At Kraków in Poland, Blessed Simon of Lipnica, priest of the Order of Friars Minor, who, renowned for his preaching and his devotion to the name of Jesus, was himself moved by charity to care for those dying of the plague and so met his death.
Beatified: 24 February 1685 by Pope Innocenzo XI
Canonized: 3 June 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI
Memoria liturgica: 18 July
“Most Fervent Preacher”
Simon of Lipnica was born at Lipnica Murowana, in southern Poland, around 1435–1440. His parents, Gregory and Anna, gave him a sound upbringing grounded in the values of the Christian faith and, despite their modest circumstances, took care to provide him with a proper education. Simon grew into a pious and responsible young man, endowed with a natural disposition to prayer and a tender love for the Mother of God.
In 1454, he moved to Cracow to attend the renowned Jagiellonian Academy. It was during those years that John of Capestrano was stirring the city with the holiness of his life and the fervour of his preaching, drawing a great number of generous young men to the Franciscan vocation. On 8 September 1453 the Italian saint had also founded in Cracow the first friary of the Observance, dedicated to Bernard of Siena, who had recently been canonized. For this reason the Friars Minor of that friary were called “Bernardines” by the people.
In 1457, the young Simon too, captivated by the Franciscan ideal, chose to acquire the precious pearl of the Gospel, forsaking a future full of promise. He accordingly asked to be received, together with ten of his fellow students, at the friary of Stradom.
Under the wise guidance of the novice master, Fr. Christopher of Varese, a religious of eminent learning and holiness of life, Simon embraced with generosity the humble and poor life of the Friars Minor, reaching the priesthood around 1460. He exercised his first ministry at the friary of Tarnów, where he served as guardian of the community. He subsequently settled at Stradom (Kraków), devoting himself tirelessly to preaching with a clear word, full of ardour, faith, and wisdom, that revealed his deep union with God and his prolonged study of Sacred Scripture.
Like Bernardino of Siena and John of Capistrano, Friar Simon spread devotion to the Name of Jesus, winning the conversion of innumerable sinners. In 1463, the first among the Friars Minor, he held the office of preacher at Wawel Cathedral. For this dedication to evangelical preaching, the ancient sources bestowed upon him the title predicator ferventissimus.
Wishing to pay homage to Saint Bernardino of Siena, the inspiration of his preaching, on 17 May 1472 he arrived at L’Aquila with several Polish confreres to take part in the solemn translation of the saint’s body to the new church erected in his honor. He returned to Italy in 1478 on the occasion of the general chapter at Pavia. He was then able to fulfill his long-cherished desire to visit the tombs of the Apostles in Rome, and to extend his pilgrimage thereafter to the Holy Land. He lived this experience in a spirit of penance, as a true lover of the Passion of Christ, with the hidden aspiration of shedding his own blood for the salvation of souls, should it so please God. An emulator of Francis in his love for the Holy Places, and mindful of the possibility of being taken captive by unbelievers, before setting out on the journey he wished to learn the Rule of the Order by heart, “so as to have it always before the eyes of the mind.”
Simon’s love for his brethren manifested itself in an extraordinary way in the last year of his life, when a plague epidemic broke out in Cracow. From July 1482 to 6 January 1483 the city lay under the scourge of the disease. Amid the general desolation, the Franciscans of the convent of Saint Bernardino labored tirelessly in the care of the sick, true angels of consolation.
Fr. Simon regarded that time as a “season of grace” in which to exercise charity and bring to completion the offering of his own life. Wherever he went he brought comfort, aid, and the sacraments, and proclaimed the consoling Word of God to the dying. He was soon himself infected. He bore the sufferings of the illness with extraordinary patience, and as the end drew near he expressed the wish to be buried beneath the threshold of the church, so that all might tread upon him. On the sixth day of his illness, 18 July 1482, without fear of death and with his eyes fixed upon the Cross, he rendered his soul to God.