Paschal Baylon was born of poor and pious parents at Torre-Hermosa, a small town of the Diocese of Seguenza in Aragon, Spain. Even from his infancy he gave many signs of future sanctity. Being endowed with a good disposition and having a great love for the contemplation of heavenly things, he passed the years of boyhood and youth in tending flocks. He loved this kind of life more than any other because it seemed to him best for fostering humility and preserving innocence. He was temperate in his food and assiduous in prayer. He had such influence over his acquaintance and companions and was so dear to them, that he used to settle their disputes, correct their faults, instruct their ignorance, and keep them out of idleness. He was honoured and loved by them as their father and master and even then, was often called the Blessed Paschal. Thus did this flower of the valley bloom in the world — that desert and parched land. But once planted in the house of the Lord, he shed everywhere around him a wondrous odour of sanctity.
Having embraced the severest sort of life by entering the Order of the Discalced Friars Minor of strict observance, Paschal rejoiced as a giant to run his way. Devoting himself wholly to the service of his God, his one thought, both day and night, was how he could further imitate his Divine Master. His brethren, even they that were most advanced, soon began to look on him as a model of seraphic perfection. As for him, he put himself in the grade of the Lay-Brothers. Looking on himself as the off-scouring of all, he, with humility and patience, cheerfully took on himself the most tiring and menial work of the house which work he used to say belonged to him by a special right. He mortified and brought into subjection his flesh which, at times, would strive to rebel against the spirit. As to his spirit, by assiduous self-denial he maintained its fervour and daily stretched himself forward to the things that were more perfect. He had consecrated himself, from his earliest years, to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He honoured her as his Mother by daily devotions, and prayed to her with filial confidence.
His devotion to the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist seemed to linger in his body even after his death, When laid in his coffin his eyes were seen to open and shut twice during the elevation of the sacred host. He publicly and openly professed before heretics his faith in the dogma of the Real Presence, and had much to suffer on that account. His life was frequently attempted, but by a special providence of God he was rescued from those who sought to kill him. Frequently, when at prayer he was in ecstasy and swooned away with the sweetness of love. On these occasions he was supposed to have received that heavenly wisdom by which, though uneducated and illiterate, he was able to give answers on the profoundest mysteries of Faith and write several books. Being rich in merit, he passed to Heaven at the hour which he had foretold: on the sixteenth of the Calends of June (May 17), on the Feast of Pentecost (the same on which he was born), being in his fifty-second year in 1592. These and other virtues having procured him a great reputation and being celebrated for miracles both before and after his death, he was beatified by Pope Paul V and canonised by Alexander VIII.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
At Pisa in Tuscany, the holy martyr Torpes who filled a high office in the court of Nero and was one of those of whom the blessed Apostle St. Paul wrote from Rome to the Philippians: “All the saints salute you, especially those that are of the house of Caesar.” For the faith of Christ, he was, by order of Satellicus, buffeted, cruelly scourged and delivered to the beasts to be devoured, but being uninjured, he at last terminated his martyrdom by decapitation on the twenty-ninth of April. His feast, however, is kept on this day on account of the translation of his body.
The same day, St. Restituta, virgin and martyr, who was subjected to various kinds of tortures in Africa by the judge Proculus in the reign of Valerian, and then put in a boat filled with pitch and tow, to be burnt to death on the sea. But the flame turned on those who had kindled it, and the saint yielded her spirit to God in prayer. Her body was, by divine Providence, carried in the boat to the island of Ischia near Naples, where it was received by Christians with great veneration. A church was afterwards erected in her honour in that city by Constantine the Great.
At Noyon, the holy martyrs Heradius, Paul, and Aquilinus, with two others.
At Chalcedon, the holy martyrs Solochanus and his companions, soldiers under the emperor Maximian.
At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Adrio, Victor and Basilla.
At Wurzburg, St. Bruno, bishop and confessor.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
Having embraced the severest sort of life by entering the Order of the Discalced Friars Minor of strict observance, Paschal rejoiced as a giant to run his way. Devoting himself wholly to the service of his God, his one thought, both day and night, was how he could further imitate his Divine Master. His brethren, even they that were most advanced, soon began to look on him as a model of seraphic perfection. As for him, he put himself in the grade of the Lay-Brothers. Looking on himself as the off-scouring of all, he, with humility and patience, cheerfully took on himself the most tiring and menial work of the house which work he used to say belonged to him by a special right. He mortified and brought into subjection his flesh which, at times, would strive to rebel against the spirit. As to his spirit, by assiduous self-denial he maintained its fervour and daily stretched himself forward to the things that were more perfect. He had consecrated himself, from his earliest years, to the Blessed Virgin Mary. He honoured her as his Mother by daily devotions, and prayed to her with filial confidence.
His devotion to the most holy Sacrament of the Eucharist seemed to linger in his body even after his death, When laid in his coffin his eyes were seen to open and shut twice during the elevation of the sacred host. He publicly and openly professed before heretics his faith in the dogma of the Real Presence, and had much to suffer on that account. His life was frequently attempted, but by a special providence of God he was rescued from those who sought to kill him. Frequently, when at prayer he was in ecstasy and swooned away with the sweetness of love. On these occasions he was supposed to have received that heavenly wisdom by which, though uneducated and illiterate, he was able to give answers on the profoundest mysteries of Faith and write several books. Being rich in merit, he passed to Heaven at the hour which he had foretold: on the sixteenth of the Calends of June (May 17), on the Feast of Pentecost (the same on which he was born), being in his fifty-second year in 1592. These and other virtues having procured him a great reputation and being celebrated for miracles both before and after his death, he was beatified by Pope Paul V and canonised by Alexander VIII.
Dom Prosper Guéranger:
The Seraph of Assisi was sure to depute some of his children to pay their court to his Risen Master. The one he sends today is the humblest and most unknown of men. Another will follow, three days hence, powerful in word and work and holding a palm in his hands, as a most devoted preacher of the Gospel. Paschal BayIon was a simple peasant. He was a shepherd boy, and it was in tending his flock that he found the Lord Jesus. He had a great love for contemplation. Forests and fields spoke to him of their great Creator and, in order that he might be the more closely united with him, he resolved to seek him in the highest paths of perfection.
He was ambitious to imitate the humble, poor and suffering life of the Man-God. The Franciscan cloister offered him all this, and he flew to it. On that blessed soil he grew to be one of Heaven’s choicest plants, and the whole Earth has now heard the name of the humble Lay-Brother of a little convent in Spain. Holy Church brings him before us today, and shows him enraptured in the contemplation of his Jesus’ Resurrection. He had trod the path of humiliation and the cross. It was but just that he should share in his Master’s triumph. It was of him, and of such as he, that this Divine Saviour spoke, when He said: “Ye are they that have continued with me in my temptations; and I dispose to you, as my Father has disposed to me, a Kingdom; that ye may eat and drink at my table, in my Kingdom, and may sit upon thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke, xxii. 28, 29, 30).
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Heaven opened to receive you, Paschal! Even when here below, the fervour of your contemplations often gave you a foretaste of the delights of eternal bliss. But now every veil is drawn aside and you are face-to-face with Him you so ardently desired to possess. You have no further need to unite yourself with Him by humiliation and suffering. What you enjoy, and what He, for all eternity, will have you to enjoy, is His own glory, His own happiness, His own triumph. Deign to cast an eye of pity on us who have not the eagerness you had to walk in our Redeemer’s footsteps and who, as yet, have but the hope of being united with Him for eternity. Get us courage. Get us that love which leads straight to Jesus, which surmounts every obstacle of flesh and blood and gives to man an admirable resemblance to his Divine Model. The pledge of this happy transformation has been given to us by our being permitted to partake of the Paschal Mystery. Oh that it might be perfected by our fidelity in keeping close to our Divine Conqueror and Lord! Though He leaves us some time further in this vale of tears, His eye is ever on us, He longs to see us persevere in our loyalty to Him. Yet a little while, and we will see Him! “Behold!” says he, “come quickly. Hold fast that which you have. Behold! I stand at the gate, and knock. If any man will hear my voice and open to me the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Apocalypse iii. 11, 20). Thus will the Pasch of time be changed into the Pasch of eternity. Pray for us, O Paschal, that, like you, we may hold fast that which by the grace of our Risen Jesus we already possess.Also on this day according to the ROMAN MARTYROLOGY:
At Pisa in Tuscany, the holy martyr Torpes who filled a high office in the court of Nero and was one of those of whom the blessed Apostle St. Paul wrote from Rome to the Philippians: “All the saints salute you, especially those that are of the house of Caesar.” For the faith of Christ, he was, by order of Satellicus, buffeted, cruelly scourged and delivered to the beasts to be devoured, but being uninjured, he at last terminated his martyrdom by decapitation on the twenty-ninth of April. His feast, however, is kept on this day on account of the translation of his body.
The same day, St. Restituta, virgin and martyr, who was subjected to various kinds of tortures in Africa by the judge Proculus in the reign of Valerian, and then put in a boat filled with pitch and tow, to be burnt to death on the sea. But the flame turned on those who had kindled it, and the saint yielded her spirit to God in prayer. Her body was, by divine Providence, carried in the boat to the island of Ischia near Naples, where it was received by Christians with great veneration. A church was afterwards erected in her honour in that city by Constantine the Great.
At Noyon, the holy martyrs Heradius, Paul, and Aquilinus, with two others.
At Chalcedon, the holy martyrs Solochanus and his companions, soldiers under the emperor Maximian.
At Alexandria, the holy martyrs Adrio, Victor and Basilla.
At Wurzburg, St. Bruno, bishop and confessor.
And in other places, many other holy martyrs, confessors and virgins.
Thanks be to God.
