Benedict Joseph Labre: Patron Saint of the Homeless

   Benedict Joseph Labre was a vocational itinerant. As the story has it, born in France in the 18th century, he was so drawn to a life of pious penance, he applied to join no less than three major religious (read monastic) orders at the age of 16. The problem was that these communities wouldn't take him. He was deemed too extreme and likely mentally unstable. He wasn't the first in the history of the church to have this happen to him, nor was he the last (cf. the likes of Simeon Stylites and 'Stella' a modern day 'fool-for-Christ'). As a result of his refusal of admission to these religious orders, Benedict Labre moved out to the streets, living a life of pilgrimage wherever he went and begging for his food. He is said to have been dirty, bedraggled, but generous. He is regarded as a patron saint of the homeless.
   The Benedict Labre house in Montreal is a home for those who have been refused admission to the orders of our society. Its pink facade welcomes people of all stripes, serving three hot meals a day for sixty to one hundred people at a time. It provides a space for them to rest through the day, to enjoy a movie or a book.
   On Monday, February 15th, a small gathering came together in the Newman Centre of McGill University to prepare a meal for the next day's lunch at the Benedict Labre house. We discussed the importance of food in people's religious lives as well as the significance of going without food. We cooked a pasta meal for one hundred people, along with deserts.
   Two days before the beginning of Lent, I found this particularly apropos. It was a moving experience to spend my last day before the beginning of Lent serving lunch in a soup kitchen. It recalled to me my own prosperity, my own wealth even within my own city. Having prepared that lunch with friends from a number of different religious traditions only served to strengthen that feeling of being extrememly well off. Not only am I fortunate enough to be in a place where I can afford three healthy meals per day, but I'm also fortunate enough to live in a community that can look at difference and see not opposition, but complementarity.

Nick Pang
~Faiths Act Fellow