March 31st - St. Nicholas of Flue

[Elizabeth]

Saint Nicholas of Flue
Hermit
(1417-1487)

Saint Nicholas of Flue was born in Switzerland of pious parents. One day, when he saw an arrow launched on a neighboring mountain, he was filled with a desire for Heaven and with love for solitude. He married, to obey the formal will of his parents; he and his wife Dorothy became the parents of ten children. His merit and virtue caused him to be chosen by his fellow citizens to exercise very honorable public functions.

He was fifty years old when an interior voice said to him: Leave everything you love, and God will take care of you. He had to undergo a distressing combat, but decided finally to leave everything — wife, children, house, lands — to serve God. He left, barefooted, clothed in a long robe of coarse fabric, in his hand a rosary, without money or provisions, casting a final tender and prolonged gaze on his loved ones. His habitual prayer was this: My Lord and my God, remove from me all that can prevent me from going to You. My Lord and my God, give me all that can draw me to You.

One night God penetrated the hermit with a brilliant light, and from that time on he never again experienced hunger, thirst or cold. Having found a wild and solitary place, he dwelt there for a time in a hut of leaves, later in a cabin built with stones. The news of his presence, when it spread, brought him a great influx of visitors. Distinguished persons came to him for counsel in matters of great importance. It may seem incredible that the holy hermit lived for nineteen years only by the Holy Eucharist; the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, startled by this fact, had his cabin surveyed and verified this fact as being beyond question.

When Switzerland for a moment was divided and threatened with civil war in 1480, Saint Nicholas of Flue, venerated by all, was chosen as arbiter, to prevent the shedding of blood. He spoke so wisely that a union was reached, to the joy of all concerned, and the nation was saved. Bells were set ringing all over the country, and the concerted jubilation echoed across the lakes, mountains and valleys, from the most humble cottage to the largest cities.

At the age of 70, Saint Nicholas fell ill with a very painful sickness which tormented him for eight days and nights without overcoming his patience. He was beatified in 1669 by Pope Clement IX, canonized in 1947, by Pope Pius XII.

[Stone]

Blessed Nicholas of Flüe

Taken from the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia

(DE RUPE).

Born 21 March, 1417, on the Flüeli, a fertile plateau near Sachseln, Canton Obwalden, Switzerland; died 21 March, 1487, as a recluse in a neighboring ravine, called Ranft. He was the oldest son of pious, well-to-do peasants and from his earliest youth was fond of prayer, practiced mortification, and conscientiously performed the labor of a peasant boy. At the age of 21 he entered the army and took part in the battle of Ragaz in 1446. Probably he fought in the battles near the Etzel in 1439, near Baar in the Canton of Zug in 1443, and assisted in the capture of Zürich in 1444. He took up arms again in the so-called Thurgau war against Archduke Sigismund of Austria in 1460. It was due to his influence that the Dominican Convent St. Katharinental, whither many Austrians had fled after the capture of Diessenhofen, was not destroyed by the Swiss confederates. Heeding the advice of his parents he married, about the age of twenty-five, a pious girl from Sachseln, named Dorothy Wyssling, who bore him five sons and five daughters. His youngest son, Nicholas, born in 1467, became a priest and a doctor of theology. Though averse to worldly dignities, he was elected cantonal councillor and judge. The fact that in 1462 he was one of five arbiters appointed to settle a dispute between the parish of Stans and the monastery of Engelberg, shows the esteem in which he was held. After living about twenty-five years in wedlock he listened to an inspiration of God and with the consent of his wife left his family on 16 October, 1467, to live as a hermit. At first he intended to go to a foreign country, but when he came into the neighborhood of Basle, a divine inspiration ordered him to take up his abode in the Ranft, a valley along the Melcha, about an hour's walk from Sachseln. Here, known as "Brother Klaus", he abode over twenty years, without taking any bodily food or drink, as was established through a careful investigation, made by the civil as well as the ecclesiastical authorities of his times. He wore neither shoes nor cap, and even in winter was clad merely in a hermit's gown. In 1468 he saved the town of Sarnen from a conflagration by his prayers and the sign of the cross. God also favored him with numerous visions and the gift of prophecy. Distinguished persons from nearly every country of Europe came to him for counsel in matters of the utmost importance. At first he lived in a narrow hut, which he himself had built with branches and leaves, and came daily to Mass either at Sachseln or at Kerns. Early in 1469 the civil authorities built a cell and a chapel for him, and on 29 April of the same year the chapel was dedicated by the vicar-general of Constance, Thomas, Bishop of Ascalon. In 1479 a chaplain was put in charge of the chapel, and thenceforth Nicholas always remained in the Ranft. When in 1480 delegates of the Swiss confederates assembled at Stans to settle their differences, and civil war seemed inevitable, Henry Imgrund, the pastor of Stans, hastened to Nicholas, begging him to prevent the shedding of blood. The priest returned to the delegates with the hermit's counsels and propositions, and civil war was averted. Nicholas was beatified by Pope Clement IX in 1669. Numerous pilgrims visit the chapel near the church of Sachseln, where his relics are preserved. His feast is celebrated on 21 March.