ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JANUARY
Saints celebrated on the 16th of January
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| A page of one of Fortunatus Hueber's Saints' books, "Stammenbuch..." (1693) |
Bernardin Juif (Bernardinus Juif) died happily in the Lord on January 16, 1836 at the age of 86 at his birthplace Oberlarg in Sundgau, where he was also born on August 30, 1751. From Mariastein near Basel we received a long message about this servant of God, which we want to share because of his outstanding virtues:
"This excellent servant of God," writes P. C. Motschi there, "priest and religious of the Order of Saint Bernard, from his innocent years to his last hour, lived a truly holy life and led many thousands of souls to eternal life. By his pure innocence, by his extremely strict mortification, by his tireless zeal for his soul, by his zealous prayer, in which he kept awake most of the night during his entire life, by his frequent alms and works of love of every kind, he shed an angelic light on everyone around him. He greatly enjoyed the respect and love of all the righteous, especially of the priests and bishops.
Even in his old age he never ceased his mortifications and severe works of penance, yet he was always cheerful and knew how to spread heavenly joy and to inspire God's love by his edifying conversations. The priests of the whole area called him their dear "old dad" and wherever there was a celebration the pious old man was called to be the preacher. Even in his 70s and 80s he usually preached about two hours in his resounding, very deep voice, although he was small in stature and quite emaciated from constant mortification. However simple his sermons were, they were nevertheless convincing; they seemed like dew from above.
He had countless penitents, also from afar, to whom he always listened lovingly, guiding them with special prudence, endeavouring to render their hard and bitter penitential life sweet and pleasant. Very many great sinners owed their conversion through God's grace to him. His smaller and larger journeys, which he made almost always on foot even in his old age, he spent contemplating God or praying the rosary, and whoever wished to accompany his travels had to do likewise.
Father Bernardin Juif had taken his vows in his youth in the Cistercian monastery in Grossen-Lützel not long before it was abolished, and even then he had shown his brothers a holy life. As a result, pastoral care was entrusted to him alternately in various parishes of the diocese of Strasbourg in Upper Alsace, such as at Attenschwiller, at Blochheim.
During the French Revolution, he had to flee to Switzerland in 1792 and lived with his friars at the Wettingen monastery. This he did for about a year. Once he could no longer suppress his grief at the misery and abandonment of his countrymen, he directed his steps again to Alsace, although any priest who had refused the oath was forbidden to return to France on pain of life.
Following his arrival in his home country, he had no definite place of residence, but stayed hidden, sometimes in this place, sometimes in another, with faithful followers of the Catholic Church. In the whole area he was an angel of consolation for the persecuted believers, celebrating the Holy Mass, mostly early in the morning long before daybreak. For this, the believers had to gather secretly in the houses at the crack of dawn; Fr Bernardin then recited to them the Word of God and bestowed on them the holy sacraments - each and every time he did so at the risk of his life.
He sought out the sick, too, and prepared them for a happy death. Year after year there seldom passed a night in which he did not travel from place to place in disguise, or pass sleepless in his official duties. Very often he was miraculously protected against the prosecutions of the bailiffs. As much as he longed for the martyr's palm - our dear Lord, to comfort the true believers, did not want to give it to him; but he rewarded his faithful assistant and young friend, the priest Johann Baptist Bochele of Illfurt, with the crown of martyrs when the latter was killed in Colmar in the mid-1790s for his loyalty to the true faith and the Catholic Church.
From 1801 to 1829, Father Bernardin Juif was once again pastor in various places in Alsace. After this period, by then almost 80 years old, he entered the strict order of the Trappists at Oelenberg.
Fr Bernardin is still in blessed memory everywhere, and many from near and far seek consolation and help in their spiritual and physical concerns at the grave of the servant of God." (C.M.)
(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 1, Augsburg, 1858, pp. 452-54)
Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations
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