St. Simón de Rojas, O.SS.
Welcome to INSPIRING LIVES, a series on lives of Saints in the catholic church from around the world. You are listening to INSPIRING LIVES, our weekly feature based on the lives of Catholic Saints from around the world. In this series we bring you those saints who are canonized by Pope John Paul II. Saints are holy people who lived ordinary lives in extraordinary ways. Each saint the Church honors responded to God's invitation to use his or her unique gifts. These saints are examples of great holiness and virtue, and they invite us to follow their paths to holiness. Their unique stories inspire us to be rooted in our faith. God calls each one of us to be a saint.
Today we shall listen to the heroic life of Saint Simón de Rojas of the Trinitarian Order. He was canonized on 3rd July 1988 at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
xxx
Father Simon De Rojas was born at Valladolid, Castilla, Spain, on 28th October 1552. At a very young age, Simon developed a special love for Mary, the mother of God. It was his mother, the virtuous Constanza, who instilled and helped grow in the soul of Simon the love of Mary. It is said that the first words of slow learner and stuttering Simon, at 16 months, were "Ave, Maria”. This indicates the veneration his mother Constanza and father Gregorio constantly gave to Mother Mary. He was only repeating the prayer so frequently recited by his parents.
His greatest joy was to visit Marian shrines, to pray to Mary and with Mary, to imitate her virtues, to sing her praises, to acknowledge her importance in the mystery of God and of the Church.
At the age of 12, he entered the Trinitarian monastery of the city where he was born. He made his religious profession in the same monastery on 28 October 1572. Simon was ordained a priest in 1577 while he was studying at the University of Salamanca. He was a teacher of philosophy and theology at Toledo from 1581 to 1587.
Through profound theological studies, he came to understand even better the mission of Mary in cooperation with the Trinity for the salvation of the human race and the sanctification of the Church. Father Simon lived his religious vows in the imitation of Mary.
Since 1588 until his death, Father Simon fulfilled with much prudence the office of superior in various monasteries of his province. He was also sent as apostolic visitor twice to his own province of Castilla, and once to that of Andalusia.
xxx
Father Simon held that, for everyone to be completely of God, as Mary had been, it was necessary to become her slaves, or better, slaves of God in Mary. For this reason he established the Congregation of the Slaves of the Sweet Name Mary on 14 April 1612. He intended it to be for the greater glory of the Trinity, in praise of the Virgin, in the service of the poor. For him, to be a slave of Mary meant belonging totally to her - to unite oneself more intimately to Christ and in Him through the Spirit, to the Father.
The Congregation founded by him was intended for the laity: persons of every social class could join. The members, who included the King and his children, dedicated themselves to honor Mary by giving maternal help to her favorite children: the poor. This work still continues in Spain. Fr. Simon, who is held to be one of the greatest contemplatives of his time and who in his work, "The Greatness of Prayer" is clearly a great instructor of prayerful souls, wanted the contemplative dimension joined to the active through works of mercy. Faithful to the Trinitarian charism, he promoted the ransom of captives, he helped relieve the many needs of the poor, he consoled the sick, the destitute and the left-out of every kind.
xxx
In 1619 he was named tutor to the royal princes of Spain. Father Simon was elected Provincial of Castilla on 12 May 1621. A year later, on 1st January 1622 he was chosen confessor of Queen Isabel of Borbon.
Father Simon accepted duties at the Court, only on the condition that he be able to continue his work with the poor, whom he helped in a thousand ways, always with a smile on his face and at any hour of the day or night. The expressions of his love of Mary are manifold. The painters who depicted him, put the greeting "Ave Maria" on his lips, words he uttered so frequently that he was called: "Father Ave Maria".
Father Simon had thousands of images of the Most Holy Virgin printed with the inscription: "Ave Maria", which he also sent abroad. He had rosaries made with seventy-two blue beads on a white cord, symbols of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception, and also a reminder that Mary, according to the belief of the time, lived to the age of 72 years. He sent these rosaries everywhere, even to England. Using his influence at Court, he had the angelic greeting so dear to him, "Ave Maria", engraved in letters of gold on the facade of the royal palace in Madrid.
On 5th June 1622, Father Simon petitioned the Holy See for the approval of his liturgical text composed in honor of the Sweet Name of Mary, which later, Pope Innocent XI extended to the universal Church.P.J. Joseph SJ
| All the contents on this site are copyrighted ©. |