Welcome to INSPIRING LIVES, a series on the lives of Saints in the catholic church
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. As Pope Francis þ wrote on 21
November 2013, ‘to be saints is not a privilege of the few, but a vocation for everyone’.
God calls each one of us to be a saint. Today we shall listen to the inspiring
life of St. Claude la Colombiere of the Society of Jesus, Jesuits. He was canonized
by Pope John Paul II on 31st May 1992. His feast is celebrated on 15 February.
Listen: Claude
La Colombiere was born on 2nd February 1641 as the third child of the notary
Bertrand La Colombière and Margaret Coindat, in St. Symphorien d'Ozon near Lyon in
the Southeastern France. His family was well-known, pious and had a good social status.
After the family moved to Vienne Claude began his early education there, completing
his studies in rhetoric and philosophy in Lyon. It was during this period that
Claude first sensed his vocation to the religious life in the Society of Jesus. However,
from one of his early notations, we know that he "had a terrible aversion for the
life embraced". This affirmation is not hard to understand by any who are familiar
with the life of Claude, for he was very close to his family and friends and much
inclined to the arts and literature and an active social life. On the other hand,
he was not a person to be led primarily by his sentiments. At the age of 17 he
entered the Jesuit Novitiate at Avignon. In 1660 he moved from the Novitiate to the
College, also in Avignon, where he pronounced his first vows and completed his studies
in philosophy. Afterwards he was a professor of grammar and literature in the same
school for another five years. In 1666 he went to the College of Clermont in Paris
for his studies in theology. Already noted for his tact, poise and dedication to the
humanities, Claude was assigned by superiors in Paris the additional responsibility
of tutoring the children of King Louis XIV's Minister of Finance, Jean Baptiste Colbert.
His theological studies concluded and now a priest, Claude returned to Lyon. For
a time he was teacher in the College, then full-time preacher and moderator of several
Marian congregations. Claude became noted for solid and serious sermons. They
were ably directed at specific audiences and, faithful to their inspiration from the
gospel, communicated to his listeners serenity and confidence in God. His published
sermons produced and still produce significant spiritual fruits. Given the place and
the short duration of his ministry, his sermons are surprisingly fresh in comparison
with those of better-known orators. xxx The year 1674 was a decisive
one for Claude, the year of his Third Probation at Maison Saint-Joseph in Lyon. During
the customary month of the Exercises the Lord prepared him for the mission for which
he had been chosen. His spiritual notes from this period allow one to follow step-by-step
the battles and triumphs of the spirit, so extraordinarily attracted to everything
human, yet so generous with God. He took a vow to observe all the constitutions
and rules of the Society of Jesus, a vow whose scope was not so much to bind him to
a series of minute observances as to reproduce the sharp ideal of an apostle so richly
described by St. Ignatius. So magnificent did this ideal seem to Claude that he adopted
it as his program of sanctity. That it was indeed an invitation from Christ himself
is evidenced by the subsequent feeling of interior liberation Claude experienced,
along with the broadened horizons of the apostolate he witnesses to in his spiritual
diary. On 2nd February 1675 he pronounced his solemn profession and
was named rector of the College at Paray-le-Monial. Not a few people wondered at this
assignment of a talented young Jesuit to such an out-of the-way place as Paray. The
explanation seems to be in the superiors' knowledge that there was in Paray an unpretentious
religious of the Monastery of the Visitation, Margaret Mary Alacoque, to whom the
Lord was revealing the treasures of his Heart, but who was overcome by anguish and
uncertainty. She was waiting for the Lord to fulfill his promise and send her "my
faithful servant and perfect friend" to help her realize the mission for which he
had destined for her: that of revealing to the world the unfathomable riches of his
love. After Father Colombière's arrival and her first conversations with him,
Margaret Mary opened her spirit to him and told him of the many communications she
believed she had received from the Lord. He assured her he accepted their authenticity
and urged her to put in writing everything in their regard, and did all he could to
orient and support her in carrying out the mission received. When, thanks to prayer
and discernment, he became convinced that Christ wanted the spread of the devotion
to his Heart, it is clear from Claude's spiritual notes that he pledged himself to
this cause without reserve. In these notes it is also clear that, even before he became
Margaret Mary's confessor, Claude's fidelity to the directives of St. Ignatius in
the Exercises had brought him to the contemplation of the Heart of Christ as symbol
of his love. xxx After a year and half in Paray, in 1676 Father La Colombière
left for London. He had been appointed preacher to the Duchess of York - a very difficult
and delicate assignment because of the conditions prevailing in England at the time.
He took up residence in St. James Palace in October. In addition to sermons in
the palace chapel and unremitting spiritual direction both oral and written, Claude
dedicated his time to giving thorough instruction to the many who sought reconciliation
with the Church they had abandoned. And even if there were great dangers, he had the
consolation of seeing many reconciled to it, so that after a year he said: "I could
write a book about the mercy of God I've seen Him exercise since I arrived here!" The
intense pace of his work and the poor climate combined to undermine his health, and
evidence of a serious pulmonary disease began to appear. Claude, however, made no
changes in his work or life style. All of a sudden, at the end of 1678, he was
calumniously accused and arrested in connection with the Titus Oates "papist plot".
After two days he was transferred to the severe King's Bench Prison where he remained
for three weeks in extremely poor conditions until his expulsion from England by royal
decree. This suffering further weakened Claude's health which, with ups and downs,
deteriorated rapidly on his return to France. During the summer of 1681 he returned
to Paray, in very poor condition. On 15 February 1682, the first Sunday of Lent, towards
evening Claude suffered the severe hemorrhage which ended his life. On the 16 June
1929 Pope Pius XI beatified Claude La Colombière, and Pope John Paul II declared him
a saint on 31 May 1992. The Universal Church celebrates his feast day on February
15. His charism, according to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, was that of bringing souls
to God along the gospel way of love and mercy which Christ revealed to us. xxx You
have been listening to INSPIRING LIVES, a weekly series based on the lives of Catholic
Saints from around the world, brought to you by Vatican Radio’s English Service for
South Asia. By P.J. Joseph SJ FRIDAY, 07 FEBRUARY 2014