Saints celebrated on the 31st of July
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BLESSED GIOVANNI COLOMBINI, MERCHANT
Born in Siena, Upper Italy, about 1300, there was nothing in the early life of the Founder of the Congregation of Jesuati to indicate the presence in his character of any unusual seeds of holiness. Belonging to an old patrician family, Giovanni Colombini (John Colombini) devoted himself, like thousands of his class in Italy, to commerce, swelled his already substantial fortune, and rose to a position of great prominence and influence among his fellow-citizens. Fortunate in his marriage, his private life was marred by his avarice, his ambition, and his proneness to anger. One day, he chanced to take up a biography of Saint Mary of Egypt, whose later life had been as conspicuous for penance as her earlier had been for sin. The perusal of this narrative brought a new light into his life; henceforth ambition and anger gave way to an almost incredible humility and meekness. The great transformation of his life extended to his business affairs, and excited in the purely mercenary-minded a ridicule easy to understand. With the consent of his wife he soon abandoned his former patrician associates, visited hospitals, tended the sick and made large donations to the poor. Then, casting aside the garments usual to his station, he started wearing simple clothes. Giovanni insisted on making his house the refuge of the needy and the suffering, washing their feet with his own hands, dispensing to them bodily and spiritual comfort, leaving nothing undone that the spirit of charity could suggest. Among the wonders recorded to have taken in this abode of Christian mercy was the miraculous disappearance of a leper, leaving the room permeated with an indescribable fragrance.
On the return of Pope Urban V from Avignon to Rome (1367), Giovanni petitioned him to sanction the foundation of the followers' Institution. A commission appointed by Urban and presided over by Cardinal William Sudre, Bishop of Marseilles, having attested them free of the taint of the Fraticelli, whose views some people had accused them of holding, the pope gave his consent to the foundation of their congregation. The name Jesuati (Jesuates) had already been given to them by the people of Viterbo because of their constant use of the locution "Praise be to Jesus Christ". From the very beginning, they had a special veneration for Saint Jerome, whence the longer title, Clerici apostolici s. Hieronymi (Apostolic Clerics of Saint Jerome).
Pope Urban selected as their habit a white soutan, a white four-cornered hood hanging round the neck and falling in folds over the shoulders, and a mantle of a dun colour; the soutane was encircled by a leathern girdle, and sandals were worn on the feet. Their occupations were to be the care of the sick, the burial of the dead, prayer, and strict mortification (including daily scourging).
Their statutes were at first based on the Rule of Saint Benedict, modified to suit the aims of the congregation, but the Rule of Saint Augustine was later adopted. Blessed Giovanni died on the way to Acquapendente, July 31, 1367, a week after the foundation of his institute. Pope Gregory XIII inserted Giovanni's name in the Roman Martyrology, fixing July 31 for the celebration of his feast.
Sources: - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Colombini -Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913
PRAYER:
Grant, we beseech you, almighty God, that the venerable feast of Blessed Giovanni may increase our devotion and promote our salvation. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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