Saint Michael of the Saints

Michael was only twelve years old when he resolved to embrace the religious state. With this intention, he went to Barcelona and presented himself to the Trinit arians, who Trinitaires Religious order that Michael joined in Barcelona. admitted him to the novitiate. As soon as he had reached the age fixed by the canons of the Church to be able to make a valid profession, he pronounced his vows, and thus consecrated himself to the Lord irrevocably in Zaragoza on September 30, 1607. A few months had passed since that time, so important for him, when he learned of the success of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity, which the Blessed John Baptist of the Conceptio Jean-Baptiste de la Conception Reformer of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity. n had just undertaken. The new professed had too much zeal for his perfection not to take advantage of this precious means of salvation that Providence offered him. He therefore hastened to join the holy religious who were supporting the Blessed John Baptist in this salutary enterprise, and he soon distinguished himself by the fervor with which he practiced the primitive rule of the institute, which the reformed observed in all its rigor. His virtues did not take long to shine with the brightest luster; they were so well established in his soul that the studies to which he devoted himself, by the will of his superiors, did not diminish his fervor in the least. His fidelity to the smallest observances was so great that he could never be found at fault on any point of the rule. Full of esteem for chastity, of which he had made a vow from his earliest childhood, he preserved this inestimable treasure intact until death, and with extreme care. His poverty was such that he had only a single tunic for clothing. Time had not weakened the ardor that the servant of God had had from his earliest years for mortification; thus, he afflicted his body with harsh hair shirts, bloody disciplines, and continual fasting. He never drank wine and sometimes spent an entire week without taking any food; and that which he usually took was so meager, and so little suited to flatter the taste, that it became for him an exercise of penance. He gave very little time to sleep and spent the rest of the night either in pious meditations or in the contemplation of heavenly things. He was so occupied with heaven that he seemed completely beside himself when he spoke of it or heard someone discuss this sublime subject.

Such perfect virtue in Michael was only the effect of the ardent love he had for God. He ceaselessly asked the Lord through urgent prayers to give him a new heart that would burn with the purest flames of charity. Such holy desires deserved to be granted: thus his soul was as if flooded with those spiritual sweetnesses that God reserves for His most faithful friends and which are a foretaste of eternal happiness. It was especially at the altar that he received these precious favors; he celebrated the holy mysteries with such devotion that he stirred to piety all those who attended his Mass. He was seen several times rapt in ecstasy during the elevation. But whatever consolations he tasted in the exercises of piety, he knew how to tear himself away from them to fulfill the duties that charity imposed upon him toward his neighbor. Penetrated by the importance of these duties, he devoted himself entirely to the service of his brothers. He gave counsel to those who sought the help of his insights, instructed through his preaching, and consecrated a considerable time each day to hearing the faithful in the tribunal of penance. Such charitable conduct, joined to his reputation for holiness, made him the object of veneration not only of the people, but also of the great and even princes. Far from being lifted up in his heart because of these marks of esteem that he frequently received, he had such low sentiments of himself that he believed himself worse than the demons, and he did not fear to assert it. His merit caused him to be chosen twice to govern houses of his Order, in the capacity of superior. He was at the head of the one in Valladolid when the Lor d made kno Valladolid Birthplace of the saint. wn to him that his death was near. It seemed that heaven envied the earth such a perfect man, and that the Lord wished to hasten to reward a soul at once so innocent and so penitent. The holy religious informed his brothers that he was soon to leave them. Indeed, on April 10, 1625, he rendered his spirit to his Creator, in the place and at the time he had predicted; he was only thirty-three years old. God, who had granted him the gift of miracles during his mortal life, permitted several to be worked at his tomb. Work soon began on the process of his beatification, and Pope Pius VI solemnly placed him in the rank of the blessed on May 24 , 1779 Pie VI Pope cited as having approved the cult of Julie in 1821. . Finally, he was canonized on June 8, 1862, with the twenty-six martyrs of Japan.

He is depicted praying before an altar where the Blessed Sacrament is exposed. This recalls the great devotion he professed, from his childhood, toward the Euchar Eucharistie Central sacrament for which Ambrose defends the real presence. ist.

We have borrowed this biography from the continuators o f Godesca Godescard Hagiographer and source of the text. rd, Lefort ed.