May 17th St. Pascal Baylon
Paschal Baylon was born of poor and devout parents in the town of Torre Hermosa in Aragon, and spent his boyhood and youth in herding sheep. When he had embraced an austere way of life by entering the Friars Minor, he thought ceaselessly of how he might conform ever more closely to Christ crucified. With daily filial devotion he honoured as mother the Virgin Mother of God, to whom he had consecrated himself from his earliest years. He burned with a tender and steady love for the Eucharist, a love which he manifested even in death, when, lying on his bier, he opened and closed his eyes twice at the elevation of the sacred Host, to the astonishment of all present. Full of merits, he went to the Lord in the year 1592. Leo XIII declared and appointed him the special heavenly patron of all Eucharistic congresses and of all associations in honour of the most holy Eucharist.
