Aug 7 – S Cajetan / S Albert of Trapani

It’s the Feast of St. Caietanus, 3rd Class, with the color of White. In this episode: the meditation: “The Means of Acquiring Humility”, today’s news from the Church: “Cardinal Fernández Is Holding the Pen for Popes Francis and Leo XIV”, a preview of this week’s episode of The SSPX Podcast: “The Roman Catechism—Episode 3: What Catholics Mean by Faith”, and today’s thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.

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Saint Albert of Trapani was one of the earliest great saints of the Carmelite Order, and for centuries he was actually one of its most famous. Today, most Catholics probably know Saint Teresa of Ávila, Saint Thérèse of Lisieux, or Saint John of the Cross much better. But in medieval Europe, Albert was one of the names most closely associated with Carmel.

He was born in Sicily during the thirteenth century, probably in the city of Trapani. According to tradition, his parents had struggled for years to have children and promised the Blessed Virgin that if God gave them a son, they would dedicate him to her service.

Albert became that child.

When he was still young, he entered the Carmelite Order. This was an interesting moment in Carmelite history. The order had begun among hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land, but political instability had forced many of them westward into Europe. Albert belonged to one of those early generations that helped transform Carmel from a small group of hermits into an international religious order.

He became especially famous as a preacher.

Albert traveled throughout Sicily, preaching in towns and villages and developing a reputation for holiness that followed him almost everywhere. People came not only to hear him preach, but to ask for his prayers, particularly during illness.

One of the best-known stories about Albert takes place in the Sicilian city of Messina.

The city was under siege, and food supplies had become desperately low. People were beginning to starve. Albert celebrated Mass and prayed for the city. According to tradition, shortly afterward several ships loaded with grain somehow made it through the blockade and entered the harbor.

For the people of Messina, there wasn’t much question about whom they wanted to thank.

Devotion to Albert spread rapidly.

He became so closely associated with miraculous healings that a tradition developed around “Saint Albert’s Water.” Water blessed with prayers invoking his intercession was given to the sick, and the custom remained popular in Carmelite communities for centuries.

There’s another interesting piece of Carmelite history here. Albert was the first Carmelite formally honored as a saint by the order, so early Carmelite churches frequently placed his image alongside the Blessed Virgin Mary. Long before the later Carmelite saints became household names, Albert was one of the order’s great heavenly patrons.

His relics remain in Trapani, where devotion to him has continued for more than seven hundred years. Each August, his silver reliquary is traditionally carried through the streets, connecting modern Sicily with a devotion that reaches deep into the Middle Ages.

Saint Albert’s story gives us a glimpse of Carmel before Teresa, Thérèse, and John of the Cross, when the order was still finding its place in Europe.

Saint Albert of Trapani, preacher of Carmel and friend of the sick, pray for us.

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