April 19
Wernerius (1273–1287)
confessor of faith
He was born in Warmrath, Rhineland, and his martyrdom happened in this way: One Holy Thursday, returning from communion, Wernerius, a fourteen-year-old orphan, was attacked by three men.
Biography
They took him and tied him to a pillar with his head down to make him vomit and thus desecrate the consecrated host. Failing to do so, they opened his veins to desecrate the blood with which the Eucharist was mixed. They found him the next day on the edge of the Rhine in a reed field. He was buried in Saint Cunibert de Bacherach, waiting for a beautiful church to be built in his honor, as happened in 1428. Soon his cult crossed the borders and spread throughout Auvergne.
Practical advice
As you collect your heart in silence, ask for strength to be loyal to Christ in difficulties, putting the result in God's hands.