St. Felix of Cantalice

Today the Church remembers a Capuchin Franciscan friar who lived during the first century of that community's existence. He is one of three Capuchin Franciscans from that era (along with St. Laurence of Brindisi and St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen) whose life merited canonization. He is venerated as the patron of the Felician Sisters, a congregation of Polish nuns which was formed in the nineteenth century.

Like St. Paschal Baylon, whose memorial we kept yesterday, St. Felix began life as a shepherd. At the age of twenty-eight, he entered the emerging Capuchin Franciscan community where he lived for the next forty-two years until his death. He served the friars as a quaestor, walking through the streets begging alms to assist the friars in their care of the poor and the sick. He became a familiar sight for the populace as he walked barefoot from door to door begging for alms. He became known as Brother Deo Gratias as he was forever uttering these words of thanks whenever someone answered his request for a donation. While gratitude is said to be the common gift of all saints, St. Felix's sense of gratitude became his hallmark and the foundation of his spiritual life.

St. Francis of Assisi included gratitude in his first Rule of Life, written in 1221. St. Felix obviously knew it well: "And let us refer all good to the most high and supreme Lord God, and acknowledge that every good is His, and thank Him for everything, [He] from Whom all good things come. And may He, the Highest and Supreme, Who alone is true God, have and be given and receive every honor and reverence, every praise and blessing, every thanks and glory, for every good is His, He Who alone is good. And when we see or hear an evil [person] speak or act or blaspheme God, let us speak well and act well and praise God (cf. Rm 12:21), Who is blessed forever (Romans 1:25)" (St. Francis, Rule of 1221, Ch. 17).