A holy beggar In 1784, the London newspapers were buzzing with discussion of a homeless Frenchman who had died the previous year at the age of 35. By most standards he had been a complete failure: having tried and failed several times to join a monastery, he spent his life wandering around Europe from one pilgrimage site to another, sleeping on the streets and eating food out of rubbish tips. Yet within two months of Benedict Joseph Labre’s death, 136 miraculous cures had been attributed to his prayers. Within a century, he was canonised, one of the strangest saints in the calendar. A wannabe monk Benedict was born near Boulogne in 1748, the eldest of 15 children born to comfortable, middle-class parents. As a child he had a horror of even small sins, and a longing to make sacrifices of comfort. He was a cheerful boy, though with a melancholy side. His dream was to enter a monastery. But things kept getting in the way. His parents didn’t like the idea; when they came round to it, he tested his vocation. But the solitude didn’t suit him: he became gloomy and was told the monastery wasn’t for him. So he stumbled on his vocation – to travel Europe on foot, visiting pilgrimage sites, praying and denying himself. Perpetual pilgrimage It was a unique vocation, and with his characteristic spirit of obedience, Benedict ran the idea past several confessors, all of whom approved. He never begged, and gave away any surplus to the poor. He smelt so bad that even his admirers drew back from him. After visiting Assisi, Einsiedeln and Compostela, among other shrines, he spent his last six years in Rome and died of exhaustion after a life dedicated to God.