Saints celebrated on the 30th of July
SAINT LEOPOLD MANDIC, CAPUCHIN AND CONFESSOR
Saint Leopold Mandic [born May 5, 1866, died July 30, 1942]…, a heroic servant of reconciliation and penance…, [was] born in Castelnovo near Cattaro. He left his family and homeland at the age of sixteen to enter the Capuchin seminary in Udine. His was a largely uneventful life: some changes from one convent to another, as is customary with the Capuchins, but nothing more. Then came his assignment to the convent in Padua, where he remained until his death.
Well, precisely into this poverty of a life that was externally irrelevant, the Holy Spirit came and enkindled a new grandeur: a heroic fidelity to Christ, to the Franciscan ideal, and to priestly service towards his brothers and sisters.
St Leoplold did not leave us any theological or literary works, he did not attract people with his culture, he did not found any social works. To all those who knew him, he was nothing but a poor friar, small and sickly.
GIVING HIMSELF
His greatness lay elsewhere: in immolating himself, in giving himself, day after day, for the entire span of his priestly life, for fifty-two years, in the silence, in the reserve, in the humility of a confession room: “the good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep”. Father Leopold was always there, ready and smiling, prudent and modest, the discreet confidant and faithful father of souls, a respectful teacher and an understanding and patient spiritual adviser.
THE CONFESSOR
If we would want to describe him with a single word, as his penitents and confreres did during his life, then he is “the confessor”: he knew only how “to hear confessions”. And it is precisely here that his greatness lies: in his fading into the background to give place to the true Shepherd of souls. He expressed his commitment this way: “We hide everything, even what may appear to be a gift of God, so as not to make it an instrument of profit. To God alone be honour and glory! If it were possible, we should pass over the earth like a shadow that leaves no trace.” And to whoever asked him how he could live that way, he would answer, “It is my life!”
"IT IS MY LIFE"
“The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep.” To the human eye, our saint’s life seems like a tree, all of whose branches an invisible and cruel hand has lopped off one by one. Father Leopold was a priest for whom preaching was impossible because of a speech defect. He was a priest who ardently wanted to dedicate himself to the missions, and up to the very end he was awaiting the day of departure, but never left because his health was so frail. He was a priest who had such a great ecumenical spirit that he offered himself as a victim to the Lord, with a daily self-giving, that full unity might be re-established between the Latin Church and the still separated Oriental Churches, and that there might be “one flock under one shepherd” (cf. John 10:16); but he lived his ecumenical vocation in a totally hidden way. Weeping, he confided: “I will be a missionary here, in obedience and in the exercise of my ministry”. And again: “Every soul who seeks my ministry will meanwhile be my Orient”.
"I WILL BE A MISSIONARY HERE"
What remained of St Leopold? For whom and for what did his life serve? Brothers and sisters who had lost God, love and hope remained for him. Poor human beings who needed God and invoked him, pleading for his forgiveness, his consolation, his peace, his serenity. To these “poor”, St Leopold gave his life; for them he offered his sorrows and his prayer; but above all, with them he celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is here that he lived out his charism. He celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation, exercising his ministry in the shadow of the Crucified Christ. His glance was fixed on the crucifix that hung over the penitent’s kneeler. The Crucified was always the main character. “It is he who pardons, it is he who absolves!” He, the Shepherd of the flock.
PRAYER AND CONTEMPLATION
St Leopold immersed his ministry in prayer and contemplation. He was a confessor of continual prayer, a confessor who habitually lived absorbed in God, in a supernatural atmosphere…
The Church, in placing before us today the figure of her humble servant Saint Leopold, who guided so many souls, wants also to point out these hands that are raised to heaven during the various struggles of man and the People of God.
THE CHURCH CAN NEVER TIRE OF GIVING WITNESS TO GOD WHO IS LOVE
They are raised in prayer. And they are raised in the gesture of absolving sins, which always reaches that love which is God: that love which once for all was revealed to us in the Crucified and Risen Christ…
Dear brothers, what do Moses’ hands, raised in prayer, say to us? What do the hands of St Leopold, the humble servant of the confessional, say to us? They tell us that the Church can never tire of giving witness to God who is love!
From: “Saintly Hero of the Confessional”, L’Osservatore romano, October 24, 1983
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