Saint Who?
Saints Who Achieved Sanctity Young
Saint John Berchmans
Religious († 1621) Feast: August 13
John’s father was a shoemaker in Diest, Belgium, and John was a precocious and devout boy who loved learning. However, when his father’s finances suffered, he told John he would have to leave school and learn a trade. Thirteen-year-old John insisted that he wanted to become a priest instead and eventually convinced his father to let him work as a servant to a canon, which would allow him to attend school.
A year later, John learned that a Jesuit college would soon be opened in Belgium. This time he didn’t wait for his father’s permission but applied immediately and was accepted as a novice. During this time, his mother died, and a year later, his father himself was ordained a priest.
Teenage John traveled on foot to Rome to complete his education. One of his instructors later said that he never had a student who exceeded John for enthusiasm, intelligence, and dedication to his studies. Even the other students admired his angelic nature. However, when he was selected to defend a philosophical treatise in a public debate, he prepared for the demanding event a bit too rigorously. The day after the debate, the exhausted young man suddenly became ill. John died at the age of twenty-two, seemingly aware that he did not have long to live but cheerful and trusting in God until the end.
Almighty God, inspire us with a hunger
to learn about you.
