From the Pastor

A Weekly Column by Father George Rutler
Pope Gregory XV canonized a spectacular group on March 12, 1622: Philip Neri, Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier, Teresa of Avila, and Isidore the Farmer. Relations between the Italians and the Spanish were not as happy as they are now, and a Roman wit said the Holy Father had canonized “four Spaniards and a Saint.” There were no boundaries last Sunday when Pope Benedict XVI canonized six vivid per­sonalities from Australia, Canada, Spain, Italy, and Poland.

Each was a hero of persistence in the face of obstacles. Stanislao Soltys (1433-1489) sustained faith in a time of special stress for long distressed Poland. Candida Maria de Jesus y Barriola (1845-1912) and Giulia Salzano (1846-1929) patiently abided the difficulties typically facing founders of religious orders. Battista da Varano, (1458-1524) born a princess, mourned the violent deaths of her father and brothers by the conspiracy of Cesare Borgia, and procedural problems thwarted her canoniza­tion since her beatification in 1843. Mary MacKillop (1842-1909) was excommunicated briefly for exposing corruption. André Bessette (1845-1937) endured ill health and threat of exile when his miraculous gifts elicited both doubts and envy. And yet, after a lifetime as a simple janitor, a million people attended his funeral rites.

The more media-created celebrities distance themselves from God, the more indistinguishable they become one from another. In contrast, the personalities of the saints become more vivid and distinct as they grow in grace. St. Thomas Aquinas said that grace does not destroy nature but perfects it. The Greeks had a system by which they iden­­­t­i­­fied personality types with bodily fluids or “humours.” People tend to be sanguine (friendly), choleric (energetic), melancholic (thoughtful), or phlegmatic (self-content). Everyone is a combination of all these, and personalities develop by how they combine.

God’s grace develops and does not distort these quali­ties. Sanguine saints become friends of God and man, choleric saints become leaders, melancholic saints be­come mystics, and phlegmatic saints become peace­makers. Without grace, the sanguine easily becomes superficial, the choleric over­bearing, the melancholic depressive and the phlegmatic lazy.

However their personalities developed, they attained perfection through humble endurance. St. Paul told St. Timothy to “be persistent whether it is convenient or inconvenient” (2 Timothy 4:2). No one could say that the Apostle to the Gentiles had a bland personality. “I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith” (ibid, 4:7).

The Mother of Our Lord left history very few recorded words, but by perfectly accepting God’s Word, her personality became what Wordsworth called “our tainted nature’s solitary boast.” In her humility she became the masterpiece of art, mother of universities, and muse of highest culture. Last Sunday, the Pope prayed that through the intercession of Virgin Mary and the six new saints “our existence might become a canticle of praise for God.”


Fr. George W. Rutler is the pastor of the Church of our Saviour in New York City. His latest book, Coincidentally: Unserious Reflections on Trivial Connections, is available from Crossroads Publishing.