Saint Stanislaus Kostka, SJ, Born for Greater Things

St. Stanislaus Kostka

 Stanislaus Kostka was born in 1550 at Rostkowo, in Poland, into a family of the nobility. His father, Jan, was a senator and castellan, and his mother, Małgorzata, also came from a distinguished family. Their son’s position offered the prospect of a comfortable and influential future. Yet the direction of his life would lead him away from those expectations. Before reaching adulthood, he would leave familiar surroundings and undertake a long journey to follow his vocation to the Society of Jesus.

In 1564, Stanislaus and his older brother, Paweł, traveled to Vienna with their tutor to study at the Jesuit college. Stanislaus applied himself to his studies and developed a strong life of prayer. A contemporary account from the college describes his perseverance, frequent reception of the sacraments, and progress in rhetoric. His brother reacted harshly to his religious seriousness, subjecting him to insults and physical mistreatment. The years in Vienna brought both an education and a difficult struggle to remain faithful to his convictions.

During a serious illness in 1565, Stanislaus urgently desired to receive Holy Communion. Accounts of his life relate extraordinary experiences during this sickness. He reportedly saw Saint Barbara accompanied by angels who brought him the Eucharist. He also described a vision of the Blessed Virgin placing the Child Jesus in his arms. He understood the Marian experience as a call to enter the Jesuits. These reported visions became an important part of the devotion surrounding him, expressing his deep attachment to the Eucharist and to Mary.

After recovering, Stanislaus sought admission to the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits in Vienna hesitated because his parents opposed the decision and they feared the consequences of accepting him. A surviving account records his repeated requests and his conviction that his family would never grant permission. His wish persisted despite these refusals. Eventually, he decided to seek admission elsewhere. In the summer of 1567, he left Vienna secretly, exchanging the clothing of a young nobleman for the simple garments of a poor traveler.

His departure began a demanding journey on foot. His brother pursued him, but failed to bring him back. Stanislaus traveled toward Augsburg and then continued to Dillingen, where he met the Jesuit provincial, Saint Peter Canisius. He explained his desire to enter the order and presented a letter of introduction from a Jesuit in Vienna. The young man who had encountered resistance now found a superior willing to examine his vocation and help him continue toward religious life.

Canisius tested his determination through humble duties at the college. Stanislaus helped in the kitchen and performed ordinary tasks, accepting work very different from the privileges associated with his upbringing. Canisius’s surviving letter praises his faithfulness to the responsibilities entrusted to him and his perseverance in his vocation. He sent Stanislaus to Rome with two young Jesuits and a recommendation for the superior general, Saint Francis Borgia. His letter ended with a hopeful judgment. “We hope for great things from him.”

Stanislaus reached Rome in October 1567. Borgia received him, and surviving records confirm his admission to the novitiate on October 28. His long journey had brought him into the religious community he had sought so persistently. During his formation, the novitiate moved to Saint Andrew on the Quirinal. There, his vocation took shape through prayer, instruction, and community duties. Accounts of these months remember his joyful service of God. He remained a novice, still at the beginning of his preparation for Jesuit life.

In August 1568, Stanislaus became seriously ill with fever. Early accounts record that he wrote to the Blessed Virgin, asking to celebrate the feast of her Assumption with her in heaven. As his condition worsened, he received the Eucharist and was accompanied by members of the community. He died in Rome during the early hours of August 15, the feast of the Assumption, at seventeen. His novitiate had lasted less than a year. He had reached neither ordination nor a long ministry, but his brief religious life left a lasting reputation for holiness.

Pope Paul V beatified Stanislaus in 1605, and Pope Benedict XIII canonized him on December 31, 1726. His remains are venerated at Sant’Andrea al Quirinale in Rome. The Jesuits celebrate his feast on November 13 and honor him as the patron of their novices. The motto associated with him, Ad maiora natus sum, means “I was born for greater things.” His story gives those words a particular meaning through the sacrifices of a young man who pursued friendship with Christ and faithfully embraced the ordinary duties of his vocation.

For a devotional image of St. Stanislaus Kostka, click here: Maryvale Catholic Press

Venerable Nicola D’Onofrio, A Young Life Offered in Love

Venerable Nicola D'Onofrio

Nicola D’Onofrio was born on March 24, 1943, in Villamagna, a village in the Italian region of Abruzzo. His parents, Giovanni D’Onofrio and Virginia Ferrara, worked the land and raised their children in the Catholic faith. Nicola, affectionately called Nicolino, grew up with his older brother, Tommaso. In this modest farming household, prayer and work belonged to daily life. His childhood also brought an encounter that helped shape his future, the sight of a young Camillian wearing the religious habit with its distinctive red cross.

From about the age of seven, Nicola expressed a desire to become a priest. His wish to enter the Camillians initially met resistance from his family. Leaving home meant a difficult separation, and his parents needed time to understand his determination. Nicola continued to ask with persistence. Eventually, they gave their consent. In the autumn of 1955, when he was twelve, he entered the Camillian student community in Rome and began his preparation for religious life.

The Camillian vocation joined prayer to the service of people who were sick. On October 7, 1961, Nicola made his first religious profession. Alongside poverty, chastity, and obedience, he accepted the order’s fourth vow, to serve the sick even at the risk of his own life. He was eighteen and still preparing for the priesthood. These promises gave a definite direction to his youth, placing his future at the service of God and of people whose suffering called for care.

Nicola’s spiritual writings show how seriously he approached that commitment. He wanted to become holy through the ordinary duties already before him. Saint Thérèse of Lisieux became an important guide, especially through her teaching about doing small things with love and trusting God with a child’s confidence. He also wrote with affection about caring for the sick. The prospect of ending a day tired from serving them appealed to him. His aspirations took shape through study, prayer, community life, and the effort to love faithfully in everyday circumstances.

Toward the end of 1962, Nicola began experiencing symptoms of the illness that would bring his life to an early end. After further examinations, doctors diagnosed cancer. He underwent surgery and radiation treatment, but the disease continued to advance. The young religious who had promised to care for the sick now needed care himself. His remaining years of formation became months of treatment, physical suffering, and increasing uncertainty about whether he would ever reach ordination.

His superiors sent him to Lourdes and Lisieux in the hope of obtaining healing. Accounts of these pilgrimages describe his desire to accept God’s will. He also continued to hope for recovery. In a letter to his parents, he asked for prayers that he might regain his strength and become a priest. If God intended another outcome, he wished to accept it. These hopes existed together. He wanted to live and fulfill his vocation, while seeking the faith to entrust his future to God.

As his condition worsened, the Camillians obtained permission from the Holy See for Nicola to make his perpetual profession earlier than normally scheduled. On May 28, 1964, he pronounced his final vows. By then, he was very weak and was brought into the community’s chapel in a wheelchair. There, he renewed permanently the promises he had first made in 1961. His illness had narrowed the possibilities before him, but he could still give his consent to the vocation he had embraced.

Nicola died in Rome on June 12, 1964, at the age of twenty one. He had never been ordained a priest. His brief life nevertheless left fellow religious and others with a lasting memory of his faith and his response to suffering. He was initially buried in his family’s tomb. In 1979, his remains were transferred to the Sanctuary of Saint Camillus in Bucchianico, where his memory became closely connected with that of the founder whose vocation he had followed.

On July 5, 2013, Pope Francis authorized the decree recognizing Nicola’s heroic virtues, giving him the title Venerable. His story invites reflection on a vocation whose earthly course was unexpectedly short. He had hoped to spend his life bringing care to people who were ill. When illness overtook him, he sought to continue loving God within the circumstances he had been given. His witness rests in that faithful response, the offering of a young life whose hopes remained real even as its strength diminished.

For a devotional image of Venerable Nicola, click here: Maryvale Catholic Press

Blessed Chiara “Luce” Badano, A Young Life Filled with Christ’s Light

Blessed Chiara "Luce" Badano

Chiara Badano was born on October 29, 1971, and grew up in Sassello, a small town in northern Italy. Her parents, Ruggero and Maria Teresa, had waited eleven years for a child. They welcomed their daughter with gratitude and raised her in a loving Catholic home. Chiara grew into a lively, determined girl who enjoyed friendship, sports, and the beauty of the countryside. Faith accompanied the ordinary pleasures and responsibilities of her childhood.

At nine, Chiara became involved in the Focolare Movement, founded by Chiara Lubich. Its emphasis on God’s love, Christian unity, and living the Gospel deeply influenced her. She joined its young members and began corresponding with Lubich. A copy of the Gospels, received at her First Communion, became especially important to her. She wanted to put its teachings into practice through the way she treated her family, classmates, and anyone who needed help.

Her generosity took practical forms. Her mother remembered that, at four, Chiara initially resisted giving away her toys, then chose some of her new ones for poor children. As she grew older, she visited an elderly woman in a retirement home, helping with simple personal tasks and keeping her company. Friends found her ready to listen to their difficulties. She also experienced disappointments, including having to repeat a school year, and worked to begin again when she struggled.

In 1988, a sharp pain in her shoulder interrupted a tennis game. The pain persisted, and examinations eventually revealed osteosarcoma, a serious bone cancer that had spread. At seventeen, Chiara entered a life of hospital visits, surgery, and demanding treatment. In February 1989, she underwent an operation in Turin. Her response to suffering became closely associated with a brief prayer. “If you want it, Jesus, I want it too.” She also asked Mary for the strength to persevere.

Accepting the diagnosis required a struggle. Her mother recalled that, after learning how serious her condition was, Chiara returned home and asked for silence. She lay on her bed for about twenty five minutes before telling her mother that they could speak again. Maria Teresa remembered that interval as a decisive moment in her daughter’s acceptance of what lay ahead. The cheerful girl who loved tennis and cycling now faced the possibility that her life would be very short.

As the illness progressed, Chiara lost the use of her legs. Her physical limitations increased, but she continued welcoming visitors and listening to their concerns. She offered her suffering for young people, the missions, and her diocese. Her spirituality centered on remaining close to Jesus crucified and abandoned. Even when she could no longer take part in the activities she loved, she understood that she could still love, pray, and give encouragement to those around her.

Her friends remained close throughout her illness. Chiara Lubich gave her the additional name Luce, meaning light, which became inseparable from her memory. As death approached, Chiara prepared the details of her funeral, choosing prayers and songs and asking to be dressed in white. She regarded her approaching encounter with Christ as a wedding feast. The preparations expressed the hope with which she faced death, sustained by the faith she had been learning to live since childhood.

Chiara died on October 7, 1990, just weeks before her nineteenth birthday. Shortly before her death, she encouraged her mother to be happy because she herself was happy. Hundreds of people, especially young people, attended her funeral. She had also consented to donating her corneas, which were transplanted into two recipients. Her concern for others continued through that final gift, following the generosity that had marked her childhood and adolescence.

On September 25, 2010, Chiara was beatified in Rome during the pontificate of Benedict XVI. Her feast day is October 29. Soon afterward, Benedict invited young people to learn about her, emphasizing both her faith and the support of her parents and friends. Her brief life offers a witness to redemptive suffering, lived through a personal effort to unite pain with Christ and continue loving others. The light associated with her name had become a source of encouragement far beyond Sassello.

For a devotional image of Luce, click here:Maryvale Catholic Press