Jul. 21 Tuesday of the Sixteenth Week in Ordinary Time; Opt Mem of St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Priest & Doctor of the Church, Opt. Mem.
Today is the Optional Memorial of St. Lawrence of Brindisi (1559-1619), the first Capuchin Franciscan to be honored as a Doctor. St. Lawrence was born in 1559 at Brindisi, a town located on the Adriatic coast of the heel of Italy. Educated from his youth by the Conventual Franciscan Friars, he acquired great facility in languages and is considered the greatest linguist among the Doctors of the Church. His fields of labor were many: army chaplain, diplomat, leader of the Counter-Reformation in Austria and Bohemia, teacher of Sacred Scripture, exegete and mariologist. St. Lawrence offers priests a wonderful model for their studies and preaching. He was canonized in 1881 by Leo XIII.