Blessed Conrad of Bavaria, AD 1154

Cistercian pilgrim of Palestine, 
started home for Clairvaux when he heard 
his patron Bernard was dying. 
Got as far as Italy when word came 
his master passed. Settling in 
a hermit’s cave at Bari, he died.

An utterly untidy, unconsummated life— 
beatified but not canonized; a mass 
without communion; Lent with no Good 
Friday. His “little way,” hardly a crawl.

Like Jesus at the pool of Siloam, 
he was wholly accessible to all; 
a pilgrim’s pilgrim parked in a wayside— 
no going forward; no going home.