St. Sylvester
St. Sylvester
Abbot Sylvester founded the Sylvestrine Order, a reform congregation of the Order of St. Benedict, in 1231. Upon seeing the corpse of an aristocrat relative, who had been very handsome, in the coffin, he cried out, “I am what this man was, I will be what this man is!” After the funeral services the words of our Lord kept ringing in his ears, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me” (Matt. 16:24). He betook himself to a hermitage, led a life of perfection, and died at the age of ninety in 1267.
The members of his Order wear a Benedictine habit, Turkish blue in color. Today there remain seven Sylvestrine monasteries in Italy and several mission houses in Ceylon and in the United States.
Excerpted from The Church’s Year of Grace, Pius Parsch.