BACCHEER, PLACIDO. — Venerable, born in Naples on 5 April 1781, from a family originally from the city (he bore, in addition to the surname Baccheer, that of De Garao), died there on 19 October 1851. Imprisoned during the Parthenopean Republic, he saw his father exiled and two brothers shot by its government. Ordained priest in 1806, he became rector of the church of the “Gesù Vecchio,” which he restored at his own expense, making it a center of intense religious life.
A man of penance and extreme charity, he practiced especially the apostolate of preaching and acquired wide renown in Naples and Italy. A friend of the blessed Francesco Saverio Maria Bianchi (q.v.) and of other distinguished religious figures, he assisted the venerable Maria Cristina of Savoy at her death. He refused an episcopal see and had withdrawn the canonry conferred upon him by Cardinal Sforza Riano. He was buried in the “Gesù Vecchio.” In 1909, the cause for his beatification was introduced (AAS, 1 [1909], pp. 498-501).