April 14 -- St. Ardalion
Ardalion was a jester, a type of comedian who made it a habit to ridicule Catholics. One day, while on the stage, making his usual jests against Catholics, a great grace seized him and he converted.
He realized that the parodies he made of the Crucifixion were blasphemous and then, immediately announced his conversion to his dumbstruck audience. The magistrate of the town demanded a renunciation but when Ardalion refused, he was tortured and burned at the stake. He gained the martyr's crown in 305.
St. Ardalion experienced a most profound change in his life when at the moment of grace he corresponded, and went from a very bad person to an excellent person.
This action of going to a final consequence of grace is called coherence. A consequence of coherence is to defend the Church against her enemies as St. Ardalion did when he died a martyr by witnessing his Faith.
Today we, Catholics, may not die as a martyr but we have the opportunity to live as a crusader to defend Holy Mother Church.
The suddenness of the Ardalion's conversion shows the power of God, in which He uses prayers and sacrifices of others to send a wayward soul a phenomenal grace. The parable of the prodigal son illustrates this as does, the numerous conversions of whole peoples in the Apostolic times and in the beginning of the Middle Ages.
Surely, if we pray ardently to Our Lady, she will again send these extraordinary graces for ourselves and for the whole of mankind.
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