BLESSED DIDACUS JOSEPH OF CADIZ, PRIEST, First Order

Didacus-Joseph Lopez Caamano, baptized Joseph Francis, was born in Spain in the year 1743 and made profession in the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin in the year 1759. After his ordination he exercised the ministry of preaching throughout Spain with great success and was called “a second Paul.” Always imbued with a great love for the cross, he combined apostolic activity with contemplation in the marvelous way. His death occurred in the year 1801.

From the letters of Blessed Didacus Joseph to his spiritual Father, Francis Xavier Gonzales
(El director perfecto el dirigido santo [Seville 1901] 126, 210, 280, 287f)

My only concern is to do what God wants of me

My spiritual father, will I be fortunate enough to effect here on earth the triumph of the holy Cross and of him who is humbly crucified? Will the day ever dawn when this monster of iniquity will love his God and bring all the world to love God?

The sins of men always weight heavily upon me, undoubtedly because I do not consider the gravity of my own sins. One day in choir with the community as I was meditating on this I was eager to be relieved of this burden. Suddenly the great seriousness of my obligation of expiation was vividly and effectively impressed upon me as I recalled what my Lord Jesus Christ, though sinless, took upon himself and endued for the sins of others. I am in the habit of recoiling from this obligation whenever temporal disasters befall my fellowmen.

How forcefully the words you frequently use in your letters strike my heart, that I am called to be “A Capuchin, a missionary and a saint!” I cannot read these words without being moved by a delightful and wonderful force deep in my heart.

From: Proper Officds of Franciscan Saints and Blesseds in the Liturgy of the Hours