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SAINT RAINERIUS, CONFESSOR - 17 JUNE

 

ALL SAINTS CELEBRATED IN JUNE

Saints celebrated on the 17th of June

SAINT RAINERIUS, CONFESSOR - 17 JUNE


Saint Rainerius' youth was spent with an indifferent and sinful worldly life. Eventually, a cousin referred him to the godly Albertus Leccapecore, who was then residing at the Vitus monastery in Pisa. Reluctantly he made a confession that was neither sincere nor complete. But the good shepherd afterwards spoke to him through his holy Guardian Angel, so that Rainerius returned to his confessor and, amidst many tears, confessed all his sins. 

His transformation was so thorough that he was taken for a fool by his parents and ridiculed by the general public. Since he also took no food, his relations bound and grounded him. In captivity he wept for his sins and even became blind. When his mother saw this, she became quite disconsolate, but he gained confidence, prayed fervently, and received back the light of spirit and body from Christ.

Rainerius made a journey to the Holy Land and fasted, eating only on Sundays and Thursdays. It seems that he was ordained a priest on the way back to Pisa, for he is said to have preached. Since he returned here, he has stayed alternately with the canons of Saint Mary, in the Abbey of Saint Andrew and in the monastery of Saint Vitus. In the latter he died around A.D. 1161. 

He was later given the suffix de Aqua (of water). For all the water consumed or otherwise used for his veneration and under his invocation proved to be medicinal. On pictures you see him as a youth, his holy Guardian Angel guiding him to the confessional. A contemporary, the canon Benincasa of Pisa, wrote down the story of his life. Rainerius is also depicted on eight murals in Campo Santo. His relics are in the cathedral in a chapel named after him. (III. 421–469.)

(Information from Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints, Volume 5, Augsburg, 1882, pp. 33-34)

Stadler's Complete Encyclopedia of Saints - Sources and Abbreviations

⬅️ Saint Rainerius' entry in the Roman Martyrology







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