God is never banal; sin, always.

Father de Menasce (1902-1973)
Dominican

“How can I describe Father de Menasce? His personality was made up of abilities, each of which, taken individually, bordered on perfection, which did not prevent their combination from making him perhaps the simplest and most harmonious being that I have encountered on the long journey of my life. The perfection of his soul was matched only by that of his intelligence and the breadth of his knowledge. The whole seemed moved by the breath of God, who had filled him with a fullness of natural and supernatural gifts. If I had to compare him to a historical figure, I would choose some great lord of the Renaissance; Thomas More, for example, whose distinction and culture he possessed. But going back further in history, did he not, as a convert from Judaism, share certain traits with Saint Augustine, that great convert from Manichaeism? (…) After his first thrombosis, his right side became paralyzed; this did not prevent him, for the next ten years, from being the Chair of the origins of Iranian religions at the École des Hautes Études, a subject on which he was one of the foremost—if not the foremost—experts of our time. (…) Whenever I would go to Paris, I would first go spend a few hours with him. I confess that before entering his room, I always felt a certain anxiety: in what state would I find him? Physically, he was a human wreck, his once handsome face was now disfigured. And yet, this anxiety vanished as soon as I saw his exquisite smile again. He would come to me rolling his wheelchair himself. I thus spent luminous hours with him. (…) We talked about a thousand things, some painful, from which he suffered as I did, concerning the impact of our times on the life of the Church and that of our Order, this Order which we both loved deeply, which made us all the more sensitive to a certain neglect of the doctrine of Saint Thomas. We spoke of everything fraternally, with open hearts. Although we spoke of serious subjects, Father always added a cheerful note, and often a bit of humor. Frequently, and despite our age, we laughed together like two children. And when I left him, contrary to what I felt upon arriving, my heart was filled with such joy that it could only have come from God.”

Father Alex-Ceslas Rzewuski (1893-1983)
Dominican