Image: Santo Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo, Arzobispo de Lima | photo by MNBAArgentinaImage: Santo Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo, Arzobispo de Lima | photo by MNBAArgentinaPosted on 03/27/2017 6:24:30 PM PDT by Salvation
Image: Santo Toribio Alfonso de Mogrovejo, Arzobispo de Lima | photo by MNBAArgentina
Together with Rose of Lima, Turibius is the first known saint of the New World, serving the Lord in Peru, South America, for 26 years.
Born in Spain and educated for the law, he became so brilliant a scholar that he was made professor of law at the University of Salamanca and eventually became chief judge of the Inquisition at Granada. He succeeded too well. But he was not sharp enough a lawyer to prevent a surprising sequence of events.
When the archdiocese of Lima in Peru required a new leader, Turibius was chosen to fill the post: He was the one person with the strength of character and holiness of spirit to heal the scandals that had infected that area.
He cited all the canons that forbade giving laymen ecclesiastical dignities, but he was overruled. Turibius was ordained priest and bishop and sent to Peru, where he found colonialism at its worst. The Spanish conquerors were guilty of every sort of oppression of the native population. Abuses among the clergy were flagrant, and he devoted his energies and suffering to this area first.
He began the long and arduous visitation of an immense archdiocese, studying the language, staying two or three days in each place, often with neither bed nor food. Turibius confessed every morning to his chaplain, and celebrated Mass with intense fervor. Among those to whom he gave the Sacrament of Confirmation was the future Saint Rose of Lima, and possibly the future Saint Martin de Porres. After 1590, he had the help of another great missionary, Francis Solanus, now also a saint.
Though very poor his people were sensitive, dreading to accept public charity from others. Turibius solved the problem by helping them anonymously.
The Lord indeed writes straight with crooked lines. Against his will, and from the unlikely springboard of an Inquisition tribunal, this man became the Christlike shepherd of a poor and oppressed people. God gave him the gift of loving others as they needed it.
Saint of the Day Lenten Series Ping!
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Salvator of Horta, 03-20-17
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Day by Day -- Saints for All, St. Patrick, 03-17-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Clement Mary Hofbauer, 03-16-17
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Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Maximilian, 03-14-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Leander of Seville, 03-13-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Blessed Angela Salawa, 03-12-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint John Ogilvie, 03-11-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Dominic Savio, 03-10-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Frances of Rome, 03-09-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, St. John of God, 03-08-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saints Perpetua and Felicity, 03-07-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Mary Ann of Jesus of Paredes, 03-06-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint John Joseph of the Cross, 03-05-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Casimir, 03-04-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, Saint Katharine Drexel, 03-03-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, St. Agnes of Bohemia, 03-02-17
Day by Day -- Saints for All, St. David of Wales, 03-01-17
When people hear “Inqusition,” they freak out - but actually, it was nothing but an office for ensuring the orthodoxy of doctrine and also of moral behavior, particularly among the clergy (except in places where it was used politically, such as parts of Spain). In Latin America, most Indians were not subject to the Inquisition, because they were not thought to know enough to be capable of consciously adopting a heresy. Syncretism was the primary problem, and the only Indian who was condemned by the Inquisition was a European-educated lay leader who had proclaimed a combination of native pagan beliefs and some Christian figures (sort of like Santeria). Almost all those severely punished or put to death under the Inquisition in Latin America were clergy, and not only for heretical beliefs, but for things like sexually abusing, exploiting or stealing property from the Indian converts. So the Inquisition was actually a source of justice and protection for the native population.
BTTT for the Saint of the Day, Saint Turibius of Mogrovejo!
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