Blessed Julian of St. Augustine

Franciscan Lay Brother (ca. 1550-1606)

His life

+ Julian Martinet was born in Medinaceli, Castile, Spain. His family were refugees from France, having escaped persecution by the Calvinists.

+ Julian worked as a tailor’s apprentice before entering the local Franciscan friary. His harsh austerities and unusual devotions led to his being dismissed from the community and he worked as a tailor before being accepted into another friary. The result was the same, and Julian chose to live as a hermit for several years.

+ His reputation for holiness spread and he was given another chance to become a Franciscan. This time, Julian persevered and he was known in religious life as “Julian of St. Augustine.”

+ He was eventually asked to join in the friars’ preaching missions and he proved himself to be an eloquent and effective preacher and was regarded by many as being a prophet.

+ Blessed Julian of St. Augustine died on April 8, 1606, and was beatified in 1825.

Worth knowing

Blessed Julian was beatified in the same ceremony as Blessed Angelo of Acri and Blessed Hippolytus Galantini. Following the beatification ceremony, Pope Gregory XVI presented the paintings of these beati to Bishop Joseph of Flaget of the diocese of Bardstown (now the Archdiocese of Louisville). These paintings currently hang in the Louisville’s Cathedral of the Assumption.

For reflection

“We are fools on Christ’s account, but you are wise in Christ; we are weak, but you are strong; you are held in honor, but we in disrepute… When ridiculed, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we respond gently. We have become like the world’s rubbish, the scum of all, to this very moment.”—1 Corinthians 4:10, 12b-13

Prayer

O God, who called blessed Julian to seek your Kingdom in this world through the pursuit of perfect charity, grant, we pray, through his intercession that we may advance with joyful spirit along the way of love. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

(from The Roman Missal: Common of Holy Men and Women—For Religious)

Saint profiles prepared by Brother Silas Henderson, S.D.S.