Saint Laurence Justinian
(San Lorenzo Giustiniani)
adoring the Baby Jesus.
Date: 17th-Century.
Artist: Luca Giordano.
Private Neapolitan Collection.
Source: SANTI BEATI
(Wikimedia Commons)
By: Abbot Guéranger, O.S.B.
Volume 14.
Time After Pentecost.
Book V.
“Come, all ye who are drawn by the desire of unchangeable good, and who seek it in vain in this passing World; I will tell you what Heaven has done for me.
Saint Laurence Justinian.
Feast Day 5 September.
“What Love Does To Some”.
Available on YouTube
“Like you, I once sought with feverish eagerness; and this exterior World could not satisfy my burning desire.
“But, by the Divine Grace, which fed my anguish, at length she, whose name I then knew not, appeared to me, more beautiful than the Sun, sweeter than balm.
“As she approached, how gentle was her counternance, how peace-inspiring her voice, saying to me: “O thou, whose youth is all full of the love wherewith I inspire thee, why dost thou thus pour out thy heart ?
The peace thou seekest by so many different ways, is with me; thy desire shall be amply fulfilled, I promise thee, if only thou wilt take me for thy bride.”
“I acknowledge that at these words my heart failed, my Soul was all pierced with the dart of her love. As I wished to know her name, her dignity, her origin, she told me she was called the Wisdom of God; and that, at first invisible in the bosom of The Father, she had taken of a mother a visible nature, in order to be more easily loved.
“Then, with great delight, I gave my consent; and she, kissing me, departed full of joy. Ever since then, the flame of her love has been growing within me, absorbing all my thoughts.
“Her delights endure for ever; she is my well-beloved bride, my inseparable companion. Through her, the peace I once sought is now the cause of my joy. Hear me then, all of you: Go to her in like manner; for she makes it her happiness to reject no-one”.
Knowing the end of his life had come, he raised his eyes to Heaven, and saying: “I come to Thee, O good Jesus !”, he fell asleep in The Lord on 8 January. The holiness of his death was attested by Angelic harmonies heard by several Carthusian Monks.
Other Miracles, worked after his death, also gave proof of his Sanctity; on which account, Pope Alexander VIII enrolled him among the Saints. Pope Innocent XII assigned for his Feast Day 5 September, on which day the holy man had been raised to the Pontifical dignity.
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