Cards 70-78 : Philip Benizi - Zita - Voices of the Saints
Cards 70-78 : Philip Benizi - Zita - Voices of the Saints
Cards 20-29: Bonaventura - Cosmas & Damian
Cards 30-39: Cyrus - Francis of Paola
Cards 40-49: Francis Xavier - Joachim
Cards 50-59: Joan of Arc - Mark
Cards 60-69: Margaret Alaoque - Peter
Cards 70-78 : Philip Benizi - Zita
Voices of the Saints: Keyword Guide
Transversal Theology: Technical Glossary
70. Saint Philippus Benizi Conf. (12th-cent. Italy).
Hagiography
Feast: August 22
Saint Philip Benizi: Born to the Italian nobility. Brilliant student. Studied medicine at Paris, France, and Padua, Italy, receiving his doctorates in medicine and philosophy by age 19. Practiced medicine for about a year, but following a vision of the Virgin Mary, he quit to join the Servites as a lay brother. Ordained at Siena. Tried to hide his education so he could remain a simple member of the Order, but he was persuaded to use his gifts and background to further the Servite mission. Miracle worker and healer. He once met a leper on the road, and gave the man his cloak; the leprosy was instantly cured.
Sent to Forli, Italy to resolve a conflict between the papacy and the emperor, he was heckled and then physically attacked while preaching. Philip turned the other cheek. Superior of several Servite friaries. Codified the Servite rules, and defended against attempts to disband it in the wake of the Second Council of Lyons which put restrictions on mendicant orders. Worked to bring peace to the Guelphs and Ghibellines. He was considered a candidate for the papacy at one point; when he heard the rumor, he went into hiding on Mount Tuniato until Pope Saint Gregory X was chosen.
Archetypology
Saint Philip Benizi represents fleeing from pomp for humility as exhibited in his flight from his distinguished career and his rejection of the possibility of the papacy. He also represents skills abandoned only to be regained stronger and more useful. His desire was to flee from his former life as a medical and philosophical doctor. But instead, he was called to use those dormant skills to do good under a new modality.
Visual Symbology
One sees Saint Philip Benizi in hiding on Mount Tuniato while fleeing from the possibility of being pope. He kneels next to a crucifix, which in this case represents the ultimate rejection of pomp, as the son of God becomes incarnate and then goes on to suffer a humiliating death. Saint Philip holds a memento mori (skull) which he gazes upon. He keeps this skull is as a reminder that all things pass in this world and thus needles accolades are pointless. However, the skull is also a motivator that one’s talents must not be wasted and should be used to goodness according to the divine plan. Saint Philip Benizi’s left hand gestures from the skull to the cross in a motion that connects the believer's death to the sanctifying death of Christ himself. At his knees are a group of lilies resting on an open book and a crosier. Next to them is a Papal tiara resting on a closed book. The open and closed books represent the purity with which he kept his focus on his particular life path and his particular skills as opposed to being distracted by a life of vainglory.
Application
When a querent observes Saint Philip Benizi he should focus on what skills he may have left dormant that can be reactivated in a new way. Saint Philip Benizi also beckons the observer to be wary of attractive lifestyles that may be good for some people, but not the querent. In reverse Saint Philip Benizi could represent someone locked in a situation that utilizes their talents poorly. Or it could represent someone who makes good use of their skills, but has yet to connect that to a higher purpose.
71. Philomena V. M. (3rd-cent. Greece)
Hagiography
Feast: August 11
Saint Philomena: Little is known of her life, and the information we have received by private revelation from her. Martyred at about age 14 in the early days of the Church.
In 1802 the remains of a young woman were found in the catacomb of Saint Priscilla on the Via Salaria, Rome, Italy. It was covered by stones, the symbols on which indicated that the body was a martyr named Saint Philomena. The bones were exhumed, cataloged, and effectively forgotten since there was so little known about the person.
In 1805 Canon Francis de Lucia of Mugnano, Italy was in the Treasury of the Rare Collection of Christian Antiquity (Treasury of Relics) in the Vatican. When he reached the relics of Saint Philomena he was suddenly struck with a spiritual joy and requested that he be allowed to enshrine them in a chapel in Mugnano. After some disagreements, settled by the cure of Canon Francis following prayers to Philomena, he was allowed to translate the relics to Mugnano. Miracles began to be reported at the shrine including cures of cancer, healing of wounds, and the Miracle of Mugnano in which Venerable Pauline Jaricot has cured a severe heart ailment overnight. Philomena became the only person recognized as a Saint solely on the basis of miraculous intercession as nothing historical was known of her except her name and the evidence of her martyrdom.
Patronage
against barrenness
against bodily ills
against infertility
against mental illness
against sickness
against sterility
babies
children
desperate causes
forgotten causes
impossible causes
Infants
lost causes
Living Rosary
newborns
orphans
poor people
priests
prisoners
sick people
students
test takers
toddlers
Archetypology
Much like Saint Januarius, Saint Philomena represents abidance after death and one’s ability to effect this world after they have passed. In some ways she is a more concentrated form of saint Januarious because there is no historical record of her life, she made details known only after her death. She represents the absolute spirituality of the postmortem state (as it awaits the general resurrection), yet its ability to affect the corporeal and the material. This is symbolized by her relics as well as the complete lack of biography apart from private revelation. Her intercession also strikes more personal as opposed to Saint Januarius’ city wide patronage, so in that she strikes a feminine balance to his masculine abidance.
Visual Symbology
In this image, Saint Philomena is seen standing in a field with woods in the background. She is dressed in ornate robes and holds lilies in her right hand as a sign of her steadfastness to her death. Her left hand clutches a crucifix to her heart to signify her willingness to follow the road of Christ to her death. At her feet is an anchor, a symbol of Christian hope and several arrows indicating her martyrdom.
Application
To meet with Saint Philomena is to meet with an unseen and unknown ally. Most likely this ally will be a spiritual power, but not necessarily. It is time for the querent to take a moment of gratitude for all the forces that help in his life that he is not even aware of. In reverse Philomena can present an opportunity to recognize or focus on those who very obviously help one in one’s life. Saint Philomena in reverse may also present those who are willing to help but with sinister motivations or expectations of commerce.
72. Raphael Arch. (Archangel of the book of Tobit)
Hagiography
Feast: September 29
Saint Raphael the Archangel: One of the three angels mentioned by name in Scripture, and one of the seven that stand before God’s throne. Lead character in the deutero-canonical book of Tobit in which he traveled with (and guarded) Tobiah, and cured a man’s blindness; hence his connection with travelers, young people, blindness, healing, and healers. Traditionally considered the force behind the healing power of the sheep pool mentioned in John 5:1-4.
Patronage
against bodily ills
against eye disease
against eye problems
against insanity
against mental illness
against nightmares
against sickness
apothecaries
blind people
Doctors
druggists
guardian angels
happy meetings
love
lovers
mentally ill people
nurses
pharmacists
physicians
shepherdesses
shepherds
sick people
travelers
young people
Archetypology
If Saint Michael the Archangel represents the meta spiritual struggle between good and evil, on a completely spiritual plane, then Saint Raphael the Archangel represents how the spiritual powers interact with, manipulate, and utilize the physical realm. In the book of Tobit, Raphael is seen walking the earth as an observable protector and helper. He helps Tobiah by being his guide and helping him utilize the body parts of a fish to ward off demons and cure blindness. He represents the interaction of the spiritual and the worldly to good success.
Visual Symbology
The image shows Saint Raphael the Archangel robed in red with wings open. He holds a walking staff showing he is on a journey. In Saint Raphael’s side embrace is young Tobiah. The companions look at each other in a caring manner, but their postures indicate that Saint Raphael is the guide and Tobiah is reliant on his skill. Tobiah holds the fish that attempted to eat his foot and Raphael urge him to catch it. A fish is a general is a symbol of Christ, but this fish, in particular, is a sign of the ritual use of material goods in a sacramental cosmology. Tobiah uses its liver as incense to drive out a demon and his gallbladder to heal his father’s blindness.
Application
To encounter Saint Raphael is to bring to mind the effective interaction between the spiritual and the material, especially concerning ritual. In the former treatises Sacramental Cosmology and Intuitive Ritual Investment and Conscious Ritual Investment we discussed how important this mode of communication is. Saint Raphael begs the querent to invest to the best of their ability in what ritual is most effective for them, to consciously engage the material world as a manifestation of the spiritual one. In reverse, Saint Raphael may indicate more intuitive ritual investment, that allows the symbols to speak for themselves. It could also be an indicator that the querent is alienated from a ritual life that would be helpful for them.
73. Saint Rochus Conf. (14th-cent. France)
Hagiography
Feast: August 16
Saint Roch: French noble who early developed a sympathy for the poor and sick; reported to have been born with the image of a red cross on his breast. Orphaned at age 20, he gave his fortune to the poor and became a mendicant pilgrim. While on pilgrimage Roch encountered an area afflicted with plague. He stayed to minister to the sick, and affected several miraculous cures, usually by making the sign of the cross over them, but contracted the plague himself. He walked into a forest to die but was befriended by a dog. The dog fed him with food stolen from his master’s table, and Roch eventually recovered.
When Roch returned to Montpellier, France, he was arrested for being a spy. He languished in jail for five years, never mentioning his noble connections, cared for by an angel until his death.
Patronage
against cholera
against diseased cattle
against epidemics
against knee problems
against plague
against skin diseases
against skin rashes
bachelors
diseased cattle
dogs
falsely accused people
invalids
relief from pestilence
surgeons
tile makers
Archetypology
Saint Roch is an interesting counterbalance to Blessed Contardo as “The Fool”. His story is a bit more developed, he not only traveled the Camino de Compostela in simplicity, but he miraculously cured the sick along the way. The journey was important for him, but more important was the ministry that it offered. When he worked with the lepers he assumed this was his end, but nature supplied for his survival. He represents those who simplify by travel, but this journey is not a mobile and public hermitude, it is a ministry. Another stark difference between Saint Roch and Blessed Contardo is the events leading up to and following their deaths. Blessed Contardo is immediately and miraculously acclaimed holy upon his death, whereas Saint Roch dies suspected of evil. This represents how a hermetic life comes with an immediate stamp of spiritual approval, yet a life of engagement is spiritually suspect. Saint Roch’s death indicates the spiritual ignominy of those who engage in this world as a ministry absent any heralding of their spiritual motivations.
Visual Symbology
Saint Roch is seen sitting in the wilderness where he has retired to died after tending to a plague stricken city. He is kneeling on the ground and a dog stands to his left with a morsel of food he is bringing to sustain Saint Roch, recalling the dog who travels with The Fool in the standard Tarot deck. The dog is symbolic of God’s providence through nature and God’s ability to sustain us beyond where we think we are able to go. Saint Roch is dressed in rough traveling clothes decorated with a clamshell as a sign of a traveler of the Camino de Compostela. He holds a traveler’s staff with a gourd affixed to the top. His demeanor indicates one who has traveled long and expects that his travel has come to an ignominious end. But the dog’s presence speaks otherwise.
Application
To meet Saint Roch in a reading is to meet the simplicity of The Fool, but with a purpose. The card asks the querent to expect no accolades for the work they do, and possibly even portends persecution for doing good. In reverse, Saint Roch focuses the querent on graciously accepting accolades for work well done. It could also alert the querent to aimlessness in their life.
74. Saint Rosa of Limae V. (17th-cent. Peru)
Hagiography
Feast: August 23
Saint Rose of Lima: Born to Spanish immigrants to the New World. A beautiful girl and devoted daughter, she was so devoted to her vow of chastity that she used pepper and lye to ruin her complexion so she would not be attractive. Lived and meditated in a garden, raising vegetables and making embroidered items to sell to support her family and help the other poor. As a young girl she began to fast three times a week and performed severe penances in secret. When she was admired for her beauty, Rose cut off her hair and smeared pepper on her face, upset that men were beginning to take notice of her. She rejected all suitors against the objections of her friends and her family. After daily fasting, she took to permanently abstaining from eating meat. She helped the sick and hungry around her community, bringing them to her room and taking care of them. Rose sold her fine needlework, and took flowers that she grew to market, to help her family. She made and sold lace and embroidery to care for the poor, and she prayed and did penance in a little grotto that she had built. She only allowed herself to sleep two hours a night at most, so that she had more hours to devote to prayer. She donned a heavy crown made of silver, with small spikes on the inside, in emulation of the Crown of Thorns worn by Christ. She wanted to become a nun, but her father forbade it, so she instead entered the Third Order of St. Dominic while living in her parents' home. In her twentieth year she donned the habit of a tertiary and took a vow of perpetual virginity.
Patronage
against vanity
embroiderers
florists
gardeners
needleworkers
The New World
people ridiculed for their piety
vanity
Archetypology
The Rose of Lima represents the pinnacle of personal piety, self mastery and ascetic discipline. Her life is so nearly one of a master hermit, but without the honor of “being” a hermit, so that her lifestyle comes off as an odd recluse. But in her spirituality, one gets a sense of the attempt of self mastery at the highest level. As a Dominican tertiary, she represents that pursuit of truth, but in her manner of life, that truth is not abstract but lived by discipline and service.
Visual Symbology
In her image, the Rose of Lima stands with a plethora of flowers at the base. There is a rose of Love as well as lilies of purity, but also various wildflowers to recall the observer to her simple ministry of selling flowers to aid the impoverished. Some of the flowers are yet opened speaking of a mysterious potentiality. The Rose of Lima stands center dressed in a Dominican habit. She gazes lovingly upon a crucifix so as to connect her life of physical self denial to the suffering of Christ. Her halo is softly colored and visually overtaken by a crown of thorns she wears. The general impression of the image is a deep peace that comes with appropriate mortification of the flesh.
Application
To meet The Rose of Lima in a reading is to be advised toward self denial. This is especially true of physical denial and an acceptance of suffering as redemptive. There is also an urge to help those impoverished with an awareness of (and maybe through) one’s own poverty. In reverse, The Rose of Lima warns of the arrogance of demonstrable piety and a danger of over austerity at the expense of true joy. This could also be a sign to invest in a sensual spirituality that over appreciates physical sensation as pleasurable.
75. Saint Rosalia V. (12th-cent. Italy)
Hagiography
Feast: September 4
Saint Rosalia: Born to the Sicilian nobility, the daughter of Sinibald, Lord of Roses, and Quisquina. Descendant of Charlemagne. Raised around the royal Sicilian court. From her youth, Rosalia knew she was called to dedicate her life to God. When grown, she moved to a cave near her parents' home, and lived in it the rest of her life; tradition says that she was led to the cave by two angels. On the cave wall, she wrote “I, Rosalia, daughter of Sinibald, Lord of Roses, and Quisquina, have taken the resolution to live in this cave for the love of my Lord, Jesus Christ.” Rosalia remained apart from the world, dedicated to prayer and works of penance for the sake of Jesus, died alone, and was forgotten.
Almost five centuries later, during a period of plague, she appeared in a vision to a hunter near her cave. Her relics were discovered, brought to Palermo, and paraded through the streets. Three days later the plague ended, intercession to Rosalia was credited with saving the city.
Archetypology
Hermits in Christianity are rarely absolutely solitary. They are usually sought out for their wisdom. Saint Rosalia is the odd exception. Even though Christianity is a religion of personal communion she represents the solitary aspect of any person’s spiritual journey. Her “power” to effect change is completely reliant on prayer and her spiritual life is a life of deep isolation. Her legacy remains dormant for over four hundred years, so she is also a testament to the patience of God’s plan through us. So often we expect to notice the fruits of our labor, but Saint Rosalia attests to the Saint Paul’s assertion, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused the growth.” We live in hope of a life of meaning, but Saint Rosalia reminds us that our observation of that meaning or fulfillment is not a guarantee.
Visual Symbology
One sees Saint Rosalia kneeling in her cave of solitude etching her epitaph upon the wall with a nail. The landscape is barren and dead save for a single stalk of lilies laying on the ground in front of her. Some of the flowers have fallen off and are wilting, signifying what appears to be a defeat of life. Saint Rosalia is dressed in simple hermits cloths. Her blonde hair flows wildly behind her, but her face holds noble beauty. She is crowned with roses, a sign of her house as well as the love that drove her to a life of prayer in solitude.
Application
To encounter Saint Rosalia is to encounter one’s inner spiritual life. This card demands an introspective stance. It especially summons the querent to focus on their attachment to their legacy. Do I need assurance that I will have an effect, or can I trust God’s plan to effect apart from me and after my part is played? In reverse, Saint Rosalia may call for immediate and deep social engagement. Or the card could signify an isolation that is an unhealthy retreat from society.
76. Saint Theresia V. (16th-cent Spain)
Hagiography
Feast: October 15th August 27 (The Transverberation of Theresa of Avila’s Heart)
Saint Theresa of Avila: Born to the Spanish nobility, the daughter of Don Alonso Sanchez de Cepeda and Doña Beatriz. She grew up reading the lives of the saints and playing at “hermit” in the garden. Crippled by disease in her youth, which led to her being well educated at home, she was cured after prayer to Saint Joseph. Her mother died when Teresa was 12, and she prayed to Our Lady to be her replacement. Her father opposed her entry to religious life, so she left home without telling anyone, and entered a Carmelite house at 17. Seeing her conviction to her call, her father and family consented.
Soon after taking her vows, Teresa became gravely ill, and her condition was aggravated by the inadequate medical help she received; she never fully recovered her health. She began receiving visions and was examined by Dominicans and Jesuits who pronounced the visions to be holy and true.
She considered her original house too lax in its rule, so she founded a reformed convent of Saint John of Avila. Teresa founded several houses, often against fierce opposition from local authorities. Mystical writer. Proclaimed a Doctor of the Church on 27 September 1970 by Pope Paul VI.
Patronage
against bodily ills
against headaches
against sickness
against the death of parents
lace makers and workers
people in need of grace
people in religious orders
people ridiculed for their piety
sick people
Archetypology
Saint Theresa of Avila represents the mystical experience as reformative. Her raptures are not her own but serve to better the stale and routine. Her writings show a deep introspection and her ecstasies, though embarrassing to her, show the rapture of joy and love one has when experiencing mystical union with the divine. As both a mystic and a Doctor of the
Church she represents a wise presence of the feminine, intuitive, experiential and emotion inside the institutional, cerebral, and analytical.
Visual Symbology
The card displays Saint Theresa in the midst of her transverberation. In this mystical experience (commemorated on August 26th) she had a vision of being stabbed in the heart by an angel. She describes the experience thusly, “I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron’s point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart and to pierce my very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also and to leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it, even a large one. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God.” The experience is one of purgation, a burning cleansing of the unnecessary leaving only what is necessary, in this case, love. In the image, the angel stands behind Saint Theresa thrusting the flaming spear toward her heart. She kneels before an ornate table with a face of serene calm, dressed in a Carmelite habit. One hand is on the table and one is just below her heart. Beside the table a book lays closed. At this moment any cognitive knowledge is useless, only love is present.
Application
To draw Saint Theresa of Avila is to draw an urging toward the mystical as applied to the institution. The querent should notice the organized structures of their lives and invest them with an intuitive and experiential reform. In reverse Saint Theresa of Avila presents the need to utilize the institutional status quo in one’s life, to draw in the strengths of institutions as the are an aid to the querent’s life. The oppositional deal could also indicate an overly analytical approach to a situation.
77. Saint Valentinus M. (3rd-cent. Italy).
Hagiography
Feast: February 14
Saint Valentine of Rome: Priest in Rome, possibly a bishop. Physician. Imprisoned for giving aid to martyrs in prison, and while there converted the jailer by restoring sight to the jailer‘s daughter. He was beaten and beheaded c.269 at Rome.
Saint Valentine of Terni: Ordained by Saint Felician of Foligno. Consecrated bishop of Terni, Italy by Pope Victor I, c.197. Noted evangelist, miracle worker, and healer, he was much loved by his flock. Imprisoned, tortured, and beheaded by order of the prefect Placid Furius during the persecution of Aurelius. He was murdered in secret and at night to avoid riots and revenge by the people of Terni. He was beheaded on the Via Flaminia between Rome and Terni, Italy. While Valentine of Terni and Valentine of Rome sometimes have separate entries in martyrologies and biographies, most scholars believe they are the same person.
Patronage
affianced couples
against epilepsy
against fainting
against plague
apiarists
bee keepers
betrothed couples
engaged couples
greeting card manufacturers
greetings
happy marriages
love
lovers
travellers
young people
Archetypology
It would be impossible to deny that a pull of Saint Valentine had anything to do with nuptial attraction and erotic [classic] desire. But given little of the hagiography invests is such meaning Saint Valentine can also represent the impartation of spiritual vision. By giving literal sight to the jailer’s daughter, he gave the entire family a path to a more full spiritual life. Saint Valentine stands for a spiritual catalyst on an individual and communal level. To bring the archetype back full circle a married couple sacramentally images the likeness of the Trinity, two people bound by nuptial love (a third being) that creates one reality “a marriage” just as the Father and the Son are bound by the love of the Holy Spirit. Thus to be a catalyst for nuptial love is to be a catalyst for a greater spiritual vision as well. This familial vision can be counter compared to Lucia's vision of structures gone awry.
Visual Symbology
In the image show, Saint Valentine liturgically vested holding the palm of martyrdom over his heart with his right hand. His left hand gestures in blessing over the figures before him. Kneeling at his left is a young girl at prayer. She is blindfolded. This is doubtless Asterius’ daughter who was healed by Valentine. To his right a woman kneels holding a small child, this is most likely Austerius’ wife who converted with him on account of Saint Valentine's miraculous prayers. This card shows the moment Saint Valentine’s acts as a catalyst of change for an entire family toward a greater spiritual vision.
Application
This card offers the possibility of a catalyst for a greater spiritual vision in one’s life. It very well could be a trinitarian vision of love through the sacrament of marriage. But the healing of Asterius’ blind daughter signifies any clearer vision of truth or goodness that could lead the querent on a better path to understanding. In reverse, this card can indicate a spiritual blindness or inability to see what is needed to progress, a period of spiritual desolation, or a “dark night of the soul”. All of these are in the immediate “Bad” but could be aiming toward an ultimate resolution.
78. Saint Zita V. (13th-cent. Italy)
Hagiography
Feast: April 12
Saint Zita of Lucca: Born to a very poor but pious family. At age twelve she became a domestic servant for the wealthy Fainelli family in Lucca, Italy, a position she kept all her life; she looked at it as a way to serve God. She often gave her own food, and sometimes that of her master, to those poorer than herself, which caused her to get in frequent trouble with her employers and the other servants in the house who resented her. However, she did such a fine job she was eventually placed in charge of the house and entrusted with its keys. Attended daily Mass before beginning her duties, and would go to a nearby monastery to pray in private.
Patronage
against losing keys
butlers
domestic servants
homemakers
housemaids
lost keys
maids
manservants
people ridiculed for their piety
rape victims
servants
servers
single laywomen
Waiters and waitresses
Archetypology
Saint Zita represents finding Christ no matter what your vocation. She is the feminine counterpart to Saint Homobonus. She is not a consecrated, it goes unmentioned whether she was married. Her alignment either way would invest the observer with a narrative of spirituality beyond the ordinary, because “motherhood” is a divinely given vocation, as is consecrated virginity. She presents simply to find God in service through her secular work. To be able to accept this grace is one of the quickest ways to true peace. It is her very simple life as it is lead, even more impressive than The Little Flower because she had no Order to back her, only her small labor and care for those less fortunate than her. She lived a long life of laborious servitude, plenty of time to lose naivete concerning the simple path, but her steadfast faith kept her intentions pure and allowed her the joy of “the little way” long before the birth of The Little Flower.
Visual Symbology
This image shows Zita dressed as a domestic servant and offering a blessing, even though she is in no position to be expected to do so. She offers this blessing to an elderly peasant couple at a well, the woman standing behind the man who is shoddily clad and kneeling at the well with his bucket looking up at Saint Zita. The well is a universal symbol of marriage and nuptial love. Throughout the Bible, a well is a place where men meet women and the two become married. The well is a symbol of life giving water and the “depth” [vaginal] of feminine ability to give life. In this image that feminine void is complemented by a pillar in the background that seems to descend directly into the well, a clear sign of sexual union. In this image, Saint Zita is giving her blessing to the lot of the common married Christain, which is difficult, but life giving. Consecrated Christians vow theoretical poverty but rarely know true material poverty, where the married Christians vow “for richer or for poorer” but the vast majority live in material poverty. Zita shows that this life of the married working in no way bars one from sainthood. Though the percentage of officially recognized saints may not demonstrate that, the lists declared on Rome are in no way near exhaustive.
Application
To meet Saint Zita in a reading is to come to terms with life as one lives it as a path to holiness. Her path was her labor as a domestic servant, not a traditional “vocation” of the church. The querent if challenged to find a way to sacralize and sanctify the mundane aspects of their life and to find a way to turn them to the service of spiritual life. In reverse, Saint Zita canindicate a spiritual deadness in the hum-drum of life, an inability to find God in the simple. The oppositional position could also call to mind a spiritual experience of unusual character inserted into the hum-drum of the querent’s life.
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