Faithful in Name and in Truth
From a Eulogy for Saint Fidelis of Sigmaringen, priest and martyr (1578 – 1622)
Faithful in name and in truth
Narrated by Frank Dugan, Huntington Beach, California
Pope Benedict XIV praised Fidelis as a confessor of the Catholic faith in these words:
“He practiced the fullness of charity in bringing consolation and relief to his neighbors as well as strangers. With a father’s love he embraced all those who were in trouble. He supported great numbers of poor people with the alms he had collected from every quarter.
“With wealth collected from the powerful and from princes, he comforted widows and orphans in their loneliness. he was always helping prisoners in their spiritual and bodily needs. He showed constant zeal in visiting and comforting the sick whom he would win back to God and prepare for their last struggle.
“The most outstanding example of this meritorious was of life occurred when the Austrian army, stationed in the area of Raetia, was almost totally destroyed by an epidemic. To show compassion he used to bring food for the weak and the dying.”
In addition to this charity, he was faithful in truth as well as in name. his zeal for defending the Catholic faith was unsurpassed and he preached it tirelessly. A few days before he shed his blood to bear witness to his preaching, he gave his last sermon. These are the words he left as a testament; “O Catholic faith, how solid, how strong you are! How deeply rooted, how firmly founded on a solid rock! Heaven and earth will pass away, but you can never pass away. From the beginning the world opposed you, but you mightily triumphed over everything. This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith. It has subjected powerful kings to the rule of Christ; it has bound nations to his service.
“What made the holy apostles and martyrs endure fierce agony and bitter torments, except faith, and especially faith in the resurrection?
“What is it that today makes true followers of Christ cast luxuries aside, leave pleasures behind, and endure difficulties and pain? It is living faith that expresses itself through love. It is this that makes us put aside the goods of the present in the hope of future goods. It is because of faith that we exchange the present for the future.”
Source: The Liturgy of the Hours – Office of Readings
Saint Fidelis (1578 – 1622) was born in the town of Sigmaringen in Germany in 1578. He was educated at the University of Freiburg where he also taught philosophy and studied law. He was tutor for six years to a group of Swabian aristocrats and traveled all over Europe with them. He earned his doctorate in law and became a lawyer. Disenchanted with the excesses of the rich, he gave it all up including all of his wealth, which he gave away to the poor and entered the Order of Friars Minor Capuchins. He was ordained in 1612 and led an austere life of penance, vigils and prayer. Continuously engaged in preaching the word of God, he was commissioned by the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith to preach in the Grisons, Switzerland. While preaching there on April 24, 1622 he was fired upon by an assassin but the bullet missed; however, on the way back he was attacked by a band of heretics and suffered martyrdom at their hands at the age of 44. He was canonized by Pope Benedict XIV in 1746. Below is the eulogy from his funeral.