MAY 18 SAN FELICE DA CANTALICE

Felice Porro was born in Cantalice (Rieti), almost certainly in 1515; very young he moved to Cittaducale where he served in the Picchi family as a shepherd and farmer. In 1544 he decided to satisfy the desire to become a Cappuccino. After the Novitiate in Fiuggi, in 1545 he made his vows in the convent of San Giovanni Campano. Then he stopped for a little over two years in the convents of Tivoli and Viterbo-Palanzana and then moved to the Roman convent of San Bonaventura (Santa Croce dei Lucchesi under the Quirinale), where in the remaining forty years he was a beggar for his confreres. He had a mystical temperament, slept just two or three hours and spent the rest of the night in prayer. On the streets of Rome he assisted the sick and poor: very devoted to Mary he was called "friar Deo gratias" for his usual greeting. He was canonized by Clement XI in 1712.

PRAYER

O God, who in San Felice da Cantalice

you gave to the Church and to the Franciscan Family

a bright example of evangelical simplicity

and of life consecrated to your praise,

give us to follow his example

looking for joyfully and loving only Christ.

He is God, and lives and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

for all ages.

Amen