Description
Oil dedicated to St Louis Bertrand (Patron Miracle Worker)
St Louis Bertrand was a Spanish Dominican friar who preached in South America during the 16th century. And known as the “Apostle to the Americas”. He is venerated as a saint by the Catholic Church.
Bertrand was born in Valencia to Juan Bertrand and Juana Angela Exarch. Through his father he was related to St. Vincent Ferrer. A thaumaturgus of the Dominican Order. At an early age he conceived the idea of becoming a Dominican Friar. And despite the efforts of his father to dissuade him. Clothed with the Dominican habit in the Convent of St. Dominic, Valencia. On 26 August 1539. After the usual period of probation. He pronounced the evangelical vows.
He was grave in demeanour and apparently without any sense of humour. Yet had a gentle and sweet disposition that greatly endeared him to those with whom he came in contact. While he could lay no claim to great intellectual gifts, he applied himself assiduously to study. In 1547 he ordained to the priesthood by the archbishop of Valencia, St. Thomas of Villanova.
He was appointed to the office of master of novices in the convent at Valencia. The duties of which he discharged at different intervals for an aggregate of thirty years. When the plague broke out in Valencia in 1557 he devoted himself to the sick and dying. He prepared the dead for burial and interred them with his own hands.
When the plague had subsided, the zeal of the holy novice master sought to extend the scope of his already large ministry into the apostolate of preaching. Although it is said that “his voice was raucous, his memory treacherous, his carriage without grace”, he became a fervent preacher.
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