St. Fidelis

St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen was born Mark Rey in 1577 at Sigmaringen in southern Germany. A brilliant student, he took degrees in philosophy and law at the University of Freiburg and worked as a tutor and then as a lawyer in Alsace. His integrity in practice earned him the nickname 'advocate of the poor,' for he took up the causes of those who could not pay; yet the dishonesty he witnessed in the legal world of his day increasingly repelled him and turned his heart toward God. In 1612 he abandoned his legal career, was ordained a priest, and entered the Capuchin Franciscans at Freiburg, taking the religious name Fidelis—'faithful'—in echo of the promise of the Book of Revelation: 'Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.' He gave his inheritance to the poor and to needy seminarians and embraced a life of severe austerity, prayer, and preaching. During an epidemic that swept through the Austrian troops in the region he distinguished himself by his tireless care of the sick. Fidelis's gifts as a preacher led to his appointment, under the newly founded Roman Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, to lead a mission to the Grisons region of eastern Switzerland, where the Reformed faith had largely displaced Catholicism. He preached there through the winter of 1621–22 with courage and charity, winning converts but also fierce opposition entangled with the region's political and military conflicts. On April 24, 1622, after preaching at the church of Seewis, he was set upon by armed men and killed when he refused to abandon the Catholic faith, forgiving his attackers as he died. Fidelis is honored as the protomartyr of the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith and of the Capuchin missions. He was beatified in 1729 and canonized by Pope Benedict XIV in 1746. His relics are venerated at the cathedral of Chur in Switzerland and in the Capuchin church at Feldkirch, Austria. His feast is celebrated on April 24, and—remembering his first profession—he is regarded as a patron of lawyers.