HE WAS A GOOD MAN

How many times have we heard of someone who passed "He was a good man". What if people said that about you while you were alive? St. Homobonus experienced that because his name actually translates to "good man". But this was not only a name or passing phrase for him, it was truly a way to describe his whole life. Today we celebrate the feast day of a remarkable businessman who truly excelled in his business life, but even more so in his love of neighbor and love of God. To be honest, St. Homobonus was not just a good man, he was a great man, in faith, life and business

In the business world there are countless stories of family businesses that were successful under the founder, but then failed terribly under the second or third generations. St. Homobonus did not fit this pattern. He not only successfully carried on the family business, he greatly improved it. While his father was originally in the garment business, the Saint saw the opportunity in the market to expand into selling fabrics as well. He successfully grew the business and its market well beyond what his father had done. This was quite a remarkable success considering the Saint had no academic training, no college, or even high school equivalent education. His only education was that of working with his father.

While his father provided no higher academic education for his son, he intimately shared his trade and more importantly, a school of virtue, integrity, hard work, and living his Catholic faith.

This education in virtues and faith would be the foundation of a reputation in the market for honesty, diligence, and accountability. He also looked at being good in business as his Christian duty. According to Butler’s lives the Saints on his biography: “If a tradesman's books are not well kept, if there is not order and regularity in the conduct of his business, if he does not give his mind seriously to it, he neglects an essential and Christian duty.”

St. Homobonus not only looked at being good in his business as Christian duty, but he looked at his business as a calling given to him by God, just as someone who receives a calling to be a priest or a nun. He honored this calling by pursuing it with all diligence, to be obedient to the law’s of God, and to seek divine justice for himself, his family, his country and his community. He achieved success through diligence, integrity and leveraging his natural abilities. Through his life and work he demonstrated that commerce is not a source of evil but an opportunity for goodness, true sanctity, as well as profits. This was very well stated in his biography in Butler’s Lives of the Saints:

“Commerce is often looked upon as an occasion of too great attachment to the things of this world and of too eager a desire of gain, as well as of lying, fraud and injustice. That these are the vices of men, not the faults of the profession, is clear from the example of ‘St. Homobonus’ and other saints.”

St. Homobonus' efforts to use his God given gifts in honesty, integrity, and diligence, resulted in great success. Butler relates this as follows:

“But probity is usually attended also with temporal success; for though a person may be a gainer by injustice in some particular occasions, it is an undeniable maxim, that honesty is the best policy, and that a man thrives in business by nothing so much as by unshaken integrity and veracity, which cannot fail to draw down the divine blessing, and gain a man the highest credit and reputation in all his dealings, which is his stock and his best fortune. This St. Homobonus experienced by his unexpected success in his business, which, under the divine blessing, was also owing to his economy, care, and industry.”

St. Homobonus demonstrated Butlers statement above, as God did indeed bless his work. However, despite his success, and the fact that he worked in the fashion industry, he never lost his humility, his integrity or his modesty. He dressed modestly and avoided flamboyant displays or extravagant use of money. He lived a life of humility, of moderation, and simplicity. He preferred to use his wealth and his success to provide for the poor, his family, and the Church.

How did the Saint manage to live such a life of virtue and achieve such success? To find these answers we need to look at his life outside of his business activities. He was a loving family man who worked for and lead his family with the same uprightness and virtue he lived in business. The integrated life of virtues served to strengthen all areas of his life in a positive reinforced circle. Yet, his charity and virtue did not stop there. His love for his fellow man lead him to continually seek to help and serve others, both in public and in private.

While we don’t know how much he tithed, all accounts suggest it was well above 10%. His giving was not limited to money. According to a letter written by Pope St. John Paul II to the Bishop of the region, he called him an “artisan and apostle of charity,” saying:

“He made his home a place of welcome. He personally attended to the burial of the abandoned dead. He opened his heart and his purse to every category of needy person. He did his utmost to settle the controversies which broke out between factions and families in the city. He entirely devoted himself to the practice of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy…”

His dedication to the poor was indeed not limited to money but included sharing the teachings of the Church to help people learn how to live holy and happy lives. The extent of his love for others seemed to know no limits, and the fruits of his charity, on occasion, even resulted in the working of miracles for those he was helping.

So how did a man of his success and his commitments to his family and the community, find the strength, the time, the love and the grace to do all of this? There were several reasons we can observe from his life. The first was his commitment to live and integrate his Catholic faith into every part of his day and life, whether in business, home, with the poor, or the community. Pope St. John Paul II recalls:

“In his life experience there was no connection between the various dimensions. In each one he found the "way" to express his desire for holiness: in the family nucleus, as an exemplary spouse and father; in the parish community, as a believer who lives the liturgy and is dedicated to catechesis, profoundly linked to the ministry of the priest; in the context of the city, in which he spread the appeal of goodness and peace. “

The second secret to success was taking periods of time to withdraw from the world and go on pilgrimage. He took numerous pilgrimages on the way of St. James, which is unlike any other pilgrimage in the world. If one embarks on it from France “The Way” to St. James Cathedral in Santiago, Spain, is 500 miles, and might take one 30 days to walk. Anyone committing this amount of time to honor the Lord and be open to hearing him, is going to be blessed with wisdom and light to live his vocation. Many of us are familiar with the benefits of off-site planning meetings for our business. There can be no greater off-site meeting than this to discern God’s will for your life and vocation.

The third secret to his success was his commitment to prayer. According to Bulter:

“His assiduity in prayer condemns the false maxim which some make a pretence for their sloth, that business and a life of prayer are incompatible. The saint spent a considerable part of his time in this holy exercise, and joined prayer with his business by the frequent aspirations by which he often raised his mind to God in sentiments of compunction and the divine praise and love amidst the greatest hurry, so that his shop, his chamber, the street, and every place was to him a place of prayer. Prayer accompanied all his actions.”

Essentially, St. Homobonus lived the teaching of the bible and prayed without ceasing. The importance of this cannot be understated.

The fourth secret to his success, was his full and faithful integration of the sacraments into his prayer and life. He attended mass daily, usually after working a full day. In addition to his daily visits to the Church, he would fully honor the Lord’s commandment to keep the Sabbath holy. Sundays and holidays he always consecrated entirely to his devotions and prayers.

For the honor and commitment he gave to God, the Lord blessed him with a special privilege at the end of this life. According to Butler: “On November 13, 1197, during Mass, at the Gloria in excelsis, he stretched out his arms in the figure of a cross and fell on his face to the ground, and died. Of note, his holiness was so well known that people thought this was only an act of devotion and did not attend to him until he failed to stand for the gospel.”

His heroic life of charity and faith led the Bishop of Cremona to go personally to Rome to seek the canonization of Homobonus. In highly unusual speed his canonization was approved in only two years after his death.

His canonization is not only remarkable for its speed but for the fact that he was the only layman canonized during the middle ages, who was not from noble or royal family. As Pope St. John Paul II would reflect:

“ St. Homobonus was a man of the people with ordinary means, and he used his natural intelligence and the resources at his disposal to live out a business vocation: creating goods and services there was a genuine need for. "

St. John Paul II would go on to hail him: "Father of the poor", "consoler of the afflicted", "assiduous in constant prayer", "man of peace and peacemaker", "a man good in name and deed".

“Thus Homobonus' image emerges as that of a businessman engaged in the cloth trade and, while involved in the market dynamics of Italian and European cities, conferred spiritual dignity on his work: that spirituality which was the hallmark of all his activity."

“His life assumes an exemplary value as a call to conversion without any restrictions whatsoever, and therefore to sanctity that is not reserved for some, but proposed to everyone without distinction.”

St. Homobonus shows us that it is truly possible to live a fully integrated life of faith. He demonstrates the ability to achieve purpose, passion, and profits, while serving his family, his community, the Church and God. He truly lived up to his name. He was indeed a good man!

St. Homobonus was canonized on January 12, 1199, by Pope Innocent III. His feast day is November 13. He is patron of tailors, cloth workers and retailers.