February 8th - St. John of Matha

St. John of Matha (1160-1213) was born of noble parents at Faucon in Provence,
France. After a brilliant success in his studies at Paris, he became a priest.

At his first Mass, he had an inspiration to dedicate his live to the ransom of
Catholic warriors made slaves by the Muslims in the Crusades.

To prepare himself for this work, he went to visit a hermit, St. Felix of
Valois, to be instructed in the practice of perfection. When he revealed his
plan, St. Felix was convinced that the design was from God, and offered him to
help him. Together they founded the Order of the Holy Trinity to ransom the
captives. Soon, countless vocations came to the Order. The Trinitarians traveled
with the Crusaders, teaching the soldiers, taking care of the sick, and dealing
with the redemption of the captives.

St. John of Matha managed to free a great number of Catholic slaves in Morocco,
Tunis, and Spain. On his second trip to Tunis in 1210, he suffered much from the
infidels, who were enraged at his zeal and his success in exhorting the slaves
to remain constant in their faith.

On his return with the 120 Catholics whom he had ransomed, he found that the
Muslims had damaged the rudder of his ship and ripped its sails to prevent its
safe arrival and cause the ship to perish at sea. But St. John of Matha, full of
confidence in God, begged Him to be their pilot. He sewed together the cloaks of
his companions and made new sails. Then, with a crucifix in his hands, he
recited his Psalter as the ship sailed. They had a successful voyage and landed
safely in the port of Ostia, near the mouth of the Tiber.


Comments of the late Prof. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira: (died 1995)

The Order of the Trinitarians founded by St. John of Matha was an extremely
useful apostolate to maintain the Crusades in the elevated spirit intended by
the Church when she convoked them. It was a most noble apostolate that indicates
the close solidarity of this Saint with the movement of the Crusades.

Today those who speak against the Crusades do a very bad thing. The true saints
were cooperators with and enthusiasts of the Crusades. The main goal of the
Trinitarians, which was to ransom the captives, also had a favorable effect on
the Crusaders, who had less fear to be captured and remain slaves of the Moors
for a long period of time, or even indefinitely. St. John of Matha and his Order
gave them the hope to be ransomed and return to the fight. Therefore, the work
of the Saint was a very important support for the Crusades.

All this is very beautiful, a crown of gold. But the precious stone inlaid in
this crown was the last fact in the narration. St. John of Matha embarked on a
journey to cross the Mediterranean with 120 men in a ship with torn and useless
sails. He improvised by making new sails, but they were insufficient. He did
everything he could to restore the destroyed sails, but he knew his efforts were
not enough. So, he had recourse to God. He prayed, he chanted the psalms with a
crucifix in his hand as the ship continued on its way.

You can imagine the varying sentiments of those liberated captives in the ship.
At times, they experienced a movement of confidence and enthusiasm for the Saint
and his bold faith; at other times, they would feel a real panic to be lost at
sea and die. St. John of Matha had to preach to them to have confidence in God.
It was an adventure based upon the faith of one man. When the episode was told
and spread throughout Christendom, it generated a great surge of good spirit and
desire to go to the Crusades.

The principle that inspired St. John of Matha was the same that St. Ignatius of
Loyola would formulate centuries later: Do everything as if it depended only on
your action, then recognize that everything relies on God and not on you.

St. John of Matha applied this principle perfectly. He repaired the sails as
well as he could and ordered the trip to go forward. At the same time, he
prayed, recognizing that only God could make the voyage successful.

That vessel at sea, abandoned to its fate, reminds us of the fight to which we
dedicate our lives. Our counter-revolutionary movement is also an abandoned
ship, and the means we have to go ahead are nothing more than improvised sails
in a small craft.

We should ask St. John of Matha and all saints who were in fights similar to
ours, that they be spiritually present to help us in the dangers we will face so
that we will do what we are supposed to do. As he did, we should to sing prayers
at the feet of Our Lady asking her that our ship arrive at a good port. That is
to say, the complete defeat of the Revolution and the installation of the Reign
of Mary on earth.