FRAY FRANCISCO, apostle of simplicity and mercy

“Holiness is measured by the stature Christ achieves in us, by the extent to which, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we model our whole life on his. It is becoming like Jesus...” (Benedict XVI, 13 April 2011)

The stature Christ achieves in us. Holiness. Words which, far from remaining a mere emotional impulse, take flesh in faithful men who have known how to make their Baptism bear fruit and yield fruits of holiness.

We can apply them with full propriety to the Servant of God Fray Francisco Cantarellas Ballester, a professed religious of the Order of Saint Augustine (1884–1968). He was born in Muro (Mallorca, Spain), on 15 August 1884. After completing his novitiate year, he made his profession as an Augustinian friar at the Royal Monastery of El Escorial on 29 September 1909.

Assigned to the convent of Palma, he gave himself with exemplary generosity to the tasks proper to the convent, the church, and the school. During the years in which the school in Palma remained closed, he also worked in the sacristy of the basilica of El Escorial and at Saint Paul’s School in Madrid, on Valverde Street. In 1926 he returned to the community of Our Lady of Consolation in Palma de Mallorca.

He died on 22 April 1968, at the age of 83, filled with the simplicity and humility with which he had lived: a true apostle of evangelical simplicity.

The testimonies gathered for the Cause of beatification and canonization, now in its Roman phase, bear witness to that stature of Christ in the Servant of God: “he taught me how to pray... he prepared me for Holy Communion... he gave the poor the bread he managed to obtain... he was a perfect man... in love with the Virgin Mary... the whole neighborhood loved him.”

Fifty-eight years have now passed since our brother, the Servant of God Fray Francisco Cantarellas Ballester, ended his earthly life. His example continues to illumine the community and the faithful of the convent and church in Palma de Mallorca. He knew how to shape his life according to Christ’s.

Let us pray for his prompt beatification and canonization and, encouraged by a witness so full of relevance for our own day, let us live the charism of Saint Augustine with joy, simplicity, and fidelity.