|
|
|
|
Thursday, 26 April 2012
St Raphael Arnáiz Barón, monk (1911-1938)
April 26, St. Rafael Arnáiz Barón. by Gerelyn Hollingsworth, NCR, Apr. 26, 2010.
Today is the feast of St. Rafael Arnáiz Barón,
a Spanish Trappist who died of diabetes in 1938. (The web site, that
of his monastery, San Isidro de Dueñas at Palencia, is in Spanish, but
easily read. Note the photograph of Rafael holding a cigarette in the "Madrid y Toledo" section.)
Rafael was born in Burgos, Spain, on April 9, 1911, to Rafael Arnáiz Sanchez de la Campa and Mercedes Barón Torres. He was the first of their four children.
The family moved to Ovieto in 1922. Rafael and his brothers attended a Jesuit school, and Rafael,
an artist, took painting lessons on the side. In 1930, he received a
degree from the University of Ovieto and began graduate school in
architecture at Madrid.
He spent vacations with his uncle and aunt, the Duke and Duchess of
Maqueda in Ávila. With their encouragement, he visited the Trappist
monastery for the first time in September, 1930.
"When, on going into the church to greet the Lord, I saw the monks
singing in choir, saw that altar with that statue of the Virgin, saw the
reverence the monks had in church, and, above all, when I heard the
Salve . . . dear Uncle Poldy, God alone knows what I felt . . . I did
not know how to pray."
--God Alone: A Spiritual Biography of Blessed Rafael Arnaiz Baron, by Gonzalo Maria Fernandez, OCSO, Cistercian Publications, 2007.
In 1932, Rafael continued his studies in Madrid, and during that year he made the Spiritual Exercises at San Isidro.
He was called to active duty in the military in 1933. He served from January through July. In Madrid, "Rafael did
not always find it easy to keep his behavior blameless; he really did
have to exert himself to live up to his Christian principles".
--God Alone. Search term: Vallaure.
In November, 1933, Rafael wrote
to the abbot of San Isidro, asking to be admitted to the novitiate. He
was accepted, and in January, 1934, he entered the Trappist monastery.
After four joyful months, he got sick. He was diagnosed with diabetes,
and he left the monastery.
After a year and a half, Rafael returned
to the monastery, this time as an oblate. His diabetes made it
impossible for him to follow the routine of the monastery, so he lived
in the infirmary, taking insulin, eating the food prescribed by his
doctor.
In July, 1936, the Spanish Civil War reached the monastery, and Rafael was drafted. He and more than thirty other monks left the monastery. Rafael,
because of his diabetes, was declared unfit for military service. He
went home. "Once again he was dressed in civvies, smoked and socialized
with people in the outside world, far from his La Trappe".
--God Alone
In December, 1936, he returned to the monastery. The solitude in the infirmary was hard on him. His brother, who entered the Carthusians, had once asked Rafael why he didn't become a Carthusian instead of a Trappist. "I need to see faces," Rafael had
replied. Now, he saw few faces. And his diabetes worsened. The
infirmarian was at the battlefront, and it was impossible for the
community to take care of Brother Rafael. In February, 1937, he had to leave again.
He returned in December, knowing he would not live much longer. In
February, 1938, the abbot told him "that on Easter Sunday he would give
him the monastic cowl and black scapular proper to professed monks".
"Such bestowal of the cowl on a mere oblate had no precedent in the
history of the monastery of San Isidro".
"His father arrived at the monastery on Easter Thursday morning, April 21, for a visit. Rafael,
dressed like a proper monk in white cowl and black scapular, met him.
Never had his father seen him with better color in his cheeks, with such
a sparkle in his eyes."
Rafael said, "Here you have a Brother with a lot of cloth. I do not know what to do with the sleeves."
His father left, and the next day Rafael went to bed with a high fever. On Monday, April 25, he received Extreme Unction. On Tuesday morning, April 26, "his agony began". While the community prayed for him, "Rafael suffered a strong convulsion that for a few moments very much distorted
his face. Then it returned to its normal appearance, and with quiet
peacefulness and a smile on his lips, as if enjoying a pleasant dream,
he breathed his last." He was twenty-seven years old.
St. Rafael Arnáiz Barón was canonized in October, 2009, by Pope Benedict XVI.
Copyright © The National Catholic Reporter Publishing Company
SAINT RAPHAEL ARNÁIZ BARÓN
Monk
(1911-1938)
Raphael Arnáiz Barón was born in Burgos (Spain) April 9, 1911, into a
prominent, deeply Christian family. He was baptised and confirmed in
Burgos and began his schooling at the Jesuit college in the same city
where, in 1919, he was admitted to first Communion.
It was at this time that he had his first experience of illness: persistent fevers due to colibacillosis forced him to interrupt his studies. To mark his recovery, which he attributed to a special intervention of the Virgin Mary, his father took him to Zaragoza and consecrated him to the Virgin of Pilar. This experience, which took place in the late summer of 1921, profoundly marked Raphael.
When the family moved to Oviedo,
he continued his secondary schooling with the Jesuits there, obtaining a
diploma in science. He then enrolled in the School of Architecture in
Madrid, where he succeeded in balancing his studies with a life of
fervent piety.
Possessing a brilliant and eclectic mind, Raphael also stood
out because of his deep sense of friendship and his fine features.
Blessed with a happy and jovial nature he was also athletic, had a gift
for drawing and painting as well a love for music and the theatre. But as he matured, his spiritual experience of the Christian life deepened.
Although the study of architecture required a great
deal of hard work and discipline, at that time he began the practice of
making a long daily visit to the Blessed Sacrament in the Chapel of "Caballero de Gracia". He even joined the Nocturnal Adoration Association, and faithfully took his turn before the Blessed Sacrament.
In this way his heart became well disposed to listening, and he perceived an invitation from God to lead the contemplative life.
Raphael had already been in contact with the Trappist monastery of San Isidro de Dueñas, and he felt strongly drawn to this place, responding to his
deepest desires. In December of 1933 he suddenly broke off his
professional studies and on January 16, 1934 entered the monastery of
San Isidro.
After the first months of the noviciate and his first
Lent, which he lived with great enthusiasm, embracing all the
austerities of Trappist life, God mysteriously chose to test him with a sudden and painful
infirmity: a serious form of diabetes mellitus which forced him to leave the monastery immediately and return to his family in order to receive the proper care.
Barely recovered, he returned to the monastery, but his illness forced him to leave the monastery for treatment again and again. But whenever he was absent he wanted to return, responding faithfully and generously to what he understood to be a call from God.
Sanctified by his joyful and heroic fidelity to his
vocation, in his loving acceptance of the Divine will and the mystery
of the Cross, in his impassioned search for the Face of God, fascinated
by his contemplation of the Absolute, in his tender and filial devotion to the Virgin Mary-"the Lady", as he liked to call her-his life came to an end on April 26, 1938. He was barely 27 years old. He was buried in the monastery cemetery, and later in the Abbey church.
The fame of his sanctity rapidly spread beyond the walls of the monastery. The example of his life together with his many spiritual writings continue to spread and greatly profit those who get to know him. He has been described as one of the great mystics of the twentieth century.
On August 19, 1989, the Holy Father John Paul II, on
World Youth Day at Santiago de Compostella, proposed him as a model for
young people today, and beatified him on September 27, 1992.
Pope Benedict XVI canonized him on October 11, 2009 and presented him as a friend and intercessor for all the faithful, especially for the young.
- Copyright © Libreria Editrice Vaticana
|
|
|
