{"id":142865,"date":"2026-06-17T05:00:40","date_gmt":"2026-06-17T09:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/?p=142865"},"modified":"2026-03-24T11:22:04","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T15:22:04","slug":"st-bessarion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/st-bessarion\/","title":{"rendered":"St Bessarion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Bess,<\/span> How\u2019s life on Madison Avenue? \u00a0I was glad to hear that you roped such a prestigious summer job\/internship (your talents will be shrewdly and fully exploited by those ravenous professionals, but they will also be developed by the rigorous work), but I frowned when I heard how much money you\u2019ll be making. \u00a0You need to be careful, my dear pecuniary-inclined niece; you have a tendency to like nice things more than they deserve to be liked. Of course, this gift of appreciating the finer things can be both a blessing and a curse. With it you can be an example of elegance and gentility in a world of vulgar immodesty; the way you dress, dine, and carry yourself can be a kind of billboard for the graciousness and loveliness of God and his Kingdom. \u00a0But you could also easily fall prey to vanity, avarice, and intemperance, spending too much money on all the \u201cright\u201d clothes and the \u201cright\u201d accessories, spending too much time with the \u201cright\u201d crowd, and spilling out your natural charm and intelligence on the dry sands of making the right \u201cconnections.\u201d Clearly, Christ has an interest in evangelizing Madison Avenue just as much as Main Street, Small Town, USA \u2013 maybe even more so, since Madison Avenue has such a powerful influence over what happens on Main Street \u2013 and obviously he has put you there to take up the task (you can\u2019t do it alone, though; your first step will need to be finding or \u201crecruiting\u201d some other men and women of the Kingdom), but be aware that he is sending you like a \u201csheep among wolves\u201d (Matthew 10:16).<\/span> You may want to keep the example of today\u2019s saint in mind and ask him to be the \u201cpatron\u201d of your summer. \u00a0At first, it might seem an odd choice. After all, St Bessarion retreated to the deserts of Egypt for an internship with St Anthony and St Macarius, two of the Church\u2019s greatest recluses \u2013 so what could he have to do with the teeming throngs of Manhattan? \u00a0A lot, I think. He became a paragon of Christian charity and a powerful instrument of God\u2019s love: for the good of poor people he constantly ran across, he performed a slew of miracles, turning salt water fresh, bringing rain in times of draught, walking across the Nile, expelling demons\u2026 Wherever he went, he brought lost and hardened souls closer to God. \u00a0And the secret to his holiness was <\/span>detachment<\/span>. \u00a0Instead of hoarding the good things of this world, he used them as springboards, as rungs of a ladder that led him closer and closer to the heart of the God who had created them. \u00a0Thus, he never had a fixed place of residence, but wandered barefoot, observing long periods of silence and excruciating fasts. Once he spent forty days standing in prayer amidst a hedge of brambles. \u00a0He was determined to use all earthly goods as opportunities to praise and serve God, and never let them capture his heart.<\/span> So, as you find yourself hobnobbing with the wealthy and beautiful of the world, keeping up a spiritual correspondence with St Bessarion could serve as a kind of secret weapon, a way for you to keep first things first so that you don\u2019t end up losing them altogether.<\/span> Keep the faith, Uncle Eddy<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Bess, How\u2019s life on Madison Avenue? \u00a0I was glad to hear that you roped such a prestigious summer job\/internship (your talents will be shrewdly and fully exploited by those […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":359,"featured_media":145992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"default","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3719],"tags":[],"post_folder":[],"class_list":["post-142865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncle-eddy"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"","pp_force_visibility":null,"pp_subpost_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_force_visibility":null,"pp_inherited_subpost_visibility":null,"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nSt Bessarion - Regnum Christi<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/st-bessarion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"St Bessarion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear Bess, How\u2019s life on Madison Avenue? \u00a0I was glad to hear that you roped such a prestigious summer job\/internship (your talents will be shrewdly and fully exploited by those […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/st-bessarion\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Regnum Christi\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RegnumChristiEn\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-06-17T09:00:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.regnumchristi.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Uncle-Eddy-Header.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fr. 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