we believe that Jesus Christ is the Incarnate Son of God, the creative Word of God, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, then anything He said is a priori relevant; indeed, His words must be the most relevant words ever spoken. And since Sacred Scripture is His Word, it too applies to all times and peoples. If we consider such works as  Hamlet and Moby Dick, the words of mere men, to be classics, then Sacred Scripture, the Word of God, must be the Classic Supreme.

My final observation relates to the actual subject of this post: the continued relevance of the saints, even those who lived in very different times and were products of very different cultures. Despite all their differences, despite their separation from us in time and culture, the saints all have this one thing in common: the saints lived the Word of God. In other words, their lives reflected God's will for them and for humanity. And so, because the lives of the saints reflect God's Word and will, their lives can be nothing but relevant to us.

I mention all this in order to introduce a saint whom many would no doubt consider irrelevant when viewed through the lens of our modern sensibilities. She wrote nothing. She left behind no words of wisdom. She knew no popes or bishops, and probably very few priests. She didn't socialize with the rich and famous; indeed, she was rejected and cast aside by almost everyone, even her own parents and the cloistered nuns she lived with for a time. Only the poorest, the outcasts, the imprisoned -- the little ones of Christ -- were drawn to her, as she was drawn to them. She was blind, hunchbacked, lame, ugly and a dwarf. She lived 700 years ago in Citta-di-Castello, a small Umbrian city in central Italy where she survived as a homeless beggar. But she was far more than all these things, because she was also holy. She lived the Gospel as very few have before or since. Her name was Margherita, but we know her as Blessed Margaret of Castello. (Margaret has been beatified by the Church, but not yet canonized.)

I was first introduced to Blessed Margaret 30 years ago when someone in my previous parish (I have forgotten who) gave me a copy of Father William Bonniwell's book, The Life of Blessed Margaret Castello. (Although first written in 1952 and reprinted in 1979, the book is still available in paperback. Click on the book's title to order it via Amazon.) At the time we were forming a pro-life group in the parish and, after reading the book, I recommended we name Blessed Margaret as our group's patron saint. That began my relationship with this remarkable woman.

I won't go into detail on her relatively brief life (she died at the age of 33), because those details are available elsewhere on the web. (Click here to read an abbreviated version of her life.) I do believe, however, that Margaret is perhaps the perfect saint for our times. Who can better represent modern society's unloved, the outcasts that the world would just as soon dispose of through abortion or euthanasia? Margaret was the daughter of a wealthy, well-connected couple who were horrified and embarrassed by the birth of their less than perfect child. Today, armed with such modern medical tools as amniocentesis and ultrasound, her enlightened parents would no doubt have aborted her. How many saints like Margaret have been lost to the world because of parents whose only measure of a child's worth is physical perfection? And speaking of physical perfection, Blessed Margaret's body remains incorrupt to this day and can be viewed in the church of Santo Domenico in Citta-di-Castello, the city where she lived her adult life.

I suggest that, in anticipation of her feast day, April 14, you and I pray her novena, asking her to intercede for our nation and our world, to soften the hearts of those who have embraced the culture of death. Here's a link to her novena on the web: Novena to Blessed Margaret of Castello. And there is also a wonderful DVD on Blessed Margaret that you can obtain here.

Blessed Margaret, pray for us.