Saints Processus and Martinian (+67) were Praetorian Guards – the elite of the Roman legionaries – who were tasked with keeping watch over Saints Peter and Paul in prison. When the Apostles’ prayers caused a miraculous spring to flow, the guards were converted and baptized. Since Christianity was proscribed during the reign of Nero – see the feast of the Protomartrys from yesterday’s post – the two soldiers were tortured and beheaded. A church was built by the newly-converted Emperor Constantine three centuries later, but has long since gone, but the remains of the two martyrs still reside in Saint Peter’s Basilica, as a witness to the Truth, in saecula saeculorum.
Saint Bernardino Realino (+1616), whose alliterative name rolls off the tongue, especially in Italian, was a Jesuit priest, who lived a simple, somewhat obscure life, hidden from the world, offering retreats and missions throughout the south of Italy. He started off as an ambitious lawyer in both civil and canon law, known for his brilliance. His talents recognized, he was appointed Podesta of the cities of Cassine and Felizzano, but in the midst of this worldly success, a sermon prompted him to ponder deeper realities. A confessor suggested he may have a religious vocation, so Bernardino made a retreat, and joined the newly-founded Society of Jesus in 1564, and was ordained a priest in 1567 – which is quick work, but he already had much preparation, one might presume.
The new priest put the energy and zeal into his new vocation, fulfilling what tasks he was given well and without fanfare, and was known as a holy man during his life. Fellow Jesuit (and saint) Robert Cardinal Bellarmine attested that “I have never heard a complaint about Father Realino though I have been his provincial; even those who were ill-disposed to the society who seized every opportunity to speak unfavourably of it always made an exception for Realino. …Everyone knows that he is a saint.
Some blood taken from a wound in his leg apparently still miraculously liquefies. Saint Bernardino Realino died on July 2nd, 1616 at the venerable age of 85, and was canonized by Pius XII in 1947. His last words, fittingly, were ‘Gesu…Maria’. He is the patron saint of Lecce, in the south of Italy.
