Oct 25th - Frei Galvão

Frei is the first native-born Brazilian saint and a recent addition to the canon. There is not much exciting about his life; he entered the Franciscans and spent his life pretty much in the same place. He founded no churches or took on any important ecclesial offices.
It is his selfless service which recommends him to us today; not for glory or power or notoriety did he serve and in fact understood the traps that could lead him into hubris and sin.
In his role as confessor, let him guide us to understand our own weaknesses and seek out reconciliation in order to be in more perfect union with Christ and be his more perfect servant.

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Let us give thanks to God for the lasting benefits obtained through the powerful evangelizing influence that the Holy Spirit impressed upon so many souls through Frei Galvão. The Franciscan charism, lived out in the spirit of the Gospel, has borne significant fruits through his witness as an ardent adorer of the Eucharist, as a prudent and wise guide of the souls who sought his counsel, and as a man with a great devotion to the Immaculate Conception of Mary, whose "son and perpetual servant" he considered himself to be.
...The significance of Frei Galvão’s example lies in his willingness to be of service to the people whenever he was asked. He was renowned as a counselor, he was a bringer of peace to souls and families, and a dispenser of charity especially towards the poor and the sick. He was greatly sought out as a confessor, because he was zealous, wise, and prudent. It is characteristic of those who truly love that they do not want the Beloved to be offended; the conversion of sinners was therefore the great passion of our saint. Sister Helena Maria, the first religious sister destined to belong to the Recolhimento de Nossa Senhora da Conceição, witnessed to what Frei Galvão had said to her: "Pray that the Lord our God will raise sinners with his mighty arm from the wretched depths of the sins in which they find themselves." May this insightful admonition serve as a stimulus to us to recognize in the Divine Mercy the path towards reconciliation with God and our neighbor, for the peace of our consciences.

-- Benedict XVI's Canonization Homily, 2,3