FRANCESCO de Geronimo, Saint. — Jesuit, popular missionary, born in Grottaglie (Taranto) on 17 December 1642, died in Naples on 11 May 1716. He first embraced an ecclesiastical career and, after being ordained a priest (1666), spent four years assisting young people at the College of Nobles in Naples, earning from the students the title of “holy prefect.” Having entered the Society of Jesus (1670), he was almost immediately assigned to popular missions in the diocese of Otranto (1671–74), where his gifts as an effective preacher were so fully revealed that, upon being called to Naples, he remained there until the end of his life, devoting himself to his beloved “Neapolitan mission,” which was meant to replace the many times unsuccessfully requested missions among the pagans.
His assignment encompassed three particular ministries: first, the care of the “oratory of the missions,” a congregation of artisans for lay apostolate. He so stirred them with his preaching and his personal concern for their families and circumstances that he transformed them into valuable collaborators who followed him everywhere, maintained order, and brought sinners to him. The second work to which he devoted himself was the General Communion on the third Sunday of each month. He prepared for it so well that the number of participants was never fewer than twelve to fourteen thousand. But his principal ministry was open-air preaching at street corners and in the most disreputable places, where his words, often accompanied by striking miracles, achieved the most remarkable successes. He did not neglect works of social assistance for the sick, converted public women, endangered girls, foundlings, and prisoners, thus earning the titles of father of the poor, wonder-worker, and protector of the city. His body is now preserved in Grottaglie (Taranto). Beatified by Pius VII on 2 May 1806, he was canonized by Gregory XVI on 26 May 1839. Feast day: 11 May.