Pascal Baylon

Saint Pascal Baylon

Also known as
Paschal

memorial
17 May

Profile

Our Saint for today was born on Pentecost in 1540 and died on Pentecost in 1592 in Spain. Paschal was the son of a couple of pious peasants; he early on, had a great devotion to the Eucharist. He was a shepherd until his early 20’s when he became a Franciscan lay brother.

He served as cook and doorkeeper among other menial tasks. His outstanding charity and patience put the other Franciscans in the house to shame. Remember all these Franciscans pride themselves on their humility…..(Pride….Humility…get it?!?)

In his travels he ran into a bunch of Huguenots in France. These Calvinists don’t believe in the real presence, and so this particular Huguenot preacher was having a wild blasphemous field day until Paschal came along.  Paschal made verbal mincemeat of this Huguenot Clown with his defense of the Eucharist.      But, this goon had friends; Our Saint narrowly escaped death at the hands of the Huguenot mob followers after he decided to go toe to toe with this mope.

Growing up as a poor shepherd Paschal didn’t really spend too much time in formal learning, even so his advice was sought after by rich and poor alike. He’s big in Spanish speaking countries and Sicily…the Sicilians like the story of Paschal taking on the mob. His tomb was desecrated and his remains burned in the Spanish Civil War by anticlerical leftists. You must remember this: Rick Blaine fought against them……the loyalists would have paid him much more though.

Born
24 May 1540

Died
15 May 1592 in Spain of natural causes