ST. FIDELIS OF SIGMARINGEN, OFM
St. Fidelis (1577-1622), a Capuchin friar, was a principal defender of the Catholic Faith during the Counter-Revolution. He gave his life witnessing for the Faith when Protestant revolutionaries murdered him.
EARLY LIFE
Fidelis was born in Sigmaringen, a town in Southern Germany on the Danube River near the Black Forrest (modern day state of Baden-Württenberg). His parents christened him Mark. He studied law and philosophy at the University of Freiburg (a city in that corner of Germany where France and Switzerland meet). As a student, he never drank and always wore a hear shirt. His companions respected him for his great virtue, especially his meekness and chastity. He became a Doctor of Law and a tutor to noblemen. This afforded him the opportunity to travel throughout Europe learning and practicing his trade. In every town he visited, at every opportunity, he would assist at Holy Mass, visit the sick in hospitals, and spend many hours on his knees before the Blessed Sacrament. He was so generous to the poor, that in imitation of St. Martin of Tours, he would even give the very clothes he was wearing as alms. Once he established himself as a lawyer, he never stopped defending the poor and all those who were unjustly oppressed or accused. He zealously worked to punish calumny (false accusations) and detraction. He soon became quite well known as “the poor man’s lawyer.” However, his profession was filled with so much corruption, that he determined to enter the religious life as a member of the Capuchin friars.
THE CAPUCHINS
The Capuchins had recently been formed by Friar Matteo da Bascio in Italy. His goal was to return the Franciscans to their original rule and life envisaged by their founder, St. Francis of Assisi. Pope Clement VII approved Friar Matteo’s efforts and in 1528 he began to live as a hermit. However, just like Francis, Friar Matteo soon attracted companions and the order began to grow. While they received much opposition from other provinces of Franciscans, the Capuchins played an important role in combating the Protestant heresy, especially since their rigorous and austere life gave great moral and spiritual credibility to the authenticity of the Catholic Church.
Upon entering the Capuchin order, Mark received the name “Fidelis.” This is the Latin word for “faithful.” He was given this name in the context of Apocalypse 2:10: “Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil will cast some of you into prison that you may be tried: and you shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful until death: and I will give thee the crown of life.”
Fidelis was an exemplary seminarian: he excelled in his studies and advanced in all virtue. He was ordained a priest and presided at his first Mass on October 4, 1612 (Feast of St. Francis). Then he was assigned to the Capuchin Friary in Fribourg (in modern day Switzerland and very close to Econe!), where he completed his studies in theology and zealously began working in the fields of preaching and hearing confessions. His superiors then sent him to Feldkirch, Austria where his tireless labors, both from the pulpit and with the pen, greatly strengthened the waning faith of Catholics. His preaching, writing and example began to convert even some of the most hardened Calvinist and Zwinglian heretics. St. Fidelis wrote numerous pamphlets in defense of the faith and exposing the errors of his day.
CONVERTING THE HERETICS
Fidelis was next appointed as papal nuncio to reform a Benedictine Monastery at Pfafers. It was at this time that he confided to a fellow friar that he unceasingly begged God for two favors: (1) that he never fall into mortal sin and (2) that be might die for the Faith. In his diary he wrote: “From now on, I want to live in complete poverty, chastity, and obedience amidst sufferings and persecutions and in austere penance and profound humility. I came from the womb of my mother with nothing, and with nothing I desire to return to the arms of my Savior.” With such a great apostolic spirit, he set out to his new assignment only with his Crucifix, Bible, Breviary and the Rule of his Order. Everything else he entrusted wholly to Divine Providence and joyfully, eagerly, embraced Lady Poverty.
Seeing his extraordinary success on the supernatural plane, eight other Capuchins were placed under his direction and they were sent to the area of the Grisons in Graubünden, Switzerland, a stronghold of militant Calvinists. Nearly the entire populace of that district had abandoned the Catholic Faith, mostly on account of the ignorance and lack of zeal of the local priests. The Calvinists were incensed at his success in converting their number. They began to vociferously threaten his life – even brazenly in public. Instead of fleeing or mitigating his efforts, St. Fidelis only intensified his efforts and began to prepare himself for the martyrdom he so faithfully prayed and longed for.
Our saintly Capuchin friar was not content with preaching in Catholic Churches, but proclaimed the faith in public streets and even in the very buildings which the heretics used for their gatherings. He was insulted, threatened, and attacked – yet he remained a faithful solider for Christ. Fidelis went so far as to hold public debates with town magistrates who had fallen into error. Some of these would last far into the night. One of the most notable fruits of his missionary work was the conversion of a prominent Calvinist gentleman by the name of Ralph de Solis. Ralph’s conversion convinced many others to return to the True Faith.
In acknowledgment of his impressive work, the local Bishop of Coire sent a laudable report to Rome full of praise for Fidelis’ character and efforts. It is believed that this particular document “sealed his fate” as it incensed the malevolent Calvinists to a feverish pitch. As they could not defeat his doctrine (reminiscent of St. Stephen’s debaters), they made every effort to convince the people that Fidelis’ aim was not religious but political. His adversaries claimed Fidelis was an Austrian agent sent to “soften” the people so that they could be conquered by the Austrians. In order to combat the growing threats to the Faith, Rome had created a Congregation for the Spreading of the Faith and the Pope named Fidelis its head for the entire area infested by the Calvinist heresy. Yet the saint seemed to know his labors under this title would be short-lived.
MARTYRDOM
The Capuchins continued their missionary work under the protection of Austrian imperial soldiers as part of a campaign organized by the Catholic Hapsburgs. Yet everywhere they went they were greeted with the chilling cry, “Death to the Capuchins!” On April 24, 1622, Fidelis made his confession, offered the Holy Sacrifice and preached in the town of Grüsch. The people claimed he delivered his sermon with even more than ordinary zeal. As he finished, he suddenly remained silent, with his eyes fixed on heaven. He fell into an ecstasy. Upon ‘returning’ he foretold his death in the clearest terms and stated “I am to become food for worms.” He and his companions then traveled to the neighboring town of Seewis. The Capuchins with him noted that he was particularly cheerful. In Seewis, Friar Fidelis preached to a group of fallen-away Catholics, exhorting them to return to the Faith. Calvinist agitators called his listeners to arms and one of them shot his musket at Fidelis. The Catholics entreated him to flee. He answered that death was his gain and joy and that he was ready to lay down his life in God’s service. However, the Austrian soldiers and his Capuchin companions prevailed upon him to leave with them. It seems he did so in order to preserve their lives and avoid innocent bloodshed.
However, St. Fidelis returned to Grüsch alone and was met on the path by a group of twenty armed Calvinist soldiers accompanied by a ‘minister’ at their head. They called him a false prophet and urged him to embrace their heresy. The minister promised to spare his life if he would but renounce Catholicism. Fidelis replied, “I am set to confute you, not to embrace your heresy. The Catholic religion is the Faith of all ages. I fear not death.” One of the soldiers then pummeled his head from behind with his backsword. Fidelis fell to the ground but rose again on his knees. He stretched his arms into the form of a cross and prayed: “Pardon my enemies, O Lord. Blinded by passion, they know not what they do. Lord Jesus, have mercy on me. Mary, Mother of God, succor me!” Then another soldier clove his skull with his sword. Fidelis fell to the ground in a pool of his own blood. The rabid soldiers, not content with murdering him, proceeded to take turns stabbing his corpse with their long knives. Not to be outdone, several of them even hacked off his left leg, claiming this was to punish him for his many journeys into their territory in order to convert them. (His death reminds us of St. Peter Martyr, the great Dominican who preceded him by several centuries. St. Peter was made Holy Inquisitor by the Pope and murdered in 1252 by the Albigensian heretics he was converting. This occurred in Lombardy just a bit further south from where Fidelis was murdered).
CANONIZATION
A Catholic woman had been concealed nearby as St. Fidelis was brutally martyred. Once the soldiers left, she and others retrieved his body, buried him the next day, and spread the news and manner of his death. They had found his eyes wide open and fixed upon the heavens. The Calvinist rebels were soon defeated by the Imperial troops, an event which St. Fidelis had foretold. The minister who had been with the soldiers in the attack on our saint converted on account of Fidelis’ heroic martyrdom. That minister made a public confession, abjured the Calvinist heresy, and was received back into the Catholic Faith of his baptism.
Six months after Fidelis’ death, the saint’s body was exhumed and found to be incorrupt. The head and leg had been severed from the body, but they too remained incorrupt! Those two parts of his body were placed in reliquaries and sent to the Cathedral of Coire (laid under the high altar by order of the Bishop) and to the Capuchin Church in Feldkirch Austria (where he had labored so strenuously). Fidelis’ relics were the cause of many miracles which led him to be beatified in 1729 by Pope Benedict XIII and subsequently canonized in 1745 by Pope Benedict XIV.
St. Fidelis is usually represented in Catholic art dressed as a Capuchin with a crucifix in hand, a bleeding wound in the head, and his symbol is a bludgeon.