St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen

A Swabian lawyer known as the "advocate of the poor" before he became a Capuchin friar, Fidelis was sent to preach to the Calvinists of the Swiss Grisons. He was beaten to death by an angry crowd as he refused to recant. The first martyr of the new Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith.

Born Mark Rey in 1577 in Sigmaringen, he studied law and philosophy at Freiburg and practiced as a lawyer until disgust with the corruption of the courts drove him to the Capuchins. He took the name Fidelis — "faithful" — and devoted himself to preaching, prayer, and the care of the sick with equal fervor.

On April 24, 1622, he celebrated Mass, preached at Seewis in the Grisons, and was set upon by a Calvinist militia on the road. Offered his life if he would apostatize, he replied, "I came to refute heresy, not to embrace it," and was struck down. He was canonized in 1746, a witness to the faith whose very name became his epitaph.