Conturbare cave, non est placare suave, diffamare cave, nam revocare grave
Guard against causing trouble and slandering others, for it is difficult to right the evil done.

Since the Roman Church celebrates the Commemoration of St. John of Kanty, priest on December 23rd, it is opportune that we look to him and ask his intercession for our friends at St. Stanislaus Kostka Church in St. Louis.

John Cantius was born in the year 1397 in the Polish town of Kanty (near Krakow). He became a professor of theology, then a parish priest for a short time. He returned to the professor’s chair at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow. He made pilgrimages to the holy places of Rome and Palestine.

It is said that one day, after robbers had deprived him of all his effects, they asked him whether he had anything more. The saint said no, but hardly had they gone when he remembered having sewn some gold pieces inside his clothing; immediately he followed and overtook them. The robbers, astonished at the man’s sense of truthfulness, refused to accept the money and returned to him the stolen luggage.

Many miracles are attributed to him during his earthly life.

To guard himself and his household from evil gossip he wrote upon the wall of his room:

Conturbare cave, non est placare suave, diffamare cave, nam revocare grave
Guard against causing trouble and slandering others, for it is difficult to right the evil done.

His love of neighbor was most edifying. Often he gave away his own clothing and shoes; then, not to appear barefoot, he lowered his cassock so as to have it drag along the ground. Sensing that his death was near at hand, he distributed whatever he still had to the poor and died peacefully in the Lord at an advanced age. He is honored as one of the principal patrons of Poland and Lithuania.

St. John Kanty, pray for us.

And, by the way, if your read a one sided interpretation into “Guard against causing trouble and slandering others,” you would be mistaken.