Today, we celebrate the feast day of St Martin of Tours and Sister Catherine McAuley, the founder of the Sisters of Mercy who had a very big presence both in Mississippi and in Ireland. However, I would like to speak about a rather new saint that was canonized under Pope Leo XIV. Luigia Poloni was born in 1802 in Verona, Italy. She was the youngest of twelve siblings. Following in the footsteps of her father, who had a great love for the poor, she met Blessed Charles Steeb, a German-born priest who served in Verona. Together, they worked with the elderly, the poor, and the chronically ill. In 1836, she worked to heal victims of a cholera epidemic. In all her service, she had a devout life of prayer. In 1848, with Father Charles Steeb, she founded the Sisters of Mercy of Verona and took Maria Vincenza as her name in religion. Her motto, “Serving Christ in the Poor,” became the cornerstone of this new congregation. She died 1855 from cancer and was buried in the municipal cemetery of Verona. The congregation that she and Father Steeb established grew outside of Verona and expanded to other nations, including Portugal and Tanzania. She was beatified in 2008 and was canonized under Pope Leo XIV.
Our first reading today is from the New Testament letter of St Paul to Titus, which was written around the years 62-68 AD. St Paul wrote to his companion Titus, whom he left on the island of Crete, a place that was infamous for challenges such as greed, violence, and sexual immorality. Titus was charged with organizing house church on the island and preaching the values of the Christian faith to these inhabitants. Titus was a gifted Gentile believer in the faith who was a peacemaker and who had been on other mission trips with St Paul. Paul called the people to a transformation from their past inequities, to have hearts that are open to God’s mercy, grace, peace, and forgiveness, to place their hope in the promise of eternal life with God. This theme of St Paul’s letter to Titus calls us to transcend the anger and frustration that often characterizes our lives in the modern world to the transformation and new life that God offers us.
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