BLASTUCCI, DOMENICO, VENERABILE

BLASTUCCI, DOMENICO, Venerable. — Redemptorist student, considered the Aloysius Gonzaga of the Redemptorist Missionaries, born on 5 March 1732 at Ruvo del Monte in Lucania, died on 2 November 1752. He entered the novitiate in 1750 and eclipsed his more experienced confreres in virtue, who were themselves "angels," as observed by Fr. Landi. In his brief stays at Ciorani, Deliceto, Pagani, and Caposele, he lived in a kind of continual ecstasy; each day he took barely a couple of ounces of food, seasoned with vinegar. Innocent as at his Baptism, he scourged himself with a rope for sinners, who were converted merely by seeing him in Mission. He was a friend of St. Gerard Majella and a disciple of the austere Fr. Cafaro (q.v.), who notified Alfonso of the angelic young man’s death, affirming: “He was heroic in all things, so much so that he could have been canonized while still alive.” His cause of beatification was introduced on 25 May 1906.