Saint Who?
Saints Who Were Poets
Saint José de Anchieta
Priest († 1597)Feast: June 9
Born in the Canary Islands in 1534, José de Anchieta joined the Jesuits at seventeen. A spinal condition nearly forced him to abandon his dreams of being a missionary. “Do not be sad about that deformation,” his superior told him. “God loves you that way.” A Jesuit brother in Brazil suggested the climate there might be beneficial, so Anchieta was sent there in 1553.
Despite his infirmity he became the “apostle of Brazil,” credited with a million conversions. He traveled extensively, recording the language, culture, and natural history of Brazil. Known as the father of Brazilian literature, he wrote religious plays and the first grammar of the language of the Tupí tribe.
His most famous work is the Latin “Poem to the Virgin.” It was written while he was living as a hostage with a hostile tribe. Using the wet beach sand for a notepad, he wrote and memorized it line by line. When peace terms were reached, he was able to put on paper the almost six thousand verses of his hymn: “Here are the verses that long ago, O Holy Mother,/ I pledged to Thee by vow,/ seeing myself surrounded by fierce enemies…. Thy grace enfolded me/ in thy maternal mantle/ and thy veil guarded intact my body and soul.” He died in 1597 and was canonized in 2014.
O Blessed Virgin Mary, though the intercession of
Saint José de Anchieta, may we be protected
by contemplating your holy beauty.
