FRANCESCO MARIA da Camporossi, Blessed. Lay brother of the Capuchins, born at Camporossi (Imperia) on 27 Dec. 1804, died at Genoa on 17 Sept. 1866. Having been a tertiary of the Conventuals at Sestri Ponente, he entered the novitiate of St Barnabas’s Capuchins in Genoa on 17 Dec. 1825 and remained in the convent of the Most Holy Conception in the same city until his death.
Assigned to domestic duties, he sanctified himself in toil, penance, silence and humility. Sent to serve in the city, he benefited souls, especially among the dock-workers, through cordial exhortation, his austere life, charisms and charity towards the sick, the poor and the suffering. His letters of counsel and comfort bear witness to the faith and goodness of his heart. In popular veneration he was commonly called the Holy Father. During the cholera epidemic of 1866 he offered himself as a victim to the Lord for the cessation of the plague. He was beatified by Pius XI on 30 June 1929. His remains are still held in great veneration in the church of the Most Holy Conception in Genoa.