World

SAINT PROFILE: FIDELIS OF SIGMARINGEN

1577–1622; Feast: April 11

By CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE     4/22/2016

Born in Sigmaringen (Germany), Mark Roy studied philosophy and law at the University of Freiburg in Breisgau. After tutoring young aristocrats and traveling Europe with them, he began practicing law in Alsace, where he quickly became the poor person’s lawyer. But, disillusioned over other lawyers’ behavior, he gave up the law to follow a vocation in religious life. As an ordained Capuchin named Fidelis, he was renowned for his holiness, preaching and leadership. He was superior at several houses before being invited to eastern Switzerland to call Protestants back to Catholicism. This mission, complicated by the politics of the time and hatred of the Catholic Habsburgs, became increasingly dangerous and led to his murder by opponents. He was canonized in 1746.