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Friday, March 23, 2007

St. Toribio

This 16th Spanish sain shows us how God chooses some surprising people to be saints. It seems strange in our eyes to find that this chief judge of the dreaded Inquisition of Granada is a canonized saint! As a layman he was appointed to Archbishop of Lima, Peru in 1580. When he protested about this unusual step, Pope Pius V dispensed him from the usual process and he was ordained and consecrated a bishop! In Lima he worked hard to correct abuses, learned the native language, and was much loved. He was canonized in 1726, 120 years after his death and is the patron saint of the Latin-American bishops as well as of Peru. I did not even know that the Latin-American bishops had a patron saint. I hope the North American bishops have one, too. They need a powerful one.

I am relecting on the passages of Scripture that have called me this Lent to change my life and which words of Jesus have been most powerful for me during these forty days. Look for more on this later.

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