Benedict Joseph Labre

Saint Benedict Joseph Labre TOSF
Born	(1748-03-25)25 March 1748 Amettes,Artois,Kingdom of France
Died	16 April 1783(1783-04-16)(aged 35) Rome,Papal States
Venerated in	Catholic Church
Beatified	20 May 1860, Rome byPope Pius IX
Canonized	8 December 1881, Rome byPope Leo XIII
Majorshrine	Church ofSanta Maria ai Monti Rome, Italy
Feast	16 April
Attributes	tri-cornered hat; alms
Patronage	The Homeless, and those suffering frommental illness.

Benedict Joseph Labre,TOSF (French:Benoît-Joseph Labre,25 March 1748 – 16 April 1783) was a FrenchFranciscan tertiary,andCatholicsaint.Labre was from a well to do family near Arras, France. After attempting a monastic lifestyle, he opted instead for the life of a pilgrim. He traveled to most of the major shrines of Europe, subsisting by begging. Labre is patron saint of the homeless.

Life

Labre was born in 1748 in the village ofAmettes,nearArras,in the formerProvinceofArtoisin the north of France. He was the eldest of fifteen children of a prosperous shopkeeper, Jean-Baptiste Labre, and his wife, Anne Grandsire.

Labre had an uncle, aparish priest,living some distance from his family home; this uncle gladly received him, and undertook his early education for the priesthood. At the age of sixteen, he approached his uncle about becoming aTrappistmonk, but his parents told him he would have to wait until he grew older. When Benedict was about eighteen, an epidemic struck the city, and uncle and nephew busied themselves in the service of the sick. While the uncle took care of the souls and bodies of the people, Benedict went to and fro caring for the cattle. Among the last victims of the epidemic was Labre's uncle.

Benedict Joseph Labre depicted byAntonio Cavallucci(1752–1795)

Labre set off forLa Trappe Abbeyto apply to the Order, but did not come up to their requirements. He was under age, he was too delicate; he had no special recommendations.He later attempted to join theCarthusiansandCistercians,but each order rejected him as unsuitable for communal life. He was, for about six weeks, a postulant with the Carthusians at Neuville. In November 1769 he obtained admission to the Cistercian Abbey of Sept-Fonts. After a short stay at Sept-Fonts his health gave way, and it was decided that his vocation lay elsewhere.

Labre, according to Catholic tradition, experienced a desire, which he considered was given to him by God and inspired by the example ofAlexius of Romeand that of the Franciscan tertiary pilgrim,Saint Roch,to "abandon his country, his parents, and whatever is flattering in the world to lead a new sort of life, a life most painful, most penitential, not in a wilderness nor in a cloister, but in the midst of the world, devoutly visiting as a pilgrim the famous places of Christian devotion."

Labre joined theThird Order of Saint Francisand settled on a life of poverty andpilgrimage.He first traveled toRomeon foot, subsisting on what he could get by begging. He then traveled to most of the major shrines ofEurope,often several times each. He visited the variousshrinesinLoreto,Assisi,Naples,andBariin Italy,EinsiedelninSwitzerland,Paray-le-MonialinFrance,andSantiago de CompostelainSpain.During these trips he would always travel on foot, sleeping in the open or in a corner of a room, with his clothes muddy and ragged. On one occasion he stopped at the farmhouse of Matthieu and Marie Vianney, who would later become the parents ofCuré d'Ars.He lived on what little he was given, and often shared the little he did receive with others. He is reported to have talked rarely, prayed often, and accepted quietly the abuse he received.

In so doing, Labre was following in the role of the mendicant, the "Fool-for-Christ,"found more often in theEastern Church.He spent many hours in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament.He would often swoon when contemplating thecrown of thorns,in particular, and, during these states, it is said he would levitate orbilocate.He was also said to have cured some of the other homeless he met and to have multiplied bread for them. In the last years of his life (his thirties), he lived inRome,for a time living in the ruins of theColosseum,and would leave only to make a yearly pilgrimage to the shrine ofOur Lady of Loreto.He was a familiar figure in the city and known as the "saint of theForty Hours"(orQuarant' Ore) for his dedication toEucharisticadoration.

The day before he died, Labre collapsed on the steps of the church ofSanta Maria ai Monti,blocks from theColosseum,and despite his protestations was charitably taken to a house behind the church at Via dei Serpenti 2. He died there of malnutrition and exhaustion on 16 April 1783,duringHoly Week,and was buried in the Church ofSanta Maria ai Monti.

Veneration

Labre'sconfessor,Marconi, wrote his biography and attributed 136 separate cures to his intercession within three months of his death. Those miracles were instrumental in the conversion of the ReverendJohn Thayer,the first American Protestant clergyman to convert to Catholicism, who was resident in Rome at the time of St. Benedict's death.A cult grew up around him very soon after his death; he was declaredBlessedbyBlessed Pius IXin 1860, andcanonizedbyPope Leo XIIIin 1881.Benedict is patron saint of the homeless.Hisfeast dayis observed on April 16.

• 
  Reliquary bust inBasilica of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse
• 
  Death maskof Benedict Joseph Labre

See also

• Saint Malachy's Church, Belfast.
• Saint Benedict Joseph Labre Parish,Richmond Hill, New York.
• St. Labre Indian Catholic High School
• Eucharistic adoration
• List of Catholic saints
• Saint Benedict Joseph Labre, patron saint archive
• Benedict Labre House,a lay apostolate in Montreal

Sources

• Attwater, Donald and Catherine Rachel John.The Penguin Dictionary of Saints.3rd edition. New York: Penguin Books, 1993.ISBN0-14-051312-4.
• De la Gorce, Agnes.St Benedict Joseph Labre.London: Sheed & Ward, 1952

External links

• Guild of St. Benedict Joseph Labre website