Paschal Baylon

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Saint Paschal Baylon
"Seraph of the Eucharist"
Born	1540, kingdom of Aragon
Died	17 May 1592
Venerated in	Roman Catholicism
Beatified	1618 by Paul V
Canonized	October 16, 1690 by Alexander VIII
Major shrine	Royal Chapel in Villareal
Feast	May 17
Patronage	Patron of Eucharistic congresses and Eucharistic associations
Saints Portal

Paschal Baylon (or Pascal Baylon) (1540 - 17 May 1592) was a Spanish friar and is a saint in the Roman Catholic Church.

He was born in utter poverty in the kingdom of Aragon and spent his youth as a shepherd. He would carry a book with him and beg any passer-by to teach him the alphabet. He thereby learned to read, and as he toiled in the fields he would read religious books. In around 1564, he sought to be admitted to the Franciscan Order. He chose to live in poor monasteries because, he said, "I was born poor and am resolved to die in poverty and penance." In the first year of his religious life, he entered the Reformed Franciscans as a lay-brother. He lived a life of poverty and prayer, even praying while working, for the rest of his life.

He was a mystic and contemplative, and he had frequent ecstatic visions. He would spend the night before the altar in prayer many nights. At the same time, he sought to downplay any glory that might come from this piety. He died on May 17, which is his current feast day, in 1592. His tomb in the Royal Chapel in Villareal, Valencia, immediately became an object of pilgrimage. Beatified by Paul V in 1618, he was canonized by Alexander VIII on October 16, 1690.

Paschal Baylon was enlisted in the Church's struggle against Modernism, part of which was through increasing devotion towards the Sacrament of the Eucharist; Pope Leo XIII^[1] proclaimed Saint Paschal Baylon, the "seraph of the Eucharist", Patron of eucharistic congresses and all contemporary and future eucharistic associations.