SAINT(S) OF THE DAY: FEAST DAY ~ MARCH 21ST

MEMORIAL OF SAINT NICHOLAS OF FLUE, HERMIT: FEAST DAY ~ MARCH 21ST: Today, we honor and celebrate the Memorial of Saint Nicholas of Flue (Patron Saint of Switzerland, Pontifical Swiss Guards), a man of profound faith, wisdom, and sacrifice. He dedicated his life to prayer, solitude, and service, playing a crucial role in preserving the unity of Switzerland. His story is one of radical trust in God, deep humility, and unwavering devotion to the Divine will. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary and Saint Nicholas of Flue, we humbly pray for the poor and the needy, for persecuted Christians, and for an end to religious and political unrest. May justice and peace reign in a world torn apart by war, terrorism, racism, and countless acts of violence against human life.🙏🏽

“My Lord and my God, take everything from me that keeps me from Thee. My Lord and my God, give everything to me that brings me near to Thee. My Lord and my God, take me away from myself and give me completely to Thee.” — Saint Nicholas of Flue

Saint Nicholas of Flue ~ Pray for us 🙏🏽

SAINT NICHOLAS OF FLUE, HERMIT: Nicholas von Flue was born on March 21st, 1417 in the Canton of Unterwalden on the lake of Lucerne, Switzerland, citizen of a peasant democracy, of pious parents, a farmer’s son. As he grew up he proved himself a capable farmer, and the ability he displayed in the local parliament, of which every male citizen was a member, led to his election at an early age as councillor and judge. He also proved himself a capable commander of troops. In the war against the duke of Tirol he persuaded his compatriots to respect a convent of nuns. Though willing to perform his military service, St. Nicholas condemned as immoral, wars of aggression and the slaughter of non-combatants inevitable in any major modern war. One day, when he saw an arrow launched on a neighboring mountain, he was filled with a desire for Heaven and with love for solitude. About the age of thirty he married a farmer’s daughter, Dorothy Wiss, and built a farmhouse to receive her. The couple had ten children and descendants survive to this day. He married, to obey the formal will of his parents. His merit and virtue caused him to be chosen by his fellow citizens to exercise very honorable public functions. St. Nicholas had thus approved himself to his countrymen as a thoroughly capable man, as farmer, military leader, member of the assembly, councillor, judge and father of a family—also a man of complete moral integrity. All the while, however, he led a life of contemplative prayer and rigorous fasting. He was the subject of symbolic visions and a diabolic assault.

After some twenty years of married life, in 1467 St. Nicholas received a compelling call to abandon his home and the world and become a hermit. He was fifty years old when when that interior voice said to him: Leave everything you love, and God will take care of you. He had to undergo a distressing combat, but decided finally to leave everything — wife, children, house, lands — to serve God. He left, barefooted, clothed in a long robe of coarse fabric, in his hand a rosary, without money or provisions, casting a final tender and prolonged gaze on his loved ones. His habitual prayer was this: My Lord and my God, remove from me all that can prevent me from going to You. My Lord and my God, give me all that can draw me to You. Though his wife, Dorothy had just borne his tenth child, she heroically consented. His neighbors, however, even his older children, regarded his action as indefensible, unbalanced, immoral and irresponsible. He set out for Alsace, where he intended to live. Had he carried out his intention his vocation would have been missed. A storm, however, symbolically interpreted, and friendly advice not to settle where the Swiss were detested made him turn back from the border. At the same time, one night God penetrated the hermit with a brilliant light, and from that time on he never again experienced hunger, thirst or cold, he became incapable of eating or drinking—a condition which continued for the rest of his life. As an act of obedience to a bishop he once ate with acute agony a piece of soaked bread. Having found a wild and solitary place, he dwelt there for a time in a hut of leaves, later in a cabin built with stones. The news of his presence, when it spread, brought him a great influx of visitors. Distinguished persons came to him for counsel in matters of great importance. It may seem incredible that the holy hermit lived for nineteen years only by the Holy Eucharist; the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, startled by this fact, had his cabin surveyed and verified this fact as being beyond question.

When Switzerland for a moment was divided and threatened with civil war in 1480, Saint Nicholas of Flue, venerated by all, was chosen as arbiter, to prevent the shedding of blood. He spoke so wisely that a union was reached, to the joy of all concerned, and the nation was saved. Bells were set ringing all over the country, and the concerted jubilation echoed across the lakes, mountains and valleys, from the most humble cottage to the largest cities. St. Nicholas survived his achievement almost six years, universally revered, visited and consulted. On March 21st 1487, his seventieth birthday, he died, apparently of his first illness, a very painful sickness which tormented him for eight days and nights without overcoming his patience. One is glad to know that his wife and children attended his deathbed. After all, she had never lost her husband completely. Honored by Swiss Protestants, venerated by Swiss Catholics, Nicholas’s cult, uninterrupted since his death, was officially sanctioned by Clement IX (1667-9). He was beatified in 1669 by Pope Clement IX, canonized in 1947, by Pope Pius XII. He’s the Patron Saint of Switzerland, Pontifical Swiss Guards.

PRAYER: Lord God, You alone are holy, and no one is good without You. Through the intercession of Saint Nicholas of Flue, help us to seek You above all things. Teach us to trust in Your providence, to live in peace, and to surrender all that keeps us from You. May we, like Saint Nicholas, become instruments of unity, prayer, and faithfulness. Amen 🙏🏽