Benito José Labre (1748–1783)

Biography

His parents wanted him to be a rural priest, like his two uncles. He studied Latin and Greek and tried to enter the Trappist Church or the Charterhouse five or six times, but either he ended up falling ill or his soul lost peace. It seemed that no place was going to be to his liking and that, like birds, he needed freedom. He found his true calling when he left the convent and remained on the road as a beggar, until his death. From then on he prayed alone with God on the roads, despised and suffering, like the Lord in the Passion. He made a pilgrimage along all the roads of Spain, Switzerland, Germany and Poland, traveling dressed in rags, sleeping in barns or in the open, and politely accepting bread or insults from those who opened the door when he knocked. Starting in 1755, his health broke down and he no longer left the Eternal City. During the day he remained on his knees in any corner of the churches; When night came he stayed in the ruins of the Colosseum. No prelate was as venerated in Rome at that time as Saint Benedict. On Holy Wednesday, 1783, they found him unconscious on the street in front of the church of Santa María de los Montes, where he had come from to hear mass. They took him to the house of the butcher Zaccarelli, a friend of his like all Romans, and he died peacefully hours later.