St. Lawrence of Brindisi is perhaps the only Doctor of the Church to have led an army to battle. The army of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II under the command of archduke Matthias confronted a much larger Turkish force in the city of Szekesfehervar located in central Hungary on October 9, 1601. The Capuchin friar Lawrence of Brindisi was serving as a chaplain for archduke Matthias and his army. Friar Lawrence had been sent by Pope Clement VIII to spread the Capuchin reform of the Franciscan order and to encourage the faithful in Austria and Bohemia to hold true to their Catholic faith. Before the battle began, Friar Lawrence addressed the troops. He encouraged them to fight boldly and promised them victory as he shouted: “Forward! Victory is ours.” Then riding his horse and waving his crucifix he led them against the Turks. Even though he was exposed to every danger he was unharmed by it all. The Christian army triumphed, and Friar Lawrence was hailed as a hero. His crucifix was later treated as a relic. The future Friar Lawrence was born in 1559 at Brindisi as Julius Caesar de Rossi. When his father died when he was seven, his mother entrusted him to the care of the Conventual Franciscan friars who were stationed in Brindisi. A few years later he and his mother moved to Venice. It was there that he became acquainted with the Capuchins. When he was sixteen, he entered the Capuchins and received the name Lawrence. A very able student, Friar Lawrence did well in his theological studies. He also showed a facility for learning Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac. He also learned French and German. Thanks to his mastery of so many languages, he was able to carry out a busy apostolate among the different categories of people. As an effective preacher, his knowledge not only of the Bible but also rabbinic literature was so profound that the rabbis were convinced that he was a Jewish convert to Christianity. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1582, he spent seven years as a lecturer in theology and novice master before becoming the Minister Provincial of the Tuscan province and then a member of the General Council of the Capuchin Order. It was during this period that Lawrence was called upon to travel beyond the Alps to set up new houses, combat heresy, and eventually to serve as a military chaplain. In 1602 he was elected Minister General of the Capuchins. After Lawrence declined a second term as Minister General, Pope Pius V sent him to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor in Vienna with the mandate to work for the conversion of heretics. The Holy Roman Emperor was a member of the Hapsburg family and dynasty. Both Jesuits and Capuchins became involved in the political maneuverings of this age of conflict between Protestants and Catholics—conflicts that also involved political and dynastic ambitions. In France, the Capuchin Friar Joseph of Paris became the right-hand man of Cardinal Richelieu in his anti-Hapsburg policies between 1624 and 1638. Between 1609 and 1618 Friar Lawrence exercised a rather similar, if somewhat less partisan, role as a diplomat for the papacy, the Hapsburgs, and especially for his close friend Duke Maximilian of Bavaria. One of Friar Lawrence’s most successful diplomatic successes was in gaining the support of Philip III of Spain for the Catholic League that Maximilian had organized to oppose the Evangelical League of Protestant princes (1509-1510). Worn out by his many activities and travels, Friar Lawrence retired to Naples in 1618 only to be called out of retirement for one final diplomatic mission. The nobility of Naples, chafing under the oppression of the Spanish viceroy, Dom Pedro Osuna, asked Friar Lawrence to appeal to the King of Spain to have the viceroy removed. In secrecy Friar Lawrence traveled first to Madrid and then to Lisbon to meet the king. Difficult negotiations followed. Osuna was eventually recalled but not before Friar Lawrence, exhausted from all his travels and diplomatic activities, had died on July 22, 1619. Friar Lawrence was canonized in 1881 by Pope Leo XIII and proclaimed a Doctor of the Church by Pope Saint John XXIII in 1959. At the end of his audience on October 3, 2007 that was devoted to St. Lawrence of Brindisi, Pope Benedict sums up his life and activity in this way: Saint Lawrence of Brindisi teaches us love Sacred Scripture, to increase in familiarity with it, to cultivate daily relations of friendship with the Lord in prayer, so that our every action, our every activity, may have its beginning and its fulfillment in him. This is the source from which to draw so that our Christian witness may be luminous and able to lead the people of our time to God. Until next week, Fr. John