Saint Albert of Trapani - British Province of Carmelite Friars

The Word he preached was materialised in gestures of tender attention to
those who were in real need of healing and new life. His arrival in a place
really brought good news, like the Gospel. His life, simple and coherent,
spoke on its own, spoke of Christ and his gift of salvation and grace. This
transparency of his life allowed him to translate the Word into concrete
actions, and this also expressed in a certain way his devotion to the Blessed
Virgin: like Mary he knew how to give life to the Word, he was a “God
machine”, as his confrère Titus Brandsma would have said some centuries
later.
His attention to the basic and primary needs of the people he met is a
powerful indicator of his capacity to talk to those who had the most need of
the Gospel proclamation. Albert’s preaching was not addressed to a public
distracted by and attentive to the elegant forms of preaching rather than to
the vital content of the message. Rather, the Carmelite gets down to basics:
he hastens to meet men and women who need a word of salvation and life
and hope, and to them, the least, he comes in the power of love, faith and
hope. Therefore, his word is effective and powerful, capable of producing
extraordinary effects of inner and outer healing, for which he was venerated
as a miracle-worker.
4. Saint Albert, man of purity
Another iconographical attribute of Saint Albert is the white lily, symbol
of purity. This means that his life shines as an example of virtue and
sincerity, recognised and venerated by the people of God as a gift and
reminder for all. The chastity of Saint Albert became a radiant expression of
a radical, definitive and complete choice for God.
Saint Albert depicted with a lily, symbol of purity, in a painting by Marelli Servino
at the National Shrine of Saint Thérèse in Darien, Illinois, U.S.A.
Two other elements of the legend of Saint Albert converge, in different