There is this idea that illness is a misfortune, and of course no one wants to lose their health, but when seen with the eyes of faith, it can restore the health of the soul.
We are in the era of technological advances. All focused on making life more and more comfortable and making us suffer less and less. The mere thought of suffering pain seems terrible to us and we want to avoid it at all costs. We have an irrational fear of illness.
However, pain has an enormous sanctifying meaning, if it is united to the cross of Christ .
There have been many saints who have helped save souls through their illnesses, offered to God for that purpose. We present three edifying examples of saints who offered their health for their fellow men.
1 BLESSED LAURA VICUÑA
Public Domain
This little girl, born in Santiago de Chile, lost her father at the age of three. Her mother, Mercedes Pino, was left in poverty along with her two little daughters, so she decided to emigrate to Junín de los Andes, Argentina.
Being an employee of Manuel Mora, and despite the mistreatment she received, she decided to be his common-law wife because she offered to pay for her daughters’ studies.
Laura and her sister Julia studied at the María Auxiliadora school, where she was instructed in the Christian faith.
He knew that his mother was living in sin and offered her life in exchange for his salvation. A few months later he fell ill with tuberculosis, and on the verge of dying, he managed to get her mother to leave the man, and she died contentedly on January 22, 1904.
2 SAINT JACINTA MARTO
Joshua Benoliel/Wikipedia
One of the visionaries of the Virgin of Fátima was a Portuguese shepherd girl who, despite never having gone to school, had great clarity about the evils of the world, having a short but fruitful spiritual life.
After a vision that the Virgin presented to them about hell, Jacinta was so terrified that she suffered greatly for sinners.
For this reason, he insisted on making prayers, sacrifices and mortifications, as the Virgin requested, so that many souls would be saved.
In 1918 she fell ill with the bird flu that devastated Europe. Then, she got pneumonia and, since her heart was very weak, they couldn’t anesthetize her to intervene, so she suffered a lot.
He died on February 20, 1920, before his 10th birthday.
3 SAINT GEMMA GALGANI
Gemma always suffered from poor health, suffering from spinal tuberculosis, physical attacks from the devil, contempt from people because she had supernatural visions – which is why they believed her crazy – and rejection from various religious communities due to her fragile health.
At the age of seven, during his Confirmation Mass, the Holy Spirit asked him to give him his mother. She agreed, beginning her sufferings since childhood.
Furthermore, the stigmata of the Passion and the wounds of flagellation periodically appeared on his body.
He offered all of this for sinners, because he fervently desired that they enter the Heart of Jesus. He died at the age of 25.
Let us have confidence in God and that everything that happens to us will be for our salvation and the good of those we love, if we turn to Him.
