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ROBERT MALATESTA, FRANCISCAN - 10 OCTOBER

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN OCTOBER

Saints celebrated on the 10th of October

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ROBERT MALATESTA, FRANCISCAN

This blessed Robert, according to the anonymous description of his life, came from the noble family of Malatesta. 

From childhood he gave signs of his future piety. Scarcely five years old he occupied himself with contemplating death. When asked by his uncle Carl what he would most like to be once he had grown up, the boy answered: "I want to die poor!" Surprised at this and thinking that the boy had only said this out of simplicity, the uncle asked the same question twice more - only to receive the same answer. 

Already in his tenth year the blessed used a belt of penance, scourges and strict fasting in an effort of  combatting awakening greed. At night, he frequently got up from the soft bed to sleep on the bare floor instead. From lunch he usually got up hungry and fed the poor with what he saved from his meals. 

He avoided associating with boisterous boys and shunned all children's games, and instead kept himself in quiet places to serve God. 

When he was 18 years old, his uncle married him to Margaretha, the daughter of Margrave Nicolaus von Este, against his will. 

He venerated St Francis as a special patron, and placed himself under the direction of a pious and learned priest of this order. After having experienced an apparition of St Francis he joined the Third Order of the Franciscans on the saint's feast day.

Although outwardly Robert had to dress according to his station in the world - inwardly he had freed himself from all pomp. He was full of love and mercy towards the sick, lepers and the poor, while he himself practiced severe mortifications. He often had heavenly apparitions. In a chapel he had built, he heard Holy Mass every day. With frequent tears of love he received Holy Communion. He sought and found his happiness in reading the Holy Scriptures and Spiritual Books. 

Once he liberated possessed man by making the Sign of the Cross over him with a thorn from our Saviour's crown of thorns. An uproar which arose from the fact that he restituted Borgo di San Sepolcro and some castles that his father had left him to the Pope, he quenched this by addressing all the people in a calm, affectionate manner.  

He would have loved to suffer martyrdom for Christ. Instead, the Lord sent him great physical pain. There was not the slightest sign of impatience to be seen when he had to undergo several excruciating operations for his maladies.

When he was told of his impending dissolution, he prepared himself by daily Confession and frequent Communion, often repeating the words of the apostle: "I wish to be released and to be with Christ." In the last hour of his life he still prayed the Athanasian creed and said with a joyful expression on his face: "I can see heaven thrown open." 

He fell asleep in the Lord on his country estate on October 10, 1431. His body was brought to Rimini and there, according to his will, he was buried in the Franciscan church. After his death he shone through many miracles, which were officially certified by the testimony of tried and tested men. The blessed Robert is not mentioned in the Roman Martyrology. But Artur and Hueber list him as "Blessed" in the Franciscan menologies. 

Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints




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