Bianchi, Francesco Saverio Maria, Blessed

BIANCHI, FRANCESCO SAVERIO MARIA, beato. - Barnabite, b. at Arpino on 2 Dec. 1743 and d. on 31 Jan. 1815 at Naples, where he is buried in the church of S. Giuseppe a Pontecorvo. He was for many years superior of S. Maria a Portanova in Naples (1767-85); the long stay in that college, even after the suppression of 7 Aug. 1809, together with his works of charity and the frequent miracles (among which the famous stopping of the lava of Vesuvius), made him the popular saint of that quarter. From 1804 he was immobilized by a mysterious and severe ailment of the legs: his cell then became a meeting place for people of every class, among them the exile Charles Emmanuel IV with his consort Maria Clotilde of Savoy. For 17 years he directed in the spirit St. Mary Frances of the Five Wounds (v.).

Characteristics of his spirituality are eucharistic devotion and a pleasant cheerfulness that made the same saint say: "We have two Philips: one black and one white." Endowed with vast theological, literary and scientific culture, he was appointed extraordinary professor of theology at the University of Naples and member of the ecclesiastical academy founded by Cardinal Savelli; but of his letters, for the most part ascetic, and of his ascetic and literary compositions, in prose and in verse, Italian and Latin (of which see the description in the work of Boffito), he gave nothing to the press except some ejaculatory prayers for times of calamity. He was beatified by Leo XIII on 22 Jan. 1893; Pius XI on 12 July 1932 signed the decree for the resumption of his cause of canonization.

Virginio M. Colciago