Jesus became Incarnate for our salvation, but there is one who still prowls about like a lion to keep us from our Redeemer. As St. Lawrence Justinian warned, “Those who want to destroy the enemies of their salvation must have strength and finesse of spirit. If they lack one or the other, they will be easily defeated because the enemies we fight possess both.”
Newsdesk (23/12/2025 21:23, Gaudium Press) At the age of nineteen, Saint Lawrence Justinian had a vision of Our Lord recommending that he devote himself entirely to Him. Responding to the divine call, he joined the convent of the Order of Canons Regular of Saint George on the island of Alga, near Venice. They were called “Regulars” because they lived in community, subject to a rule. Ordained a priest, he was soon elected General of his Order. He applied himself so thoroughly to restoring it that he is considered its second founder.
Nominated to be Bishop of Castello, near Venice, he did not want to accept, but Pope Eugene IV appointed him to the position in 1433. With wisdom, he pacified the dissensions that agitated the aristocratic Republic of Venice. He founded fifteen monasteries and ensured the splendor of divine worship.
In 1450, he became the first Patriarch of Venice. He fought against the decline of the clergy and is considered a precursor of the ecclesiastical reform that St. Charles Borromeo would undertake in Milan after the Council of Trent. A few years later, he was struck by a high fever and realized that death was approaching; he begged to be laid on the floor, on straw. The most prominent members of the government came to visit him and ask for his blessing. On January 8th, 1456, he gave his soul to God.
Strength and cunning
He wrote several works, including ‘The Tree of Life or the Twelve Fruits of Faith,’ in which he states:
It is fitting for the combatants of Jesus Christ to desire the time of war more than that of peace, and the most painful labours more than dangerous idleness. For laziness greatly weakens virtues, and war strengthens them.
That is why, filled with magnanimity and covered with their powerful weapons, they throw themselves against the enemy, valuing death with glory and honour more than cowardly flight.
In the physical realm, some combatants seek to defeat the enemy by force, others by cunning. It would be a mistake in the art of war to use only one of these means.
The lion and the serpent
This rule must be applied to spiritual warfare. Those who want to destroy the enemies of their salvation must have strength and finesse of spirit. If they lack one or the other, they will be easily defeated because the enemies we fight possess both.
Saint Peter compares the strength of the devil to that of a lion. Regarding his cunning, Genesis says that the serpent was the most cunning of animals and seduced Eve with his malicious skill.
If you wish to fight with strength alone, your adversary will deceive you with his tricks. If you employ cunning alone, his strength will crush you. Seek, therefore, both. Be strong against the roars of the lion and prudent against the malice of the serpent.
Ask, then, for the help of Jesus, the Lion of Judah, who will grant you the grace of the lion’s strength and the serpent’s sagacity to obtain victory against the devil and his minions.
Piety that commanded respect and admiration
Below we summarize some comments made by Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira on the subject.
Note this statement about the Saint’s piety: His youth was marked by great piety, which commanded respect and admiration.
Nowadays, we would say that a very pious young person is merciful and kind to everyone. Because piety is only conceived as causing tenderness. I do not deny that piety can also cause tenderness, but to place this feeling as the predominant note is absurd.
As a young man, Saint Lawrence joined a religious order so decadent that it needed reform. And its members elected him as General, allowing themselves to be restored by him.
Which saint today would be admitted into certain decadent religious orders? And, once admitted, would he be able to remain? And, if he remained, would he be elected General? And, once elected General, would he be able to reform the others?
However, this man reforms his Order and, instead of becoming reviled, is appointed Archbishop of Venice. He intervenes in everything, reconciles factions, combats immorality. When one might expect him to be expelled, he is elevated to Patriarch. Those were different times…
Physical and spiritual combat
He refers to two types of combat: first, physical combat — alluding to the ancient gladiators who descended into the arena to fight — and the rules that govern it; then, by analogy, the Saint deduces norms that guide spiritual combat, which man must wage against his internal enemies, that is, his disordered passions and the action of the devil within his own soul.
Just as in physical combat it is necessary for the warrior, sometimes through cunning, sometimes through strength, to know how to win battles, so too in the spiritual realm we must be cunning and strong against our adversaries. And if we lack either of these two qualities — strength or cunning — we lose our battle in the spiritual life.
St. Lawrence explains how the devil was extremely strong when, with his tail, he dragged a third of the angels from Heaven into the abyss, that is, Hell.
However, with Adam and Eve, he did not manifest strength, but cunning, devising a temptation full of sweet talk and tricks to induce our first parents to sin.
Distortion of Catholic spirituality
I would like to reflect on the direction that certain things have taken within the distortion of Catholic spirituality.
Paintings of the devil depict him as cunning and strong, while those of angels usually show them as smiling, kind, and good-natured. They therefore give a distorted, because one-sided, idea of the nature of angels.
Kindness and affability are extremely appropriate to their representation. But they are also strong. There is an angelic choir called Powers which, according to St. Thomas Aquinas, has the special mission of removing all obstacles that stand against God’s will in the universe.
On the other hand, they are extremely wise. Our own Guardian Angel, for example, gives us good advice, impulses of the soul tailored precisely to our state of mind, with all the intelligence and diplomacy that one can imagine in a spirit of vastly superior capacity to our own!
These are the Angels who announced the coming of the Redeemer …
As we celebrate the Christmas Season, let us reflect upon the Coming of Our Redeemer, and, indeed, of His Second Coming, with these thoughts of combativity in mind … and may He find us always watchful and ready for battle!
extracted, with adaptations, from Noções de História da Igreja, by Paulo Francisco Martos
Compiled by Roberta MacEwan
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