Francesco Maria of Camporosso, St.

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FRANCESCO MARIA OF CAMPOROSSO, ST.

Italian Capuchin lay brother; b. Camporosso (Imperia), Italy, Dec. 27, 1804; d. Genoa, Sept. 17, 1866. After joining the Capuchins (1821), he exchanged his baptismal name, Giovanni, for Francesco Maria and pronounced his solemn vows in 1825. For the next 40 years he served in the friary in Genoa as almsgatherer (questor). During his daily begging rounds of the city his deportment, spiritual advice, and catechetical instruction deeply impressed the different classes of people whom he met. During the cholera epidemic (1866) he nursed the plague-stricken in their homes. He contracted the disease and died a martyr of charity. His remains are enshrined in the Capuchin church of the Most Holy Conception in Genoa. He was beatified June 30, 1929, and canonized Dec. 8, 1962.

Feast: Sept. 17.

Bibliography: l. de echavarri-urtupiÑa, Un apóstol de la caridad (Pamplona 1962). a. da varazze, Il beato Francesco da Comporosso (3d ed. Genoa 1929). c. de pÉlissane, Une Victime de la charité au XIX e siècle: Le Bienheureux François de Camporosso (2d ed. Paris 1929). Lexicon Capuccinum (Rome 1951) 620621. Analecta Ordinis Fratrum Minorum Cappuchinorum 79 (1963) 185194. a. butler, The Lives of the Saints, ed. h. thurston and d. attwater, 4 v. (New York 1956) 3:586587.

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