Peregrine Laziosi was born in 1260 in a wealthy family in Forlì, in northern Italy, about 40 miles southeast of Bologna. His family was against the papacy, and when he was 18, Peregrine heckled and attacked a visiting preacher trying to bring peace to the city filled with division. The preacher was the Prior General of the Servite religious order.
Ashamed of his behavior he repented, and asked the Prior General, Philip Benizi, for forgiveness. Benizi treated him kindly, and in remorse he began a life of prayer, penance, and good works, eventually becoming a Servite priest himself. After years of serving the poor, he was well-known for his holiness and preaching.
At 60 years old, his right leg became cancerous, and the decision was made to amputate the limb. The night before the operation, he prayed before a fresco of the crucifixion, and fell into a deep trance. In a vision, he saw Jesus come down from the cross and touch is leg. When the doctor came to amputate the leg, the cancer was gone. He lived another 24 years, dying in 1345 of a fever. Many sick who visited his tomb were healed.
He is the patron saint of those with Cancer, AIDS, and other life-threatening conditions. His relics are in the Servite Basilica of Saint Pellegrino Laziosi in Forlì, which is located in the Forli-Cesena Province in the Emilia-Romagna Region.
Born in Riccione in the Rimini province of the Emilia-Romagna region, on the Adriatic coast of Italy in 1961, Sandra Sabattini was a contemplative from a young age. Her uncle was a priest and her family lived with him in his parish rectory. This helped foster a strong devotion to Christ and His people. From an early age she would rise in the early morning to pray before the Blessed Sacrament, and kept a diary of spiritual reflections.
At age 12, Sandra became a member of the Pope John XXIII Community which is committed to helping the poor and disabled. Though she was devout, she still wanted live a full life and painted, played piano and ran track. And at 17 met her future fiancée Guido Rossi. Wanting to eventually become a medical missionary, Sandra decided to go to medical school. But at 22, her life was cut short in 1984 when she was hit by a car in Bologna. She went into a coma and died a few days later on May 2nd.
Sandra’s diary was published in 1985. Three days before the accident, she wrote, ““It’s not mine, this life that is developing, that is beating by a regular breath that is not mine, that is enlivened by a peaceful day that is not mine. There is nothing in this world that is yours.” In recognition of her extraordinary life and virtue, an investigation to open the cause of Sandra’s beatification began in 2006, and in 2007 a man was cured of colon cancer after asking for her intercession.
In 2009, her remains in Casale were exhumed, but because she requested to be buried in the bare earth, all that was left was her hospital socks and some plastic. The only relic is a single hair her fiancée saved. A shrine to Sandra, with the empty sarcophagus they were to lay her in, is at the Church of San Girolamo in the city of Rimini, Rimini province, in the Emilia-Romagna region. She was beatified in 2021. A Novena to her can be found here. Her feast day is May 4th.
St. Bernadine of Siena was born in Massa Marittima, in the province of Siena, Italy in 1380. He was a priest and Franciscan missionary, carer of plague sufferers, scholastic economist, and said to be the greatest preacher of his time, especially against the rampant paganism and sins of his day. He was devoted to the Holy Name of Jesus and devised a symbol consisting of the first three letters in Greek of Jesus’ name, IHS on the background of the sun, in order to honor Him and counteract the many superstitious symbols popular at that time. Due to this connection, he is the patron of advertisers and public relations workers. He also is the patron of gambling addicts, the Diocese of San Bernadino in California, and several other cities that bear his name, especially in Italy. He died in 1444 and was quickly canonized a saint in 1450 by Pope Nicholas V. He is buried in the Basilica of San Bernardino, in L’Aquila, Italy, in the province of Abruzzo. His feast day is May 20th.
St. Bona of Pisa. Born in 1156 to an unmarried couple and raised by her mother after her merchant father left them when she was three. Bona became a mystic and visionary as a child and experienced visions of the child Jesus, the Blessed Mother and St. James the Greater. She became a tertiary to nuns that followed the Rule of St. Augustine at 10 years old and fasted from a young age. At 14, she traveled to Jerusalem from Pisa to find her father whom she was told was on Crusade. She found him, but on her return, she was captured, wounded, and imprisoned by Islamic pirates. She was eventually ransomed and returned home. She soon left for a dangerous pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela, and gave spiritual and physical aid and courage to other pilgrims. Over her lifetime she led pilgrims nine times on the grueling 1000-mile journey to Santiago de Compostela and Spain. She died in Pisa in 1207. Her relics reside in the Church of San Martino, Pisa, Italy, Province of Pisa, Tuscany Region. Bona was canonized in 1962 by Pope John XXIII. She is the patron saint of travelers, tour guides, pilgrims, flight attendants, and the city of Pisa, Italy. Her feast day is May 29th.
The first canonized martyr of the Dominican Order (Order of Preachers), Peter of Verona was a gifted priest and preacher who fought against the Cathar heresy which, in part, taught there were two gods, one good and one evil. Known for his zeal for the faith, drawing large crowds for his preaching, and for his miracles and many conversions, he was considered an enemy by the Cathars, who ordered him murdered in 1252.
As he lay dying from an ax blow to the head from a Cathar assassin, he dipped his fingers in his own blood and wrote on the ground the beginning of the Apostle’s Creed, “I believed in one God.” His murderer later renounced heresy, and became a Dominican brother. Canonized in 1253 by Pope Innocent IV, it was the fastest canonization after death in papal history. His relics reside in the Portinari Chapel of the Dominican’s Basilica of Sant’Eustorgio in Milan, which is in the Lombardy region of Italy. His feast day is April 29th and he is the patron saint of the Order of Preachers, midwives, several cities in Italy, and Puerto Rico.
Caterina di Jacopo di Benincasa, commonly known as Catherine of Siena, was born in Siena, Italy in 1347, the youngest of 25 children, most of whom did not survive childhood. A mystic, renowned for her holiness, she lived at home as a Third Order Dominican, tending to the sick and hungry, but her reputation was so great she traveled to Avignon, France to convince Pope Gregory XI to return the Papacy to Rome. She wrote some of the greatest works of Tuscan literature while in ecstasy, such as her Dialogues. She died in 1380 and is the patron saint of nurses, the sick, Italy, Europe, and Rome. She was declared a Doctor of the Church in 1970 by Pope Paul VI. Her relics reside at Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome & the Basilica of San Domenico in Siena. Her feast day is April 29th.
St. Francesco di Paola was born in 1416 and grew up in a devout family in Paola. At 15, he moved to a cave to live as a hermit. By 1436, enough men had also come to live in solitude to found a religious order, which later became the Minims. They vowed poverty, chastity, obedience, and year-round abstinence from meat and other animal products, to encourage fasting among the laity during Lent. He cured the sick, raised people and even animals from the dead, ended plagues, gave advice and comfort to thousands of people, and even could carry burning coals in his hands, giving him the nickname “Francis the Firehandler.” The famous sanctuary where he lived as a hermit is among the most popular tourist destinations in Calabria. In 1562, vandals raided his tomb, destroyed his incorrupt body, and scattered the remains. People gathered the relics, which were given to several churches, including one in Paola. He is the patron saint of boatmen, mariners, naval officers, and Calabria. His relics reside in the Sanctuary of Saint Francis of Paola, in Paola, Italy, Province of Cosenza, Calabria Region. His feast day is April 2nd.
Leonardo Murialdo was born in Turin, Italy in 1828, he was the 8th son of a wealthy family, but his father passed away when he was only four. He was mentored by his cousin Fr. Roberto Murialdo which led him to having close relationships with Sts. Joseph Cafasso and St. John Bosco. He devoted his life to helping the troubled youth and prisoners, In 1851, he was ordained a priest and was one of the promoters of the first Catholic Popular Libraries. Twenty-two years after ordination he founded the Congregation of St. Joseph with an apostolic goal of educating of youth, especially the poor and abandoned. He opened oratories, vocational and agricultural schools, family houses for working children. Pope Paul VI proclaimed him blessed in 1963 and he was named a saint in 1970. He’s the patron saint of apprentices and his feast day is celebrated on March 30th.
St. Frances of Rome was born a wealthy aristocrat and married at 12 years old to Lorenzo Ponziani, a wealthy commander of the papal troops of Rome. They were married 40 years. During that time there was much hardship, with floods, famines, wars, disease, and forced exile after much of their property and possessions were destroyed. Frances lost all but one of her six children (two to the plague), and the city of Rome was in chaos and in ruins. She nursed her husband for years until his death after he was wounded in battle.
During all this time Frances’ faith in God was strong. Considered “the saint of mercy,” she practiced all of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. She fed the poor, opened her home as a hospital, foraging for firewood and herbs, and led an exemplary Christian life, which led other women to do the same. She was a woman of deep contemplation, and was a mystic, given visions of her guardian angel, purgatory, and hell. She was also given the gift of healing and miracles. Frances founded a community, which eventually was called the Oblates of St. Frances of Rome, a Benedictine order.
Frances died in 1440, and canonized in 1608 by Pope Paul V. She was buried in the Church of Santa Maria Nova, now known as the Basilica di Santa Francesca Romana, next to the Roman Forum, in Rome. Frances is the patron saint of widows, Benedictine Oblates, and automobile drivers, because an archangel used to light her path with a lantern to keep her safe from hazards. There is a Roman tradition of blessing cars on her feast day, March 9th.
Born in a noble family in Milan in 339 AD, St. Ambrose lost his father young, and he was raised by his mother and his sister who was a consecrated virgin. He was an accomplished scholar, wrote what are considered masterpieces in Latin, was a poet, so masterful in music his hymns are still sung today, an orator, lawyer, and eventually governor. He so impressed the citizens of Milan that they chose him as their Bishop at 35 years of age, even though he wasn’t even baptized. He went from unbaptized to Bishop in eight days. Becoming a Bishop he gave all his wealth to the Church.
It is St. Ambrose that said the famous quote, when discussing fasting, “When you are in Rome, live in the Roman style; When you are elsewhere, live as they live elsewhere.” His sermons were so profound they converted St. Augustine, whom he later baptized. His teachings were so influential on the Church that he was named one of the four great Latin “Doctors of the Church” (Along with Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great.) There are only 38 total Doctors of the Church. He died in 397. He is the patron saint of Milan and beekeepers. His feast day is December 7th.
Beloved of Italian-American immigrants, especially in New York and Chicago, St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, or “Mother Cabrini” was born in 1850 in what is now Lodi, Italy. She became a nun, and at 30 years old founded the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus religious order. She yearned to be a missionary in China, but Pope Leo XIII instead sent her and her nuns to New York City to tend to the Italian immigrants. Even with her ever-present fragile health, she tirelessly founded 67 hospitals, orphanages, schools, convents and other institutions all over North, Central, and South America, and in France, Spain, and Italy. Mother Cabrini died in 1917 of malaria. She was the first American citizen canonized a saint, in 1946. In 2021, we celebrated her 75th anniversary of sainthood. Learn more about this beloved saint online at the National Shrine of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini in Chicago, IL & at the St. Frances Xavier Cabrini Shrine in Manhattan, where her remains reside. Her feast day is November 13th.
Born to a wealthy, devout family in Brindisi in southern Italy, Bartolo Longo was a brilliant student who lost his way when his mother died when he was ten. While a law student in Naples, he was influenced by nationalist professors who were former Catholic priests, and he turned to the occult and became a satanic priest.
Affected spiritually and mentally from this involvement, his friends led him to a Dominican priest who helped him leave the occult behind, and find peace again within the Catholic faith. He became devoted to praying the Rosary after having a mystical experience of the Blessed Mother urging him to spread the devotion.
In 1871, after two years of penance, Longo became a Third Order Dominican and spent his life helping the poor, creating orphanages, housing for workers and prisoner’s children, building churches, creating a Catholic newspaper, and many other good works. After learning many lay people in the area were poorly catechized and had occult beliefs, he began promoting the Catholic faith, especially the devotion to Our Lady of the Rosary in Pompeii. He is well-known for composing prayers and promoting the 54-Day Rosary Novena, and the belief of the Assumption of Mary.
In 1902, Bartolo Longo was nominated by multiple entities for the Nobel Peace Prize in his drive for world peace, and promotion of social & humanitarian issues, but Longo’s nominations were not seriously considered because he had religious motives. In 1925, a year before his death, he was conferred the title of Knight Grand Cross of the Holy Sepulchre by Pope Pius XI. Pope St. John Paul II called him the “Apostle of the Rosary” and beatified him in October of 1980, mentioning Longo several times in his apostolic letter Rosarium Virginis Mariae in 2002. In February of 2025, Pope Francis approved his becoming a saint, and on October 19, 2025 Pope Leo XIV canonized him. Longo’s feast day is October 5th. His relics reside inside the Shrine of the Virgin of the Rosary of Pompeii in the Campania region of Italy.
Young Carlo Acutis, loved to help people in their need – and help them to love Christ, especially in the Eucharist. He dedicated himself cataloging each reported Eucharistic Miracle in the world, as well as approved Marian apparitions. He died at 15 of Leukemia. A miracle attributed to his intercession occurred when a boy born with a pancreatic defect was healed. He is the patron of youth & computer programmers, because he taught himself how to make websites in the 1990’s when the internet was new. He was recently canonized a saint by Pope Leo XIV in September 2025. His feast day is October 12th.
St. Pier Giorgio Frassati. Born in Turin, Italy in 1901, St. Pier Giorgio was an avid skier, mountain climber, swimmer, and most of all, lover of the poor. He gave up family vacations to help the poor, even giving the up the clothes and shoes he was wearing. When he died at 24 years old of an unexpected and quick case of polio, the streets were filled with mourners, hundreds of the poor followed his coffin. He is still beloved by young Catholics today, and there are Frassati groups around the world to encourage people in their faith and to help the poor. For more info: Read the book, and listen to Teresa Tomeo’s interview with the author about St. Frassati. His feast day is July 4. He was canonized a saint by Pope Leo XIV on September 7th, 2025!
St. Januarius (San Gennaro) was a third century bishop of what is now Naples, Italy. At a time when being a Christian was most times a death sentence, this pious young man became a priest at 15 years old, and was made a bishop at 20. Brave in hiding other Christians during the persecutions of Emperor Diocletian, Januarius was discovered to be a Christian when he visited some others in jail. Sentenced along with a group of other Christians first to be eaten by bears in the amphitheater, they eventually were beheaded in 305 AD. A pious woman collected Januarius’s blood in a container. Eventually, it was transferred to two glass vials and placed in a glass reliquary. This dried blood is famous for miraculously liquifying at special times of the year: in commemoration of the transfer of his relics to Naples (the Saturday before the first Sunday in May); on his liturgical feast (Sept. 19), and on the anniversary of the eruption of nearby Mount Vesuvius in 1631. The city was spared when people prayed for St. Januarius intercession. (Dec. 16). If the miracle doesn’t occur, many in Naples believe it is an omen of misfortune! There are several festivals dedicated to his feast, but the most well know is the Feast of San Gennaro in New York City, held in September for many days around his feast day. He is the patron saint of Naples, blood banks, and against volcanic eruptions.
St. Clare of Montefalco (aka Clare of the Cross) was born in Montefalco in 1268. She became a Secular Franciscan Tertiary as a child, and following her older sister and friends, lived in a monastery built by her father, Damiano. In 1290, since there were not yet Franciscan nuns, they entered strict monastic life as Augustinian nuns. In 1291, after the death of her sister Joan, Clare was elected abbess. On the feast of Epiphany in 1294, Clare went into an ecstasy that lasted for several weeks, sustained by the other nuns feeding her sugar water. During the ecstasy she had a vision of Christ implanting his cross in her heart. After her death in 1308, her heart was opened and in it they found fibrous tissue forming a Cross and the instruments of Christ’s passion. Her incorrupt relics, including her heart where you can still see the Cross, reside at the Santuario di Santa Chiara della Croce in Montefalco. She was canonized in 1881 by Pope Leo XIII. The town of Montefalco, located within the region of Umbria, is a 45 minute drive from Perugia, and is known for its Montefalco DOC wines. Read more about St. Clare, and Montefalco, in my book Italy’s Shrines and Wonders. Her feast day is August 17th.
St. Eusebius of Vercelli was born in Sardinia, Italy in 283. He was the first bishop of Vercelli in Piedmont in northern Italy. His father was a martyr and he suffered exile by strongly affirming the divinity of Jesus & the Nicene Creed, and defending the Church against the Arian heresy. See his connection to the Black Madonna of Oropa by clicking here. He died in 371 & is buried in the Vercelli Cathedral. His feast day is August 2nd.
Considered a “model shepherd,” St. Giovanni Battista Scalabrini was born in Fino Mornasco, in the Province of Como, in the Lombardy region of Italy, near the border with Switzerland. He burned with zeal for God & his people. Pius IX called him the “Apostle of the Catechism.” As bishop of Piacenza, he exhausted himself spreading the catechism, love for the Eucharist, and tending the sick & poor, especially Italian emigrants forced to leave to other countries to survive. He started new religious orders, reformed seminaries, comforted prisoners, saved farmers and workers from famine by selling his valuables, chalice, and his horses, and afterward walking on foot to visit the people of his diocese. Pope Benedict XV thought of him as a “bishop beyond compare.” His last words were: “Lord, I am ready, let us go.” This amazing saint was newly canonized in October 2022. His relics reside in the Piacenza Cathedral in Piacenza, Italy, Province of Piacenza, Emilia-Romagna Region. He is the patron of Italian immigrants, missionaries & catechists. His feast day is June 1st. For more information about St. Giovanni click here.
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