Zurbaran (1640),
Saint Louis Bertrand, 1640, 209 x 154,
Francisco de Zurbarán (1598–1664),
Saint Louis Bertrand, 1640, 209 x 154, Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla
Saint Louis Bertrand
Frère prêcheur à Valence,
en Espagne (+ 1581)
Dominicain espagnol, d'une grande érudition, il voulait travailler à la conversion des infidèles des Indes Occidentales et du Pérou. Quand il fut dans ces pays, il vécut pauvrement pour être plus proche des habitants autochtones. Il fit de nombreuses conversions aussi bien au Pérou qu'à l'île de San Tomé dans les Caraïbes. Mais, lassé par la cruauté, la débauche et l'avarice de la plupart des officiers espagnols qui ainsi contrecarraient la diffusion de l'Évangile, il obtint de revenir à Valence où il fut maître des novices puis prieur. Déjà la maladie l'accablait et sa faiblesse était de plus en plus grande. Il s'endormit comme un rayon de lumière dirent ceux qui assistèrent à sa mort.
À Valence en Espagne, l'an 1601, saint Louis Bertran, prêtre de l'Ordre des
Prêcheurs, qui enseigna l'Évangile du Christ à divers peuples indigènes
d'Amérique du Sud et les défendit contre leurs oppresseurs.
Martyrologe romain
SOURCE : https://nominis.cef.fr/contenus/saint/1989/Saint-Louis-Bertrand.html
_par_Thibaud_Maitrier_-_Saint_Exup%C3%A8re_%C3%A0_Toulouse.jpg)
Thibaud Maistrier, statue de Saint-Louis Bertrand, 1e moitié 17e
siècle, bois peint, Église Saint-Exupère de Toulouse
Church
Saint-Exupère from Toulouse. The statue of St. Louis Bertrand, by Thibaud Maistrier. First half 17th century, painted
wood
Saint Louis Bertrand
Missionnaire dominicain
(1526-1580)
Né en Espagne, à Valence,
où son père professait le notariat, saint Louis Bertrand reçut le baptême sur
les mêmes fonts baptismaux que saint Vincent Ferrier. Ce Saint ne reçut que des
exemples de charité et de foi de toute sa famille. A l'âge de sept ans, il
organisait de petites retraites dans quelque coin où rien ne pouvait le
divertir de la pensée du bon Dieu. Son enfance toute pieuse fit présager de sa
sainteté future. Adolescent, plutôt que de se joindre aux amusements des jeunes
gens de son âge, Louis Bertrand préférait visiter les malades et s'appliquait à
les secourir.
Le jeune Louis ne tarda
pas à revêtir l'habit clérical. Entré dans l'Ordre de St-Dominique, il fut un
exemple de toutes les vertus religieuses dès le noviciat, et malgré sa
complexion délicate, il ne cessa jamais d'être le plus ardent à toutes les
observances régulières. Ses parents alléguèrent le prétexte de sa santé fragile
pour l'inciter à abandonner la vie religieuse, mais Louis leur répondit qu'il
aimait mieux mourir que de quitter son monastère.
Bien qu'il se jugea
profondément indigne de la grâce du sacerdoce, Louis Bertrand fut ordonné
prêtre à l'âge de vingt-trois ans. Lorsqu'il reçut la charge de maître des novices,
il prit comme résolution et devise cette courte sentence d'un grand équilibre
spirituel: "Douceur de mère, autorité de père."
En 1576, après avoir
merveilleusement transformé son couvent et la ville de Valence par ses vertus
et ses prédications, Louis Bertrand s'embarqua à Séville avec d'autres
religieux qui partageaient son idéal d'évangéliser les Indiens d'Amérique.
Après avoir surmonté les périls d'une effroyable tempête, le navire aborda en
Nouvelle-Grenade, appelée aujourd'hui Colombie. Il y opéra un bien immense
ainsi que chez les indigènes du Pérou. Les missionnaires ignoraient tout de la
langue indigène, mais saint Louis Bertrand se fit comprendre d'eux par miracle,
sans aucune difficulté, en parlant uniquement espagnol.
Comme le nombre des convertis
augmentait chaque jour, les ennemis de la foi tentèrent de se débarrasser de
l'ardent apôtre en l'empoisonnant. Les assassins se réjouissaient déjà de sa
mort, lorsqu'ils virent le Saint venir à leur rencontre en souriant. Un
revirement complet se produisit alors subitement en eux. Regrettant sincèrement
leur infâmie, ils implorèrent leur pardon et réclamèrent le baptême.
Louis Bertrand dut
retourner en Espagne sur l'ordre de ses supérieurs. Durant douze ans, il prêcha
dans son pays natal, luttant contre le mal, propageant avec zèle la dévotion au
rosaire et s'appliquant à former des religieux à l'esprit de prière et à
l'humilité, vertus qu'il leur recommandait avant toutes autres.
Accablé par les
infirmités, saint Louis Bertrand s'en réjouissait et répétait comme saint
Augustin: "Brûlez, déchirez Seigneur, mais pardonnez-moi!" Dans sa
dernière maladie, il ne perdit jamais patience ni courage. Dieu le réconforta
par des visions et la révélation des douleurs de la Passion de Son divin Fils.
C'est dans des transports et des effusions d'amour qu'il rendit son âme à son
Seigneur, le 9 octobre 1580.
Résumé O.D.M.
SOURCE : http://magnificat.ca/cal/fr/saints/saint_louis_bertrand.html
Gregorio De Ferrari (–1726), I SS. Rosa da Lima, Vincenzo Ferrer e Luigi Bertràn, San Domenico / Saint Dominic monastery (Taggia)
Saint Louis Bertrand (†
1581)
Dominicain espagnol,
d'une grande érudition, il voulait travailler à la conversion des infidèles des
Indes Occidentales et du Pérou. Né à Valence, le 1er janvier 1526, Louis
Bertrand prit l'habit de l'Ordre le 26 août 1544. Prêtre en 1547, il fut
assigné en 1548 au couvent de Llombay et se vit confier presqu'aussitôt la
charge de maître des novices, ce qui le confirma dans ses penchants personnels
à l'austérité. A en croire son hagiographe, c'est sur sa propre demande que
semblent se prendre les orientations successives de son existence religieuse. Maître
des novices, il voulait aller à Salamanque pour y refaire des études:
l'autorisation lui fut refusée et il revint à Valence. C'est de là qu'il partit
en 1562 comme missionnaire sur le territoire de l'actuelle Colombie. Là, il
déploya une intense activité apostolique, baptisant de très nombreux indiens.
Dans son procès en canonisation, il a été raconté qu'il avait le don des
langues, pouvant ainsi se faire comprendre des populations locales, et qu'il
avait aussi échappé à de nombreuses tentatives d'assassinat.
Pendant sept ans, il y
déploya une activité missionnaire dont les détails demeurent peu connus. Au
dire des témoins du procès de canonisation, cet apostolat fut marqué de toutes
sortes de prodiges. De retour en Espagne, le 18 octobre 1569, il acheva sa vie
à Valence, où il seconda les activités pastorales de l'archevêque Juan de
Ribere. Il y mourut le 9 octobre 1581.
• Béatifié le 19 juin
1581 par le Pape Paul V, il fut canonisé le 12 avril 1671 par le Pape Clément X
en même temps que Sainte Rose de Lima, François Borgia, et Philippe Benizi.
• Il est le saint patron de la Colombie Sa fête est fixée au 9 octobre
SOURCE : http://www.dominicains.ca/Histoire/Figures/bertrand.htm
134.
St. Louis Bertrán
The 140 Saints of the Colonnade. St. Louis Bertrán. Born - 1 January 1526. Died
- 9 October 1581. Feastday - 9 October. Canonized - 1671 by Pope Clement X. Statue
created - c.1672-1673. Part of a group of 16 installed between August 1670 and March 1673. Sculptor -
:Lazzaro Morelli (1619-1690). Height - 3.1 m. (10ft 4in) travertine. Dressed in the Dominican habit with a tonsure on his head, he raises his right
hand while holding a crucifix in his left. A Spanish Dominican who worked in
Colombia and Panama, and also in the Leeward Islands, he was known as the
Apostle of the Americas, and is a patron of Colombia. After his
missionary work, he returned to Spain to plead the cause of the oppressed
Indians. SOURCE : https://stpetersbasilica.info/Exterior/Colonnades/Saints/St%20Louis%20Bertrand-134/StLouisBertrand.htm
Also
known as
Apostle of Colombia
Apostle of South America
Lewis Bertrand
Luis Beltran
Profile
Relative of Saint Vincent
Ferrer. Deeply religious from childhood,
Louis joined the Dominicans in 1544 at
age 18. Ordained in 1547 at
age 21. Noted preacher. Master of novices for
30 years. Worked with plague victims
in 1557.
Friend of Saint Teresa
of Avila, and helped her reform her order. Missionary to Central and South
America, and to the Caribbean;
Louis expected to be martyred.
He survived a poisoning attacks by local shamans, and reported to have converted 15,000. Prophet, miracle worker,
and may have had the gift of tongues. After seven years of work, Louis returned
to Spain to
report on the bad actions of Spaniards in
the region; he was re-assigned to preaching and training novices in Valencia.
Born
1 January 1526 at Valencia, Spain
9 October 1581 of
natural causes at Valencia, Spain
buried in
the church of
Saint Stephen in Valencia
the church was burned in 1936 during
the Spanish
Civil War
12 April 1671 by Pope Clement
X
Colombia (proclaimed
by Pope Alexander
VIII)
chalice surmounted
by a serpent
extinguishing a fire
holding a chalice occupied
by a serpent (represents
the attempts to poison him)
holding a cross
Additional
Information
Book
of Saints, by the Monks of
Ramsgate
Lives of the Saints, by Father Alban
Butler
Lives
of the Saints, by Father Francis
Xavier Weninger
Purgatory
Explained, book 1, chapter 5
Saints
and Saintly Dominicans, by Blessed Hyacinthe-Marie
Cormier, O.P.
books
Our Sunday Visitor’s Encyclopedia of Saints
Oxford Dictionary of Saints, by David Hugh Farmer
Saints
and Their Attributes, by Helen Roeder
other
sites in english
1001 Patron Saints and Their Feast Days, Australian
Catholic Truth Society
images
video
sitios
en español
Martirologio Romano, 2001 edición
fonti
in italiano
Dicastero delle Cause dei Santi
nettsteder
i norsk
Readings
O Christ, our King, most
meek and kind,
Do Thou possess our inmost mind,
That we may render Thee our praise
Through every moment of our days.
– Saint Louis
Bertrand
MLA
Citation
“Saint Louis
Bertrand“. CatholicSaints.Info. 25 April 2024. Web. 1 December 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/saint-louis-bertrand/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saint-louis-bertrand/
Lienzo
de S. Luis Beltrán en el retablo de la Consolación
Paintings of Saint Louis
Bertrand ; Paintings
of the Church of San Francisco de Asís, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Book of Saints –
Louis Bertrand
(Saint)
(October
9) (16th
century) Born at Valencia (A.D. 1526) and a blood relation of Saint Vincent
Ferrer; like him, he took the habit of the Order of Saint Dominic. Like him
too, he was animated with the spirit of an Apostle and fired with the zeal of a
reformer. His life was spent in preaching in Spain and in South America. For
seven years he successfully evangelised the Indians in the Spanish Colonies in
the New World. He is said to have baptised ten thousand of them in Panama and
neighbouring provinces. He died at Valencia, October 9, A.D. 1581.
MLA
Citation
Monks of Ramsgate. “Louis
Bertrand”. Book of Saints, 1921. CatholicSaints.Info.
8 November 2014. Web. 2 December 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-louis-bertrand/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/book-of-saints-louis-bertrand/
%2C_RP-P-BI-543.jpg)
Heilige
Ludovicus Beltrán met crucifix knielt tussen engelen S. Ludovicus Bertrandus
ordinis praedicatorum Hispanus obiit 9 octobris 1581
New
Catholic Dictionary – Saint Luis Bertran
Confessor (1526-81),
Apostle of South America, born Valencia, Spain, 1526; died there
1581. He joined the Dominican
Order, 1544, was ordained 1547, and for 30 years served as master of the
novices. He exhibited heroic charity during the plague of 1557. An eloquent
preacher, inspired with the hope of martyrdom,
he requested to be sent to Central America. His labors in Panama and Colombia
were astonishingly successful, but after seven years he was recalled to Spain
to assume a position of responsibility in his order. Represented extinguishing
a fire; holding a cross, and a chalice surmounted by a serpent. Canonized, 1674. Feast, 9
October.
MLA
Citation
“”. New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info.
11 August 2018. Web. 2 December 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-saint-luis-bertran/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-saint-luis-bertran/
San
Luis Bertrán, de la escuela de Luis Salvador Carmona; capilla y retablo de San
Pío V en la iglesia de San Pablo, Valladolid.
St. Louis Bertrand
Feastday: October 9
Patron: of Buñol; New Granada; Colombia
Birth: 1526
Death: 1581
Louis was born in Valencia Spain,
in a family of
nine children. His good parents brought
him up well, and he became a Dominican priest. He was very severe as a master
of the novices, but even though he did not have a good sense
of humor, he taught the novices to give themselves completely to God. When
first he began to preach, it did not seem as though he would be very
successful, but his deep love for souls brought great results. At the age of
thirty-six, St. Louis left for South America. He stayed in the New World only
about six years, but in that short time, this great apostle baptized
thousands of persons. Although he knew only Spanish, God gave
him the gift of tongues, so that when he spoke, all the different tribes of
Indians understood him. Yet his apostolate was not without dangers. A tribe
called the Caribs of
the Leeward Islands even tried to poison the saint when he visited them to
preach the gospel of Our Lord. Once he was called back to Spain, St. Louis
trained other preachers, teaching them to prepare themselves by fervent prayer,
first of all. The last two years of his life were
full of painful sufferings, but still he kept preaching. Finally he was carried
from the pulpit to
his bed, and he never left it again, for he died eighteen months later.
His feast day is
October 9.
SOURCE : https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=709
San
Ludovico Bertran, dipinto, San Domenico di Siena, convento
Paintings of Saint Louis Bertrand ; Basilica of San Domenico (Siena) - Convent
St. Louis Bertrand
Born at Valencia, Spain,
1 Jan., 1526; died 9 Oct., 1581. His patents were Juan Bertrand and
Juana AngelaExarch. Through his father he
was related to the illustrious St. Vincent Ferrer, the great
thaumaturgus of the Dominican
Order. The boyhood of the saint was
unattended by any of the prodigies that frequently forecast heroic sanctity.
At an early age he conceived the idea of
becoming a Friar Preacher, and despite the efforts of his father to
dissuade him, was clothed with the Dominican habit in
the Convent of St. Dominic, Valencia,
26 Aug., 1544. After the usual probation, in which he distinguished himself
above all his associates in the qualities of an ideal religious,
he pronounced the vows that
irrevocably bound him to the life of perfection. The profound
significance of his religious
profession served as a stimulus to the increase
of virtues that already gave evidence of being cast in heroic mould.
In demeanour he was grave and apparently without any sense of humour, yet
withal possessed of a gentle and sweet disposition that greatly endeared him to
those with whom he came in contact. While he could lay no claim to
the great intellectual gifts and
ripe scholarship that have distinguished so many of the saints of
the Dominican
order, he applied himself assiduously to study, and stored
his mind with thesacred truths expounded
in the pages of the "Summa".
In 1547 he was advanced to the priesthood by
the Archbishop of Valencia, St.
Thomas of Villanova.
The extraordinary sanctity of
the young Dominican's life,
and the remarkable influence he exercised on those about him, singled him out
as one peculiarly fitted to lead others along the path of perfection.
Consequently, he was appointed to the most responsible office of master
of novices,
in the convent at Valencia,
the duties of
which he discharged at different intervals for an aggregate of thirty years.
The plague that decimated the inhabitants of Valencia and the vicinity in
1557, afforded the saint an
excellent opportunity for the exercise of his charity andzeal.
Tirelessly he ministered to the spiritual and physical
needs of the afflicted. With the tenderness anddevotion of a mother he
nursed the sick. The dead he prepared for burial and interred with
his own hands. When the plague had subsided, the zeal of
the holy novice-master sought to extend the scope of his already
largeministry into the apostolate of preaching. Though possessed of none
of the natural qualities deemed essential for a
successful career in the pulpit,
he immediately attracted attention as a preacher of great force and
far-reaching influence. The cathedral and
most capacious churches were placed at his disposal, but proved wholly
inadequate to accommodate the multitude that desired to hear him. Eventually it
became necessary for
him to resort to the public squares of the city. It was probably the fame of
his preaching that brought him to the attention of St.
Teresa, who at this time sought his counsel in the matter of
reforming her order.
Unknown to his
brethren, St. Louis had long cherished the desire to enter the
mission fields of the New
World. The hope that there he might find
the coveted crown of martyrdom contributed
not a little to sharpening the edge of his
desire. Possessed of the necessary permission
he sailed for America in 1562, and landed at Cartagena,
where he immediately entered upon the career of a missionary. The work thus
begun was certainly fruitful to an extraordinary degree, and bore unmistakably
the stamp of Divine approbation.
The process of his canonization bears
convincing testimony to the wonderful conquest which the saint achieved
in this new field of labour. The Bull of canonization asserts
that, to facilitate the work
of converting the natives to God,
the apostlewas miraculously endowed with
the gift of tongues. From Cartagena, the scene of his first
labours, St. Louis was sent to Panama,
where in a comparatively short time he converted some
6,000 Indians. His next mission was atTubera, situated near the sea-coast
and midway between the city of Cartagena and
the Magdalena River. The success of his efforts at this place
is witnessed by the entries of the baptismal registers,
in the saint's own
handwriting. These entries show that all the inhabitants of the place were
received into the Church by St.
Louis. Turon places the number of converts in Tubera at
10,000. What greatly enhances the merit of this wonderful achievement
is that all had been adequately instructed in the teachings of the Church before
receiving baptism,
and continued steadfast in their faith.
From Tubera the Apostle bent
his steps in the direction of Cipacoa and Paluato. His success at the
former place, the exact location of which it is impossible to determine, was
little inferior to that of Tubera. At Paluato the results of
his zealous efforts
were somewhat disheartening. From this unfruitful soil the saint withdrew
to the province of St. Martha, where his former successes were
repeated. This harvest yielded 15,000 souls.
While labouring at St Martha, a tribe of 1500 Indians came
to him from Paluato to implore the grace of baptism,
which before they had rejected. The work at St. Martha finished, the tireless
missionary undertook the work ofconverting the warlike Caribs,
probably inhabitants of the Leeward Islands. His efforts among these fierce
tribesmen seem not to have been attended with any great success. Nevertheless,
the apostolate among theCaribs furnished the occasion again to make
manifest the Divine protection which constantly overshadowed
theministry of St. Louis. A deadly draught was administered to him by
one of the native priests.
Through Divine interposition, the virulent poison failed to accomplish its
purpose, thus fulfilling the words of St. Mark: "If they shall drink
any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them" (xvi, 18). Teneriffe next
became the field of the saint'sapostolic labours.
Unfortunately, however, there are no records extant to indicate what was the
result of his preaching. At Mompax, thirty-seven leagues south-east
of Carthagena, we are told, rather indefinitely, that many thousands
were converted to the Faith. Several of the West India islands,
notably those of St. Vincent and St. Thomas, were visited
by St. Louis in his indefatigable quest for souls.
After an apostolate the
marvellous and enduring fruits of which have richly merited for
him the title of Apostle of South America, he returned
under obedience to his native Spain,
which he had left just seven years before. During the eleven
remaining years of his life many offices of honour and
responsibility were imposed upon him. The numerous duties that
attached to them were not permitted to interfere with the exacting regime of
his holylife. The ever increasing fame of his sanctity and
wisdom won the admiration and confidence of even the officials of the
Government, who more than once consulted him in affairs of State. With the
heroic patience that characterized his whole life he endured
the ordeal of his last sickness. He was canonized by Clement
X in 1671. His feast is
observed on 10 October.
Sources
WILBERFORCE, The
Life of St. Louis Bertrand (London, 1882); TOURON, Histoire des Hommes
Illustres de l'Ordre de Saint Dominique (Paris, 1747), IV 485-526; ROZE, Les
Dominicains en Amérique (Paris, 1878), 290-310; BYRNE, Sketches of
illustrious Dominicans (Boston, 1884), 1-95.
O'Connor, John
Bonaventure. "St. Louis Bertrand." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol.
9. New York: Robert Appleton Company,1910. 4 Apr.
2015 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09376b.htm>.
Transcription. This
article was transcribed for New Advent by Albert Judy, O.P.
Ecclesiastical
approbation. Nihil Obstat. October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.
Copyright © 2023 by Kevin Knight.
Dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09376b.htm
.jpg)
Pedro Rodriguez de Miranda (1696–1766),
Encuentro de Agustín Adorno con San Luis Beltrán en
Valencia, circa 1738, 242 x 337, Museo del Prado. Depositado en el Lleida
Museum
October 9
St. Lewis Bertrand,
Confessor
LEWIS was the son of
John Lewis Bertrand, a royal notary, and was born at Valencia in Spain on the
1st of January, 1526. He was the eldest of nine children, who, being all
remarkable for their piety, were a proof how deep root virtue takes in the
hearts of youth when it is imprinted in them by the good example and early
instructions of pious parents. Lewis from his infancy loved retirement, prayed
much and with fervour, and practised mortifications of which his tender age
seemed almost incapable. He ate very little, shunned all frivolous amusements
and recreations, and whatever served to flatter the senses in diet or other
things; and, when he could deceive the vigilance of his mother, he slept on the
bare ground. He was often found on his knees in some secret part of the house,
and seemed by his teachable disposition and sincere humility of soul to have
inherited the spirit of St. Vincent Ferrer, to whom he was related by blood.
When he went abroad to the schools, he redoubled his watchfulness over himself,
lest necessary commerce with the world should weaken the sentiments of piety in
his breast. He never lost sight of the divine presence, and, seeking the Lord
in the simplicity of his heart, he desired to hear his voice in pious books and
devout prayer, which he made his most familiar entertainment. He sought no
company but that of the virtuous. At fifteen years of age he desired to take
the religious habit among the Dominicans. His father opposed his inclination on
account of the tenderness of his age and constitution; and the prior of that
Order at Valencia could not but pay a regard to his remonstrance. These delays
only increased the ardour of the postulant’s desires. The next prior was the
celebrated F. John Mico, who had been brought up a poor shepherd in the
mountains of Albaida, in which employment he had learned to contemplate God in
the works of the creation. By repeating to his fellow-shepherds the
instructions he learned from pious books and sermons, he induced many to
embrace the practice of perfect virtue. He afterwards became an eminent doctor
among the Dominican friars, introduced a reform of that Order in Spain, was a
great preacher, and an apostle of some of the Moors in Spain. He wrote several
works of piety and holy meditations, full of unction and science in the
interior life. 1 This
great servant of God gave the habit to young Bertrand, and conducted the
fervent novice in the path of true virtue by the love of the cross and
humiliations, the contempt of earthly things, and the exercises of obedience,
humility, and charity; teaching him that a soul gains more advantages by
patience in spiritual dryness and privations, than by consolations and
supernatural favours.
When the saint was
ordained priest he usually said mass every day; he prepared himself to offer
that adorable sacrifice by spending always some hours in prayer and in
exercises of holy compunction, by which and often by the sacrament of
confession, he endeavoured diligently to purify his soul from the least stains
it might have contracted, to correct the least irregularities and disorders
which easily steal into our affections, and to cleanse them from all the poison
of self-love which is so apt secretly to infect them. For being filled with a
holy dread of the divine judgments, and the deepest sense and awe of the
infinite justice, sanctity, and purity of God, with the most innocent life he
joined the practice of the most severe constant penance. And he seemed desirous
to set no bounds to the fervour of his compunction before he approached the
holy mysteries. His angelical modesty, the ardour of his love, the impression
of which seemed to appear in his countenance, and the torrents of tears which
he usually shed at the altar, inspired with tender devotion all persons that
heard his mass. Being made master of novices in 1551, both by his example and
words he taught them sincerely and perfectly to renounce the world and their
own will, to conceive an entire distrust in themselves, and by a spirit of
prayer closely to unite their souls to God. The saint’s talents did not at
first appear promising for the pulpit; nevertheless, being employed in that
sacred function, he overcame all difficulties, and his discourses produced
incredible fruit, because they were animated with zeal and charity, and
breathed a spirit of sincere piety and humility. In 1557, a pestilence raging
in the kingdom of Valencia, the saint knew no danger, and spared no pains in
exhorting and assisting the sick, and in burying the dead. He who cheerfully
exposed his life for his brethren during this calamity, when it was over,
obtained of his superiors, by earnest importunities, leave to preach the gospel
to the savages in America, which was a most painful and dangerous mission.
St. Lewis embarked at
Seville in 1562, with another friar of his Order; and during the voyage, by his
daily exhortations and instructions, he brought all the sailors to a
reformation of their lives. The vessel in which he sailed landed in Golden
Castile, in South America, and the Saint repaired to the convent of his Order
in that province. Without the least thought of allowing himself any rest, or
taking any refreshment after the fatigues of his journey, he prepared himself
by severe fasts and watchings to open his mission. During the course of his
mission in those parts he lay often in the open air, and usually on the ground,
or on pieces of wood, which formed rather a rack than a bed; by refusing the
ordinary succours which missionaries in those parts furnish themselves with, he
often suffered the utmost severities of hunger and other inconveniences. The
gifts of tongues, of prophecy, and of miracles, were favors conferred by heaven
on this new apostle, as the authentic history of his life, and the bull of his
canonization, assure us. In the isthmus of Panama, the island of Tobago, and
the province of Carthagena, in the space of three years, he converted to Christ
above ten thousand souls, and baptized all the inhabitants of the city of
Tubara, and the places adjoining. He then preached with like fruit at Cipacoa.
The savages at Paluato, still more enslaved to their passions than to their
idols, resisted the light of heaven. The prayers, tears, and mortifications
which the saint offered up for them seemed at that time to be lost; but
afterwards produced the most plentiful harvest. In that manner it pleases God
frequently to try the patience and perseverance of his most faithful ministers.
The next mission which the saint undertook was among the Caribbees, who are
looked upon as the most brutal, barbarous, and unteachable people of the human
race. The holy preacher making no account of the sacrifice of his life,
penetrated alone through the forests, and over the mountains of Guiana, which
they inhabit; neither was the divine seed altogether barren among these
barbarians, and several even of their priests were baptized by our saint. The
inhabitants of the mountains of St. Martha received him as an angel sent from heaven,
and he baptized there about fifteen thousand persons. One thousand five hundred
Indians followed him thither from Paluato, and having been instructed in the
faith, were baptized by him and his companions. In the country of Monpaia, and
in the isle of St. Thomas, the saint gained a new people to Christ, and new
triumphs to the Church. Heaven protected him more than once from all attempts
made upon his life by poison, the sword, and other ways. He foretold many
things to come, and in the city of Carthagena raised a dead woman to life.
Pierced to the quick to see the avarice and cruelty of several Spanish
adventurers in the Indies, and not being able to find any means of putting a
stop to those evils, he was desirous to seek redress in Spain; and about that
time he was recalled thither by his superiors. He sailed from Carthagena in
America, and arrived at Seville in 1569, whence he returned to Valencia. He was
appointed successively prior of two convents of his Order, and wonderfully
revived in them both the primitive spirit of their holy founder. Among many
other predictions he foretold the conversion of John Adorno, a noble Genoese,
and that he would institute a new religious Congregation; which was verified by
that of the Regular Clerks, called Minors, whom he afterwards founded. St.
Teresa consulted St. Lewis, and received great comfort from his advice under
her greatest difficulties. When she wrote to him about her design of
establishing a reformation of the Carmelite Order, he sent her the following answer:
“Because the honour of God is highly concerned in your intended undertaking, I
took some time to recommend it to him by my poor prayers. For this reason I
deferred so long my answer. I now bid you take courage in the name of the Lord,
who will favour you. It is in his name that I assure you your reformation will
be, within the space of fifty years, one of the most illustrious Orders in the
Church.”
St. Lewis preached the
divine word during twelve years, without intermission, in several dioceses in
Spain. He trained up many excellent preachers, who succeeded him in the
ministry of the word in that and the following ages. The first lesson he gave
them was, that humble and fervent prayer must always be the principal
preparation of the preacher; for words without works will never have the power
to touch or change hearts. Words must be animated by the spirit of prayer, and
must derive their force and efficacy from this source, or they will be little
more than an empty sound. A want of feeling in the preacher never fails to
leave the hearers cold, how much soever his eloquence may tickle their ears;
and as for those who court applause, and preach themselves rather than the word
of God, their studied affectation or vanity alienates and disgusts those that
hear them; but the language of the heart is almost irresistible. Our saint
inculcated that preachers must not judge of the fruit of their sermons by the
applause of men, but by their tears, and by the change of their manners. If,
said he, they lay aside enmities, forgive injuries, avoid the occasions of sin
and scandals, and reform their conduct by your discourses, then say that the
good seed has fallen on a good soil; but give all glory to God alone, and
acknowledge yourselves unprofitable servants. 2 He
first practised these rules himself, especially by cultivating in his soul the
most profound humility, and an eminent spirit of prayer. His humility never
appeared more remarkable than when it was put to the most dangerous trial
amidst the greatest honours. When all persons with loud acclamations called him
a saint and an apostle, and treated him with the highest esteem, then the fear
of the divine judgments made the deepest impression upon his soul. With his
apostolic labours he joined assiduous prayer and abundant tears for the
conversion of sinners; and in this he earnestly exhorted all devout Christians
to join him, and to call in all the mourners of the earth, and all creatures,
that by their united loud cries and perseverance they might move the tender
bowels of the divine mercy to compassion for so many souls that are blind
amidst the greatest spiritual miseries, and sport themselves, without thinking
of their danger, on the brink of eternal perdition. His thirst for their
salvation made him cheerfully meet all dangers, and regard labours and fatigues
as the greatest pleasures. Crosses were always his joy, and his continual
austerities and penance made his whole life a long martyrdom. The two last
years of his life he was afflicted with painful colics, and frequent fevers,
under which it was his constant prayer to say with St. Austin; “Here cut, here
burn, here spare not, that I may find mercy for eternity.” Under his
infirmities it was wonderful with what zeal and alacrity he continued his
penitential austerities, and his apostolic labours. In 1580 he preached the
Lent at Xativa, and went thence to preach in the cathedral at Valencia, where
he was carried sick from the pulpit to the bed, from which he never rose.
Amidst the tears of all about him he appeared cheerful at the approach of
death, having foretold the very day to several friends in secret, almost a year
before; in particular to the archbishop of Valencia, and the prior of the
Carthusians. The archbishop would attend the saint during his illness, and
administered his remedies and broths with his own hand. The holy man gave up
his soul to God amidst his prayers, in company with all the brethren of his
convent, on the 9th of October, 1581, being fifty-five years old. Many
miraculous cures attested his favor with God. He was beatified by Paul V. in
1608, and canonized by Clement X. in 1671. See the bull of his canonization,
and his life written by F. Vincent Justinian Antist, Dominican of Valencia,
printed at Saragossa and Valencia in 1582; and again most accurately by John
Lopez, bishop of Monopolis. See also Touron, Hommes Illustr. t. 4. p. 485.
Note 1. Part of F.
Mico’s meditations are translated into English. [back
Note 2. At that time
there flourished in the same Order in Spain two other eminent servants of God,
who, by their learning, zealous labours, and experience in an interior life,
exceedingly promoted the cause of true piety: F. Lewis of Granada, and
Bartholomew de Martyribus. The former was born at Granada, of mean parentage,
in 1504, and was indebted for his education to the Marquis of Mondejar. In the
year 1524, the nineteenth of his age, he took the religious habit in the
Dominican’s convent in Granada, which had been then lately founded by King
Ferdinand. The young novice studied in all things to have no other view than
the glory of God. All his moments were consecrated to prayer and the other
exercises of his holy state. His external employments and his studies seemed,
by his constant recollection and attention to the divine presence, as it were,
a continued prayer. He spoke very little, meditated much, and though he read
all good authors to store in his mind a treasure of whatever seemed beautiful,
solid, or useful in their works, he was much more solicitous to digest what he
read, and to render all his knowledge clear, just, regular, and methodical. And
it was his chiefest care to make everything subservient to devotion and piety.
In the excellent rules which he lays down for the method of religious persons
applying themselves to studies, he laments that great numbers by them suffer
shipwreck of their devotion. For as the male children of the Israelites in
Egypt were no sooner brought into life, but by the order of Pharaoh they were
drowned; so these souls drown in such studies the spirit of devotion which they
had just begun to conceive. To prevent this dreadful abuse, he will have such
students to be sincerely persuaded that these studies often wound our souls,
and inspire a science which puffs up; to guard against which evil they must
continually lament the miserable necessity which we lie under of listening
sometimes to the masters of this world for our improvement in necessary
science, whilst we ought to listen to God alone by meditating on his divine
word. The dangerous wounds of these studies are only to be avoided by keeping
our mind closely united to God in them, and by always remembering that, to
divest ourselves of the old man, and to put on the new, is not an affair of
small importance, or the work of a few days, but requires our utmost and most
constant application. (See Granada, Tr. on Prayer, part 2, § viii. c. 4.) This
holy man had preached many years to himself in solitude, applying to himself,
and imprinting deeply in his own soul, the most perfect maxims of all Christian
virtues, before he began to announce the same to others. This he afterwards did
with incredible fruit, chiefly at Granada, Valadolid, Evora, and Lisbon.
Cardinal Henry, infant of Portugal, archbishop of Evora, with much difficulty
drew this apostolic man to that city, and committed to him the direction of his
conscience, and of all his important affairs. Queen Catharine, regent of
Portugal, afterwards chose him her confessor and counsellor, and obliged him to
reside at Lisbon. Inflexible was his constancy in refusing all ecclesiastical
dignities, especially the archbishopric of Braga, which burden he contrived to
put on the shoulders of his colleague, the celebrated Bartholomew de
Martyribus, whom he obliged, as his provincial, to accept the same. The dignity
of cardinal was modestly shunned by Lewis with no less resolution. He died on
the 31st of December, in 1588. His first work was his excellent Treatise on
Prayer, than which few books of this kind are extant more useful. The Sinner’s
Guide he composed in 1555, whilst he was prior at Badajos, which of all his
works is the best written, and has been blessed with incredible success in the
conversion of innumerable souls. All who aspire to the happiness of truly
serving God, will find, in the serious perusal of this work, the strongest
incentives to fervour. It was followed by his Memorial of a Christian Life, by
his Meditations, and other such treatises. To instruct preachers in the rules
proper for discharging that important duty, he wrote his Church Rhetoric, full
of excellent remarks, as is set forth in the preface to the French translation.
In his book, On the Conversion of the Indians, he instructs the missionaries in
what manner they ought gently to insinuate the Christian truths into the minds
of infidels, beginning by the moral precepts, and the motives of credibility
before the mysteries are expounded.
The works of this eminent, contemplative, and apostolical man have been translated into most languages of Europe; also into the Persian, Chinese, and those both of the East and West Indies, and were commended by an express brief of Pope Gregory XIII. and by St. Francis of Sales, (l. 1, ep. 34,) who advises every clergyman to procure them, to make them his second breviary; and daily to meditate on some part or other of them, beginning with the Sinner’s Guide, then proceeding to the Memorial, after this to the rest in order. This, he says, was the practice of St. Charles Borromeo, who preached no other theology than what he learned chiefly in these books, and who, in a letter to Pope Pius IV. prefers the works of Granada to all others of the kind. See Touron, (Hist. des Hommes Illustr. t. 4, p. 558,) Echard, (Bibl. Script. Ord. S. Domin. t. 2, p. 288,) and the Life of Lewis of Granada, prefixed to the Latin edition of his works in three large volumes in folio. In the first we have his excellent large and small Catechism; his Method of catechising the Indians; Common-place Books on Pious Subjects; and his Church Rhetoric on the method of preaching. In the second tome are contained Sermons, and other moral Tracts. In the third, the Sinner’s Guide, Treatise on Prayer, on the Eucharist, Memorial of a Christian Life, the Discipline of a Spiritual life; on the Incarnation, on Scruples, the Life of the Ven. John of Avila, some time his master in a spiritual life, &c. The French edition of his works in 8vo. is in request. F. Lewis died on the 31st of December, 1518, aged eighty-four.
Dom Bartholomew de Martyribus received this surname from the church in which he was baptized at Lisbon, in which city he was born in 1514, of pious parents, whose favourite virtues were devotion, and a boundless charity to the poor. Their good economy supplied them with a constant fund for alms beyond the ordinary abilities of persons of their circumstances in a middle condition of life. Bartholomew from his infancy was made by his mother the bearer of the charitable relief which she secretly sent to distressed families, such especially as were fallen from a state of opulence. He made his solemn vows in the royal convent of the Dominicans at Lisbon in 1529, being fifteen years and six months old. The will of his superiors was always his, and an eminent spirit of prayer was in his soul the foundation of all interior virtues. His reputation for learning and piety whilst he taught theology in several houses, and was employed in several offices in his Order, made the greatest personages in the court of Portugal to seek his acquaintance. In all his employments he walked always in the presence of God, studying to pay to him a constant interior homage of spiritual adoration and worship. This practice he always inculcated to those who had the happiness ever to fall under his care. Exterior virtues, as he used to say, have their root in the affections of the soul; if these be well regulated by perpetual watchfulness over ourselves, and fervent interior exercises, our exterior will be regulated as it were of course. The perfect disinterestedness of the servant of God, his contempt of earthly things, and the disengagement of his affections from creatures; his sublime gift of prayer, and zeal for the honour of God and the salvation of souls, were virtues which qualified him for the most arduous apostolic functions. Being compelled, in 1558, to receive the episcopal consecration, and raised to the see of Braga, the first in the kingdom of Portugal, the alarms which this promotion gave him, and the violence he offered himself in making this sacrifice, threw him into a dangerous fit of illness. In this dignity the poverty and austerity in which he continued to live, the exact regulation of his time and functions, the good order of his household, the modesty and edifying deportment of all those who composed it, his immense charities, and his care of the whole diocess, were proofs of his extraordinary virtue and prudence, and the admiration of all Spain. Nor was he held in less veneration at Trent, where he assisted at the general council, in which, when some out of respect would have no canons enacted for the reformation of cardinals, he strenuously insisted that the more eminent the dignity of persons is in the church, the greater is the obligation of the strictest canons for the reformation of their manners. In that council he vigorously maintained that the obligation of residence in pastors of the church, is of divine right and precept, consequently indispensable. Certainly no considerable absence from their flocks can ever be excused in any, unless for public great necessities of the church. “To what a pass are matters brought,” said our zealous prelate, “since they to whom God has given charge of his church pretend to make it a debatable point whether they are obliged to abide with her! Who could bear with a servant who is intrusted with the care of his master’s children, yet should dispute whether he was obliged to be near them! What should we say of a mother who should abandon her babe which she suckles! or of a shepherd who should leave his flock in the fields amidst wolves!—What! shall we doubt that we are bound personally to watch over those for whom we are bound to lay down our lives, if their salvation requires it! We owe our life to them for their spiritual necessities more than to ourselves for any temporal ends,” &c.
This great prelate, long before this council, was extremely affected one day in the visitation of his diocess, upon seeing a shepherd’s boy watching sheep in the midst of a violent shower of rain, without daring to take shelter in a neighbouring cave, lest a wolf should break in upon the sheep, or some fox run away with a lamb. How much more watchful ought a pastor of souls to be in protecting them from the snares of the devil! said this true pastor with the most feeling emotion. From Trent he took a journey to Rome, where he was received with extraordinary marks of esteem by Pope Pius IV. and all the prelates of his court, especially by St. Charles Borromeo, who opened to him the secrets of his conscience, that he might be guided by him in the path in which God should direct him to walk, that he might fulfil his holy will. Our archbishop returned from Rome to Trent, where the council was closed after the twenty-fifth session, in December 1563. It had been called eighteen years before, but had been assembled only five years; two under Paul III. in ten sessions, one under Julius III. in six sessions, and two under Pius IV. in nine sessions. Between the two last popes, two others, Marcellus II. and Paul IV. had sat, but the council was not held in their time. The archbishop of Braga, on his return to Portugal, was received with extraordinary honour at Avignon by the vice-legate, who gave him the following account of two bishops who had been at Trent. Leaning to Lutheranism, they went to the council as spies to condemn its decrees; but by assisting at the conferences and deliberations, in which all points were discussed before the decisions, they were edified by observing the extreme difference of the method which the reformers pursued, who, in their deliberations about faith, consulted only their own private opinions, caprice, and fancy, and that held by the Catholics, who weighed every thing in the balance of the sanctuary, and by the most careful search into the constant and primitive tradition, and the faith of all nations, set the true doctrine of Christ in a clear light. One of them was afterwards singularly zealous and successful in confuting and converting the Calvinists, and other sectaries. (Touron, t. 4, p. 645.) Don Bartholomew visited with incredible zeal and care his whole diocess, even the exempted churches of military Orders, and others; though this was not compassed without lawsuits, and other difficulties, which by his invincible constancy and the weight of his authority, he overcame. He every where reformed disorders, and put into execution the wholesome decrees framed by the council at Trent. A long history would be requisite to relate the wonderful conversions which he wrought of many obstinate sinners, and other fruits of his piety and zeal; the edifying examples of his charity and humility, and the meekness and patience with which he suffered the most atrocious injuries.
In 1578, King Sebastian I. in the twenty-fourth year of his age,
sailed into Africa with thirteen thousand foot, and fifteen hundred horse, to
restore Mahomet, the late king of Morocco, who had been dethroned by his uncle
Muley Moluc; but, in the same battle, three kings perished.—Sebastian was
killed in the action, after having fought six hours with incredible valour;
Muley Moluc died of sickness, whilst he was giving his orders to his last
breath, and Mahomet was drowned in his flight. The cardinal Don Henry, uncle to
the late king, sixty-four years of age, ascended the throne in Portugal, but
died in the beginning of the year 1580, not having supported on the throne the
high reputation he had acquired in private life. Upon his demise, Philip II. of
Spain put in his pretensions, and took possession of the crown of Portugal.
Soon after this revolution, Don Bartholomew obtained of Pope Gregory XIII., and
King Philip the leave, which that pope and Pius IV. and V. had often refused
him, of resigning his archbishopric. This he carried into execution on the 20th
of February, 1582, retiring to the convent of his Order at Viana, in which he
begged for charity the smallest cell in the house to be allowed him. He
comforted his afflicted flock with heavenly instruction; and with tender
exhortations to his clergy, he assured them he would never cease, in imitation
of Moses on the mountain, to implore the divine succours for them, with hands
lifted up to heaven, whilst they, like Joshua, should conduct the army of the
Lord into the land of promise, and should fight against the enemies of his
people. In this retirement he spent eight years in fervent contemplation, in
which his soul was closely united to God by the most perfect exercises of
ardent love. He joined the practices of the most austere penance, being
entirely taken up with the desire of dying perfectly to himself, that he might
live only by the spirit of Jesus Christ. After a lingering sickness, he happily
died on the 16th of July, 1590, being seventy-six years old. Several miracles
are ascribed to him by his historians, both living and after his death. Lewis
of Granada, who died a year and a half before this holy prelate, wrote a short
account of his virtues and principal actions. His life is written by three
other good authors, who were his contemporaries, particularly by Lewis de
Sousa, a Portuguese Dominican; from which, and other memoirs, the edifying and
much esteemed history of this holy archbishop is compiled in French, in quarto,
which work is by some ascribed to the Dominicans at Paris, but more justly by
Touron (t. 4, p. 593,) to M. Isaac le Maitre, or Sacy. A new edition of Sousa’s
work was given at Lisbon in 1763. [back]
Rev. Alban Butler
(1711–73). Volume X: October. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
SOURCE : https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/lives-of-the-saints/volume-x-october/st-lewis-bertrand-confessor
.jpg)
Juan Zariñena (1545–1619), Vera
efigie del Venerable Luis Beltrán, circa 1581, Museo
Goya - Colección Ibercaja - Museo Camón Aznar, Zaragoza
Saints and
Saintly Dominicans – 10 October
Saint Louis
Bertrand, Confessor, O.P.
Being unable to enter the
Order as soon as he would have wished, on account of his parents’ opposition,
Saint Louis used to console himself by watering the orange trees in the
cloister, considering them happy to be constantly in Saint Dominic’s house. At
last he was able to take the holy habit. The marked characteristic of his
spiritual life was the fear of the Lord, whence resulted a lively horror of the
smallest faults. The greater part of his early years was spent in penance and
tears. But the more he feared God the less he cared for human judgments; and he
placed these words of Saint Paul on the door of his cell: “If I pleased men I
should not be the servant of Christ.” He held for many years the office of
novice master; the novices loved him as a father, feared him as a judge, and
venerated him as a saint. Saint Teresa consulted him on her reform, and he
replied in these prophetic words: “I assure you on the part of God, that within
fifty years, your religion will be one of the most illustrious in the Church of
God.” He evangelized the West Indies and worked marvellous conversions, his
preaching being confirmed by innumerable miracles; but he returned to Spain,
unable to tolerate the inhuman conduct of certain Spanish officers towards the
poor Indians, which caused them to hold the Catholic religion in abhorrence.
(1581)
Prayer
Alas! what account can I
render of the graces of my Saviour? (Saint Louis Bertrand)
Practice
Examine whether you are
not too sensitive to human judgments, and whether you neglect on that account
to perform your duties exactly.
– taken from the
book Saints
and Saintly Dominicans, by Blessed Hyacinthe-Marie
Cormier, O.P.
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/saints-and-saintly-dominicans-10-october/
Coco de sant Lluís Bertran, plata daurada, segle XVII, museu d'Història de València. Inscripció: En este coco va beure sant Lluís Bertran estant a les Índies
Pictorial
Lives of the Saints – Saint Louis Bertrand
Saint
Louis Bertrand was born at Valencia, in Spain, in 1526 of the same family as
Saint Vincent Ferrer. In 1545, after severe trials, he was professed in the
Dominican Order, and at the age of twenty-five was made master of novices, and
trained up many great servants of God. When the plague broke out in Valencia he
devoted himself to the sick and dying, and with his own hands buried the dead.
In 1562 he obtained leave to embark for the American mission, and there
converted vast multitudes to the faith. He was favored with the gift of
miracles, and while preaching in his native Spanish, was understood in various
languages. After seven years he returned to Spain, to plead the cause of the
oppressed Indians, but he was not permitted to return and labor among them. He
spent his remaining days toiling in his own country, till at length, in 1580,
he was carried from the pulpit in the Cathedral at Valencia to the bed from
whence he never rose. He died on the day he had foretold – October 9th, 1581.
Reflection – The Saints
fasted, toiled, and wept, not only for love of God, but for fear of damnation.
How shall we, with our self-indulgent lives and unexamined consciences, face
the judgment-seat of Christ?
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/pictorial-lives-of-the-saints-saint-louis-bertrand/
.jpg)
Juan Conchillos Falco (1641–1711), San Luis Beltrán atacado por un caballero en Santa Marta de India, circa 1670, 182 x 220, Cerralbo Museum, Madrid
Weninger’s Lives of the Saints – Saint Louis Bertrand, Confessor
Article
Saint Louis Bertrand,
whose name is recorded in the Roman Martyrology, on the ninth of this month,
was born at Valencia, in Spain, in the year 1526. He manifested, already in his
childhood, signs of his future holiness; for, from his seventh year, he daily
recited the Office of the Blessed Virgin; evinced great pleasure in going to
Church; eat nothing from morning to mid-day; obeyed his parents implicitly;
showed no taste for childish amusements, but sought and loved solitude, and
occupied himself in prayer, study, and spiritual reading. When older, he fled
secretly into the desert, that he might give himself entirely to prayer and
mortification. His father brought him home again, but could not prevent his
entering into the Dominican Order, where he made such progress in virtue and
sanctity, that after seven years he was made instructor of novices, a function
he most carefully attended to. Sometimes he was sent into other cities to
preach the Gospel, and his missions always resulted in the conversion of many
souls. God had bestowed upon him the gift of looking into the innermost heart,
and of foretelling future events, which aided him greatly in reforming sinners.
Thus, he one day met a shepherd, to whom he said: “Dear friend, I know that you
are in a bad condition: it is three years since you made a good confession. If
you value your salvation, delay no longer to atone for your faults, for death
is near you. I am ready to absolve you.” The shepherd, greatly disturbed at
first, soon recognized God’s mercy in the exhortation of Saint Louis, confessed
his sins with repentance, and died three days afterwards.
In 1562, Saint Louis
went, with other priests, to the West Indies, desiring to win souls for Christ,
and to give his life for his faith. How zealously he administered his apostolic
functions, no pen can describe. He occupied the whole day in preaching and
instructing without ever becoming weary, and without omitting the many and
austere penances he had practised from his youth. The number of the infidels
whom he converted was very great, and is known only to the Almighty, who
guarded him in all dangers, and wrought many miracles through him. It is known
that, although he preached in one language only, yet he was understood by
people who spoke in different tongues. Several times the heathen tried to
poison him, – to put a stop to his converting so many, but God prevented His
faithful servant from being mortally harmed. A nobleman took, as meant
especially for himself, a sermon in which the Saint had severely inveighed
against a certain vice, and in consequence resolved to shoot him. He had
already levelled the weapon, when the Saint, perceiving it, made the sign of
the Cross; and the nobleman, instead of his weapon, held a crucifix in his
hand. Moved to repentance by this miracle, he fell at the feet of Saint Louis,
and begged pardon. At another time, some savages were about to stone him; but
he spoke so kindly to them that he completely won them, and they desired him to
instruct them in the Christian faith. One day, a heathen was about to kill him
with an axe; but, as he struck, God caused the axe to glide from the Saint’s
head, without in the least injuring him, and bury itself deep in the ground.
Many similar examples of the protection of Divine Providence are to be found in
the Saint’s history.
Having labored several
years with untiring zeal in the conversion of the infidels, he was recalled to
Europe. During the voyage, he calmed a terrific storm by the sign of the Holy
Cross. The rest of his days he passed in the administration of several offices
which obedience had laid upon his shoulders, until he departed this life by a
holy death, in his 55th year on the 9th of October, as he himself had
prophesied. No one doubted that the many and great hardships which he had
undergone while in the West Indies, converting the heathen, as well as the
severity that he had used towards himself, had shortened his days. Before he
died, God visited him with several maladies, all of which he suffered with
wonderful patience. Although he had cured many sick by a certain prayer of
Saint Vincent Ferrer he would not make use of it for himself, but often called
on God in the words of Saint Augustine: “Lord! here burn, here cut; but spare
me in eternity!” He was sorry when he saw that they took so much trouble to
relieve his sufferings, partly because he deemed himself unworthy of so much
care, and partly because he submitted entirely to the Divine will, saying: “Let
us leave God to work after His own good pleasure. His will be done.” His
humility was as wonderful as his patience. He thought himself the greatest
sinner, while others regarded him the greatest Saint of his time. His maxim was
to despise him- self, but no one else; to despise the world, but not to care if
the world despises us. He was greatly distressed, and generally went away when
he was praised. But one day, when some noblemen abused him as the most wicked
of all men, he listened to them quietly, and at last said: “What you have said,
gentlemen, is true: you know me better than others do.” When some one praised
him on account of the many miracles he wrought, he said: “Do you regard this as
a sign of holiness? If so, you are mistaken: it is only the result of faith.
Oh! how much greater power and gifts did Lucifer receive, and yet he went to
destruction.” His purity he kept unspotted to the last, by means of prayer and
constant mortification. More than once he had to fight hard for it. One day, a
wicked person hired an unchaste woman to tempt the Saint to evil; but taking
his girdle, Saint Louis whipped her so long, with all his strength, that she
was glad to run away. How shall I worthily praise all the other virtues that
the Saint possessed? Especially great was his love of prayer, and his constant
union with God. Every forenoon he passed two hours in prayer, and as many in
the afternoon, but with such ardor that he was often found raised above the
ground, or surrounded by bright rays. During the day, he frequently raised his
heart to God in devout exclamations. By prayer, he nourished and increased his
burning love of God and man. Nothing gave him more pain than when he saw or
heard God offended, and nothing caused him greater joy than to see or hear
anything done in honor of the Almighty. One day, he offered to God his own life
for the preservation of that of another zealous missionary, who labored very
successfully for the salvation of men. Notwithstanding these and other heroic
virtues, he was continually tormented by the fear of being eternally lost. His
whole body sometimes trembled at the thought of it; and, when they would
encourage him by reason of the good he had done, he would answer, sighing
deeply: “Ah! much more good have others done; many more graces have they
received than I, miserable man that I am: and yet a Lucifer, a Judas, have been
condemned with so many others. How terrible would it be, if such a misfortune
should happen to me! O misery of miseries! How is it possible that a sane man
should be free from fear, having no security to escape punishment!” He was
often heard to say: “O God! how shall I be able to justify my whole life before
Thee, – I, who have not the courage to give an account of one single day: nay,
even of one hour! O great justice of God! O human weakness! How is it possible
to think of this without fear?” Shprtly before his end, he said sorrowfully to the
religious who were present: “Oh! pray for me, for I may still be condemned.”
This fear made Saint Louis very careful to avoid all danger of committing sin.
It caused him also to persevere in his penances, and incited him to do good.
When some one perceived, during the Saints last illness, that he had a heavy
stone lying upon his breast, and said to him: “Why, reverend brother, do you
wish to give still more pain to your emaciated and suffering body?” the Saint
replied: “My father, what else can I do? Death is so near, and heaven suffers
violence/’ The holy man desired until his end to labor, fight and suffer for
heaven. But at last the love of God conquered fear in the heart of the dying
Saint, and his last moments were marked by the fullest and calmest confidence.
His soul, at its departure from earth, was seen by many to ascend into heaven,
beaming with divine radiance, and accompanied by a large number of holy Angels.
Countless miracles which took place at the touch of his body, which exhaled the
most fragrant odor, or by his intercession, manifested to the world the glory
he enjoyed in heaven.
Practical Considerations
• “Death is near; and
heaven suffers violence.” Thus spoke the Saint to those who would persuade him
to discontinue his voluntary penance. These two points should restrain us from
evil and incite us to good, especially to penance and mortification. Death is
near, and you have but a short time in which you can work out your salvation.
It is not long before you must appear before a Judge, who will sentence you for
all eternity. Oh, do not offend this Judge; as, otherwise, what have you to
expect? Neglect not the short time left to you. When death opens the door of
eternity, not a moment will be left to you to work for your salvation. How sorry
will you then be, when you think: “I have had time, opportunity and means to
work out my salvation; but I have not improved them. Now, I have neither time,
opportunity nor means to work out my salvation.” Death is so near, and heaven
suffers violence. By an easy and sensual, or an idle and luxurious life, one
cannot go into heaven. Violence must be used; penances, interior and exterior
mortifications; self-restraint must be employed if one would enter heaven, to
which crosses, sufferings and uninterrupted penances led so many holy martyrs
and confessors.
• Saint Louis, after so
severe and holy a life, yet feared to be condemned. What is the reason that
you, leading an idle or even sinful life, have no fear, as if you were in no
danger of being condemned? There is no day in which you cannot say with truth:
“Today I may be damned.” For, either you are in mortal sin or not. If you are,
who can assure you that you may not die at any hour and be condemned? If you
are not in mortal sin, tell me, where is the day in which you may not become
guilty of it, and, dying in it. go to never-ending punishment? See, then, how
near you are to hell. But can it be that you believe this, and yet live without
fear, or as if you felt quite secure? Fear, then, but fear in the same spirit
in which Saint Louis feared. This fear incited him to use those means which he
knew were necessary and useful to escape hell. In the same manner do you fear.
Should you, therefore, be in mortal sin, tear yourself away from it, and do
penance. And if you are free from sin, take care that you do not become guilty
of it. Pray daily to God in your morning prayer, that He may protect you and
guard you from all sin, that you may not die in it and go to perdition. Fear
the Almighty, who alone has power to condemn you. To fear Him rightly, is not
to offend Him. Should you have offended Him, reconcile yourself with Him
without delay, by true penance. “Fear the Lord and keep his commandments.”
(Eccl. 13) “He that fears God, neglects nothing;” (Eccl. 13) nothing that is
necessary to appease Him; nothing that is necessary to escape hell.
MLA
Citation
Father Francis Xavier
Weninger, DD, SJ. “Saint Louis Bertrand, Confessor”. Lives
of the Saints, 1876. CatholicSaints.Info.
10 May 2018. Web. 2 December 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-louis-bertrand-confessor/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/weningers-lives-of-the-saints-saint-louis-bertrand-confessor/
Klosterkirche
Maria Medingen, Statuen (um 1750): Ludwig Bertrand
Purgatory Explained,
Part 1, Chapter 5
Article
Location of Purgatory –
Revelations of the Saints – Saint Teresa – Saint Louis Bertrand – Saint Mary
Magdalen de Pazzi
Saint
Teresa had great charity towards the souls in Purgatory, and assisted them as
much as lay in her power by her prayers and good works. In recompense, God
frequently showed her the souls she had delivered; she saw them at the moment
of their release from suffering and of their entrance into Heaven. Now, they
generally came forth from the bosom of the earth. “I received tidings,” she
writes, “of the death of a Religious who had formerly been Provincial of that
province, and afterwards of another. I was acquainted with him, and he had
rendered me great service. This intelligence caused me great uneasiness.
Although this man was commendable for many virtues, I was apprehensive for the
salvation of his soul, because he had been Superior for the space of twenty
years, and I always fear much for those who are charged with the care of souls.
Much grieved, I went to an oratory; there I conjured our Divine Lord to apply
to this Religious the little good I had done during my life, and to supply the
rest by His infinite merits, in order that this soul might be freed from
Purgatory.
“Whilst I besought this grace with all the fervor of
which I was capable, I saw on my right side this soul come forth from the
depths of the earth and ascend into Heaven in transports of joy. Although this
priest was advanced in years, he appeared to me with the features of a man who
had not yet attained the age of thirty, and with a countenance resplendent with
light.
“This vision, though very short, left me inundated
with joy, and without a shadow of doubt as to the truth of what I had seen. As
I was separated by a great distance from the place where this servant of God
had ended his days, it was some time before I learned the particulars of his
edifying death; all those who were witnesses of it could not behold without
admiration how he preserved consciousness to the last moment, the tears he
shed, and the sentiments of humility with which he surrendered his soul to God.
“A Religious of my community, a great servant of God,
had been dead not quite two days. We were saying the Office for the Dead for
her in choir, a sister was reading the lesson, and I was standing to say the
versicle. When half of the lesson had been said, I saw the soul of this
Religious come forth from the depths of the earth, like the one of which I have
just spoken, and go to Heaven.
“In this same monastery there died, at the age of
eighteen or twenty years, another Religious, a true model of fervor,
regularity, and virtue. Her life had been but a tissue of maladies and
sufferings patiently endured. I had no doubt, after having seen her live thus,
that she had more than sufficient merits to exempt her from Purgatory.
Nevertheless, whilst I was at Office, before she was interred, and about a
quarter of an hour after her death, I saw her soul likewise issue from the
earth and rise to Heaven.” Behold what Saint Teresa writes.
A
like instance is recorded in the Life of Saint Louis
Bertrand, of the Order of Saint Dominic. This Life, written by Father
Antist, a Religious of the same Order, and who lived with the saint, is inserted
in the Acta Sanctorum on the 10th of October. In the year 1557, whilst Saint
Louis Bertrand resided at the convent of Valentia, the pest broke out in that
city. The terrible plague spread rapidly, threatening to exterminate the
inhabitants, and each one trembled for his life. A Religious of the community,
wishing to prepare himself fervently for death, made a general Confession of
his whole life to the saint; and on leaving him said, “Father, if it should now
please God to call me, I shall return and make known to you my condition in the
other life.” He died a short time afterwards, and the following night he
appeared to the saint. He told him that he was detained in Purgatory on account
of a few slight faults which remained to be expiated, and begged the saint to
recommend him to the community. Saint Louis communicated the request
immediately to the Prior, who hastened to recommend the soul of the departed to
the prayers and Holy Sacrifices of the brethren assembled in chapter.
Six days later, a man of
the town, who knew nothing of what had passed at the convent, came to make his
Confession to Father Louis, and told him “that the soul of Father Clement had
appeared to him. He saw, he said, the earth open, and the soul of the deceased
Father come forth all glorious; it resembled, he added, a resplendent star,
which rose through the air towards Heaven.”
We read in the Life of
Saint Magdalen de Pazzi, written by her confessor, Father Cepari, of the
Company of Jesus, that this servant of God was made witness of the deliverance
of a soul under the following circumstances: One of her sisters in religion had
died some time previous, when the saint being one day in prayer before the
Blessed Sacrament, saw issue from the earth the soul of that sister, still captive
in the dungeons of Purgatory. She was enveloped in a mantle of flames, under
which a robe of dazzling whiteness protected her from the fierce heat of the
fire; and she remained an entire hour at the foot of the altar, adoring in
inexpressible annihilation the hidden God of the Eucharist.
This hour of adoration,
which Magdalen saw her perform, was the last of her penance; that hour passed,
she arose and took her flight to Heaven.
MLA
Citation
Father François Xavier
Schouppe, S.J. Purgatory
Explained by the Lives and Legends of the Saints, 1893. CatholicSaints.Info.
25 March 2018. Web. 2 December 2025.
<https://catholicsaints.info/purgatory-explained-part-1-chapter-5/>
SOURCE : https://catholicsaints.info/purgatory-explained-part-1-chapter-5/
DOMINICAN OP, SAINT of the DAY
Saint of the Day – 9
October – St Louis Bertrand O.P. (1526-1581) “Apostle of South America”
Posted on October
9, 2018
Saint of the Day – 9
October – St Louis Bertrand O.P. (1526-1581) “Apostle of South America” –
Dominican Priest, Missionary, Preacher, Confessor, Teacher, Spiritual Director,
Miracle-Worker – born as Luis Beltrán on 1 January 1526 at Valencia, Spain and
died on 9 October 1581 of natural causes at Valencia, Spain.
Patronages – Buñol; New Granada; Colombia.
Saint Louis Bertrand was
born in the year 1526, the oldest of the eight children of his good Christian
parents, at Valencia in Spain. He was in every way a model of
modesty and obedience and it was foreseen that God had some particular role for
him. He devoted himself to the sick in the hospitals.
He desired to enter the Order of Saint Dominic but for some time could
not obtain his parents’ permission. Finally, in 1545, he became
professed in the Dominican Order, then was ordained a priest in 1547 when he
was only 21 years old, according to the desire of his Superiors. In
1551, at the age of twenty-five, he was made master of novices and in this post
he formed many great servants of God. In demeanour he was grave and
apparently without any sense of humour, yet withal possessed of a gentle and
sweet disposition that greatly endeared him to those with whom he came in
contact. It is said that despite his strictness, he was so gentle
that his chastisements were more agreeable to his novices than the favours of
their best friends.
In 1560, when the plague
broke out in Valencia, his Superiors, not wanting to lose him, sent him
elsewhere for a time, he preached with great success and was endowed with the
spirit of prophecy. He continued his preaching when recalled to Valencia.
In 1562 he obtained leave to embark for Carthagena in the American
mission and there converted vast multitudes to the Faith. He hoped
to obtain the grace of martyrdom there, but God conserved his life.
He was favoured with the gift of miracles and, after praying for the gift
to be understood without an interpreter, since one of those had disappointed
him seriously, he preached in his mother tongue, Spanish but was understood by
all the natives of various tribes.
In his mission at Tubera
he himself baptised 10,500 Indians, without counting those his companions
baptised, and obliged them to burn their idols and the sites of their
sacrifices. Often his gentleness charmed his worst enemies.
He preached also at Capicoa and Paluato, having established missions
there . He refused all remuneration -he brought down rain after a
drought. He was poisoned by some pagans who had suffered a reproach
but the poison did not harm him and the nativeswere converted by the
miracle. He went to many other places, preaching and healing the
sick – again he was poisoned without effect. There was no one who
did not consider him a Saint, sent for the benefit of the new continent.
After seven years he
returned to Spain to plead the cause of the Indians, oppressed and given bad
example by his own countrymen. He used his own growing reputation
for sanctity, as well as family and other contacts, to lobby on behalf of the
native peoples he had encountered, as well as serving in his native diocese of
Valencia. There he also became a spiritual counsellor to many,
including St Teresa of Ávila. He was not permitted, however, to return
and labour among his beloved peoples. He spent his remaining days
preaching, labouring for the conversion of different cities and again forming
the novices of the Order at Valencia. He was elected Prior of that
convent and never had a more charitable or more zealous Superior been seen
there.
At length, after
suffering from a long and painful illness, he was carried from the pulpit in
the Cathedral at Valencia to the bed from which he never rose. He
died on the day he had foretold, 9 October 1581, at the age of 55 years.
He was Canonised by Pope
Clement X in 1671.
There is a statue of Louis Bertrand on the north colonnade of St Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
The festival known as La Tomatina is held in Buñol, Valencia, in honour of the
town’s patron saints, Louis Bertrand and the Mare de Déu dels Desemparats –
Mother of God of the Defenceless, a title of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Author: AnaStpaul
Passionate Catholic.
Being a Catholic is a way of life - a love affair "Religion must be like
the air we breathe..."- St John Bosco Prayer is what the world needs
combined with the example of our lives which testify to the Light of Christ.
This site, which is now using the Traditional Calendar, will mainly concentrate
on Daily Prayers, Novenas and the Memorials and Feast Days of our friends in
Heaven, the Saints who went before us and the great blessings the Church
provides in our Catholic Monthly Devotions. This Site is placed under the
Patronage of my many favourite Saints and especially, St Paul. "For the
Saints are sent to us by God as so many sermons. We do not use them, it is they
who move us and lead us, to where we had not expected to go.” Charles Cardinal
Journet (1891-1975) This site adheres to the pre-Vatican II Catholic Church and
all her teachings. . PLEASE ADVISE ME OF ANY GLARING TYPOS etc - In June 2021 I
lost 100% sight in my left eye and sometimes miss errors. Thank you and I pray
all those who visit here will be abundantly blessed. Pax et bonum! View All Posts
SOURCE : https://anastpaul.com/author/anastpaul/
Barranquilla
- Saint Louis Bertrand Church, Barranquilla, Atlántico department, Colombia.
Barranquilla
San Luis Beltrán
October 9: St. Louis
Bertrand, C., O.P., III Class
Today, in the 1962
Dominican Rite Calendar, we celebrate the feast of Saint Louis Bertrand,
confessor of the Order of Preachers. His feast is III Class, so the ordinary office is prayed according to the rubrics.
A commemoration of Ss. Denis, Bishop, and companions is made at Lauds
only.
The Breviary contains a
full set of propers for his feast. The hymn at Lauds is quite beautiful,
and recounts many of the miracles attributed to him during his life:
In praise of Louis, see,
on high,
The purple dawn bedecks
the sky;
Dark night its mantle
puts away,
For now has dawned his
festal day.
Thus Louis in the Indies
dwelled,
And darkness of their
night dispelled;
He broke the idols made
of clay,
And with the cross held
beasts at bay.
Then, Twice, that faith
be lifted up,
He drank from deadly
poison-cup;
His word the sea's wild
waves made tame,
And set a limit for the
flame.
A pattern to his Order,
he,
By noble virtues, high
and free;
And as he breathes his
soul on high,
Lights wondrous from his
lips then fly.
Let praise and endless
glory be
To all the Holy Trinity,
Who shows his majesty and
light
As Louis triumphs in the fight. Amen.
From “Short Lives of the Dominican Saints” (London, Kegan Paul, Trench, and
Trübner & Co., Ltd., 1901):
Saint Louis
Bertrand was one of the many great Saints which Catholic Spain gave to the
Church in the sixteenth century. He was born at Valencia of holy parents, who
were in a good position in life and near akin to the family of Saint Vincent
Ferrer. On the very day of his birth, January 1, A.D. 1526, he received the
Sacrament of regeneration at the same font in which Saint Vincent had been
baptized a century and a half previously. Before he was eight years old he
began daily to recite the Office of Our Lady, and at an early age he obtained
permission to visit and nurse the sick in the hospitals. To conceal his
frequent Communions from the knowledge of others, he was accustomed to receive
in different churches. When still quite a boy, he fled secretly from his home,
intending to spend his life as a poor pilgrim, but he was overtaken and brought
back.
Lewis now conceived an
ardent desire to enter the Order of Saint Dominic, but his father, who could
not bear to part with him, raised many obstacles in the way of his following
out his vocation: and it was not until he was nearly nineteen that he was
clothed in the white habit he had so long coveted. He made his solemn vows on
the 27th of August, A.D. 1545, and two years later was raised to the
priesthood, before he had attained the age of twenty-two. The fervor which he
felt in singing his first Mass never relaxed during his whole life; he was
always distinguished for his intense devotion to the Adorable Sacrament, and he
became one of the many Saints who were instrumental in God's hands in restoring
the ancient practice of frequent communion.
Four years after his
ordination he was appointed Master of Novices. In accepting this post, the rule
he made for himself and faithfully carried out was to be the first in every
duty and a living example to those under his charge of all the virtues which he
desired to form in them. His discipline was indeed somewhat severe, but his
novices were well aware that their holy master chastised his own body with
penances tenfold harder than any which he imposed upon them. He was full of
sympathy for them in all their trials and temptations, and trained so great a
number in the religious life, that his holy Franciscan friend, Blessed Nicholas
Factor, used to compare him to Blessed Jordan of Saxony, who is said to have
clothed more than a thousand novices with his own hand.
Saint Lewis had the
consolation of assisting his father in his last hours. During the eight years
which followed, he prayed and suffered incessantly for the release of that
beloved soul from Purgatory, and at length was comforted by beholding it in
glory.
The Community of Valencia
having been compelled to disperse for a time on account of the ravages of the
plague, Saint Lewis became Superior of the small Convent of Saint Anne at
Albayda, where he distinguished himself by his great charity to the poor and his
bold denunciation of public scandals from the pulpit. This apostolic liberty of
speech nearly cost him his life, for a gentleman of high rank was so incensed
by one of his sermons, which he believed to be pointed at his own flagrant
wickedness, as to attempt to shoot him; but the Saint quietly made the sign of
the Cross, and the gun levelled against him was miraculously changed into a
crucifix.
In the year 1562, Saint
Lewis, whose daily prayer at the elevation in the Mass was: "Grant, O
Lord, that I may die for Thee, who didst deign to die for me," set sail
for South America, where he labored as a missionary amongst the Indians for
seven years, gathering many thousands into the fold of Christ, and earning for
himself the title of the Apostle of New Granada. He preached on the Isthmus of
Panama and in the north-western part of South America, even penetrating alone
among the savage tribes of the Caribs, who inhabited some of the West Indian
Islands, and who had hitherto been regarded as irreclaimable. They listened,
however, to the voice of the Saint, and great numbers were converted. One of
the idolatrous priests, enraged at Saint Lewis's success, administered to him
virulent poison, which nearly caused his death, and from the effects of which
he continued to suffer to the end of his life. God favored him with the gift of
tongues in a double way. Sometimes, speaking in his native Castilian, he was
understood by his hearers as if he had been using their language; at other
times he employed languages of which he himself was naturally ignorant. His
preaching was also confirmed by many miracles.
In the year 1569, Saint
Lewis, distressed by the cruelties practiced on the Indians by their Spanish
conquerors, returned to Spain, where, after governing for three years the
Convent of Saint Onuphrius and discharging for a time his old office of
novice-master, he was elected Prior of his own Convent in Valencia. As
Superior, he gave his Community a wonderful example of every religious virtue,
always doing more himself than he required of others.
Saint Lewis Bertrand
united to a tender love for his Divine Master an eminent degree of the gift of
holy fear ; not that servile fear which springs from self-love, but a
reverential fear lest his own sinfulness should render him unworthy of the
eternal possession of God. He was also distinguished for his great love of the
Rosary, and he often made use of his Rosary and the intercession of Our Lady to
veil the miraculous powers with which God had endowed him. Thus it was by the
application of his Rosary that he raised a girl to life in South America.
His last illness was long
and painful At length, on October 9, A.D. 1581, his blessed soul was released from
the prison of the body, his passage out of this world being marked by many
prodigies. He was beatified by Paul V., A.D. 1608, and canonized by Clement X.,
A.D. 1671. At the beginning of the present century his holy body was still
incorrupt.
Prayer
O God, through
mortifications of the body and preaching of the faith, you raised the blessed
Louis, your confessor, to the glory of the saints; grant that what we profess
by faith we may ever fulfill by works of piety. Through our Lord...
SOURCE : https://breviariumsop.blogspot.com/2017/10/october-9-st-louis-bertrand-c-op-iii.html
Capella
de sant Lluís Bertran del monestir del Corpus Christi de Llutxent.
Saint Louis Bertrand
1526-1581
Believed to be a relative
of St Vincent Ferrer, Saint Louis Bertrand, on the very day of his birth,
January 1, 1526, was baptized at the same font where St Vincent received the
sacrament a century and a half before him.
Saint Louis Bertrand was
exceptionally pious as a child, reciting daily the Office of Our Lady and
attending different churches in order to conceal from the knowledge of others
his frequent reception of the Holy Eucharist. He was received into Saint
Dominic’s order when nineteen years old and was ordained before he was
twenty-two. He filled many offices in the Order, most notably that of master of
novices. By the practice of outstanding virtue, self-denial and penance, he
furnished for his novices a perfect model for their imitation.
In the year 1562, Saint
Louis Bertrand was sent from his native Valencia, Spain, to South America,
where he worked for seven years among the Indians in the northwestern part of
the continent, among the tribe of the Caribs in the Caribbean Islands, and
among the natives on the Isthmus of Panama. During these missionary years he
was favored with the gift of tongues. While speaking to the natives in
Castilian, he was understood by all and often spoke in languages with which he
was naturally unfamiliar. His preaching was accompanied by many miracles and
prophecies. He once raised a girl to life by the application of a Rosary and
often attributed to the intercession of Our Lady the miraculous powers he
manifested.
After returning to his
native land, Saint Louis Bertrand again occupied administrative positions in
the Order and won the esteem and friendship of St Theresa of Avila. The Saint
died a holy death after suffering a long and painful illness. Many prodigies
accompanied his passing. During the process of beatification, witnesses
testified that shortly after his death a heavenly perfume arose from his body,
that a light which glowed for several minutes proceeded from his mouth and
illuminated his whole cell, and that seraphic music was heard in the church
before his funeral.
The body of the Saint,
which remained incorrupt for over three hundred fifty years, was maliciously
destroyed during the Spanish revolution of 1936.
*from the book, The
Incorruptibles, by Joan Carroll Cruz, TAN books
SOURCE : https://www.roman-catholic-saints.com/saint-louis-bertrand.html
Giovanni Battista Lucini (1639–1686),
Saint Louis Bertrand, 1660, 127 x 70, Christie's Milan Sale of 24 November 2010
lot 22
San Luigi Bertran Sacerdote
domenicano
Festa: 9 ottobre
Valencia, Spagna, 1
gennaio 1526 - 9 ottobre 1581
Nel 1562 partì
missionario per la Colombia, dove miracoli frequenti favorirono la conversione
degli indios. Dal pulpito denunciò anche i soprusi dei conquistatori spagnoli:
uno di essi volle attentare alla vita del santo, ma allo sparo lo schioppo si
trasformò in crocifisso. Nel 1569 è di nuovo a Valenza come maestro dei novizi
e poi priore. Della sua attività di consigliere prudente si avvalse anche s.
Teresa d'Avila, che da lui ebbe parole di incoraggiamento e il presagio sul
successo della riforma carmelitana.
Patronato: Noviziati
Domenicani
Martirologio
Romano: A Valencia in Spagna, san Luigi Bertrán, sacerdote dell’Ordine dei
Predicatori, che insegnò il Vangelo di Cristo a varie popolazioni indigene
dell’America Meridionale e le difese dagli oppressori.
Le Provincie dell’Ordine che avevano accolte volenterose l’impulso di riforma dato dal Beato Raimonda da Capua ne videro esultanti i magnifici frutti. In Spagna si proseguiva con alacrità e nel XVI° secolo uscirono dalle file dei Predicatori, santi e dotti evangelizzatori, martiri invitti. Uno dei tanti eroi è San Ludovico Bertran. A 19 anni entrò nell’Ordine nella nativa Valenza, e il santo Priore che l’accolse, Giovanni Micone, ne profetizzò la futura grandezza, dicendo che sarebbe stato un secondo S. Vincenzo Ferreri. Da Novizio fu specchio di penitenza e di orazione anche ai più provetti. A 25 anni fu nominato Maestro dei Novizi che per dieci anni guidò con ammirabile saggezza, i quali poi, quasi tutti morirono in odore di santità. Ma Ludovico bramava passare i mari come tanti suoi confratelli, per recarsi in quel Nuovo Mondo che con tante speranze si apriva alla vera fede, e un giorno, con licenza del Generale, partì. Nel 1562 fu suo campo di lavoro l’America Centrale, in particolare la Colombia, dove egli percorse a piedi le vaste regioni che comprendono l’Equatore, la Nuova Granata, le Isole dell’Arcipelago, convertendo in sette anni circa 150.000 indiani. Tornato in Patria, nel 1569, dopo si eroiche fatiche, fu ancora luce alle anime dentro e fuori il Convento, come Maestro dei Novizi, e Priore a Valenza. Colto dalla malattia, fra tante sofferenze, non faceva che ripetere quelle parole a lui tanto familiari: “Signore, qui bruciate, qui tagliate, qui non perdonate, purché mi perdoniate in eterno!”. Malgrado il fuoco che lo divorava volle morire con indosso il santo Abito di lana dell’Ordine. Era il 9 ottobre 1581. I suoi funerali furono un trionfo. Papa Clemente X il 12 aprile 1671 lo ha proclamato Santo. Papa Alessandro VIII lo ha dichiarato Patrono della Colombia. Il suo corpo è rimasto sepolto fino al 1936 nella chiesa cittadina di Santo Stefano, quando fu bruciato durante la Rivoluzione.
Autore: Franco Mariani
SOURCE : https://www.santiebeati.it/dettaglio/73695
Statua
di San Ludovico Bertrando nel vestibolo del Duomo di Siracusa.
Foto di Giovanni Dall'Orto, 22 maggio 2008.
Statue
to Saint Ludovico Bertrando, Lobby of the Cathedral, Syracuse,
Italy. Picture by Giovanni Dall'Orto, May 22 2008.
Den hellige Ludvig
Bertrán (1526-1581)
Minnedag:
9. oktober
Skytshelgen for Colombia
Den hellige Ludvig
Bertrán [Bertrand] (sp: Luis) ble født den 1. januar 1526 i Valencia i Spania.
Hans foreldre var Juan Bertrán og Juana Angela Exarch. Gjennom sin far var han
i slekt med den hellige Vincent Ferrer,
og han ble døpt samme dag som fødselen i samme døpefont som Vincent ble døpt
175 år tidligere. Han var et svært fromt barn, resiterte daglig det lille
Mariaofficiet og gikk i mange forskjellige kirker i et forsøk på å skjule for
andre hvor ofte han mottok kommunion. Som ung mann dro han på pilegrimsferd til
apostelen Jakob
den Eldres grav i Santiago de Compostela for å be om veiledning om hvilken
orden han skulle slutte seg til.
Han fikk ikke noe svar,
men som 18-åring ble han den 26. august 1544 ikledd drakten som
dominikaner (Ordo Fratrum Praedicatorum – OP) i klosteret San Domingo
i Valencia av den berømte pater Juan Mico, som hadde vokst opp som gjeter i
fjellene. Han ble presteviet i 1547 av erkebiskopen av Valencia, den
hellige Thomas
av Villanueva. I 1548 kom han til klosteret i Llombay. Der ble han utnevnt
til novisemester i 1552 i den bemerkelsesverdige unge alder av 23 år. Dette
embetet var av stor betydning i den pågående reformen i dominikanerordenen, og
Ludvig innehadde det til og fra i mer enn tretti år.
Ludvig var en mann av dyp
bønn og askese og ser ut til å ha manglet enhver sans for humor. Det
dominerende temaet i hans spiritualitet var frykten for Gud. Men da pesten
herjet i Valencia i 1557, trosset Ludvig alle farer og satte inn alle sine
krefter på å trøste og hjelpe de syke. Omtrent på samme tid ble han kjent med
den hellige Teresa
av Ávila, som skrev og ba om hans råd om sitt prosjekt for reform i
karmelittordenen. Han rådet henne til å fortsette arbeidet, og han spådde at
hennes uskodde karmelitter ville bli svært berømte etter femti år.
I 1562 ble Ludvig sendt
som misjonær til Sør-Amerika, hvor han ble til 1568. Han gikk i land i
Cartagena i Ny-Granada (Colombia), hvor hans orden allerede hadde et hus. Han
arbeidet først i det som i dag er Colombia og Panama, og han skal ha omvendt
tusener i Tubara, Cipacua, Mompos og Santa Marta. Han ble kreditert et stort
antall omvendelser, men enten ble antallet betydelig overdrevet eller så var
omvendelsene kanskje svært overfladiske, for han måtte kommunisere med
indianerne gjennom tolk. Dåpsregistrene i Tubara viser, i hans egen håndskrift,
at alle innbyggerne der ble omvendt, og han hadde like stor suksess i Cipacua.
Folket i Paluato var vanskeligere, men på hans neste misjon blant innbyggerne i
fjellene i Santa Maria skal han ha døpt rundt 15.000 mennesker, og også en
stamme på 1.500 indianere, som etter å ha skiftet mening, hadde fulgt etter ham
fra Paluato. Men en kilde skriver at slike masseomvendelser var mer «hyllest
til hans apostoliske iver enn til hans klokskap», og ble ofte årsak til
forlegenhet for hans etterfølgere.
Senere forkynte ham med
den samme angivelige suksess på De små Antiller i Vestindia, først på
Leewardøyene, så San Tomé på Jomfruøyene og deretter San Vincente på
Windwardøyene. Han insisterte like mye å frykte som å elske Gud, og ifølge
helligkåringsbullen ble hjulpet av tungetale, profetier og mirakler. Antallet
omvendte og omstendighetene rundt hans apostolat minner om dem som blir
tilskrevet misjonærer i Europa tidlig i middelalderen. Han var en av de første
misjonærene som hevet stemmen mot sine landsmenns griskhet og dårlige eksempel
generelt i Amerika.
Ludvig ble beordret
tilbake til Spania i 1568 og kom til Sevilla i 1569, og derfra vendte han
tilbake til Valencia. Etter hjemkomsten fikk han ry som en mektig predikant og
viet resten av livet til å utdanne forkynnere til misjonen i Sør-Amerika. Han
insisterte i den forbindelse på betydningen både av bønn og av gjerninger som
stemte overens med forkynnelsen. Fra 1571 var han prior i flere hus. Han ble
også en etterspurt rådgiver.
I 1580 holdt han sin
siste preken i katedralen i Valencia. Han ble syk umiddelbart etter, men levde
i enda 18 måneder med store smerter. Han døde den 9. oktober 1581 i Valencia,
55 år gammel, og ble gravlagt i byens Stefanskirke. I saligkåringsprosessen
forklarte vitner at det kort etter hans død steg vellukt opp fra hans legeme,
at et lys som skinte i flere minutter kom ut av hans munn og lyste opp hele
cellen og at serafisk musikk ble hørt i kirken før hans begravelse. Ludvigs
legeme forble intakt i over 350 år, men det ble ødelagt på det mest ondsinnede
under Den spanske borgerkrig i 1936.
Ludvig ble saligkåret den
19. juli 1608 av pave Paul V (1605-21) og helligkåret den 12. april 1671 av
pave Klemens X (1670-76). Hans minnedag er 9. oktober og hans navn står i
Martyrologium Romanum. Han er den viktigste skytshelgen for Colombia. Hans
medbror, navnebror og slektning Ludvig Bertrán (d.
1629), en martyr i Japan, er saligkåret. Det er et slående bilde av ham i
Sevilla av den spanske maleren Zurbarán (1598-1644), hvor han holder en
gullbolle hvor det kommer opp en slange. Dette kommer av at det ble gjort et
forsøk på å forgifte ham på en av de karibiske øyene.
Kilder:
Attwater/John, Attwater/Cumming, Farmer, Butler, Butler (X), Benedictines,
Delaney, Bunson, Cruz (1), Schauber/Schindler, Index99, CE, CSO, Patron Saints
SQPN, Infocatho, Bautz, Heiligenlexikon - Kompilasjon og oversettelse:
p. Per Einar
Odden - Opprettet: 2000-05-07 22:58 - - Sist oppdatert: 2005-12-26 17:06
SOURCE : https://www.katolsk.no/biografier/historisk/lbertran
Jerónimo Jacinto de Espinosa (1600–),
Milagro del árbol de S. Luis Beltrán, S. XVII,
Museo del Prado, Madrid
San Luis Bertrán
Luis Bertrán, San. Valencia, 1.I.1526 – 9.X.1581. Predicador dominico (OP), maestro de espiritualidad y santo.
Biografía
Juan Luis, hijo del
notario Luis Bertrán y de Juana Ángela Exarch, ingresó en los dominicos,
profesando en el convento de Predicadores de su ciudad natal el 27 de agosto de
1545. Concluidos los estudios institucionales, fue ordenado sacerdote en 1547.
Poco después fue enviado al recién fundado convento de Santa Cruz, de Llombay,
junto con el venerable Juan Micó. En 1549 fue nombrado maestro de novicios, o
sea, formador de los jóvenes dominicos hasta su ordenación sacerdotal, de
Predicadores capitalino. A raíz de la peste que asoló Valencia entre 1555 y
1557, muchos religiosos fueron repartidos por otros conventos, y a fray Luis le
tocó ir al de Santa Ana, de Albaida, al frente del cual estuvo algún tiempo. En
1560 fue reintegrado a su cargo de maestro de novicios en el convento de Predicadores
valentino y en esta misma época, dado su reconocido prestigio, fue consultado
por santa Teresa de Ávila sobre su futura reforma carmelitana, mostrándose
absolutamente partidario de que la emprendiese.
No obstante, su espíritu
misionero se impuso, dando lugar a una nueva etapa de su vida. El 14 de febrero
de 1562 partía con otro compañero para embarcar rumbo a Nueva Granada, donde
estuvo por espacio de siete años, padeciendo incontables trabajos y
tribulaciones, peligros de su propia vida, dejando constancia, a pesar de la
escasa salud que tenía, de infatigable labor apostólica y fama de santidad. El
campo de su actividad misionera hay que situarlo en tierra adentro de Cartagena
de Indias, centrado en Tubará, y en la zona montañosa de Santa Marta. Ante la
imposibilidad de frenar los abusos de los encomenderos españoles que impedían
la evangelización, después de consultar para tranquilidad de conciencia con el
obispo dominico Bartolomé de las Casas, optó por regresar a España. Era el año
1569. El año siguiente fue elegido prior del convento de San Onofre, en el
término de Museros cercano a Valencia, y, al concluir el trienio, le encargaron
de nuevo la formación de los novicios, cargo en el que estuvo hasta el 15 de
mayo de 1575 en que fue elegido prior del convento de Predicadores de Valencia.
Concluido el tiempo de mandato desempeñó aún, por última vez, el cargo de
maestro de novicios.
Fue Luis Bertrán fraile
penitente en grado sumo y con gran tendencia hacia la vida contemplativa, que
hacía plenamente compatible con una intensa actividad externa. Su plena
dedicación al estudio, oración y predicación, permiten catalogarlo como una
personificación del ideal de la Orden en su época. A pesar de alguna sequedad
externa, a causa de cierta sordera y miopía que le aquejaron durante gran parte
de su vida, alcanzó una gran popularidad entre gentes de todas las clases
sociales. Su santidad de vida, ratificada muy a menudo por gracias
extraordinarias, se imponía. En cuanto prior hay que considerarlo como ejemplo
e impulsor de la estricta observancia definitivamente restaurada —era la
encarnación viva de la confluencia de las dos corrientes dominicanas y
españolas de Reforma existentes: la castellana y la valenciana—, consiguiendo
días de esplendor religioso en los conventos de cuyos prioratos tuvo que
hacerse cargo, y al mismo tiempo se le veía dotado de agudo sentido práctico
que le permitía mantener un sano equilibrio entre las exigencias de la vida
religiosa y las necesidades o conveniencias materiales.
Después de larga y penosa enfermedad murió en Valencia el 9 de octubre de 1581. Amigo del patriarca san Juan de Ribera, arzobispo de Valencia, fue creador de una escuela de espiritualidad en cuanto que su influjo no se limitó a sus escritos sino también a su magisterio oral. Excepcional formador de religiosos, forjó una estela de discípulos que hicieron una auténtica escuela de espiritualidad que dejaron huella en la vida de su tiempo en religiosos, laicos, etc., y que entre los dominicos trascendieron a toda la provincia dominicana de la Corona de Aragón, pues no serán sólo conventuales de la Orden de Predicadores de Valencia; a su vera acudieron dominicos venidos de Mallorca, Cataluña y Aragón, donde a su vez irradiaron dicha vivencia de la vida dominicana (Juan Vidal, Martín Juárez, Francisco Ferrandis, Antonio Creus, Bartolomé Pavía, Domingo Anadón, Pedro del Portillo, Francisco Montón, Tomás Arenas, Vicente Justiniano Antist, Luis Istela, Francisco Sala, Andrés Balaguer, Jerónimo Bautista de Lanuza, Miguel Lázaro, Gaspar Catalán de Monsonís, Bartolomé Riera, Vicente Más, Luis Vero, Vicente Ferrer Mallent, Onofre Vidal, Dionisio Botella, Pedro Lloret, Juan Pérez, etc.). Es patrono de los novicios dominicos. Beatificado por Pablo V el 19 de julio del 1608, fue canonizado solemnemente por Clemente XII el 12 de abril del 1671. Alejandro VIII en 1690 lo nombró patrono principal de Colombia.
Obras
Obras y sermones, que
predicó y dexó escritos [...], ts. I-II, Valencia, 1688 y 1690.
Bibliografía
J. M. de Garganta,
“Bertrán, Luis OP”, en Q. Aldea Vaquero, T. Marín Martínez y J. Vives Gatell
(dirs.), Diccionario de Historia Eclesiástica de España, vol. I,
Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, Instituto Enrique Flórez,
Madrid, 1972, págs. 244-245
VV. AA., San Luis
Bertrán. Reforma y Contrarreforma española, Valencia, Caja de Ahorros y
Monte de Piedad, 1973
A. Robles Sierra, “Ensayo
bibliográfico de San Luis Bertrán”, en San Luis Bertrán. Reforma y
Contrarreforma española, Valencia, IHPA, 1973, págs. 19-28
VV. AA., Cuadernos
San Luis Bertrán, Valencia, Comisión Central del IV Centenario de la
muerte de San Luis Beltrán, 1982
L. Galmés Más, San
Luis Bertrán. Forjador de hombres y misionero, Valencia, IHPA, 1982
VV. AA., Corrientes
espirituales en la Valencia del siglo XVI (1550-1600), Actas del
II Symposion de Teología Histórica, 20-22 abril 1982, Valencia, Facultad de
Teología San Vicente Ferrer, 1983 (col. Series Valentina, XIII), págs. 291-300
A. Robles Sierra, Procesos
informativos de la Beatificación y Canonización de San Luis Bertrán, ed.
de A. Robles Sierra y M. Llop, Valencia, 1983
“Nicolás Factor y Luis
Bertrán, dos almas gemelas”, en Beato Nicolás Factor, franciscano, Valencia,
1986, págs. 50-61.
Autor/es
Alfonso Esponera Cerdán,
OP
SOURCE : https://historia-hispanica.rah.es/biografias/27854-san-luis-bertran
Jerónimo Jacinto de Espinosa (1600–),
La muerte del religioso dominico San
Luis Beltrán (1526-1581), 17th century, 320.5 x 239.4, Museu de Belles Arts de València,
Valencia,
Spain
San Luis Bertrán
1526 Nacimiento
Nace el 1 de enero en
Valencia. Sus padres Luis y Juana eran de origen noble y profundamente piadosos
1542 Peregrino a
Santiago
Con 16 años peregrina a
la tumba del Apóstol, a su regreso intenta ingresar en el noviciado, lo demora
ante la negativa de sus padres.
1544 Ingreso en la
Orden
El 22 de agosto y con 18
años recibe el hábito dominicano
1547 Ordenación
Sacerdotal
Es ordenado y enviado al
recién fundado convento de la Santa Cruz en LLonbay.
1549 Regreso a
Valencia
Regresa a Valencia por la
muerte de su padre y es nombrado maestro de novicios y estudiantes. Tras una
epidemia de peste es enviado al convento de Sta. Ana en Albaida.
1562 Espíritu
Misionero
El 14 de febrero, con 36
años parte para Nueva Granada (Colombia). En 1568 es elegido prior del convento
de Bogotá. Estará siete años antes de regresar a España en 1569.
1575 Prior en
Valencia
A su regreso es elegido
prior en Museros, y encargado de la formación en el noviciado. Acabado su
mandato como prior en Valencia volverá como Maestro de novicios.
1581 Su muerte
El 9 de octubre en
Valencia a los 55 años.
1608 Beatificación
Es beatificado por el
papa Pablo V el 19 de julio, y 65 años después canonizado por Clemente X el 12
de abril de 1671.
1690 Patrono de
Colombia
El papa Alejandro VIII lo declara patrono principal de Colombia.
San Luis Bertrán (1526 -
1581) fue un dominico valenciano misionero y predicador popular y reconocido
como patrón de Colombia. Debido a su formación y buena cualidades fue un gran
formador de religiosos preparándoles tanto intelectualmente como
espiritualmente, además de referente de toda una escuela de espiritualidad.
Orígenes en Valencia
San Luis Bertrán nace
el 1 de enero de 1526 en Valencia. Sus padres, Luis y Juana, eran nobles y
piadosos. Tenia 16 años cuando abandona su hogar y peregrina al sepulcro del
Apóstol en Santiago de Compostela. A su regreso intenta ingresar en el
Noviciado de los Dominicos de su ciudad natal pero, debido a la negativa de sus
padres, se le demora el ingreso. Decidido en su propósito asiste, de incógnito,
a las reuniones conventuales para escuchar las pláticas del Superior.
Con 18 años, el 22 de
agosto de 1544, recibe el hábito dominicano. Es tan llamativa su entrega y
generosidad por vivir el ideal de Santo Domingo de Guzmán que pronto destaca
por sus penitencias y austeridades, por el recogimiento en sus dilatadas horas
ante el Santísimo Sacramento de la Eucaristía y por la transparencia de su
vida.
Tres años más tarde, en
1547, es ordenado sacerdote y destinado al recién fundado Convento de
Santa Cruz de LLonbay. En 1.549 muere su padre y es destinado a Valencia y
nombrado Maestro de Novicios y de Estudiantes porque todos consideraban a Luis
Bertrán como la encarnación viviente del ideal dominicano. Valencia es presa de
una peste maligna, los religiosos son repartidos y el P. Luis marcha al
Convento de Santa Ana en Albaida.
Espíritu misionero
Santo Domingo de Guzmán
es el ideal de vida para el P. Luis Bertrán. El espíritu misionero se impone en
su vida y comienza una nueva etapa y una nueva aventura. Tiene 36 años.
El 14 de febrero de 1562 parte rumbo al Nueva Granada, la actual Colombia.
A lo largo de 7 años es un misionero infatigable que cautiva con el ejemplo de
su vida: en más de una ocasión, con peligros y pese a su quebradiza salud, su
entrega, penalidades y tribulaciones.
Su campo de misión hay que situarlo en tierra adentro, más allá de Cartagena de Indias, en el área montañosa de Santa Marta y, más en concreto, en torno a Tubará. Su vida ejemplar y su fidelidad al Evangelio chocan con la ambición y con los abusos de los encomenderos cuya vida era ganar y ganar pasando por encima de las personas y de sus elementales derechos.
Es elegido Prior del Convento de Santa Cruz de Bogotá. Después de
consultar con su hermano de Orden y gran figura de la evangelización de
América, Fray Bartolomé de las Casas, regresa a España en 1.569.
Al año siguiente es
elegido Prior del Convento de San Onofre de Museros. Al terminar su trienio,
los superiores le vuelven a encargar la formación del Noviciado. Permanece
al frente hasta el 15 de mayo de 1.575 en que es elegido Prior del Convento de
Valencia. Concluido el período, una vez más, los superiores vuelven a nombrarle
Maestro de Novicios.
San Luis Bertrán alcanza
fama de santidad y de hombre de Dios en todas las clases sociales.
Mantuvo correspondencia con Santa Teresa de Jesús y con San Juan de
Ribera, Arzobispo de Valencia. Después de larga y penosa enfermedad muere
en su ciudad natal el 9 de octubre de 1581. Tenia 55 años de edad.
Fue beatificado por
Pablo V el 19 de julio de 1608 y 63 años más tarde, el 12 de abril de 1671
es canonizado por el Papa Clemente X.
Semblanza espiritual
San Luis Bertrán
fue un excepcional Maestro de Novicios y Formador de Religiosos. Misionero
y predicador popular abnegado. Hombre de profunda cultura eclesiástica y
creador de toda una Escuela de Espiritualidad.
Religioso recio, austero
y gran penitente. Tenía una fuerte llamada a la contemplación.
Encarnó profundamente el
ideal dominicano de alta contemplación. Abnegado misionero, profesó gran
dedicación al estudio.
Hombre en apariencia
serio, poseía un gran corazón cargado de cercanía y de dulzura. El Papa
Alejandro VlIl lo nombró en 1690 Patrono principal de Colombia.
Escritos de Luis Bertrán
Ofrecemos una completa
serie de los Sermones de San Luis Bertrán para los diferentes
tiempos litúrgicos.
También invitamos a
contemplar esta reflexión de corte espiritual sobre el Amor de Dios.
SOURCE : https://www.dominicos.org/quienes-somos/grandes-figuras/san-luis-bertran/
Dominican-Order-church
in Friesach: pulpit: Louis Bertrand
Dominikanerkirche Friesach in Friesach: Kanzel: Luis
Beltrán
R.P.B. Wilberforce. Vie deSaint Louis Bertrnd de l’Ordre des Frères Prêcheurs, Apôtre de la Nouvelle Grenade : http://liberius.net/livres/Vie_de_saint_Louis_Bertrand_000000983.pdf
Saint Louis Bertrand: The Iconography : https://www.christianiconography.info/louisBertrand.html
