BARTOLO DA SAN GIMIGNANO, BEATO

BARTOLO of SAN GIMIGNANO, Blessed. — Parish priest, born in 1228 of a noble family in the castle of Mucchi near San Gimignano. To become a religious, he took refuge in Pisa and entered the Third Order of Saint Francis. Ordained a priest, he heroically exercised charity toward his neighbor first at Peccioli, then at Picchema. Stricken with leprosy, he lived for twenty years confined in the leper hospital of San Gimignano near the Pieve of Cellolo, enduring his affliction with such patience that he was called the “Job of Tuscany.” He died on December 12, 1300, in a reputation for holiness and was buried in the church of the Augustinian Hermits of Saint Augustine in San Gimignano. Pope Pius X approved his cult in 1906. Feast day: December 12.