It’s the Feast of St. Callistus, 3rd Class, with the color of Red. In this episode: the meditation: “The Mission of Guardian Angels”, today’s news from the Church: “Tomorrow, the Antichrist? When Theology Sheds Light on Geopolitics”, and today’s thought from the Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre.
Have feedback or questions about the DD or our other shows? podcast@sspx.org
Sources Used Today:
- “The Mission of Guardian Angels” — From the Assumption to Advent
- “Tomorrow, the Antichrist? When Theology Sheds Light on Geopolitics” (FSSPX.news)
- The Spiritual Life — Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre (Angelus Press)
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Saint Fortunatus of Todi is one of those early Italian bishops whose reputation survived for fifteen hundred years, thanks in large part to some remarkable stories preserved by Pope Saint Gregory the Great.
Fortunatus lived during the sixth century and served as Bishop of Todi, a hilltop town in central Italy. This was a difficult period for the region. The Western Roman Empire had collapsed, wars were sweeping through Italy, and bishops often found themselves responsible for far more than the spiritual needs of their people.
Fortunatus became especially known for his charity, his prayers, and, according to Gregory, an extraordinary gift for working miracles.
One of the most unusual stories concerns a horse.
A Gothic soldier had left his horse in Fortunatus’s care. When the soldier returned, the animal became so wild that nobody could approach it. Fortunatus simply made the Sign of the Cross, and the horse immediately became calm.
Apparently, even the horses recognized a holy bishop.
But Gregory records something considerably more astonishing.
A man came to Fortunatus grieving the death of his son. He begged the bishop to restore the boy to life. Fortunatus initially refused, insisting that such power belonged to God alone.
The father wouldn’t give up.
According to the account, Fortunatus eventually knelt beside the child’s body and prayed. The boy was restored to life.
Gregory included this story in his Dialogues, a collection of accounts about the holy men and women of Italy. These weren’t simply entertaining legends to Gregory. He wanted Christians living through frightening and uncertain times to remember that God had not abandoned His Church.
Fortunatus also became associated with the healing of the sick and the deliverance of those suffering from demonic oppression. His reputation spread well beyond Todi, and pilgrims began visiting his tomb after his death.
And here’s something particularly interesting about his legacy.
The church dedicated to him in Todi eventually became one of the town’s most magnificent buildings. The present Church of San Fortunato is a beautiful medieval structure overlooking the surrounding Umbrian countryside. Its crypt preserves the memory of the bishop, and the church also contains the tomb of Jacopone da Todi, the thirteenth-century Franciscan poet traditionally associated with the Stabat Mater.
So one church connects an early miracle-working bishop with one of medieval Catholicism’s most famous religious poets.
Fortunatus died around the year 565, but his name never really left Todi.
For centuries, the townspeople have remembered him not as a powerful ruler or famous scholar, but as the bishop who cared for them and whose prayers, they believed, could accomplish extraordinary things.
Saint Fortunatus of Todi, compassionate shepherd and wonderworker of Umbria, pray for us.
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