PAMPURI, RICCARDO, ST.

Baptized Erminio Filippo (Herman Philip), physician, lay brother of the Hospitallers of St. John of God;b. Aug. 2, 1897, Trivolizi (near Pavia), Lombardy, Italy;d. May 1, 1930, Milan. The second youngest of the eleven children of wine merchants Innocente Pampuri and Angela Campari, who died of tuberculosis when Erminio was three, Erminio was raised by his uncle Carlo Campari in Turin following his father's death (1907). There, Erminio became involved in catholic action. He studied medicine at the University of Pavia (1915–21) with an interruption for military service in the Italian Army Medical Corps (1917–18). In 1921, he joined his uncle Carlo's practice in Morimondo (Milan) as a general physician. He became an active member of the St. Vincent de Paul Society, joined the Third Order of Franciscans (1922), fostered the growth of a parish Catholic Action youth group, and organized spiritual exercises in preparation for the 1925 Jubilee. Under the spiritual direction of Fr. Riccardo Beretta, he entered the hospitallers of st. john of god (June 22, 1927). After receiving the habit and name Brother Riccardo (Richard; Oct. 21, 1927), he completed his novitiate and began his work as director of the dental clinic at St. Ursula's Hospital in Brescia (Oct. 24, 1928). Following his death at age 33 from bronchial pneumonia, his remains have been venerated in a chapel dedicated to him in Trivolzio. Pampuri's beatification process was opened in 1949. Pope John Paul II both beatified (Oct. 4, 1981) and canonized (Nov. 1,1989) him in Rome.

Feast: May 1.

Bibliography: Acta Apostolicae Sedis 74 (1982): 376–379. L'Osservatore Romano, English Edition, no. 41: 1, 12. Comune di Trivolzio, Trivolzio: il paese di San Riccardo Pampuri nel centenario della sua nascita (Pavia 1997). l. cioni, Il santo semplice: vita di san Riccardo Pampuri (Genoa 1996). n. mutschlechner, Ein Arzt wählt Gott—Der Heilige Frater Richard Pampuri aus dem Orden der Barmherzigen Brüder (Munich 1991).

[k. i. rabenstein]