Benedict-Joseph Labre was born in Amettes (France), diocese of Arras, the eldest of a family of fifteen children. Labre’s uncle, a parish priest, gladly received him, and undertook his early education for the priesthood. At the age of sixteen, Benedict-Joseph approached his uncle about becoming a Trappist monk, but his parents told him he would have to wait until he grew older. Labre set off for La Trappe Abbey to apply to the Order, but did not come up to their requirements. He was under age; he was too delicate; he had no special recommendations. He later attempted to join the Carthusians and Cistercians, but each order rejected him as unsuitable for communal life. He was, for about six weeks, a postulant with the Carthusians at Neuville. In November 1769, he obtained admission to the Cistercian Abbey of Sept-Fonts. After a short stay at Sept-Fonts, his health gave way, and it was decided that his vocation lay elsewhere.
Labre felt a deep desire, which he believed was inspired by God and influenced by the examples of Alexius of Rome and the Franciscan tertiary pilgrim, Saint Roch. This desire led him to “abandon his homeland, his family, and all worldly comforts in order to live a new kind of life—a life that was extremely painful and penitential. Instead of seeking solitude in a wilderness or a cloister, he chose to travel through the world as a pilgrim, visiting the famous sites of Christian devotion.”
In 1778, Labre joined the Third Order of Saint Francis and committed to a life of poverty and pilgrimage. He first travelled to Rome on foot, living off whatever he could obtain through begging. He then travelled to most of the major shrines of Europe. He visited the various shrines in Loreto, Assisi, Naples, and Bari in Italy, Einsiedeln in Switzerland, Paray-le-Monial in France, and Santiago de Compostela in Spain. During these trips he would always travel on foot, sleeping in the open or in a corner of a room, with his clothes muddy and ragged. He lived on what little he was given, and often shared the little he did receive with others. He is reported to have talked rarely, prayed often, and accepted quietly the abuse he received.
In so doing, Labre was following in the role of the mendicant, the “Fool-for-Christ”, found more often in the Eastern Church. He spent many hours in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. He would often swoon when contemplating the crown of thorns, in particular, and during these states, it is said he would levitate or bilocate. It was said also that he has cured some of the other homeless he met and to have multiplied bread for them. In the last years of his life (his thirties), he lived in Rome, for a time living in the ruins of the Colosseum and would leave only to make a yearly pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Loreto. He was a familiar figure in the city and known as the “saint of the Forty Hours” (or Quarant’ Ore) for his dedication to Eucharistic adoration.
He died in Rome on April 16, 1783.
Immediately after his death, the people proclaimed him a saint. Popes Pius IX beatified him, and Leo XIII proclaimed him a saint of the Church.
The Feast Day – April 16
Sources:
https://geocities.ws/atonement/labre/
https://aleteia.org/2021/05/13/benedict-xvi-called-him-one-of-the-most-unusual-saints
https://jeunessefranciscaine.wixsite.com/france/saint-benoit-joseph