St. Louis Bertrand, Priest
Obligatory Memorial
Born on Jan. 1, 1526, at Valencia in Tarraconensian Spain, to noble and devout parents, Louis left home at the age of 16, against his father’s wishes, intending to go to Santiago. After being brought back home, and having been denied entrance to the Order of Preachers, he secretly approached the chapter and listened to its admonitions.
At last, on Aug. 26, 1544, he was able to receive the habit, though his parents still opposed it. Striving with all the force of his soul toward the perfect image of a Friar Preacher, he truly became an “ideal” of the Order and a model for the novices entrusted to him for formation.
Uniting austerity of life with apostolic zeal for the spread of the faith, he obtained permission in 1562 to be sent to the farthest regions of America, now called Colombia.
Living there for seven years, he labored tirelessly for the Indigenous peoples. Many of them, who marvelously understood him as he spoke their own language, he led to the light of the Gospel. He introduced them to human culture and defended them from their oppressors, acting courageously against the conquistadores-encomenderos, encouraged by Bartolomé de Las Casas.
Returning to his homeland in 1569, he devoted himself entirely to apostolic ministries for the renewal of Christian and religious life, and applied himself still more intensely to the pursuit of holiness, whose distinctive mark in him was the fear of the Lord.
He died at Valencia on Oct. 9, 1581. Clement X enrolled him among the saints on April 12, 1671. His body was burned in 1936, during the violence of the Spanish Civil War.
Proprium Officiorum Ordinis Praedicatorum ad Normam Decretorum Sacrosancti Oecumenici Concilii Vaticani II Instauratum Vincentii Couesnongle iussu editum, Editio typica, Sanctae Sabinae, Romae 1982.
