DITI NETTA, VITO MICHELE, Venerable.
Born in Vallata (Avellino) on 26 February 1787, died on 3 December 1849. From the seminary of S. Angelo dei Lombardi, he entered the novitiate of the Redemptorists. Immediately after his profession on 29 January 1806, he was exiled by Napoleonic troops, from which he returned faithfully to the convent and was ordained priest on 30 March 1811 in Lacedonia. In October of the same year he went to Catanzaro and then to Tropea, where he remained, except for a three-year period spent at Ciorani as master of novices, until his death, which occurred as he had foretold. In this city he formed a friendship with the philosopher Galluppi. For five periods of seven years each, from October to June, he evangelized the abandoned populations scattered across the dioceses of Tropea and Nicotera, Mileto, Gerace, Oppido, Squillace, Reggio and Cosenza, employing the fruitful Alfonsian method, seeking only divine glory and the salvation of souls amid unheard-of sacrifices, thereby earning the title of Apostle of Calabria. God made the apostolate of this tireless worker fruitful and enduring through singular prodigies. Pius XI, with a decree of 7 July 1935, declaring the heroicity of his virtues, advanced his cause for beatification.