Bl. Andrew Hibernon

To help support his family, Andrew Hibernon, of Alcantarilla, Spain, took a job with his uncle. When at length he had earned enough to provide a dowry for his sister, the young man headed home, only to be ambushed along the way by thieves who stole all his earnings. Convinced by this incident of the vanity of earthly possessions, Andrew became a Franciscan lay brother in a friary of the Alcantarine reform at Iliciran. Devoted to the Mother of God, he frequented her shrines and regularly recited the Franciscans' rosary of the Seven Joys of Mary. Andrew spent hour upon hour kneeling before the tabernacle, intent to support by his prayers the Franciscan priests' efforts to convert sinners. He loved to serve the priests at the altar, and to accompany them on visits to the sick, praying for the invalids as the priests administered the sacraments to them. He died immediately after completing the recitation of the rosary on April 18, 1602.