In June 1479 in Salamanca, Spain, the Augustinian priest St. John of Sahagún or St. Facundo, a friend of the poor and of those who lived oppressed and forgotten by all, died. He was born 49 years ago in the province of Leon that gives his name, Sahagun, of the noble Gonzalez family. The eldest son of seven siblings, his parents prayed, fasted and did works of charity to ask God for a son like him.
The story of this saint, canonized in 1690, resembles in part that of St. Anthony of Padua. Born among luxuries, he soon felt a preference for the Church, so his education was entrusted to the Benedictines: under their guidance he studied theology and philosophy, and from them he also received a love for the rule of prayer and work.
St. John was already then a cheerful and intelligent young man. After completing his studies, he could have lived on the ecclesiastical revenues that his family enjoyed, but the Lord called him to a life of dedication. His father introduced him to the Bishop of Burgos, who ordained him a priest. However, not even in the environment of the curia did he find deep spiritual satisfaction: too many riches still surrounded him, while in his heart beat an intense desire to give himself completely to Jesus, knowing that all the pleasures of the world are nothing compared to the pure joy experienced in the practice of prayer, meditation and the evangelical virtues.
His entry into the Order of Saint Augustine
St. John felt the call to a more radical life and greater spiritual depth, and he left the curia to live obedience, chastity and poverty. He went to a retreat in Salamanca: he was 33 years old when he joined the Augustinian friars, who welcomed him with open arms. After his novitiate, on August 28, 1464, he made his religious profession under the name of Juan de Sahagún. There he began a life as virtuous as it was austere, during which he interpreted the Rule in a radical way.
Life in the Augustinian fraternity is imbibed from the way of life of the apostolic community. The Rule, composed by St. Augustine, the great father of the Church, speaks of prayer, study and austerity, but also of love, joy and fidelity. St. John of Sahagún took care of the refectory and the cellar that had been entrusted to him with exemplary meticulousness and love, and he went to confession three times a day, for he sought absolute purity of conscience. In Salamanca his reputation for sanctity grew, for which he became master of novices and was also twice elected prior of the convent: in 1471 and 1477. However, he never demanded anything of others that he himself had not already put into practice in his own person.
Close to people and close to Jesus
A man whose faith and integrity were so clear, he also received some extraordinary charisms from the Lord: the first was his ability to remain in contemplation all night long, in ecstasy, without the need for sleep, sometimes even levitating out of himself. But it is above all during the celebration of the Eucharist that Jesus granted her the revelation of his face shining with light, which John described as a sun, and which she adored above all else.
Meditations on the mysteries of faith were intense in the religious, starting from the real to ascend to the Father. He was a humble priest, who made himself close to the brothers he saw in need. In addition to his mystical communications with the Lord, John also had an exceptional capacity for fraternity, which allowed him to touch the hearts of people with the depth of his preaching and the strength of his exhortations to conversion, to abandon sin and to practice forgiveness, reconciliation and fraternal love.
Peace in Salamanca
Those were very hard years that John lived in Salamanca: the streets were bathed in blood because of an internal war between opposing factions. The Augustinian will always be with those who suffer, with the sick and those who live social injustices, with great solidarity and compassion. Of his two habits, he gave the better one to a man he saw in need.
Far from escaping from the difficulty, John of Sahagun became even more present within the community, with a particular commitment to peace, reconciling the warring factions through words but, above all, through patience. The saint would intervene and obtain the miracle of peace thanks to his great capacity for reconciliation and forgiveness.
Although he condemned sin, he was sympathetic to human weaknesses, knowing man's difficulties and errors. He sowed mercy in the hearts of his brothers and sisters thanks to the words of the Holy Spirit, always at the service of justice and truth. For this reason, his death on June 11, 1479 was a great loss for his community, which lost a father with his feet firmly on the ground and his heart turned towards God. He was beatified in 1601 and canonized by Alexander VIII in 1st june 1479
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