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A saint from Mount Etna

A good many years ago, I was on a holiday in Sicily, where of course one of the attractions was Mount Etna, which was particularly lively at the time: I well remember looking out of the train in the dark and seeing the red gash of its eruptions in the distance. There is a local train that takes you around the foot of the mountain and I particularly remember the town of Randazzo. I did not know then that it has strong associations with a Carmelite Blessed whose feast day is today - Bl Aloysius Rabata (c.1443-1490). He was Prior of the Carmelite Community of St Michael there. He is remembered as 'a model Carmelite Prior, sharing in all of the humbler tasks like begging for their food'. But perhaps the most striking memory of him concerns his reaction to a very painful assault in his later life: he refused to disclose who had attacked him, simply saying "I pray that God will pardon him, and be glorified by what has happened."

 
 
 

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