Robaird O’Cearbhaill
Catholic movie legend Mickey Rourke was saved from suicide and murder by a priest who became a lifelong friend. And faith stayed through a miracle – his dying brother at 17 returned to health for decades, after Rourke prayed for the intercession of St Jude, the Patron of Lost Causes.
Mickey Rourke’s life has been a dramatic cascade from poverty to a miracle. Then came fame and acclaim and riches, a smashed face in boxing, then back to poverty, drug and alcohol addictions, and back to success after enduring 14 years of being kept in the shadows. Faith has always been strong except for three years, after a tragedy, especially from two turning points of grace.
The first was when his brother, at 17 in jail, was given a few months to live and recovered, as Rourke explained to the Orthodoxia News Agency, in 2020, Greece’s first religious one. Since then he prayed to St Jude every day. Although he lost faith for when his bother died at 50 but the second instance of grace saved his life and from murder and brought him back to being strongly Catholic.
While Rourke was in the depths of despair from addictions, drugs and alcohol, and jealous of his wife having an affair, he made up his mind to kill the suspected lover and then shoot himself. However, thinking of the consequences he went to see a priest, Pietro Colapietro to tell him his intentions. The New York Post 2018 Interview with Rourke tells the story.
Rourke said Fr Peter told him, “In purgatory, you had to live with the same pain until it was your natural time to die.” Rourke also said the priest told him: “Show me in the Bible where it says vengeance is mine, Mickey Rourke, and I will put the bullets into your gun.” Rourke changed his plans about the two killings and with the help of the priest (and his psychiatrist) over years of friendship returned successfully to filming.
Rourke has been in over 70 movies and was awarded best actor over 30 times. In an interview published by the Catholic News Agency, he described how he survived a long successful career: “When you are famous and you fall, people don’t want you to come back. It is almost impossible to come back, it’s like you don’t even exist…. God gave me a second chance in life, the guy upstairs helped me out.” (Photo from Wikipedia)
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