Paschal Baylon

Spanish friar

Paschal Baylón O.F.M. (16 May 1540 – 17 May 1592) was a Spanish Roman Catholic lay professed religious of the Order of Friars Minor.

He served as a shepherd alongside his father in his childhood and adolescence, but desired to enter the religious life.

He was refused once but later was admitted as a Franciscan lay brother and became noted for his strict austerities, as well as his love for and compassion towards the sick.He was sent to counter the arguments of the Calvinists in France but was chased out and nearly killed by a mob.

He was best known for his strong and deep devotion to the Eucharist.The process for his canonization opened and in 1618 he was beatified;

Pope Alexander VIII canonized him a saint on 16 October 1690.