Didacus was a Spaniard, born at the little town of Saint Nicholas de Porto in the diocese of Seville. From his early youth he began the practice of a perfect life, under the guidance of a pious priest in a solitary church. Then, in order to bind himself more closely to God, he made profession of the rule of Saint Francis, in the convent of the Observantine Friars Minor at Arizzafa. There he bore the yoke of humble obedience and regular observance with great alacrity and devoted himself especially to contemplation, in which he received wonderful lights from God so that, illiterate as he was, he spoke of heavenly things in an admirable manner, evidently by a divine gift.
He was sent to the Canary Islands to govern the brethren of his Order, and there he had much to suffer. He was burning with the desire of martyrdom, and by his words and example he converted many infidels to the faith of Christ. Coming to Rome in that Jubilee year in the pontificate of Nicholas V, he was entrusted with the care of the sick in the convent of Ara Coeli. With such loving charity did he acquit himself of this duty that the sick wanted for nothing even during a famine in the city. He also sometimes cleansed their ulcers by sucking them. He was remarkable for his great faith and his gift of healing, for by signing the cross upon the sick with oil from a lamp burning before au image of the Mother of God to whom he had the greatest devotion, he miraculously cured many of them.
At length, when at Alcala, he understood that the end of life was at hand. Clad in an old torn tunic, with his eyes fixed on the cross, he devoutly pronounced these words of the sacred hymn: “O sweet wood, sweet are your nails, and sweet your burden. You were worthy to bear the King and Lord of Heaven!” He then gave up his soul to God on the day before the Ides of November in 1463. His body was left unburied for several months to satisfy the pious devotion of those who came to see it, and as though already clothed with immortality, it exhaled a sweet odour. He was renowned for many striking miracles and was canonised by Pope Sixtus V.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
A humble lay-brother, Didacus of Saint Nicholas, is welcomed today by his father Saint Francis into the company of Bernardine of Siena and John Capistran, who preceded him by a few years to Heaven. The two latter left Italy and the whole of Europe still echoing with their voices, the one making peace between cities in the name of the Lord Jesus, the other urging on the Christian hosts to battle with the victorious Crescent. The age which they contributed so powerfully to save from the results of the great schism and to restore to its Christian destinies knew little of Didacus but his unbounded charity. It was the year of the great Jubilee, 1450. Rome having become once more, practically as well as theoretically, the holy city in the eyes of the nations, not even the most terrible scourges could keep her children at a distance. From every quarter of the globe, crowds, urged by the evils of the time, flocked to the sources of salvation, and Satan’s work of ruin was retarded by seventy years.
Men doubtless attributed but a very small share of such results to the humble brother who was spending himself in the Ara Coeli in the service of the plague-stricken, especially if they compared him with his brethren, the great Franciscan apostles. And yet the Church pays to Didacus today the very same honours as we have seen her pay to Bernardine and John Capistran. What is this but asserting that before God heroic acts of hidden virtue are not inferior to the noble deeds that dazzle the world if, proceeding from the same ardent love, they produce in the soul the same increase of divine charity.
The Pontificate of Nicholas V which witnessed the imposing concourse of people to the tombs of the Apostles in 1450 was also, and still is, justly admired for the new impetus given to the culture of letters and the arts in Rome, for it belongs to the Church to adorn herself for the honour of her Spouse with all that men rightly deem great and beautiful. Nevertheless, who is there now of all the humanists, as the learned men of that age were called, who would not prefer the glory of the poor, unlettered Friar Minor to that which vainly held out to them the hope of immortality? In the fifteenth century, as at all other times, God chose the foolish and the weak to confound the wise and the strong. The Gospel is always in the right.
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“O Almighty, everlasting God, who by an admirable order chooses the weak things of the world that you may confound whatever is strong, mercifully grant to our lowliness that by the pious prayers of blessed Didacus, your Confessor, we may be made worthy to be exalted to everlasting glory in Heaven.” Such is the prayer addressed to God by the Church at all the liturgical Hours on this your feast, O Didacus. Second her supplications, for you are in high favour with Him whom you followed so lovingly along the way of humility and voluntary poverty. A royal road indeed, since it brought you to a throne which far outshines all earthly thrones. Even here below, you far surpass in renown many of your contemporaries, who are now as forgotten as they were once illustrious. Sanctity alone merits crowns that endure through all ages of time and for all eternity, for God is the final awarder, as He is the supreme reason, of all glory, just as in Him lies the principle of all true happiness both for this world and for the next. May we all, after your example and by your assistance, learn this by our own blessed experience!Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Ravenna, the birthday of the holy martyrs Valentine, Solutor and Victor, who suffered under the emperor Diocletian.
At Aix in Province, St. Matrius, a most renowned martyr.
At Caesarea in Palestine, the martyrdom of the Saints Antoninus, Zebina, Germanus and Ennatha, virgin. Ennatha was scourged under Galerius Maximian, and burned alive, while the others, for boldly reproaching the governor Firmilian for his idolatry in sacrificing to the gods, were beheaded.
In Africa, the holy martyrs Arcadius, Paschasius, Probus and Eutychian, Spaniards, who refused absolutely to yield to the Arian perfidy during the persecution of the Vandals. Accordingly they were proscribed by the Arian king Genseric, driven into exile, and finally, after being subjected to fearful tortures, were put to death in various manners. Then was also made manifest the constancy of the small boy Paulillus, brother of the Saints Paschasius and Eutychian. As he could not be seduced from the Catholic faith, he was a long time beaten with rods and condemned to a base servitude.
At Rome, Pope St. Nicholas, distinguished for the apostolic spirit.
At Tours, St. Brice, bishop, a disciple of the blessed bishop Martin.
At Toledo, St. Eugenius, bishop.
At Clermont in Auvergne, St. Quinctian, bishop.
At Cremona, St. Homobonus, confessor, renowned for miracles. He was ranked among the saints by Innocent III.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
