Paschal Baylon

Son of Aragonese peasants, he kept flocks from seven to twenty-four and taught himself to read, a book in hand behind his beasts. Entering the Discalced Franciscans as a lay brother in 1564, he remained all his life a porter, cook or questor, refusing the priesthood. Sent once on an errand to the minister general in France, he crossed a country in the midst of the wars of religion and was stoned on the road by Huguenots without losing his life. What made him known is his devotion to the eucharist: he spent his nights before the tabernacle, and he is said to have remained several times in prayer until morning kneeling in the snow of the courtyard. Leo XIII proclaimed him in 1897 patron of eucharistic congresses. He died at Vila-real in 1592, on Pentecost Sunday, during Mass.