Saint
Leopold Mandic

Servants of God

O.F.M. Cap.

"We have in heaven the heart of a mother, The Virgin, our Mother, who at the foot of the Cross suffered as much as possible for a human creature, understands our troubles and consoles us." - Saint Leopold Mandic,Capuchin

Also known as "Apostle of the Sacrament of the Confession", he was born on 12th May, 1866, in Castelnuovo, a small port at the southern tip of Dalmatia, twelfth child of Peter and Caroline Mandic.  He was named and baptised Bogdan, (the meaning of his name is 'Adeodato', 'the God-given-one'.)
Although physically frail, from his youth he showed signs of great spiritual strength and integrity. Bogdan left home for Italy where he put himself under the tuition of the Capuchins at Udine as a student in the Seraphic School and an aspirant for the Order.

Life was not easy for him, since he was physically weak and malformed. He spent the whole of his life in that condition.  Four foot five inches tall, and his general health became worse as he grew older; suffered abdominal pains, and was gradually deformed by chronic arthritis in later life, making his frame stooped and his hands gnarled, giving him much pain. He also suffered from a stammer in his speech.

Nevertheless, he applied himself to his studies with great enthusiasm. On 20th April, 1884, Bogdan entered the Capuchin Order as a novice at Bassano del Grappa and took the religious name of Brother Leopold. In spite of the austerities of Capuchin life, he persevered with courage and drank deeply of Franciscan Spirituality of which he was to become one of the finest models. After his Profession of Vows in May 1885, he began clerical studies at Padua and Venice and was ordained in Venice on 20th September, 1890. He wanted to be a missionary in Eastern Europe, torn apart by much religious strife, but he was denied this by his superiors because of his frailty and general ill-health. He once expressed his feelings about this when he said:"I am like a bird in a cage, but my heart is beyond the seas."
From 1890 to 1906, Father Leopold was stationed at various Friaries in the Venetian Province, including Friaries in his homeland of Dalmatia, where the Italian friars had a mission. In 1906, he was posted to Padua, where, except for one year which he spent in a prison camp during World War I, because he would not renounce his Croat nationality, he remained for the rest of his life. In Padua he became a Confessor and Spiritual Director... a work which proved to be the means through which God used his servant, Father Leopold, for almost forty years, and for which Leopold Mandic is best known.

Frailty and strenght

The life of Saint Leopold Mandic is characterised by the contrast between his physical frailty and his spiritual strength.  It was his humility and faith in God's Goodness and Providence that enabled him to recognise and accept his poor physical condition.  And this in turn led him to a greater realisation of his own lowliness in relation to God's mighty power: that without God he could do nothing.

Spiritually, he was a giant, full of Christian strength.  His strong faith was communicated to others when they came to Father Leopold for spiritual advice. He would say: "Have faith! Everything will be alright. Faith, Faith!".
A compassionate man, Father Leopold gave tremendous encouragement to many people, especially those despairing of hope because of an enslavement to sin.
He was truly an apostle: for although he did not go to the mission territory, his long service in the Confessional proved to be his own distinct apostolate.

For nearly forty years, twelve hours a day, he received, counselled and absolved thousands of penitents. In this work he was a herald of God's love and forgiveness. And his human weakness highlights the gift of spiritual strength which enabled him to carry out this untiring apostolate.

His Golden Jubilee and his death

On 22nd September, 1940, Father Leopold celebrated his Golden Jubilee of the Priesthood. After this, however, his health deteriorated rapidly. He died of esophogial cancer in the Friary at Padua on 30th July, 1942. And soon after his death a strong veneration of his memory began to flourish culminating in his beatification by Pope Paul VI on 2nd May, 1976, and, his canonisation by Pope John Paul II on 16th October, 1983.  His tomb is situated in the Capuchin Monastery of "Santa Croce" (Holy Cross), Padua, inside a Sanctuary built in his honour,  His right hand, that he used to impart blessings, is still in a perfect state of preservation and has been placed in a reliquary. 

Pope Paul VI's homily at the beatification of Fr.Leopold
( Excerpts )

Look! Look! Saint Francis! Do you see him? Look how poor he is, how human. It is indeed Saint Francis himself, so humble, so serene, so absorbed as to appear carried away in his own inner vision of the invisible presence of God. And yet to us and for us he remains so present, so accessible, so available that he appears to know us, to await us, to know all about us and to be able to read our hearts. Look well: he is a poor little Capuchin, he looks ill and frail and yet so strangely strong that we seem to be drawn to him spellbound. Look at him through Franciscan eyes. Do you see him? Are you astonished? Who is he? Yes, let us admit it, he is frail, popular yet true image of Jesus, of that very Jesus who speaks at once to the ineffable God, to the Father who is Lord of heaven and earth, and also to us, bound up as we are in the littleness of our suffering humanity. [...]

But who is it, then? It is Father Leopold. Yes, the Servant of God, Fr. Leopold of Castelnovo, who was called Adeodato Mandic before he became a friar. [...] Here, in this case, Canon Law has been indulgent, departing from the rule which does not permit the discussion of the virtues of a Servant of God until fifty years after his death. Yet, how could his case be delayed when the voice of the people in favour of his holiness, instead of fading with the passing of time, grew ever more insistent, more well-documented and more certainly authenticated? The judgement of the Church (cfr. can. 2101), in anticipation a favourable conclusion, had to give way to the spontaneous chorus of all who had known this humble Capuchin or had experienced his marvelous intercession. So it is not only those who have benefited from his prayers who proclaim Fr. Leopold's exceptional moral and spiritual worth. There are a few still living who can testify to this, saying: "I knew him. Yes, he was a holy religious, a man of God, one of those exceptional souls who at once impress their sanctity upon us." And in the memory of those who know something of the history of the Capuchin Order there appears again the remembrance of those great friars of the past, faithful to the most strict Franciscan traditions personifying his holiness. Let us just recall one typical literary figure, well-known to all: Manzoni's Fr. Cristoforo.

[...] The late Cardinal Larraona, then Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, in the 1962 decree regarding the Beatification of Fr. Leopold wrote as follows: "This was his daily routine; after saying Mass early in the morning, he used to sit in the confession room and stay there the whole day long hearing confessions. He kept this up for about forty years without any complaint." This is, we believe, the primary reason that has won for this humble Capuchin the Beatification which we are now celebrating.

He became holy principally in the exercise of the Sacrament of Penance. Thank God, many splendid accounts of this aspect of the sanctity of the new Blessed have already appeared. We have only to admire and thank the Lord for offering to the Church in these days such a singular figure of a minister of the sacramental grace of Penance. [...] May Blessed Leopold strengthen souls eager for spiritual advancement to assiduous frequenting of Confession which some critics, certainly not inspired by mature Christian wisdom, would like to see relegated among the outmoded forms of living, and personal spirituality.

[...] To you Franciscan Brothers of the Capuchin Order: our thanks for having given to the Church and to the world a typical example of your strict, friendly and wholesome school of Christianity as faithful to itself as it is able to rouse up again the joy of prayer and goodness in the hearts of the people.

To you sons of Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the whole of Yugoslavia: honour to you for having brought forth in our time such a lofty and yet human example of your Catholic tradition.

And to you Paduans: we wish you to honour, beside your own Saint Anthony, this not dissimilar Franciscan brother so that from them both you may hand on to the next generations the Christian and human virtues already so splendidly enshrined in your history.