Image: Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, San Diego de Alcalá in ecstasy before the Cross, 17th century. Musée des Augustins, Toulouse. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
Abscondísti hæc a sapiéntibus et prudéntibus, et revelásti ea párvulis.
Matthew 11:25
Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones.
About Today
On November 13 the 1962 calendar keeps the feast of St. Didacus, Confessor, a commemoration of the third class, with white vestments. In English he is also called Diego of Alcalá.
His Life
Didacus was born in Spain in the early 1400s, in the village of San Nicolás del Puerto. As a young man he lived as a hermit, praying alone and learning to trust God in simple things. Later he entered the Franciscan Order as a lay brother, never a priest, and gladly took the lowliest work.
He was sent to the Canary Islands, where he served as superior, and later to Rome, where he cared for the sick during the Jubilee year of 1450. Wherever he went he was gentle with the poor, giving them bread from the friary kitchen and tending the ill with his own hands.
He was not a learned man, yet he understood what matters most. He loved the Cross above all things, and his companions saw him often lost in prayer before it. He died at Alcalá in Spain on November 12, 1463, kissing the crucifix and saying words of praise to God.
A Lesson for Today
Didacus held no high office and wrote no great books, but he gave his days to prayer and to the poor. God often does His great work through humble people, and each of us can begin with small, faithful acts of kindness.
Collect
Latin
Omnípotens sempitérne Deus, qui dispositióne mirábili infírma mundi éligis, ut fórtia quæque confúndas: concéde propítius humilitáti nostræ; ut, piis beáti Dídaci Confessóris tui précibus, ad perénnem in cœlis glóriam sublimári mereámur. Per Dóminum nostrum Iesum Christum, Fílium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitáte Spíritus Sancti, Deus, per ómnia sǽcula sæculórum. Amen.
English
Almighty, eternal God, who in Thy wondrous providence dost choose the weak things of the world to overcome the strong, mercifully grant to us Thy humble servants that, by the loving prayers of blessed Didacus, Thy Confessor, we may be found worthy to be raised to everlasting glory in heaven. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with Thee in the unity of the Holy Ghost, God, world without end. Amen.
Sancte Dídace, ora pro nobis.
St. Didacus, pray for us.