DOMENICO LORICATO, SANTO

DOMENICO LORICATO, Saint. – A Camaldolese of the Congregation of Fonte Avellana, born ca. 995 in the Piceno region, on the Umbrian border, died at Frontale on 14 Oct. 1060. Having been simoniacally ordained priest by his parents, he spent some years among the secular clergy; but ca. 1025, upon learning of the irregularity of his ordination, he renounced the exercise of the sacred Order and became a hermit-monk at Luceoli (today Ponte-Riccioli), and then, ca. 1043, passed to Fonte Avellana, under the guidance of St. Peter Damian.

DOMENICO, reviving the spirit of ancient public penances, often practiced such incredible austerity that his life became a miracle.

For some time he was prior of the hermitage of Santa Maria in Sitria, and then (1059) of that of Mons Suavicinus (San Vicino, Frontale), continuing there his terrible mortifications until his death. His body is venerated in the parish church of Santa Anna in Frontale (diocese of San Severino Marche), where his hair-shirt or *lorica* is also preserved, whence his name “Loricato.” Feast on 14 Aug.

BIBL.: Sources: Biographer of D. and St. Peter Damian himself, who wrote of him to Pope Alexander II (Epist., lib. I, c. 19, capp. 5-13; PL 144, 237). The letter, which also speaks of St. Rodolfo, bishop of Gubbio (capp. 1-4), is by Migne included among the *Sanctorum historiae* of St. Peter Damian: *Vita s. Rodulphi et s. Dominici Loricati*; PL 144, 1007-24; BHL, n. 2239; O. Turchi, *La vita di s. D. conf., detto Loricato, eremita benedettino di S. Croce di Fonte Avellana*, Rome 1749; *Acta SS. Octobris. VI*, Tongerloo 1704, pp. 611-28; U. Chevalier, *Répertoire... Bibliographie*, I, Paris 1903, col. 121; *Martyrologium Romanum*, p. 454. Igino Cecchetti